Engaged and Prepared!

Hello High Heelers

Wow – what a week! I must share, that I got engaged last week and am absolutely, ridiculously excited. My boyf...oops... fiancée, did a sterling job of finding the prettiest ring on earth for me. It’s so stunning that even Natalie Maroun keeps sneaking a peak at it. (Now that’s seriously pretty!) So excuse me if I keep gushing about myself and my wonderful fiancée and my wonderful life. Sigh! Isn’t it funny how we go through so many ups and downs in life? I suppose that’s what really keeps it interesting.

Ms Maroun is going through one of those interesting times again. She’s ‘Ms Maroun’ today, because she’s too scary to be ‘Nats or Natalie’. I’ve been avoiding her office as much as possible. She gets this look in her eyes and then you just know! I sent my Marketing Intern into her office on Thursday and he came out with pink cheeks and wild eyes. I felt really bad, but at least he learnt the lesson – if Natalie is hectic, don’t piss her off further by being unprepared! I suppose the greater lesson here (besides the obvious ‘don’t piss off Natalie Maroun’) is: always be prepared.

I freaked my parents last week by not effectively preparing them for the ‘your baby girl’s getting married’ conversation. So note to all the single girls – when you’re ready to get married, prepare your parents! In life, the more you prepare, the better the results. This is a general rule that I shall be following from now on – with Ms Maroun and everyone else!

I’ve always been giving everyone who’ll listen, long, feminist speeches about independence and singledom and how I’ll never get married. I’ve been telling that story since I was about 9! But when I met my ‘now-fiancée’ (how cute does that sound!) all that changed – even though I didn’t change my rhetoric. So, as you can imagine, when my parents heard ‘marriage’ and ‘me’ connected in one sentence they got a big fright! (that’s an under-exaggeration!)

Similarly, I find in my work life, the quickest way to feel uneasy and to get into trouble is to walk into a meeting or discussion without the necessary work done, knowledge, background or skill. May I suggest that you never do that to yourself or your colleagues. Um... and NEVER EVER do that if you’re working alongside Natalie Maroun! (Your life expectancy and career path could diminish rapidly if you do!)

Now I find myself in a position where any level of preparedness is really never enough. Sharing your life with someone is huge. But to get started on the best foundation, my fiancée and I have enrolled in pre-marital and other courses because though there’s no end-post to what’s enough, we want to be sure that we’re as prepared as we possibly can be. You know, we should do that in our work lives too. Try to rather be over-prepared and then you’re covered!

This week, High Heelers, may I encourage you to prepare for EVERYTHING you do? When you show un-readiness you’re actually being disrespectful to yourself, the job, the people involved and the situation. Do what you can to always give of your best and stand tall!

Cheers,
Jo