I have a lot of servers at our house and add approximately 20TB or so every year. It is a bit of a pain in the ass when I need to reconfigure things and set it up and I should build in some redundancy into the system but getting all of the uninterrupted power supplies can get pricey. I would eventually like to run the whole house on a battery backup system to prevent failures so it would be seamless and we would never know if there was a power outage in the neighbourhood. We would be the shining beacon in a sea of darkness. Obviously I would not tell our neighbours that we have it and then feign confusion when they ask why our power is on and theirs is out. I would tell them that they just need to be believe and it will come back on. Beliefs are powerful and clearly they did not believe enough to pre-emptively plan. I will just leave that small part out.
When I am in leadership roles something that I tend to do is utilize my neuroscience background. Neuroscience is dear to my heart and something that I have always been passionate about. During my wedding, my best friend made jokes about how when I was passionate about something that I would go all in. He made comments about how I would subscribe to hurdling magazines and spend all of my time looking at those things. I was known for high-stepping into classes, which was literally me jumping or stepping over desks rapidly to get to my desk. For the record there were not hurdling magazines, but if there was I would have read them all. What I create with my leadership style is feedback mechanisms to reinforce behaviour. When you praise someone with something specific that is meaningful both of you get a release of dopamine. It is known to reinforce positive actions and is commonly involved in pleasure. The intent was to get everyone addicted to this positive interaction by repeating it over and over daily. The key is that it has to be something meaningful and not generic. When I praise someone I try and identify exactly what they did that stood out. This public acknowledgement can lead to increased serotonin release which can improve confidence and emotional stability. Sincere praise will also impact oxytocin, known as the neurotransmitter involved in building trust. It helps build cohesion and teamwork amongst everyone. It takes a bit of time, but I transitioned my team meetings from focus solely on work to recognition of others contributions to your work. Everyone goes to work and does their job to the best of their ability. Taking the focus away from purely discussing work prevented people from rambling on about everything that they were doing. They presented it quickly and then the focus shifted to gratitude for someone else. It became addictive and soon everyone would be in an elevated mood. Something simple that you do may have a profound impact on other people without you realizing it. By focusing on positive things it helps build positivity amongst my family and friends. There is a neurochemical feedback loop created for trust and performance. Recognition leads to positive emotion, belonging, prosocial behaviour and building of trust. This is why I think it is important to concentrate on the positive and show gratitude. It has a positive impact on both the person giving the praise and the one receiving it. When I am not feeling in a positive mood, I think of small things that Mel has done for me and it brightens my mood, even when I seem cranky with her. i need to try better at applying these same principles of reinforcement and gratitude outside of work. I need to make sure that I include Mel in the journey of uncertainty so she does not feel isolated and alone.
Mel is gone for a couple of days and last night when we were talking she mentioned that she appreciates all of the things that I do still. She said that if she was in my situation that she would want to be a pampered princess. I am not sure if I believe her. I would like to believe that she would help out. I also know that like her, I would take on the burden of the chores without complaints. I would do it with an open heart knowing that it is relieving pressure and stress from her. After our visit with the surgeon yesterday it seems that a weight is off our shoulders for a short time. We have a couple of weeks where we will live a normal life. Nothing is going to happen and we will be blissfully ignorant of anything that may be happening within my body. We will live in the now and concentrate on the finishing touches of our kitchen renovations. I appreciate all of the wisdom and insights of everyone who is better at renovations than I am. I have been getting a lot of phone calls and last minute consultations with people, but this is in the planning stages and we know that there will not be much action for a while now. It allows me to focus on little things that I may want to take care of and not worry about the stress of what a doctor may say that forces me to go into the hospital.
Our front door has been slightly off for the last year where it does not properly lock and you need to gently nudge the door to make the locking mechanism operate smoothly. I tried several different things to fix it and even chatted with my father in law about it. We could not seem to get it to work, but one of the people who were working with us on the house looked at it and said it is a simple fix, move this, shave this a bit and it will work. He was right. Within 5 minutes it worked fine. I appreciate skillsets like this. I am not averse to manual labour and doing things like that but I tend to not pursue it. If someone asks me, I would be willing to assist and learn, but it is not something I gravitate to. We pay back our manual labourers with food and take home containers of food for their lunches.
I do not like being told what i can or can not do. The first time I went through cancer the oncologist told me that I should consider taking 9 months off of work. I know that most people do that so that they can focus on treatment. Being told that I can not do it because I will be too fatigued is a clarion call for rebellion. I will prove them wrong. The fact that there is such a low survival rate is not something that discourages me. It would drive me much further to prove people wrong. My mentor Persinger knew how to use this against me. I had an ego and would not always respond to something like that as I might not care enough. He knew when to push me and use my ego against me to push me. It is fine balance between getting me to really push or getting me to disengage because I do not find it worthy of my attention. In this case i am not supposed to survive, but I will push myself as far as I can in order to be in the upper percentile. I have not lived myself within normal boundaries and do not plan to start now. I have never been content to be “average”. Why be “normal” when you can be awesome.
Quoc Hao