I found myself in a moment where I was thinking to myself, “Why do I torture myself like this? This is self-inflicted pain and yet I keep bringing myself here every day to repeat the action.” My hands were freezing, my exposed legs were, too. My heart was beating faster than I would have liked and my breathing was loud and uncontrollable. My sunglasses were speckled with raindrops and I could feel the blister on the back of my heel opening up.
I checked my GPS and timer. Only 2/10 of a mile left of the 3.1 miles. If I made that last stretch in a minute and a half I would beat yesterday’s time by one whole minute. That was the moment I said, “Come on, Crickett, get over the pain, sprint it out and finish strong. You can do it!”
This was yesterday, and while I only shaved 45 seconds off my best time, I came to a halt, checked my time, and with what little breath I had left I let out a squeal and did a little victory dance. Yes, I danced right there on the track, by myself, in the rain.
Life is like that. There is a lot of pride in achieving goals and mastering situations that are difficult. If we don’t challenge ourselves, we are just going through the motions of life with little substance and can often get stuck in a rut.
I spent the past two and a half years working for a military boarding school in Mississippi. One of the motivation phrases used to get the kids to make drastic changes in their lives and behaviors goes a little something like this: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.”
I worked for Insty-Prints for over three years before returning to my home in Mississippi. While at Insty, I worked in the design department, gave customer service a try, and even mastered the mailing and variable data programs.
Of all the places I have ever worked in my nearly 17 years of printing, Insty is the one place where I have made the best of friends, had the most fun, and grown the most professionally and as a person.
During my sabbatical to Mississippi, I finished my degree in public relations, minored in business administration, and finished in December with honors from Mississippi College, a private college near Jackson that is very similar in size and value to that of Centenary College here in Louisiana.
I knew over a year ago, though, that I wanted to be back in Louisiana. The first person I contacted to help me find a job was Gene Elliott. After several lunch meetings and discussion of logistics, Gene and Jim asked me to return to Insty-Prints with the title of Creative Consultant and Account Representative.
Was this out of my comfort-zone and was this new position going to be a challenge? Absolutely!
There is hardly a day that goes by where I don’t wonder what I have gotten myself into. It’s hard to look folks in the eye and convince them that you have their best interest at heart and that you want to show them creative ideas that will save them time, money, and frustration. You know they can trust you, but convincing them of that is the hard part.
But, there are those moments when they give you a chance to prove yourself. You gratefully shake their hand, thank them for the opportunity, and when you walk out of their doors you use your last breath to squeal and do a little victory dance!
So, what’s ahead? My first task is to help my clients understand everything we are and how we can better serve them. My number one goal is to hand our customers the best service in the industry, help them see what we are capable of giving them, and deliver a quality product they can be proud of.
I also plan to join the MBA program at LSU-Shreveport this fall to further my skills so that I can offer even more value to my customers and also to grow professionally.
I’m excited to be back in Shreveport—excited to be surrounded by the best marketing, graphics, printing, and mailing team in this region and excited to see just how far we can grow.
~Crickett