Monday Motivation, 6.8.2020

Written by: Dawn Paciocco

Every Monday, The Rogers-Long Team meets for one of its two weekly meetings. The Monday meeting always ends with “Monday Motivation” in which a few minutes are spent listening to one team member presenting a quote, a quick reading from a book, a scene from a movie, or anything else they find motivating to provide a “spark” to the whole team on a Monday morning.

We had planned to take a family trip to Cancun for Spring Break this year.  There are really only 2ish weeks out of the year where the world “shuts down” for us where we do not have to worry about missing  school or sports for the kids, normally between Christmas & New Years, and Spring Break.  So as you can imagine when the Corona virus shut down the world that meant we were no longer taking the kids to away for a vacation.  Now for them, they have kinda on a little vacation.  No real school so they got to sleep in, more time to hang out on iPads, more time just playing, family dinners and walks. So the world shut down for us and we were home! Let me say that again, we were ALL HOME!  Like most everyone else, the walls in this wonderful house, purchased with the help of the RLT, started to close in and felt smaller and smaller.  Stress of no routine started to get in the way. Stress of the new jobs we inherited struck and we knew we needed a vacation. So we decided to take the kids for a long weekend to the Chesapeake Bay. Water, sun and sand was just what we needed.

Well, we certainly ended up checking out from the world.  The cell service and the internet were terrible.  Spots of being able to get on here and there.  I was up early on Thursday to get out what I needed for work and what typically takes me 20ish minutes, was a struggle of up to an hour. I was so frustrated and mad about it.  Once I finally got it all out to everyone I took a walk on the beach.  At first I had negative thoughts on how it sucked and I was embarrassed. But then I thought to myself how it got done and it’s ok. Everyone got what they needed in the long run, even though I set up the Zoom for 9pm instead of 9am. The silver lining in what I thought was a horrible thing was we were disconnected, and that’s what we were doing. We were forced to just enjoy the Sun, sand, water, and family. AND THAT WAS THE POINT.

Just as fast as we lost the connection to the outside world, it rushed back into our lives driving back down 64.  Taking a break is good for your soul. I replenished my energy tank ready to take on the world.  We unloaded the van, did the laundry, and I prepared for the week ahead. As I prepared and sat trying to come up with what to write for Monday Motivation, my little energy tank started to drain again. It seemed silly and selfish to write about disconnecting from the world when we have so much in the world that is calling for us all to connect with each other and become one.

I was thankful to be able to be with my family. I was forced to take a step away from social media, and the news. I didn’t get the chance to read all the hateful things people are posting on social media, all the “Friends” who are attacking each other. We got away. I am sorry if that makes anyone mad, or you think I am being selfish, or you take it as I do not care about what is going on in the world. FURTHEST from the truth.

We all need to step back and disconnect. I am not saying physically go away somewhere. I am saying you know that you are going to see, hear, be a part of the hard things going on in this world. It is YOUR choice to decide how you handle them. If you need to, go ahead and take a break, take a walk, read a book, listen to music, journal. Take a break to refuel that energy tank. Use the break, no matter how little or long, and come back knowing you are part of the army of people who does good, becomes better and strives to be the best.  Because honestly our world needs that army now, more than ever! 

Dawn Paciocco joined The Rogers-Long Team in September 2018 as the team’s Client Care Coordinator. Dawn spent 17 years in the financial services industry and much like Stacy, was first a client of Ben & Kevin’s before joining the team. After a couple years discussing the possibility of Dawn joining, The RLT excitedly brought her on due to her fun-loving attitude and belief in the team’s mission to build an army of people that does good, becomes better, and strives to be the best.