Notes from Steve

My long-term perspective is that the true first day of the year is not January 1.  Too close to the Christmas holiday and really not the start of anything.  That and the first 3 weeks of January are all about detoxing from the dazzle and high calories of Halloween onward.  My first day - at least for the past 10 years is RAGBRAI announcement day*.  From here until the end of summer, my attention and focus will be on riding. I know it’s not universally appreciated, but … it’s my thing.  

So that’s mine. What’s yours?  What is your date of “this is so exciting” … could be the birth of a kid or grandkid, start of new project, marriage, … divorce? …, buying a new house/car/pet/dining room table.  There have been several times in my life that I really didn’t have exciting things to look forward to.  John Kotter said in his book Leading Change that we all need a “sense of urgency” in our lives, and if you don’t have one, make it up.  A “sense of urgency” gives us purpose and energy.

Back a couple of decades ago, I used to say “sense of urgency” too much; in fact, my senior leaders told me to stop because I was exhausting everyone.  I stopped for a while, but I saw that complacency moved in, and I (and others) slowed down.  What I learned was that if we churn the excitement wheel hard and keep the sizzle alive, things will happen.  

Life is way too short not to be an active cheerleader … all the time.

*I know - that’s a very specific “cyclo-phile” thing to say, but it starts my engines of planning and training for riding, and I look forward to it --- so shut up (in the kindest sense).