The morning started… poorly. I’m not one to play office politics, and there was no easy way to challenge the coworker’s maneuvering without lowering myself to her level and/or being petty as fuck. “Good cheer” doesn’t take sides and watching her gloat over her perceived win had me chewing my tongue for a few minutes.
Yea, I can do with that enlightenment any damn time now.
During the lunch hour, I was reminded of a very important rule of magic: If you don’t do the work, you don’t get the results.
For various reasons, everyone that would have gone on the lunch “walk”, backed out. I was able to make the walk, but I would be going alone. For a few minutes, I toyed with the idea of going the original, easier route, or even skipping it altogether since I would be going by myself.
I went the new route. By myself. I pushed myself to go a little faster than I was comfortable with, on purpose. And I did it.
Each time I wanted to quit and go back before the halfway point, each time I wanted to slow down to a easier pace, I visualized the shoal sigil ahead of me and “saw” it pulling me forward to comply with its impetus.
I finished the walk about five minutes slower than the pace set by the others, but I did it. The only way to conquer a task is to do it. The only way to gain the results is to do the work.
The afternoon passed with a surprise action that brought me further to completing one of the five private goals of the shoal sigil.
The work day ended with more than just “good cheer”. Maybe it was the private goal of the shoal sigil, maybe it was just me deciding to be an adult about the situation, but I talked with my boss privately about some of my concerns and asked for help to deal with them as proper for my position.
He listened, spoke his perception of the nonsense, and advised me what to do to not only protect myself, but also my department.
Not all victories are announced with fanfare.