Hmm… interesting day today on many fronts. Let’s see if I can pull it all together into one cohesive whole. This one may be too splintered to splice together. Guess we’ll find out 🙂

Over the past couple of weeks my teams have had a bunch of illnesses, COVID exposures, and whatnot. All of this has led to an empty office as people worked from home, many absences, re-scheduled meetings, and a general sense of disjointedness. In the past I would have tried to force fit my goals for the new year into the mix, it’s after the first of the year after all! This time around I paused, took a deep breath, and decided to focus only on what was most important. With that focus on the essential few it’s been relatively easy to say no to the extra. In some ways we’ve found opportunities to do both. In others we’ve just pushed back the start of a project until February. It’ll be okay. Resilience and adaptability remain two of the most important life skills anyone could work on over the past couple of years. Of course I’d love to execute on the grand plans we have, we made those plans for a reason. That said, sometimes you just need to take a deep breath, hunker down, and stay focused. Once the storm passes we can get right back at it.

Another lesson I’ve learned through too many mistakes is the power of collaboration. Yet again I almost went off to slay some dragons on my own. I had some wonderful ideas, why not run with them right away, right? The little voice in the back of my head reminded me that there was a lesson to remember. Realizing the error of my ways I got a small group of people together to pick their brains on the project. After adding their input and insight to the mix the potential solution got exponentially better! Adding the insight of others is a fantastic way to weave a greater tapestry of ideas and strategy.

Without getting into too much detail I was reminded why I am largely staying off the internet this year. In a training session on a difficult topic I saw people lose their minds with anger misdirected towards the instructor and those who were trying to help them. I quickly thought of my own fallibility – how many times did I react emotionally when hiding behind the screen? How often have I made remarks that were not well intended or borderline rude when I had a keyboard to type my thoughts? So often I wouldn’t have said face to face what I had typed online. This was a reminder for me to a) stay away from chats, and b) remember to be kind and stoic. It was difficult to watch on many levels, one of which was because I realized how wrong I’ve been to join the chat mob (or even incite it) in the past.

Yeah… hmm… I don’t know that there’s really a common theme here. Or is there? Reminders of past life lessons? Take a deep breath and stay focused on the essential. Collaborate to create something truly beautiful. Don’t be a jerk, remember to be me even in a chat situation. There I go, reminders of life lessons – some lived better than others.

Thanks!!!