No longer frugal & conflict talk

I went back to the gym yesterday after 10 days break. The first week I went in 3 times and I felt sore most of the week. Then the stress to prep for interview was taxing me more than usual so I decided to take it easy and do pilates/yoga instead. Now that it’s over me, I am glad to be back to the gym. I did 40 min full body and it felt good. I think 2 full body session would be good balance so I have energy to do running and pilates.

I went to mani/pedi to my usual place. I recall they had promo for the month of January but decided not to take it and paid full price. For two reasons: (1) I was lazy to find the email; (2) I want to help the business. All the small businesses suffered a lot during the pandemic, so if I can support them I should do that. I realized that hubby and I have been doing that for a while. We were both frugal in many ways, especially him but I don’t know when and how, we stopped being that. When we traveled to the islands, we stopped bargaining with the tour guides/street vendors. My job is all about helping people to get out of poverty, so I think it’s natural that I do it in my personal life. It helps others, it saves time to find the bargain, it makes me feel good, everyone is better off.

Lizzy came back from her pod with a sad face. When I asked her what happened, she hugged me and started crying. It turned out 3 of the classmates didn’t want to play with her yesterday. I didn’t particularly ask her why (because her version might be different than others). Instead I told her that it is okay to not have a good day at school. Yet, she still needs to be nice to them the next day because while we can’t control what others are or do, we can control our own behavior. Also, I told her that you have friends and classmates. Same as I have colleagues and friends. We don’t always need to like our classmates/colleagues, but we do need to be nice and respectful. I share that I don’t like some people at work (then she asked who) but I still find a way to work with them. She seemed content with my “advises”, although I’m not sure she understood what I said. hehe….

Funny enough, a colleague friend reached out to me for advise with work conflict she’s facing. Unlike what I did with Lizzy, which is using simple words, I shared my own experience working with difficult people. Sometimes we just need to know that others also face challenges. 😉 Nobody likes conflict but it’s unavoidable when we work with others. What we can do is better manage it. Still learning but each time I am less upset when it happens, good thing for getting old. 😀