It is the New Year – I am ready to go back to work. I always enjoy the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. It is my favorite week because it is a week when everybody is relaxing a bit and there is no pressure to do anything. We all understand that it is time for a break.
I did absolutely nothing directly related to work for the past two weeks. I was tempted to go to the office all last week, but then I decided to stay home with my family and leave the office alone for a while. I spent a good portion of the week clarifying my aspirations for 2009. I was going to declare my commitments for the year here in my blog, but then I changed my mind. I decided not to do it because they are my goals and not meant to be a standard for anybody but me. They are just the things that I happen to be working on. They are uniquely designed for me, just like your goals are uniquely designed for you. I want to avoid the temptation to compare goals or judge each other by the commitments each is willing to make. I will make sure my key stakeholders know what I am doing so that they can help me, but I find it unnecessary to declare them here in this space. If you are interested, feel free to send me a note and I will share them with you.
We hear so much about the importance of life balance. It is not an impossible dream, but it takes a lot of planning to actually develop an approach to accomplishing it. By balance, I do not mean that each part of my life receives equal time. What I mean is that each part of my life is equally clear and I understand who I need to be and what I need to do in order to lead a fulfilling life. There is no way that the quantity of time will be the same in each pursuit. Sometimes one area of life requires more time than others. I know I will be at work more than I will be at home this year, so I must build more quality into the time I have at home.
When I am identifying my aspirations for the year, I clarify what I want in four critical areas. While I believe these four areas are basically the same for all of us, you may find other areas that are more important to you. That is OK. I am giving you my areas as an example. They work for me. My areas of focus are as follows:
- My Relationships With Others
- My Physical and Emotional Health
- My Spiritual Health
- My Career and Individual Talent Pursuits
I make sure I clarify who I want to be in these four areas so that I am working on the things that matter most to me. I also make sure that I am having fun along the way so it is not all serious work for me. For example, one of my physical aspirations this year is to learn how to surf. I have lived in California for most of my life. Even though the ocean is fairly close to me, I do not know how to surf. I had a lesson when I was in Hawaii this past year and I really enjoyed it. This year I am going to learn how to surf and I will take my boys with me. We will learn together and we will enjoy the rhythm of the ocean. I am looking forward to getting started.
I have a very refined and detailed list of my aspirations, and the commitments I am willing to make to accomplish them in each category I mentioned above. My actions during the year are guided by these aspirations. I began developing my thoughts on the year in mid November and now I am ready to go to work. It is a very fluid process. By this I mean that I may begin to pursue a goal like learning how to surf and discover that it takes more time than I am able to give. When I discover that a goal does not fit my current situation then I refine my goals. I don't ever get caught in the trap of thinking I have to do something just because I once thought I wanted to do it. Life changes all the time. It is important to be able to roll with the changes that present themselves.
I am excited to get to work. I have already started in some areas and now it is time to go to work in others. We get what we focus on. If we don't focus on anything we will get that too. The New Year reminds me that it is time to go to work again. It provides perspective that life is a circle and not a linear process. I am very thankful for that.
Happy New Year!
Andrew Thorn
760-559-3548
athorn@telioscorp.com
