It was -15°. The furnace died. I cranked up our gas stove in the living room to get us through the week. In the midst of this, our utilities company sent out an alert asking us to conserve gas. Both our primary and secondary heat sources run on gas, so maybe I need to diversify. That was how 2024 started.
If I could sum up 2024, I was spread thin and scattered.
The year started off making a trip to Jeremiah’s wedding (congrats!), then a trip to Las Vegas for a Gartner conference, then taking leadership over another team at work (thank you, Sean, for taking the Dev team!). Then visitors, church meetings, getting sick, and random things. I never took a Summer break. Fall is my favorite time of year because other people get busy… but then things and tasks and random problems seem to spawn more things, tasks, and problems like a Zerg spawning pool spawns Zerg. I keep thinking of Reuel’s words in Exodus 18, “What you are doing is not good.”
I need to work on:
- Delegation (transferring ownership of things).
- Strategy (doing the right things–perhaps we don’t care about the zerglings in the lower-right quadrant right now since it isn’t a strategic priority).
Eli and I have been enjoying playing board games (and we’ll try to get Kris to play the cooperative ones). And this is all sort of like when you’re playing a game and try to pursue too many paths to victory–you lose every time spreading yourself thin. Doing everything by definition isn’t strategic. Doing what you don’t have any ability to do isn’t a good strategy. You need a strategy that looks at the cards you’ve been dealt and makes a decision of what path you will pursue. And this is what most people miss: that also means deciding which paths to victory you will not pursue.
Books Read
2024 was an improvement on books. Just a reminder, I read more broadly than my beliefs, so this is not an endorsement of all of them. I got in 13, fewer than I wanted but a step in the right direction! A lot of these were re-reads (I re-read MacArthur’s Book on Leadership [which is one of my favorites] with my mentor, Dave; re-read 7 Habits since we were going through that training at work, and Found God’s will). I also really enjoyed the collection of essays in Brother’s Keeper, and the Effective Executive gave me a lot of insights–probably one of the best management books I’ve read.
I’m back from Facebook…
Actually, as far as I can tell, I can’t go back there. I’ve been banned from posting.
Reading between the lines, I think Facebook is saying we don’t like you posting links to your blog without paying us FB advertising fees. That’s the sort of practice that got the internet into the mess that it is today. I appealed the decision twice and have heard nothing back, so I’m giving up on it. While I much prefer the blogosphere, I did try to fly up to Facebook every few months to say “hi” to the people there who, like citizens of California, don’t realize how bad it is. It was a weird 7-year journey, but it will be good to spend more time in the blogosphere, which is where I belong.
So, I won’t be able to visit the people living in the Facebook wastelands. That said, the people living there are more than welcome to visit me. If you ever pass through the Blogosphere, tea is at four. You are welcome anytime. Don’t bother knocking!
My plans for 2025:
- In 2023 I put more priority on prayer, and in 2024 our family devotions. In 2025 I want to prioritize scripture memory. Psalm 119:11 ESV – “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
- I plan to add more emphasis on learning Strategy. I think that’s a skill that I’m fairly good at in regards to intentions, but I don’t have a good way to defend it so I end up spread too thin.
- The theme for 2023 was: Standardize, Simplify, and Secure. 2024 was Standardize, Simplify, and Streamline. I’m certainly starting to see the dividends of simplifying (getting rid of encumbrances and decluttering). For 2025 I’m folding all three into “Simplify” and going to add Strategize and Systematize. My way of working has been morphing from systems to goals, and goals are good if I treat them like a vision, but I’ve found that overall I don’t work as well in a goal driven environment, so I’m bringing my systems approach back this year: So for 2025 the theme will be: Simplify, Strategize, and Systematize. Yes, annual themes must always start with the letter “S”. It’s one of the rules.
And finally, for 2024 I’m thankful for the people God has surrounded me with. It’s been a more challenging year than usual and a lot of things could have been discouraging if it weren’t for my family, extended family, friends, people at church, work, and random people on the internet who drop me a line or leave a comment. Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. Ps 16:24.
Psalm 8:3-6a ESV –
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and I wish you a Happy New Years!
Ben