Every January our team at The Potentiality engages in a New Year’s tradition of making public commitments about how we will realize our potential as professionals, parents, partners, and human beings. For 2019, Godfrey, Michael, Kurt, and I are leveraging our talents and stretching ourselves by going deeper and getting very, very specific in our work and life. Here’s how we will realize our potential in 2019.
John’s reflections and goals
Last year was probably one of the coolest ever (in terms of personal and professional growth, not in terms of geopolitics). I made very good progress with my goals of being more focused, listening more deeply, and taking up less airtime during meetings and social experiences. I know I made progress because acknowledgments about my enhanced presence and listening were common during year end reviews that just happened. I also can produce work at a more efficient clip than pretty much ever before. My middle is still a little squishier than it should be, so I failed to get really healthy. Last year I set a goal to complete a multi-day cycling trip with Kurt and Godfrey, which never happened. I’m hoping that 2019 will be the year that I finally join the Tour. With all that said, according to Past John, 2018 yielded awesome growth in all the right ways.
In 2019 I will focus on three things:
- Deep work: I will get really good at focusing on people and complex tasks without distraction.
- Waking up early: I will wake up at 5am (or close to it) and get mindful, physical and productive in my first hour of the day.
- Minimalism: I will keep things simple by making more of what I already have, consuming less and ignoring as much of the world’s noise as is reasonable.
Kurt’s reflections and goals
Last year was one of professional change for me. After returning from my paternity in the fall of 2017, I spent a big chunk of 2018 learning to adapt to changing team dynamics. In the summer of 2018, I was hired into a new job at a bigger university. The role has been exciting – namely because its given me an opportunity to work with a whole bunch of creative, hardworking and engaged people. It’s also provided me with an opportunity to build out new structures that I hope will pay long-term dividends when it comes to enhancing our media relations and communications capacity.
When I reflect on my 2018 goals, I am reminded of how personal they were. At the start of this year, I wanted to decrease my Netflix consumption, increase my reading and practice intentional patience. On the reading (anti-Netflix) front, I think I was relatively successful. Partly this has been the result of a more aggressive push to scout out new books before I make my way through the old ones. When it came to cultivating intentional patience, I still have a ways to go. While my new role has certainly encouraged thoughtful decision-making, it hasn’t come naturally always.
With this in mind, in 2019, I intend to continue to focus on patient and thoughtful decision-making and double down on long-term thinking. I want to be able to look back at three projects I’ve worked on which have required many steps over a long-timeline and were driven by a vision from the get-go.
Godfrey’s reflections and goals
2018 was an interesting year for me. I’m someone who tends to stay the course on things in general. If things ain’t broke in my personal or professional realm, I tend to default to a then don’t fix it mantra. This stance on life has served me well in general. It’s helped me keep things in balance and harmony, but at times, it perhaps tends to hold me back from new challenges or new adventures. I’m pleased to say that I broke out of this comfort zone in some significant ways last year and plan on doing more of the same in 2019. Here’s how I shook things up last year (I should add that none of the items below were part of my original goals!):
- Pushed myself to the limit: I took up ‘triathalon-ing’ (in addition to, apparently, inventing a new verb, I also I completed two triathlons and the confidence from that extended to many other areas of my life)
- I rode my bike 120 km from Vancouver to Whistler as part of the Gran Fondo bike race, besting my time from 2017 by a full 20 minutes.
- I took over management of my workplace team; out of everything I achieved in 2018, this was the most daunting and the most rewarding thing so far.
For next year, as is my custom, I plan to stay the course on new physical challenges and translating my management of the office into a more permanent gig. One of my goals last year was to spend more time with friends. While I was successful in some regards on that front, in recent months I’ve not done such a great job. I plan to change that!
Michael’s reflections and goals
OK, I failed on all fronts that weren’t directly work related. Here’s the list:
- I wanted to complete this ongoing art project, and didn’t.
- I wanted to run a 10k injury free, and didn’t.
- I did take courses each term and drove some great projects at work, but looking back on the year I can see why so often 2018 felt like a grind.
- I get sucked into stressing about the routine of prepping kids and dinner and cleaning and all that. I spend way too much time being in the hustle instead of improving or changing that game to work for us.
I’m working on refocusing how I measure my worth, re-centering on life outside my office walls, connecting in meaningful ways with the people and communities I love. So, my one and only resolution this year is to apply as fun a version of continuous improvement. I want to figure out my general life stuff so I that can speed through the less rewarding crap (that’s you, laundry and packing lunches!) and be more directly engaged with in exploring, learning and creating with my family and my amazing friends.