Stress Allowance

[liralen]

Around April, I made myself an allowance for each month. Like an old-fashioned kid allowance it's the money I get to spend on the things that I, alone, wish to have. Health items (including massage therapy), food for home meals (excluding my coffee bean and tea leaf addictions), etc. don't count. Scrapbooking ate up nearly all of my August allowance, and it's been worth it. The allowance has been good because it's money I can spend without feeling guilty about it and it's a low enough allowance I have no business feeling guilty about giving it to myself each month. I've even had some folks peer at me for limiting myself this way, but, before this I was spending things either guiltily or through being angry that nothing we were getting was for me. I much prefer knowing and having complete control over something I can't be guilty about.

Two major projects have been stressing me a lot this month. One was a series of interviews that most folks didn't want to do, but agreed should be done. The other was a presentation I had to give today to my boss' boss's staff.

I have figured out that I don't want to get promoted again if it means working, politically, at that level. What's really scary is that after I did the presentation, my boss offered to let me manage Yet Another Group. Aieee...

Folks seemed to appreciate it even at that level. My boss has said that I did a great job, even under fire I kept my cool and was helpful and knowledgeable and did what was next. I still feel wrung out, though. Enough so that I might just add another $25 to my allowance for the month, simply for getting it done and it was "harder than the average bear" things I do. Yes, $25 is a significant enough increase I'd feel good about it. It's nice to have a way to reward myself for hard stuff, and I can get a lot of my digital photos printed with that. :-)