Happy new year everyone!
The start of the new year is not only the perfect time to set goals and objectives for the year ahead but to also reflect back on the accomplishments of the year past. Last February, my professional colleague Debbie Elicksen (Canada’s publishing expert) issued a challenge to the readers of her blog to make a list of everything they had “shipped” during the previous year. “Shipping” refers to a concept advocated by best-selling author Seth Godin. Not shipping of books or products to a destination, but rather the “shipping” of deliverables – getting things done, achieving goals, reaching the finish line, delivering completed products and services – you know, accomplishing significant goals and objectives.
Well I took her up on the challenge. And when I sat back and took an inventory of everything that I had “shipped” in 2010, I was very surprised — apparently, I had “shipped” a lot more than I realized. My list from last year is here. The exercise was a valuable lesson to me on the importance of celebration. Here at mergespeaks Inc., we invest a lot of time and energy in moving forward, creating new learning programs and products, asking provocative questions to make people think, helping managers and supervisors become even better leaders than they already are. But we don’t often stop to celebrate what we’ve accomplished. We’re so busy striding forward, we don’t take the time to stop, look back and reflect on the good work we’ve done. And that shouldn’t happen.
So later this week, I’m going to take an inventory of what I “shipped” in 2011, and I’ll share that list with you in a couple of week right here on this blog. But in the meantime, it’s your turn! Make a list of what you “shipped” in 2011. And please, stop by here to let us all know how you do.