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Coping or Contribution?

Do you ever have the feeling of time slipping through your fingers? Another year has gone, but you’re not quite sure where it went. New Year’s resolutions losing the fight for attention against a crowded list of deadlines, emergencies and other people’s agendas for you.

Life will always be busy and complex to some degree. The question is whether you feel like you are going through the motions or making a difference. Are you merely coping or actually contributing as you roll out of bed and head off to work each morning?

Let’s make 2007 the year we take back our careers. Let’s make 2007 the year in which we refuse to conspire with our circumstances to sabotage our effectiveness and undermine our dreams.

You probably tend toward one of two extremes. Some of us are overwhelmed by frenetic activity, hectic schedules, and last-minute demands. How are we supposed to plan ahead when we’re always running to put out the next fire? Others of us are paralyzed by indecision, sorting through endless sources of data, bargaining, cajoling, pleading for the input and cooperation of others. We overanalyze in search of the “correct” answer, and consquently we never decide on the next move. Both extremes are exhausting. Both prevent us from focusing carefully to gain clarity, stepping back reflectively to gain perspective, including others collaboratively to gain momentum.

Try starting each morning with twenty minutes of silent reflection on the day’s priorities. Turn your phone off. Don’t turn the computer on. Compare your plans for the day with your goals for the year. (The immediate in context of the journey.) Are they “pulling in the same direction”? If not, what adjustments can you make? What element can you include in your day to keep you energized? Such on-going attentiveness will help you maintain a strong hand in your own future.

Include a brief integrity check. Are you choosing to be distracted by the raging fires, the incompetent supervisors or the financial pressures? Are you avoiding a more intentional and possibly risky course of action? Are you just coping? Are you ignoring your dreams? The goal here is not to condemn or berate yourself, but to empower yourself.

Set the bar high enough to get yourself excited. Dream big enough to make the sweat required meaningful. Your contribution can make a difference. You make a difference.



Here's My Thought...


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