Even For A Bold Adventurer, It Really *Is* Like Drinking From A Fire Hose

Whew. This has been a pretty intense week of training for the new job. It's been fun, and interesting, and I've stretched myself mentally and psychologically, but as they warned us, it's kind of been like drinking from a fire hose in terms of trying to take in the sheer volume of information getting thrown at us (everything from "who are all these people and where is the bathroom" to "how to create rapport during a call with a potential customer" to "these are the features of our various products" to "here's how you use the big kloodgy contact database," and so much more). I realize that it's a somewhat quixotic (not to mention overwhelming) endeavor trying to keep all the information organized and ready to hand, and I have fully given myself permission to just learn by doing (or by bumbling through it), but it's still hard to go from a sense of solidity and competency (hard-won over 9+ years of working in the same industry) to that "oh-my-god-I'm-a-clueless-newbie" space and still keep a good attitude the whole time. But I'm trying. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. This too shall pass. Feeling unsettled and uncomfortable is not only normal, it's expected. I'll get back in the competency saddle soon and until then I will try to be gentle with myself. I will continue to remind myself that I am a bold adventurer stepping confidently into the unknown and that keeping a good attitude is 90% of the battle.

All that being said, I'm still feeling very upbeat about my decision to strike out in this whole new direction. I truly feel like I just stumbled (practically blind and certainly on what most would call "mere" intuition) into something that has promise to be truly fulfilling and fun. The people are great, the company culture is great, and the actual work itself looks like it will be great (and possibly even lucrative) once I get up to speed. Go me! (And, uh, thanks Universe…I really do appreciate it.)

Today I finally moved in to my new cube (in a corner near a window, and actually quite pleasant for cubeville--I think I got really lucky), got my email and voicemail set up and got to practice a little bit of actually doing my job instead of talking about doing it. I found myself becoming a little disheartened at having to make what basically amounted to cold calls for much of the afternoon (which is hard to do when you don't have your "patter" down about what you're selling in the first place), but then realized that at least part of my funk was having not slept at all well last night (going to bed way too late plus insomniacal work-related obsessive brain spinning) combined with the aforementioned unsettled/clueless newbie feeling. So I'm going to be smart and really try to rest up this weekend--I'm sure Monday will be a challenge!