4 suggestions as we approach a New Year.
I love turning points, and I usually write mine down and track it over the coming weeks. What turning points are YOU considering as we start 2023? Maybe they involve changes with family, or your health, or a hobby. And maybe they involve how you will operate in your career? As you start to ponder these over the coming few weeks, here are some ideas to ponder:
1. Enjoyment. You spend roughly ¼ or more of your life on the job, so how can you enjoy it more by being more innovative? In fact, you can be THE person -- regardless of your current title or position -- who leads your team toward greater innovation. Doesn’t that sound good, to be called “The Innovator” by your colleagues, and to maybe have something to brag about a bit to your friends? Maybe it even brings you back to your college or grad school days, when you were learning and discovering so much!
2. Family. You want to spend just a few more hours a week with family, and that need not contradict (1) above. The change toward innovation can be by PROCESS, not just by working harder or longer or some other death march. The key is to have the right steps, to get the result you want. It’s like starting with the right recipe, so that you get the cake you want.
3. Learning. Name something you want to learn about -- for your job, your family, your health, for fun, whatever -- and start as an amateur. Read that first book; watch those first videos. Allow yourself to be a beginner! And in 3 months, you’ll have become someone new, someone more. Don’t worry about the long term yet, just enjoy being a beginner at something.
4. Shorter term. Don’t focus (yet) on the next year or the next 10 years. Start by setting directions that you can start right away, and do well at in a quarter or a semester (3 or 4 months). Just start there.
