This Is Me - A Lesson for The New Year

Maya Angelou once wrote: "Success Is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it." I agree with that statement. As the end of 2017 wound down and I found myself in the middle period between Christmas and New Years, it was on a beautiful and clear day in CA that I rode up the Sunol Grade on Highway 680, on the home stretch into Silicon Valley. Topping the hill, and then in the descent from the hills that surround the valley I could see in the distance downtown San Jose. While en-route we had enjoyed a nice jaunt through the Salt Flats in Utah snapping a picture, and then further on into Nevada before crossing the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountain range into CA. It had been 5 years since I had left the Silicon Valley and left this same scene in August of 2012 to take my current post at ADP in Utah.

Remarkable as it is to reflect on a journey such as this, life has a way of bringing back to the awareness the transcendent nature of our careers, and how career also flows into all other areas of your life. It is 2018. 10 Years since I ventured back into Staffing and Recruitment, after a brief hiatus. Since that time my career has changed with the ebbs and flow of the seasons and I find myself pondering the New Year in all of it's potential.

Today, the Recruitment circumstances I engage in are different, the landscape completely changed, and questions arise in one's mind as to "what's next". Much of this stems from the fact that business has also changed, and with it, the way we do our business, and the way we move forward to create strategic win/win outcomes. Recruiting though it has evolved is still much the same. A wise manager of mine Maria DiLisio once said: "The More things change, the more they stay the same." True enough.

A New Year is a good time to reflect on how one got to where they are, and the circumstances, realities, and changes that yield new ways of doing things. We will find at times that the direction we once espoused no longer makes sense, the very path we understood different, and the way of approaching every work day vastly ambiguous to what we once knew. It is here in this very reality that the essence of the approach to the work we do, the balance between work and family, and everything in between must also adapt, change, and re energize.

As the New Year unfolds I find myself in an amazing opportunity. I get to speak on a topic I love and which strategically is that much more vital for success - Strategic Proactive Talent Acquisition at SourceCon in Las Vegas in less than a month or so.

Further than the day job, proactively attacking challenges before you find yourself in reactive mode. Thinking 3 or 4 steps ahead. Thinking about the nuances that make sense to tackle now, and the activities that will somehow add value and pay dividends later to my career and family. Whether that is any of the following:

1. Strategically Making Networking Connections that open doors.
2. Building New Skills that come in handy when the timing is right.
3. Positioning yourself for success even before the cards are down, the pressure is on, and the chips fall. Anticipating trends, realities, and business circumstances and finding a way to adapt, shift, and focus to those realities.
4. Seeing the essence of the business you are in changing, and finding a way to add value in the midst of that change.
5. Thinking about your Mission Statement in the role you are in, and creating a vision of "where you will be" in 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years etc.
6. In conjunction with 5, anticipating the reality of what you must do to not go by the way side when technology creates obsolescence for some skills, opens doors for others, or shifts jobs and other circumstances brought about by Artificial Intelligence or other concerns.
7. Rising to the challenge when ambiguity comes roaring into your life endeavors and you must find a way to deliver in spite of that.
8. Having the belief in yourself such that you know the end you envision for your career, the stability you desire for your family, and the realities only persistence will bring about to success.
9. Knowing that the New Year is the right time to adjust your sails, build your new direction and map out new steps for the next series of events you wish you could be in.
10. Realizing that regardless of circumstances numbers 1-9 can become a reality regardless of what others may say or think.

Coming back to my childhood home to Silicon Valley, passing my Alma Mater San Jose State University, and desiring to be better than ever before, to give back as it were to others and uplift those around me gave me new perspective. I see 2018 as the year I finally arrive to the zenith in my professional endeavors and side by side with that, think outside the professional box to a bigger picture wholistic view. That is helping others in growing in their careers, giving back to my community, endeavoring to add value across the spectrum of activities on the work/home and religious front.

Appropriately, on January 1st, my family and I went to see "The Greatest Showman" movie about P.T. Barnum. I was inspired by it. While there - I heard two outstanding songs that really capture the essence of what I have been feeling: "This is Me" & "A Million Dreams".

Take a Listen:

1. "This is Me" by Keala Settle & The Greatest Showman Ensemble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEJd2RyGm8Q&list=RDwEJd2RyGm8Q
2. "A Million Dreams" by Ziv Zaifman, Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSQk-4fddDI

Inspiring yes? I couldn't connect the dots with why I was feeling as I did, but yet, it finally made sense after I heard these songs. A desire to make the New Year full of promise and to achieve goals I had set to another level of desired greatness. To Break Through as it were. I quote from "This is Me":

"I make no Apologies. This is Me." "Look out because here I come".

"Another round of bullets hits my skin

Well, fire away 'cause today, I won't let the shame sink in

We are bursting through the barricades

And reaching for the sun (we are warriors)

Yeah, that's what we've become

Won't let them break me down to dust

I know that there's a place for us

For we are glorious"

That part about bursting through the barricades, and reaching for the sun. It hit me right in the heart, and gives me that passion to see my goals through to success. I do make no apologies about who I am - warts and all. Because nothing can stop a willing heart. Then there is this from "A Million Dreams" - I quote again:

"I close my eyes and I can see

The world that's waiting up for me

That I call my own

Through the dark, through the door

Through where no one's been before

But it feels like home

They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy

They can say, they can say I've lost my mind

I don't care, I don't care, so call me crazy

We can live in a world that we design

'Cause every night I lie in bed

The brightest colors fill my head

A million dreams are keeping me awake

I think of what the world could be

A vision of the one I see

A million dreams is all it's gonna take

A million dreams for the world we're gonna make"

Hits the mark in more ways than one. I find myself listening to these words on both songs as the anthems of my internal vision. Nothing can stop achievement when you have that inward vision. It's exactly what helped P.T. Barnum rise to his success. I am grateful for the future ahead and the possibilities of this New Year. Indeed, I see potential at the highest level of endeavor. The next few months have more promise than ever before, and quite frankly breaking down the barricades of obstacles standing set in the path is about as glorious a focus as there could be. So I'm going to make this the year where "This is Me", carries all new meaning. In spite of change, I will change my circumstances to go to the next level in my career, no matter what I face, or find in my purview. Because getting to the next level of achievement can only come when you are adapting real time to the changes that may come either imposed by others, or brought upon by business conditions. There can be no excuse for not achieving when you have an inward vision of where you know you can get to. So Maya Angelou was right: "Success Is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it." Discovering who you are and doing it on purpose, that's the essence of happiness in this life on the way to achievement. Never let the hunger within you die when you are driving forward to attain your next possibilities regardless of what change may bring. Here's to a Great New Year in 2018.