“Happy New Year,” I heard someone say to someone else in the restroom this morning, and for the first time, I heard the words echo into a corridor of years, past and future. I pictured the same two people in an endless, annual succession of New Year’s greetings. This is how people find themselves staying in jobs forever. This is how ten, twenty years pass so quickly. One simple greeting to acknowledge the passage of time, another click along the wheel, and then life continues.
I don’t want that to be me.
Perhaps one of my New Year’s resolutions will be to resume my search for a goal.
Jeff, this post makes it sound like you think you’ve accomplished nothing, or at least not in the past year. 2004 was just about different goals. You spent much of the year cementing a wonderful relationship that will most likely enrich your life for years to come. That is, arguably, at least as important as any professional goal.
But I think it’s great that, now that your personal life has stabilized to some degree, you now feel more able to focus on what you want from your professional life. Whatever that turns out to be, know that it’s only one part of who you are.
Ditto what Jere said.
There is nothing wrong with being a little goal free for a while. Use the free time to define what it is you want exactly, and then you can start mapping the steps to get to what you want.
Happy new year, from one lost one to another.