Handling conflict

It was really different day today emotionally for me. I think it was proof that Im living my life right, right now, even though things are difficult. I was so focused on finishing my projects. I keep mentioning that because at the same time I still have to focus on the day to day aspects of running the business. The frustrating thing about the first year here was the learning curve. The Arab business culture is just different. They are very demanding and very particular about the little things. So my problem is they keep making minor changes on edit 3, 4, 5, 6. Everytime we screen the supposed final product they find something else they want changed about it. If they would have made all the changes at once like they are supposed to, we would have been done with it. So these two big projects were supposed to be completed weeks ago, but because of the changes they’re still not done. The problem with this, is we can’t invoice until the projects are completed. That has put us in an extreme financial crunch. We have loads of money out there floating, but we just can’t access it yet. So we are very cash poor. So my supervisor, the managing director/part owner really laid into me today. Really yelled and vented on me. The funny thing is, it didn’t bother me. A lot of things he said were accurate but it was the tone that might have been disturbing to some. As I left his office I had this strange detachment thing happen. I was listening to Charles Stanley earlier on the way to work, and the topic was handling conflict. What he endorsed, and what I regularly practice is to listen and consider the backstory as to why the conflict might have occurred. So I did that. I didn’t get upset and I didn’t make the conflict worse.

As I left his office after the lashing I felt pretty good. It didn’t make sense, but I had an extreme peace. Then I went to lunch soon after that, and I had a skip in my step. I was feeling really good about life. But based on what had happened that day, I shouldn’t have been that peaceful. But I was feeling great. That’s the way life is supposed to work when you are living your life right. God won’t eliminate your problems but you can have peace when you are in the midst of a storm. That’s what I have learned about all the struggles I’ve faced this year. It’s a cool in the furnace life. Oh…when I came back into the office, my boss called me into the office and apologized for the outburst. So I guess it was good that I was quiet and didn’t exacerbate the problem.

We had quiz night again tonight…but our team is in an extreme slump. We won one round last week but nothing this week. We didn’t even come close. I’m going to cut this short tonight. Im still at the very beginning of a very long week. Please keep me in your prayers. They are certainly working.