Yippie, Yahoo...standing in the middle of the middle ground

As a self-proclaimed recovering control freak, I am realizing many things about my life! I had to send my ex-husband an e-mail the other day telling him that I finally understood how much I must have driven the man crazy in the times of my fanatical volunteering. It’s a good thing that we still have a great relationship, because now we can both laugh about those times.

Yes, volunteers make a difference, maybe even make the world go around. And, I am all for being involved. BUT, finally, I have figured out the whole balance thing in volunteering.

First, you have to have known who I used to be…I used to be the volunteer of the universe! Not kidding. I loved volunteering and did so for everything I possibly could. Then I moved into more leadership roles, but didn’t quite figure out that in order to not go entirely insane, it was necessary to delegate and to say NO.

I wanted everything to be done in a certain way: MINE. I had a vision, and in order for that to happen, I always felt like it was just easier to do it myself. I did have some incredible people, who were just as control freakish as me, working with me, so we accomplished some outstanding things, that really I am still proud of today. I wouldn’t trade in any of that; I might just trade in how I went about doing it all!

Now, in my wiser, and dare I say more mature, years I am finding this peaceful way of being a great volunteer and leader. I am not afraid to ask people to do things AND even more importantly give away my vision and allow others to run with their own creative ideas. The bottom line is everything will get done, and I won’t have nearly the same amount of stress.

I am really excited to be one of the fundraising chairpeople for the Montessori school where my step-daughter attends. I am having lots of fun working with incredibly talented and committed parents! This has also inspired me to start up a parent volunteer group at the elementary school in which our little one attends Kindergarten. I am going to go about this in the spring, and I can’t wait to harness all of this positive parent energy into making the lives of our teachers and kids better!

But, it feels even better when I think about how I will make a difference without feeling overwhelmed. How NOW I can give things away. Or even better just say no, when really I don’t want to do something. I like that, a lot.