With my newfound resolve to defeat the resistance and get more meaningful things done, I think a little public accountability couldn’t hurt.
My goal is to write a weekly post about how I am progressing with the 5 themes I laid out for myself earlier this year.
By focusing on those themes, I have definitely improved my understanding of of myself over the last 2 months and am becoming more realistic about how I truly behave – my hope is that writing my progress down will help me solve problems where I’m stuck and make connections that I would not have otherwise seen.
Platforms
I have two very exciting platform building projects in flight. One is for a couple who have been doing public speaking for years and now realize that the urgency of their message means that it has to scale. I am part of a working group of volunteers that are helping them to design and deploy the various aspects of their platform. So far I have helped by building their website, helping with the design of their logo, and set up the ‘containers’ for their social media strategy. I will write about this project more as it develops.
The second project is for a young business where the owner wants to differentiate herself and build something special. More on this to come too.
Hard Edges
I am in the process of tightening up our home budgeting systems so that more of it can be automated. The clearer edges around what goes where and is used for what is an experiment I am hoping will free me up from some of the detailed reconciling I do every other week.
Reflection
I read an excellent book by the founder of LinkedIn called The Start-up of You. Because of this a lot of my reflection recently has been about how I need to practice more “leading with generosity” in my networks.
The book also helped me make the decision to join the board of directors of a non-profit that was started by a friend. I am honored that he even asked me to serve and after attending my first meeting this week, I am truly enchanted with the work they do and ready to share my time and talent to help them.
Mentorship
One of my younger brothers recently lost his job and I am helping him navigate the process I had to go through when I lost my first job out of college. I am really proud of him for how resilient he has been and we are praying that one of his leads will yield some fruit very soon.
Lean Methods
I am working on a website project for a client who has provided very little direction in terms of content or branding. In the past, I would have insisted on getting these full details before touching any HTML or CSS, but I realized in this case that I had enough information to do an MVP. So I put it together over a weekend using a WordPress theme as a base and sent it to him for review. It felt good to ship and now he has promised to provide me content because he can see the finish line.