In love

Absolutely enjoying myself in the new job, that I am doing covering someone else's maternity.
Love it.
Why?
- because it is about categories and brands that I've known and worked with for years, and grew to love;
- because there is a lot to learn, lots of interesting stuff;
- because the situation is appealing to me: we are suffering a bit, market going down, loosing share and people are not expecting a lot... I am the guy who can come from behind and unexpectedly deliver great stuff (the underdog! I love being in this position);
- because the guy who is my boss has a great depth of knowledge and is taking a very didactic approach, taking opportunities to teach his team;
- because also it is a good situation, not a lot is expected from me (just covering a maternity) so the pressure is relatively low;
- because there is a very visibile lack of knowledge in the rest of the company in this category... I am really a goldmine with the depth and wealth of insights and learning I have from having worked (through different jobs, functions and regionalities) with these categories and brands
- because I have colleagues! It's a team of 5 of us, reporting to 1 guy. We are all around the same age and experiencing the same things! Being in the senior team, I am also quite respected by the younger managers which is something I also appreciate... And also the young managers are cool, intelligent and nice (also to look at!:) )

And... I am loving it so much that I am finding huge ammounts of energy, I am amazingly much more positive and... contaminating everybody around me with this energy! I am also a lot more confortable taking and making decisions and... coming up with a lot more cool ideas.
It's amazing the difference it makes when you actually are enjoying a lot what you are doing. When you are passionate about it.

Enthusiasm!

My boss came to me and asked my oppinion about a job. On top of what I'm already doing, to cover the maternity leave from a colleague.
I said yes: it's a category that I know, but a different channel.
I didn't think much of it, apart from 'well, I need some spark, I'm trully and well bored'. After saying yes, I went a bit... 'hey, am I going to deep on this? Am I gonna go over the head, into areas I don't know? And destroy my reputation?'
Then the weekend came and I forgot about this, nothing really.
Only when I returned, it was a 3 day weekend as I took monday off, my boss called me into her office 1st thing in the morning where I met her and the other future line manager. And... from then on, full energy just flew!

The key reason I think is that I really like the category. I've worked in it for years and years and I know quite a lot. So very, very quickly I picked up on the projects.
But the excitement...! Huge. Overwhelming. Couldn't stop working. Time totally flew by.

Why?
Because I'm good at it?
Because I am much better than the rest of the people?
Because I can quickly add value?
Because I like that category a lot.

Don't know.
But it'll be interesting to find out as the passion and willing to work was extremely intense!