Lessons Learned in 2022

Happy new year!

2022 was my first full year of semi-retirement.?I thought I would share some of the things I have learned along the way.

1. New beginnings require letting go. I imposed a whole lot of change on my life all at once in 2022. I don’t know that I would advise this. Retiring from full time work when my son went to college and my daughter graduated college and started her master’s degree.?I bought a new house 1K miles from where I have spent the last 30 years, started advisory work and joined some great boards with great teams, while having major surgery, losing my father-in-law, and my dog of nearly 15 years.?There was a lot to let go of and new starts – mostly good new beginnings, some sad. All created change.

• Lesson 1:?you have to let go of the old to welcome in the new

2. I learned that I like structure and routine.?I just needed to build a new one to fit my new lifestyle.?This one is much better.?After 25 years of waking up at 5:30 am and rushing through the morning to start work at 7, I now wake up more leisurely to the sun rather than an alarm clock, sip my tea in bed and gradually wake myself up before going to work out.?No more rush to “beat the clock”. ?This routine nourishes me instead of draining me.?

• Lesson 2:?Build routines that give you energy.

3. I used to travel the equivalent of 18 weeks a year.?While I loved the work and most of the people I visited, it was relentless and typically very hurried with every minute packed.?This year, I was surprised to calculate out that I traveled about 14 weeks. But it was leisure travel and while I am still not in love with flying, it was much more fun traveling with my family.?

• Lesson 3: When you are building “balance” in your life, don’t forget to count the travel days and build in balance to those as well.?

4. Value yourself. I am very fortunate that I have found several leaders and organizations where we both believe that my experiences will help grow the business and so I have been able to create the type of variety that I like in my work and still limit my work to a couple of hours each day.?What I have found in this work is a level of joy and engagement that I have not had in a long time. I realized that because I had worked with many of the same people for so long, both they and I took my contributions and experience for granted.?You set the bar high and then your work is “expected” to always deliver at that level. This past year, I have rediscovered what it feels like to be valued and appreciated even for the little things you do.

• Lesson 4:?Change things up often enough so that you are doing work that delights you and where you are valued and appreciated

5. Mentorship. I have always made the time to mentor others but when I was working full time, those calls and meetings were frequently jammed into a very busy day. I get so much delight out of supporting others, helping them find their joy and being there to root them on as they take on new challenges. This is definitely one of those moments of delight that I did not appreciate enough when I hurried it into my day.

• Lesson 5: Take time to celebrate with others on their milestones and achievements

And my final lesson of 2022:?Nothing beats a good nights sleep or a good book

Here is to another year of learning in 2023!