You can get excited about the future. The past won’t mind.
— Hillary DePiano
As we do this, the speakers in the subways of London, England, start to echo in my ears. “Mind the gap. Mind the gap.”
And whether boarding a subway or jumping into a new year, that is excellent advice. Generally, people want to come in the new year with renewed energy and ready to start fast. The risk is that they forget what they were doing in the final rush before the holiday gap began. And it takes a while to restart.
They tripped on the gap. Which is dangerous on a subway and at the very least, an annoying way to start the new year.
My encouragement to everyone is to keep a calm center as we work to close the year-end.
Start setting up meetings for the first week of January that will energize the new year. If you are going to do any work over the holidays, make sure it is work that you love, work that gives more energy to you than it takes.
On your final day of official work before you start the holidays, send yourself an email that encourages you on the key things you want to remember.
I like to be able to start the new year ready to execute the advice my cross-country running coach gave me in college so many years ago. He was mostly kidding because it is not an optimal running strategy, but I have always loved it.
So as he coached me so wisely, my wish for you is this:
Yours in the calm pursuit of excellence,
Alan Willett
