Not Again!

Last week I took some time to reflect on the first quarter of 2022. Wow, the time has gone by quickly. Can you believe one quarter of 2022 is now over? By all accounts, someone from the outside looking in would say my quarter was a success. All of the leading and lagging indicators are pointing in the right direction. MACNY is happy that training is humming along and ahead of budget. We are offering more opportunities for professional development, and you, our members, are very intentional with your growth and learning. Everyone is happy, right? Well, I was happy until my reflections time, when I realized it had happened again. I fell into the trap of being busy and taking on more than I should have. Yes, January through March was successful in terms of business, but I fell behind in certain key areas. Please don’t get me wrong; I am very happy with the success the training department is having. I appreciate all of the confidence our members are placing in our team, and we are committed to not letting you down, but I noticed two big things that I need to keep in mind as I move forward.

So what were my glaring issues? I lost sight of two key things: Streamlined Reflections and White Space. Let me try to explain them one at a time.

• Streamlined Reflections – I had set in motion a reflection system that would have streamlined my reflection time and allowed me to leverage my learnings much quicker. The first few weeks went well, and then it just fell by the wayside. I would have realized my issue much sooner and made a course correction if I had maintained it.
• White Space – I had committed to putting more white space in my life. Some may refer to it as margin—time that I allocate for catching up on things, deep thinking, content creation, leisure, and rest. The first quarter was one of my busiest quarters ever. It’s not that people weren’t warning me; I just wasn’t listening because everything was going so well.

In the short term, this can all be managed. You can just push through and keep all the plates spinning. (If you aren’t sure what I mean by that, search YouTube for Eric Brenn Spinning Plates on the Ed Sullivan show.) Over time, however, the plates will fall, and things will begin to come apart. Thankfully, I had my first quarter refection time blocked on my calendar and caught this just in time.

What makes this so scary is that success masks the issues. Things are going so well that you don’t even think to look for it until it’s too late. If you would like to hear how I discovered this, please join Marisa Norcross and me for Episode 252 of The Next Page podcast. We will talk about the subtle warning signs and the tools to correct them.

Next week I will share some positive learnings from Q1 of 2022.

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