I was told after my mother passed that the firsts would be the most difficult. I can’t remember who told me but they were right. However, I have been finding it is harder to get focused after that first anniversary passed. I guess because there is still a lot of unresolved issues. I am not sure that we don’t hang on to things that can’t be fixed. To quote a friend, “it is what it is” but than isn’t necessarily so.
The light bulb went on tonight. An off-hand comment made me think about the art and science of leadership. We always talk about leadership as the leading of others to achieve success. It occurred to me that leadership is also about self-leadership and self-focus. If you can’t lead yourself ‘out of the wilderness’, it is unlikely you can lead others. So, I updated my 30-60-90 day To Do List. Here are the top three of my 30 day objectives.
- Get Up. I honestly hate getting up in the morning. The army taught me to get up, but never taught me to like it. I am one of those people who believe daylight was invented by a sadist. I will, however, get up and achieve one thing before 9:00 a.m.. I figure it will be easier to be successful as getting up at 5:00 a.m. makes me cranky but 7:00 a.m. is doable. I’ll work backwards from there. I just need to keep telling myself that getting up is the starting point to the day not a punishment for going to bed.
- Read for Pleasure at the end of my day. If I have a good book to read, I can seriously procrastinate anything and everything. I noticed today that while I was engrossed in a great book by Dr. Henry Cloud, the day had disappeared. Note to Self: Read only when the rest of the work is done. It will be hard but I have made it work in the past. I am going to put a scrolling screen on my Nook that says ‘have you finished your to do list? If yes, read; If no, put me down and get to work.’
- Finish the triage of my library. This one is easy to say but harder to complete. I am on the road so it will be waiting for me when I get home. I have more books, all of which I have read, and it is time to recycle. I don’t have shelf space. I think a good 8 hours will complete the problem. I will be able to measure progress by the number of books sent to a good home or if they are too old, the recycle bin. After all, Windows Vista® probably is seriously dead even if we have a handful of customers still using it.
So, my focus starts with three things that will set an example for myself. I can measure the outcomes and determine whether it makes me a better person and by default a better leader. Everyone needs to be re-calibrated at some point in their life, sometimes more than once. Well, I have hit that point.
“It is time to focus on the near term, so the long term will take care of itself.”
