Navel Gazing

Awkward and generally uncomfortable, but sadly necessary at times.

I've been thinking about our business, and the part I play in it, rather a lot recently. Fundamentally, I think I'm in the wrong job. I'm very methodical, very orderly, and reasonably good at getting things done properly and well. Sometimes I'm even good at getting things done to a deadline, and I'm pretty good at prioritising and time-management and all the other 'management' things which people say are so important to running a business of any kind.

What I'm not good at, however, is big dreams, grand plans, or however you want to describe the process of defining where exactly it is that you want to be. Once someone else has come up with a dream, I can usually take that and fill in the annoying little details which mean it has a chance of working, but without someone else to provide that spark, I tend to do a very good impersonation of a mouse in the bottom of a barrel.

Round-and-round-and-round-and-round.

I think that means that I'm not suited to anything higher than middle management....

I'm sure part of my problem here is that we are chronically short-staffed. It's difficult to think about what you'd like to achieve when you're struggling to keep the place open and running (not to mention your eyes open and yourself running) - and even more difficult when you're dealing with fairly serious structural repairs right in the middle of the tourist season! Nevertheless, I don't believe that the overwork is the main problem. It's more that the overwork has been masking the lack of vision.

"So busy being busy, you forget what it was you were trying to do."