The clock has struck (and passed!) midnight on the 2020 calendar year. Aside from the flood of "goodbye 2020" posts I saw on blogs, Instagram, etc I know it's officially 2021 when I have to change out the cat calendar in my office.
Because the Internet is filled with Petabytes of commentary on last year, along with the fact that I like to look where I'm trying to go (forward) more than in the review mirror, I'm going to choose NOT to publish an in-depth analysis of 2020 in this monthly View From Here post.
That being said, I will use an event from December to get this View from Here post moving.
At the conclusion of last year we held our Q4 quarterly all hands meeting. We follow a quarterly meeting rhythm to ensure we get together every 90 days or so in order to talk through things such as:
- Quarterly company rocks and the progress to reaching them
- Setting upcoming quarterly rocks
- Discussing the financial health of the business
- Introducing new team members, inclusive of asking them an ice breaker question to get to know them better
- and more!
Last but not least: the meeting always ends with a Q&A session between the team and the Founders.
And in one of my answers during that session I mentioned that in 2021 I want to not just survive the global pandemic, economic downturn and other negative world events. I want to thrive in 2021.
I want to thrive in 2021. In whatever form that takes.
On the heels of that comment, I invited anyone else who wanted to thrive to join me. Again, in whatever form that takes.
What I didn't do a great job of mentioning during the All Hands meeting was how this might manifest itself for myself here in 2021. Thriving, to me, looks like:
- As if it wasn't already, the rationale of "...well that is the way it's always been done" is dead to me now. I need to act accordingly. Especially when that involves questioning my own reasons for doing things.
- Be impeccable with my word. Don Miguel Ruiz said this in his book The Four Agreements. This is especially important to me here in 2021.
- Read even more from a diverse set of authors, topics. In particular, I want to read things from people/positions that I do not particularly agree with all (or any!) of the time in order to seek to understand where their opinions, experiences or actions may be coming from.
- Own my attitude. I can't control exactly what is happening around/to me, but I can control my reaction to that which happens around me. My attitude is the one thing that I 100% own at my core. I will own it in 2021.
- Focus my energy on things that are both meaningful and urgent. I'd like to wire my brain to evaluate decisions using the Eisenhower Matrix created by Dwight D Eisenhower, President of the United States.
- Set higher standards for myself. Thriving to me means getting better every single day. That begins with setting higher standards for my own work, behavior, actions and presence in the community. I'd like to invite others to 'raise their game' as well at work, personal, community in order to act as informal accountability partners.
Do you want to thrive in 2021?
If so, drop us a note on social media letting us know so we can be accountability buddies together!
