Rosemary Tator

Rosemary Tator

osemary’s Story

For most of my life I have been taking on more and more projects, events, and things to do than there are hours in the day to accomplish. As soon as I get into a project, I see all these resources and people that could enhance the project, and I add that to my already bulging schedule. I come by this honestly. I consider myself a “professional multitasker,” and have been at it since my childhood. As the oldest of seven children, I learned from the best of the best, how to find one child’s mittens, while sending the other one out the door, while telling my mother that “Everything is all set.” And, it continued into my career. I hate to admit it but I actually hired people and trained people to hire people based on how well they could multitask.

Another characteristic that has added to my “condition” is my high energy, upbeat, “I can do it” attitude. At first blush this may sound like a great blessing and a great benefit in accomplishing things in life. Perhaps it would be if I were in control of it. You see it affects not only me but it spills over onto other people, too. At times it can look like everyone around me is spinning with me at the speed of light. As exciting as this may be in the moment, and as great as the “high” may be for pulling it off once again, as my husband says, “Dear, this is a totally unsustainable.” You can just about predict the forgotten messages, the missed thank-you notes, and the settling for less than what would have been possible, if I had been more realistic with my time. My inability to deal with 24 hours in a day and 168 hours in a week has been a major cause of angst throughout my life and career.

The processes and practices that Alesia and I share in this book are a direct result of our own experiences, struggles, and triumphs. We not only write about these practices and coach and train people in them, we live by them. Working with the practices in the system “grounds me” and has me face the reality of the time available to me as never before. It supports me in remembering I truly can only do one thing well at a time. Making choices has become a natural part of my day now, and my reliability has greatly increased. I have the time to focus on what I say is most important. I’m still an optimistic person but now a much more realistic one also.