This year I am stepping away from traditional New Year’s goals. I’m not going to lose ten pounds, I’m not going to become fluent in Italian and I am not going to go viral with the Human Constant. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind doing all of those things but I have had those “resolutions” before and I don’t typically hit the goal, or I forget about it by February and move on to something else.
The end of the year is quickly coming to a close and this is the time of the year that people start to ease into the holidays and take stock of the year that was. While more people are likely to make New Year’s resolutions than look at their year in review, the two are really symbiotic if you want to maximize your momentum going into next year.
If you have spent any time online recently, you have probably run across the phrase “toxic positivity” more than once. While toxic positivity certainly is something to be aware of, it seems to me that lately, as the world becomes increasingly negative, there is a drive to label any kind of positivity as toxic.
Procrastination is a gift of mine. I love putting something on the bottom of my list that needs to be done but I don’t want to do. I mean it’s on my list, but I will find 30 other things that absolutely have to be done before that task that I loathe.
Starting a new habit may be one of the harder leadership challenges but perhaps one of the most important. Learning how to start a positive habit is key to being able to follow through in doing the things you want to do to thrive and feel fulfilled. As James Clear writes in his book, Atomic Habits, it really is all about starting the action that makes sure you get to the finish line.
Originally written May 16, 2022
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There never seems to ever be enough time to accomplish everything we need to get done. Yet there are activities we do every day that continually waste our most precious resource because we have built them into our routine and they have become habit.
In order to unlock more time in our day, we have to take a hard look at what we are doing and how it plays into our daily balance of activities. For me, time sinks usually fall into to a few major categories. Work inefficiencies, pleasure binging, and boredom.
Originally written January, 2021
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The concepts expressed in this article are derived from James Clear’s “Atomic Habits”. Check out his work here.
Welcome back for a new and exciting year, and for most people that simply means putting 2020 behind us and looking forward to what should be a brighter future in 2021. The problem is that although the calendar has turned, a lot of the issues we had still remain. Those difficulties are different for everyone but it’s hard to find anyone who hasn’t been affected in some ways by the pandemic.
Originally written December 23, 2020
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About this time a year ago, I sat on the cold hardwood floor of an empty townhouse in Raleigh, North Carolina crying my eyes out.
Originally written December 3, 2020.
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I’ve stared for many months trying to determine what this blog was going to look like, what it should focus on and who my audience would be. After many months of staring at a blank page, it is time to get off the fence.
I still don’t have answers to any of these questions but after listening to one of Tim Ferriss’ podcast episodes with best-selling author and entrepreneur Seth Godin, something struck a chord with me. He said “Writer’s block is something that exists but isn’t real. What writer’s block really is, is a fear of bad writing.”
I think that is true of so many people wanting to do something but being afraid to fail. Godin makes a good point that not everything that comes out will be good. It’s impossible. The bad has to come out with the good. It all comes down to simply putting in the work. Just writing these words on a page, no matter how bad they are is light years ahead of a blank page.
This blog will evolve over time as I see what works and what doesn’t, who my audience is, and how I feel about my writing. I can’t possibly know what those things look like unless I take step one.