The Twelve Days of Gheorghemas: Day Four

On the fourth day of Gheorghemas, Big Gheorghe gave to me

Four Resolutions

Three Gheorghemas Gifts to Give Yourself

Two Stones of Weight Loss (Your Mileage May Vary)

and Running Gags with Quatro Kitties

I know what you're thinking. Resolutions are as useless as the pixels they're written on, and yours, rob, are even less useful than that. We know you and your weak will, after all.

First of all, that's not very nice. But at least I know where I stand. Jerks.

But you're right. My history of follow-through is as sketchy as an Uzbek cryptocurrency. That doesn't
mean I shouldn't try. And I've had some semi-breakthroughs of late. I have a 70-week Peloton riding streak going (I'm no zman, but I try). I drink at least 80 ounces of water every day (and at least 48 ounces of coffee and 32 ounces of beer - all the ounces up in here). Baby steps.

There are some things I definitely want to focus on in the new year. I could start now, but why do that when there's a completely arbitrary demarcation that allows me three solid weeks of procrastination?

For starters, I'm doubling down on kindness. One of the managers that works for me is retiring at the end of the year. He's been with our business for about five years, and his current job is a pretty big step down from where he was at the peak of his career with one of our competitors. He took the job because he thrives on teaching and coaching sales reps. He's as good at it as anyone I've ever met. 

He's so good because he genuinely cares for his people, and approaches his job with caring and kindness. I've learned more from him than he'll ever know. 

I've always tried to be a 'good' person, but I've never really connected that to leadership until I met this fellow. Since then, I've come across some great writing by people like Tom Peters who draw a clear line between taking care of people and team performance. This article by Fast Company illustrates the difference between being kind and being nice and how the former yields real-world benefits. 

As a corollary to my first resolution, I really, really want to be less angry* at the state of the world. Fuck, but I find too many reasons to rant pointlessly into the intervoid. I don't need to catalogue the various violations that offend me - you've heard them before. 2022 is a decent year to try to temper my rage, since we're still two+ years away from turning the country fully over to the dark side, so I can conserve some energy. 

* I'm really going to try, honest. I don't have high hopes for this one.

One of the proximate causes of my anger is almost certainly the amount of time I spend on social media. I can't give you a good estimate of the number of hours I've spent on the Tweet machine this year, but it's certainly too high to be healthy. And conversely, my time spent reading is way, way down. At the moment, the following books sit on the side table in my living room in various stages of completion:

• Deacon King Kong, by James McBride
• Soccer IQ (Vols. 1 & 2), by Dan Blank
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
• Political Tribes, by Amy Chua
• Our Towns, by James and Deborah Fallows
• I'll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamara
• Sorry for Your Trouble, by Richard Ford

I've also got about a year's worth of hard copies of The Atlantic to work through. And Dave's about to drop seven more books on the pile. I totally need to make it a point to read more.

I'm in a pretty good spot, fitness-wise, so I'm not going to make a point to focus there. So long as my knee holds out, I can play soccer, ride my bike, run a little bit, and generally stay active. Keeping busy coaching soccer and volunteering on the board of the local club, so doing at least a little bit for my community. I don't lack for good eating and drinking - not messing with that, even though I'd probably sleep better if I did less of the latter.

No, I think I'm about experiences now. Many of us lost a close friend earlier this month. I've seen colleagues and neighbors lose parents, brothers, and even a son just in the past two weeks. The whole quickening of the passage of time thing is a cliché, but that doesn't make the days slow down. And I want to spend those days doing interesting things with the people that make me happy.

And so among other things (spending time with my wife in the early days of our empty nesting come
August comes to mind), I resolve to see every Gheorghie at least once this year. Starting making the bed in your guest room, friends - I'm crashing your scene. 

Can't wait.