If you read last week’s three thoughts you already know that recently I had to say goodbye to my cat Charlotte of 17 years. It’s incredible how much attachment we as humans can have to animals and how much they provide for us over the years. Certainly they give us more than we give, when you consider the emotional support and unbending loyalty they they have for their humans.
Networking is tough. If you are in management long enough, you have definitely had the experience of someone who wants a job being extra clingy when it comes to making sure that their name is top of your mind. You know what they say, “all things in moderation”, but there comes a time when it crosses a line to both the uncomfortable and the unprofessional.
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Over the holiday season, my wife and I each had two weeks off at home to reflect after a challenging year. She’s a school teacher, so the holiday break is a usual component of her schedule; however, as someone who worked rotating shifts—including holidays, overnights, and everywhere in-between—prior to this year, this was uncharted territory for me. Even when I do have time off, I usually fill it with travel, providing little opportunity for true relaxation and introspection. Aside from a couple of local day trips around the Black Hills, this was a legitimate staycation.
There are certainly cycles in life when it feels like others are “getting ahead” of you and you feel like you need to make a move. Maybe it has been a while since your last big promotion. Or you look on social media and four of your friends got a new job, three are having kids, two are getting married, and a partridge in a pear tree!
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.
I don’t have a selling bone in my body.
I remember as a kid having to sell fundraisers for my school. My customers were my parents and my relatives and that was it out of pure sympathy. It wasn’t like it was a bad product. Anyone remember “World’s Finest Chocolate”? I mean it’s chocolate for heaven’s sake, surely I could sell that. Not a chance.
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.
This week’s leadership challenge goes hand in hand with our three thoughts of the week in which we recognize we have come face to face with a productivity plateau and we need to take the next step to continue to climb the mountain again.
It doesn’t matter what time a day or what season we are in, it seems like there are always a multitude of fires to put out. Whether it’s the daily mundane of the dog barking because it’s time to eat or something much more complicated, there are 100s of things we are thinking about daily.