Category Archives: goals
April 26, 2013 Knock Knock
Funny thing: I was writing a new post and went to my drafts to work on a different one that’s been in the hopper and I stumbled upon this. This is the job I just took. This meeting took place just after Thanksgiving of last year. What do they say about all good things again?…
I think I was interviewed today. The reason I’m not sure is that nobody ever said we were doing an interview. The reason I think I was is that I’ve never been asked to meet with these guys without a meeting agenda and never for an off premises lunch. This was both.
That and they started the conversation with this question: have you ever been a product manager?
So I told them the truth: I haven’t been, but I have acted as one on a couple of occasions. Then the conversation wended its way into my past positions, responsibilities, and work product in each. Last time I was interviewed, we covered all that.
Then we started talking strategically and about product features and product benefits, how to determine which features should be included and which shouldn’t. How to prioritize customer wants over industry meeds amd compliance-related musts. Sounds like more feeling out to see if I fit the role of product manager in their eyes.
We ended the interview, er lunch, and started getting coats on to leave. I asked them if they had all of their questions answered since there was no agenda for this meeting. They said they did and that we should do this more often. Then the senior guy uttered a personal aside, out of earshot of the other two: I’m sure an opportunity will present itself.
So now I guess I wait for that opportunity. It would be nice if it presented itself for Christmas.
Tags: interviews, who knew
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- Posted under career, goals, interviews, serendipity
April 18, 2013 I’m Out of Podcasts
I’m out of podcasts, my kid’s sick, and I’m starting a new job. One would think these things are entirely unrelated. One would normally be 100% correct. However, I am only out of podcasts on what I download onto my phone. My Shuffle (a.k.a., my little running and workout buddy) is still chock full of content but it’s exclusively hour-plus stuff. I tend to put the thought-provoking stuff that requires concentration and can’t be interrupted on there. It’s mostly storytelling shows, science shows, and sermons. Lots of sermons. I subscribe to a couple of different preachers and it’s just impossible to keep up.
My youngest woke up not feeling well this morning so I’ve spent half a day with him as my helper at work; and the second half at home, him napping, me writing for work and this post. So, here I sit, in a quiet house, with the dogs sleeping at my feet and the sun shining in the window, listening to 3 sermons and writing exit summaries and strategy documents.
As I cleanse my plate of responsibilities for my current company, I listen and have my decision affirmed by God’s word. I write about goals and strategy for where I’m going, and I am reminded that I have a source of strength from which I can draw when that task seems large. I leave a place where I’ve mastered my trade and move on to where I will be pushed and challenged to be my best, as God wants us all to do.
See? Being out of podcasts and having a sick kid are the best things that could have happened to me today. I feel lighter, freer, and more focused than I have in a long time. This is the kind of contentedness I wanted all along. To know – and have affirmed – that my path is true.
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- Posted under blessings, contentedness, faith, fulfillment, gifts, goals, introspection
April 15, 2013 The Dangers of Contentment
Before that last post, I had not written in a while. Scratch that – I’d not published anything I’d written in a while. I had tried and edited and only gotten to the point where I just didn’t think it was worth a damn so it was cancel, delete…or go get some snacks. As I pondered why this might be, I could only picture in my mind’s eye the struggling writer, sitting by the light of a single lamp, blankets piled on for warmth in a sparse room while he struggles to make his works known to the world. Except that’s not me.
I have a nice house, a good job, and a new, really comfy couch that sucks me in and I don’t want to let go. When I started this blog, my life was in a period of upheaval, with a move to a new city, a new job, a new house, new schools for the kids, and lots to learn and absorb. I’ve since settled in at work, finished the house construction, the kids have actually been at the same school for two whole years, and we’ve furnished all but one room. I’ve settled the chaos, gained a lot of peace from that, and I just don’t have enough on my mind to prompt the introspection and thought that was so prevalent not so long ago.
I know: first world problems, right? I think it comes down to this question: Am I challenging myself enough? Am I making myself stretch enough? What’s the shakeup I need? What new initiative?
And then it hit me: I’m at my best when I’m at my most disruptive. I’m successful and respected at work because I have no filter, I speak my mind, and I question everything: authority, old ways, process, standards – you name it. But was all of that stale? When was the last time I actually had an “it” I could point to at the end of a work day?
Well, I’ve found it. Ive taken a new job. It’s where I need to build something almost from scratch. It is what I will take on as my next challenge. I’ll be the new guy with the crazy ideas again, not the respected guy everyone comes to for The Way It Should Be Done. And I like that. The moment any group starts looking to one guy for The Way, it has ceased being organic, ceased growing in an organic way. I like organic. I like a bit of chaos that needs to be settled, calmed, and put right.
But there’s a fine line between containing chaos and becoming routine. When things become routine, everyone loses. I hope I can be that change agent, stay disruptive, and keep things interesting. Otherwise, I guess I’ll have to change jobs again.
Tags: chaos, disruptive, fulfillment, new job
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- Posted under blogging, career, challenge, fulfillment, goals, intelligence, pride, technology, workplace
November 27, 2012 One Question
If you could ask one question – any question – and get the answer, what would it be?
If you are a person of faith, this will test you because that faith, by definition, means you needn’t ask for reassurance. By asking, do you show your faith to be incomplete?
If you are a person who has no faith, this will do the same. By asking, do you admit you, too have doubts about a supreme being’s existence?
The possibilities are endless and the questions wide-ranging. World problems could be solved, life choices can be confirmed or have doubt cast upon them, and times of future happiness and sadness revealed.
What would you want to know? Or is that simply the question you should ask so you can direct the rest of your life to finding the answer?
Tags: one question, the answer
November 10, 2012 Confidence Games
You may remember that my oldest son has had it a bit harder than his brothers as he’s grown up. He struggles to understand things that others take for granted. He works hard and often that hard work pays off. But it’s always been hard.
Recently, though, something’s changed. And I give all the credit to swimming.
He’s always been a good swimmer and was a natural from the start, but we tried swim teams and “real” lessons a few times without them ever sticking for more than a couple of weeks. Some time last summer, he decided that it was the time to try it again so we did, thinking this was another couple of weeks and then he’d be bored. Except not so much. Within a week, he was proficient at the butterfly (a stroke where I always feel like I’m drowning) and was angry if the other kids beat him in a lap at practice. It doesn’t seem to matter to him that they’re 13 and he’s 9.
I’m not saying he’s the next Michael Phelps (but please, God, don’t make him the next Ryan Lochte). At the same time, it is since this new proficiency has been uncovered that he’s been a different kid. He started scoring touchdowns in every football game. He started making layups in basketball. He’s been hard to keep quiet. He’s gotten more…aggressive. He’s always been so unsure of whether he was doing something wrong that he’s not gone all out. Now it’s reckless abandon. Full bore. Aggressive to the point where we’re having to tone him down. And I love it.
I don’t care if he scores a single touchdown again. Don’t care if he wins a race. I just care that he thinks he can, that he finally knows he belongs, and that he can push as hard as he has been. Just seeing him have fun and know he has contributed is the most rewarding thing in the world for me to see. He’s finding his place on the team and in life. Because he has confidence.
And confidence is everything.
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- Posted under challenge, child rearing, contentedness, Cool kids, goals, kids
July 24, 2012 I Have a Problem
Before everyone gets all crazy, let’s just get it out there: my problem is not drugs, alcohol, pornography, or money laundering. It’s not dealing to kids, doing graffiti (or “tagging”, as the kids say), or breaking and entering. It’s simply that, when left alone for any period of time, I have no input barometer. I constantly need stimulation and have spare energy to burn.
So I find chores to do, which makes my wife very happy. I do projects around the house, also leading to a happy wife. And I exercise. Like crazy. Like twice a day. For hours.
For instance, I am currently super sore from 9 workouts in four days, yet I find myself looking for the only flat stretch in Middle Tennessee long enough to measure my current 5K time. Tonight. When I get home. After painting the office.
If only I had that great idea we talked about last week, I’d be busy with that instead. But then I’d be fatter. Or more likely, the office wouldn’t be painted.
There are much worse things to be addicted to, but this does serve to remind me that I must have a lot of this energy every night, not just when I’m alone. However, when redirected to homework, bath time, books and kid triage, there’s either not enough left or it’s too dark and too late to go run in the woods.
Not the worst problem to have, but man do my legs hurt!
Tags: 5K
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- Posted under fitness, goals, kids
July 16, 2012 An Electronic Life
Over the past week, several friends have indicated that they are not as ensconced in electronic connectivity as most of the rest of us have become. One has gone so far as to drop off of Facebook (GASP!) – though his data will remain there in perpetuity – and another went months before seeing a LinkedIn request I had sent, and then days before returning an e-mail. The horror! With the level of integration among these sites and the e-mail notifications that fly around whenever your profile is involved in any way, it’s amazing to think that these types of lags are possible. But they are; not because the technology didn’t deliver and notify, but that it just wasn’t omnipresent in their lives for them to see those notifications.
I work in health care technology. Most days it seems that every problem in the world can be solved by these marvelous systems that can capture, record, report on, and improve care. But the trickiest part is getting the clinicians to use them. And the biggest obstacle to making that happen is getting them to change their workflow to include these systems.
Oddly enough, the comparison stands up well when applied to the average person’s every day life. Many of us go to the office, sit down at a desk (some of us are standing these days), and get immersed in technology for 8 or 9 hours. Others are more mobile, but use a phone or tablet to stay just as connected. But a third set actually interacts with people all day. When this happens, there is less and less time to respond to e-mails, check social media, and network on the, well, network.
Crazy as it seems, many people still network with pother people. They have meetings over lunch or drinks. It’s like a scene out of Mad Men, for crying out loud!
So which tethers are healthy and which are too much? Or is the answer – as it always seems to be: neither is right or wrong, but moderation is warranted.
One thing that I’ve noticed already is this: the people with less of an “electronic life” are generally happier in their jobs and with their families so they need seek less online interaction and look to their devices less often. They’re often self-employed and structure their own days such that there is only time to focus on their work and their play, leaving little time to waste on trivia.
Unless, of course, their passion is the technology (or blogging or publishing their work). In these cases, even their online experiences are different. They’re more proactive, they’re the content generators, not the consumers and commentors.
I’ll be watching it closely for the next week or so to see where I fall on the spectrum and what else I can learn about the habits of others.
Tags: electronic life, Facebook
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- Posted under career, genius, goals, workplace
February 21, 2012 Gooooooooaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllsssssssssss
Before I left South Carolina, I did a bit of a life assessment to make sure what all was bugging me and that the primary issue was the job. I set 1, 3, and 5 year goals. I confirmed that it was the job, but the 1 year goals I set forth were all improvements on things that were lacking as a byproduct of the burden the job’s hours put on me. I also didn’t look at or change that sheet again until I stumbled upon on just yesterday. 586 days ago, to be exact – if you believe Google Docs.
Here are the 1-year goals:
- Do better at eating healthy (and not eating late at night)
- Get back to being fit with a half marathon goal (hard to do when you’re working 75 hour weeks)
- Set more aside for retirement (harder to do when your benefits are horrible and you’re underpaid)
- Read the bible cover to cover (difficult when work calls even when you’re in church!!!)
- Get a new job in a market that gives me flexibility
- Make sure that market has the educational options my children need to be positioned for success
So how did I do?
- Pretty good. I now exercise to support my ice cream habit, but all in all I do pretty well
- Ran a full marathon in the fall and a couple of halfs before that. Pretty much crushed this one
- Converted to full time after just a few months and contributing to the 401(k) again
- Found an audio book of the NIV. Listened to about half of the Old Testament and read the entire New Testament in 90 days last fall. Just a few books to go to have it all read. I’m thinking about doing it again in chronological order instead…
- Done and done
- Done and the school is beyond my expectations
Now the 3-year goals, on the other hand:
- Think of a new business idea to contribute to/create that will let me transition over the latter part of my working life into something I enjoy more
- Max out retirement
- Get to the doctor more when nothing is wrong
- Watch less TV and read more books
- Become better friends with my kids
And so far (with 18 months to go):
- Squat. Bupkis. Writing blogs is all I’ve got. Unless I can publish these things somewhere that wants to pay, I think I need another alternative career option
- Not quite, but we’re making progress
- Where’s the doctor’s office?
- Spurts. I’m watching “better” TV. When it’s not sports, it’s more often documentaries or classical stuff – much less fluff
- Totally making progress. Watching football and now basketball has really given us something to spend a few hours together talking and learning about each other’s lives. It also makes them want to go outside and try it, which is even better!
So, no, not perfect. But certainly pretty darned good, especially since I hadn’t seen my goals list for over a year and a half!
Go write some stuff down and tuck the list away, revisiting it in a year. If they’re really important to you, you’ll be surprised at how many you get through. I was.
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- Posted under faith, goals, serendipity, writing
September 26, 2011 Back to Life
So the move is complete. We’re in the new house and there are no longer boxes everywhere – except the empty ones in the driveway, which I’m sure is endearing us to our neighbors more by the minute. Last night, we actually got to sit down for a few minutes and watch TV. It was a reward for being as far into things as we were considering how long we’ve been in the house, but it was also out of necessity because I had succumbed to the “just one more box and then I’m going to bed” mantra for two previous nights and I just couldn’t do it anymore.
Thursday was the day we moved the vast majority of things out of the rental and staged them throughout the house. I had the help of two very kind souls I met at the office and they worked like crazy people. Sure, I helped, but there were times where the kids or my wife needed attention and they just kept on plugging. That independence and self-motivation is why I identified them as good folks at work so it really came as no surprise to see them exhibiting those same traits outside the office, but it sure was nice to not have to worry.
The crazy thing is that one of them volunteered out of the blue. It turns out, he took some of the things we were going to give to good will or sell on consignment. He called it good karma. I call it grace in action. The thrift store picked up their load later that day on Friday and they were thrilled with their haul. I’m just glad I could help, glad I could give some things to someone who needed them, and glad the person who took them could do so with dignity.
We’re fortunate to be in a house this great in a town so perfect for our family. Knowing not everyone can do the same, it feels good to do know that, in some small way, we’re helping others stand up straighter while we do it.
Tags: content, contentedness
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- Posted under contentedness, fulfillment, goals, grace, moving, teamwork
July 26, 2011 That was rough
When it comes to exercise, I’m not a complainer. I like the especially brutal workout, the beating one can take when pushing one’s body to its limit. That’s why I enjoyed Saturday morning so much and why I have kept exercising (almost) uninterrupted since I was about 17. Today, however, sucked. A short, 50-minute run turned into pure dread. Thoughts of an early turnaround entered my head. Granted, I didn’t turn around, but it was an “out and back” and I know I didn’t get “out” as far as I normally do in 25 minutes. My heart just wasn’t in it.
It got me to thinking, though: what kind of teaching opportunity is this for me to relay to my boys? They’re young now, but I see so much potential in them that I struggle with how hard to push and how much to let them steer. From my own experiences, I wish I was pushed more and earlier in sports. I was good – darned good – at some things and my parents let me do the one I wanted to do instead of keeping me in the one I was best at. Don’t get me wrong: I can appreciate why. Nobody wants their kid resenting them for making them play soccer forever, but how many kids (delusional or otherwise) are left wondering “what if” based on decisions like that?
I could have been really good at soccer. I have endurance. I’m coachable. I like team sports, playing within a system, and live for defense. Plus, let’s face it: I’m not tall, big, especially fast, or unusually strong. At best, I would probably have ended up in a college program somewhere but then I wonder, where would that have really gotten me?
So how do you know? What do you nurture and “push” without being THAT parent, who’s living their dreams through their kids?
It all comes down to love, I guess. Love of the game and love of your kids. If they love it, you support it because you love them. Do I have a collegiate swimmer on my hands? A chess champion? A Nobel laureate? Any would probably cause me to burst with pride to the point where I’d be insufferable.
Heck, I’d take a guy who runs his first marathon at middle age and has a bad run once in a while. As long as he’s happy.
Do I Really Have Anything to Say? 