Maturity Continuum Burned in Brain

We learned about the Maturity Continuum. The definition of a habit as the intersection of Knowledge, Skill and Desire made a lot of sense. The tag line of the 7 Habits being "common sense organized" also struck home. However, all this was being burned in my brain against the background of wondering weather the wildfires were affecting my family. I didn't have a cell phone with me so I was at the mercy of others and felt cut off. There were moments I thought, "Why am I here? I should be home with my family." Was this a case of not putting "first things first?"

Ultimately, we came to the conclusion that there wasn't anything I could really do by coming home. Though my family was told to evacuate there was little in our home that we couldn't replace other than photos, the information on our computers and some other personal items. My wife urged me to stay where I was and get the most I could out of the training and do what I could to further my career for the sake of our son's future. That's what I did. I tried to totally engage in the training and network with my fellow employees as much as possible. Luckily my family's evacuation order was lifted after about 12 hours. They and our home were never in any real danger. Later I describe their experience during the wildfires.

Lessons in how I need to improve
Since I work remotely from home I was encouraged to meet leaders in our company face-to-face whenever the opportunity presented itself. The day after our training I had set up several meetings. However, things didn't quite work out as well as I wanted. One reason was that a couple executives had last minute changes of schedule or were home sick, but the other was because I couldn't react quickly. I was caught flat footed because when I went into the office to go to my meetings and was told about the changes I didn't have a copy of my schedule with me. One of the pieces of practical advice we got from Covey Training is to make sure we not only make a good daily schedule, but we also keep it in a portable form we can carry with us. The day after hearing that advice I had ignored it and paid the price.

Another lesson came from an executive I was supposed to meet in person, but ended up meeting by phone because she was recuperating from surgery. I told her about the wildfires and she asked why I'm still there. I should have been on a plane home days ago. She insisted I catch the next possible flight home, which I did. All the way home I thought about what I had learned that week and also reflected on my attitudes toward work and family. What are the real "big rocks" in my life? The Maturity Continuum was burned in my brain by the wildfires.