Birthdays and Goals

I officially turn 1 year older today and am the ripe old age of 36. Hopefully some birthday cake tonight. I am a sucker for birthday cake.

A lot of people I know plan year-specific goals or “resets” – and they are incredibly successful in year-over-year advancements. I don’t plan that way. I prefer bigger, longer-term goals that are 5 to 10 years away.

I generally subscribe to the “make no small plans” approach because it is nearly the same amount of effort to work on something with a big or small outcome. In my mind the difference is letting time compound effort. 5 years ago I was in the final stages of selling Choose Energy, and Energize didn’t exist. Investing in digital technologies to advance a more sustainable future was a personal goal… but it would have been hard to predict present-day.

As we say at Energize: “the best part of the future is that it surprises you.” To me that means control what I can control:

• Work ethic
• Markets I focus on
• People I work with

I believe that if you can get those 3 things right then good things tend to happen. And surprise to the upside is possible. So, here is to a good year… and continued march on the next 10 year plan!