An ongoing series for 2021

What better way to kick off the new year than to document the year’s journey in books. Like many of you, I love to sit down with a good book and get lost for hours in a fantastic story. There is nothing better than turning up your imagination and watching how events play out. George R.R. Martin may have summed up perfectly how we should think about reading.

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, and the one who doesn’t read, lives just one.”

To that end, I’ve been on a quest to read more. Unfortunately, I’m a terribly slow reader. But with the popularity of audiobooks, I realized they would allow me to get through many more books in a lifetime. …

As we start the new year out, many of us are working on those resolutions. But I’m sorry to say that even with the best intentions 80% of us will fail at them.

I’ve already experienced it to a degree. As I sat down to write this, I wanted to see if I could quickly find a few reasons why my resolutions weren’t going great. I figured if I’m having issues, others may be as well, and we could all benefit from a quick course correction.

So why do we torture ourselves and create resolutions? Is it the drive in us to start over? To get a clean slate at the beginning of each year to make a change for the better. What better time to start than when the calendar flips? But we need to change the way we phrase the resolution in our minds and work on building long term solutions. …

Do you recall your last interview? How many questions were asked about your technical skill? Or the training you received?

Often we hire people because of those very things — training, and skill in a position. What about soft skills, things that are more difficult to teach. Why don’t we also look for values and vision in a candidate? Hiring those that align with a company's culture.

Honestly, because it’s hard. We can look at a resume and see a person’s abilities. We can call referrals and get a good idea of how they do their job. But how can we evaluate how a person will treat others? …

As the end of the year approaches, it’s coming to that time we all love to hate. The day your manager is required to call you into a room and have a somewhat awkward conversation. Yes, I’m talking about the annual performance review.

As you look through notes, try to recall the goals you set months ago, feeling the need to justify your actions to continue getting a paycheck. But when was the last time you benefited from the review process?

We’ve all been there. And a small percentage of you actually enjoy the process. So if you are in that small group, I’m going to let you off the hook. You can stop reading now. …

Our minds can be frustrating! We evolved beyond our monkey ancestors into walking, talking, water sacks of emotions. And at times, trying to sift through what your mind is telling you can be tiring. Then half of the time, we do the exact opposite of what it is saying. Frustrating, right?

When I started contemplating leaving my last job. The emotions were overwhelming. My head was telling me multiple conflicting things. I knew the time was right to move on, yet I felt I was letting my team down.

As the team lead and subject matter expert on many of our systems, they looked to me for guidance. Who would take over that responsibility once I was gone? These questions and doubts bounced through my head daily. After many months of soul searching, I finally put in my two weeks. It was one of the most challenging decisions I’ve ever made. …

Whether it is getting that great new job, starting a new hobby, or wanting to speak a different language. When you start learning anything new, you will experience a steep learning curve at the beginning. That is followed by a single moment where the process clicks, and your brain wraps itself around the idea. I refer to it as my aha moment.

If you are like me, these moments make all the hard stuff that came before it worthwhile. I can still recall times in my life during the learning process when concepts clicked. There is a tremendous amount of joy that one feels when ideas become simpler. …

As an avid reader of a local outdoor magazine, I was surprised to learn from a friend that it was run by a single person.

I immediately wanted to learn more about this guy and his business. I reached out to him and we scheduled a lunch meeting. This was the preCOVID world, oh how I miss those days.

We met for lunch, and after introductions, sat down and chatted. In my initial email, I also mentioned I was researching a business idea. …

“We are letting you go.”

“We are having to downsize.”

“We want to go in a different direction.”

“We just can’t afford to keep everyone.”

Sound familiar?

With the year many of us are having. These are all too common phrases, heard by millions of people these last few months. At its peak, in April, Unemployment reached just over 14%. While the rate has gone down substantially, many of us are still looking for work in our chosen field.

Companies are built on values and destroyed by choices

I also didn’t escape the title of unemployed. Although not due to the pandemic. My department had always avoided turmoil, but that changed last year. …