President's Perspective: Plan-a-holics Anonymous

As I mentioned in an article a while back, I am a self-proclaimed poor listener. I think my skills have improved since then and I continue to try to better myself. But I have been reflecting on something else lately, and that is that I am also in fact a self-proclaimed plan-a-holic. It's almost out of control.

Are you that person that when plans change last minute you are frustrated? Do you not understand why your 10 friends cannot get their act together and figure out the plans for that night? Do you like surprises but only to a certain extent, because frankly, it's just another way that you didn't have your hand in the pot? Well look no further, because I completely understand the way you feel. Plan-a-holics of Fanshawe, you are not alone.

I love to plan. It's in my blood. Back to the early days of the Thomson family…OK well maybe that's taking it a bit too far. But I have always enjoyed being able to put events together, and I always like to be “in the know.” And lately I have just found that I have been getting left out of “the know”, and I get so frustrated! So I write this article this week asking, how much notice is enough notice?

There are a lot of things I get asked to do, by work, by parents, friends, etc. and I don't mind doing things, in fact, I like helping! But it depends on how much notice you give me. I often am finding over the past year that people truly expect you to drop everything when it comes to…whatever. How can you feel that a day's notice is enough if it isn't an emergency? You can't expect people to change their routines and go out of their way to convenience you for something you have known about for six weeks, but chose to bring up now. But sadly enough, tons of people think that's OK. It's proof we need more courses in time management, and maybe in manners?

One great example is that I had a friend call me up a few weeks back, an hour in advance of an event and ask me to come, more like begged me to come. Well hello, I had just gotten off work and had walked in the door literally while the phone was ringing. I had planned on that evening to mop my floors (I know, how sexy), vacuum my stairs; watch a TV show I like, have a shower and blow dry my hair.

My point simply is this. As much as someone else's priorities might not be yours, you need to make sure you understand that theirs are still important to them. Also, if you are a last minute person, and your friends are not, make sure you take their feelings into consideration. For me, an hour's notice is definitely not enough time for someone to expect me to get sexy enough to want to be seen in public. Being considerate is yes, a difficult soft skill to acquire, but if you care about those around you and the way you make them feel, then you will probably catch on quick.