How to succeed in business without really crying

Sometimes, it pays to put yourself first.

I don’t care, I told myself. Even if it will make me late for work this morning, I’m going to do the 3-mile jog before I do anything else.

Past experience has shown that if I put a workout off in the morning, the likelihood of achieving the exercise in the evening is greatly reduced. This morning, I decided: I’m going to make exercise my top priority.

So I did 3 miles this morning, then took a quickie shower and came into work. By the time I got to the office, I was in a good mood. Hell, better than that, I was in a great mood. It had been a good run, the kind where you feel like you could go a lot faster and a whole lot longer without getting tired. I felt good about the run, about my body, about myself.

Yesterday had ended on a sour note; lots of mis-communication and intra-species frustration. Today, when I got in, it was a whole different saga.

I greeted co-worker sunnily. I smiled. I was cheerful. Damn it, I even beamed. And it wasn’t a forced “I’m being cheerful damn it” grimace. The self-acceptance brought on by endorphins, or whatever, worked. Even on the first day of the cycle, when I’m not usually at my sunniest.

It was funny to watch how co-worker started out stiff and defensive, but ended the conversation by warning me -- apologetically -- that he'd gone in and left a lot of comments in my latest draft that "I might find a bit too-- a bit too -- well, I might not agree with them very much. On reflection," he said, he "might not agree with his comments 100% either."

Damn, but the man backpedals well.

And I shouldn't make fun -- he's not an evil cow-orker by any means. Still, I strongly suspect that my cheerful, bursting-with-running-endorphins attitude made a big dent in his defensive attitude.

So there's another reason to try running, if you're curious.

Exercise du jour: 3 miles jogging, with feeling.

Done!