There is a point at which during every month of February, I realize that 15th of February (which happened to be a Friday this year), will fall on the exact same day in March. And every four years I am slightly disappointed that it is not true.
I have a bizarre sense of pattern recognition and when things deviate from those patterns. I don’t live my life in repetitive patterns (there is no “it’s Friday, so we have to eat Fish” in my house – for many reasons), but it gives me a schema to categorize the world and deal with it’s constant chaos.
Analogies and strange comparisons work for me. It’s the ease of pattern recognition – and the deviations – that make me a good Materials Manager. It’s data, data and more data when analyzing inventory, demand, orders, etc and being able to find the pattern within chaos. And seeing when you have a problem – the pattern goes out of whack – is the most important. I can see it before most and have a plan ready. My desk is completely cluttered and my brain pings back and forth, but there is a pattern in that for me.
February 28th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Find your strengths, and work with them. They may be bizarre, but somewhere out there you’ll find something that you can do better than most.
The Daily EO 
I remember when I used to interfere with those patterns with you. Do you notice that I do not do that anymore?