Have you ever been a passenger on a plane that’s sitting on the tarmac, impatiently waiting to join the line of planes ready for take-off, when the pilot announces you have to return to the gate so your plane can be de-iced?
On one hand, you’re grateful the pilot is taking precautions to ensure a safe flight. On the other hand, you’re angry and panicking because this may mean you’ll miss your connecting flight.
That’s the analogy that sprang to mind as I began making lists about what to keep and what to toss out as I make way for a new year. While I could simply put myself on autopilot, skipping any special preparation and continue to do the same things the same way I’ve always done them year after year, the risk of falling short of my ambitions is too great.
So I’m putting in the time now to clear the way to make it easier and faster to get to my desired destination so I can achieve my personal and professional goals in the coming year.
On a personal note, I’ve been donating stuff I no longer need or want: books to my local library, dust-covered tchotchkes to my church fair, bags of clothing to our local United Way, nonperishable items to our food pantry, and posting all sorts of items on my local Buy Nothing/Sell Nothing site. (It’s amazing what people will take – I highly recommend joining your local group!) I have much more to go, like old vinyl albums and CDs, boxes of 35mm slides, 30 years’ worth of Harvard Business Reviews, outdated client files and financial paperwork, cards, calendars…and there’s that weight that’s managed to creep back on.
This purging of material items has led me to think about habits, behaviors, practices, and time-sinks that have been weighing me down and preventing me from reaching higher heights. It’s also made me think about what I’d like to start, add or amplify.
Here are my lists so far, which I will be adding to and modifying as time goes by. I hope these may inspire you to create a list of your own intentions. I suggest keeping a printed copy on your desk for easy reference and reminders. I know that’s my intention! Here’s a template to help you get started.
To eliminate/reduce in my professional life:
- People who belittle, disregard or disrespect others
- Clients who underestimate the value I can deliver
- Responding to Requests for Proposals
- Investing time with people who want to “pick my brain”
- Maintaining expensive subscriptions that have outlived their usefulness
- Requests to “borrow” my intellectual property
- Providing steep discounts or free services, with rare exceptions
- Agonizing over tasks that I can easily outsource to an expert
- Spending time learning every new app that comes along
To add/amplify in my professional life:
- Taking on more clients whose missions are aligned to my values
- Allocating meaningful chunks of undistracted time for deep thinking
- Expanding my knowledge – through classes, conferences, books, articles, etc.
- Allowing more time between meetings and projects
- Checking in more often with colleagues and clients for no special reason
- Engaging in more honest conversations about difficult topics
- Attending more in-person conferences and seminars
- Expanding my team of virtual experts
- Making greater use of Chat GPT
To eliminate/reduce in my personal life:
- Spending time with people whose values are not compatible with mine
- Saying yes to social invitations when I’d rather be alone
- Volunteering for an onerous task just because no one else will
- Doing time-consuming or difficult chores that can be outsourced
- Consumption of media whose sources are unreliable
- Screen scrolling late at night and early in the morning
- Impulse buying just because something’s on sale
- Mindless eating, and specifically, eating at my desk
To add/amplify in my personal life:
- Allocating more of my weekday time for outside interests
- Varying the type and timing of my workouts
- Expanding my pollinator and vegetable gardens
- Creating more art, experiment with new media
- Supporting independent journalists whose perspectives I trust
- Achieving a better balance between reading fiction/nonfiction
- Spending more time with my extended family
- Traveling to new countries, learn conversational basics
Every year I reassure myself that I can get by without de-icing the proverbial plane, neglecting to record my intentions because I’m convinced that I could not possibly forget them. And then reality strikes, and I become distracted by my everyday work and let all my well-meaning intentions slip away.
This year will be different. I have cleared a space on my desk for my lists, confident that this kind of preparation will help me get where I want to go more easily, quickly and safely. May it be so for all of us.
Links
Downloadable resources from Guided Insights
- Develop a 12-month plan in 2+ hours – downloadable step-by-step instructions for virtual or in-person settings
- Stating your intentions for 2025 – downloadable template for creating your own lists
My past Communiques
