What do you see when you reflect ahead?

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Most of us are working longer and harder than we imagined. Only time will tell if that’s a good thing or not. I’m so fortunate I love my work. And my life.

Today is January 1, 2013. The new year is a precious 1-day old infant, filled with promise and joy. Are you making the time to reflect ahead?

My kids often hear me joke about planning to live until I’m 98 years old…at 49, I’m half way home. (Melinda will have to live to 100 to get any respite from me.) If my life was a college football game, I’m resting at half time. And reflecting. I’m taking stock of the decisions that led me to where I sit in the game right now. At least one great decision. Lots of risks: some good, others not-so-good. But I’m happy and still eager.

Reflection in our hurry-up lifestyle is almost a lost art: we’re so fully ‘wired.’ One of my favorite things about sitting in church is the hour all to myself. I wrote my first book on the little white ‘note cards’ in the pew. One of my role models, Kevin Cashman, recently published his new book for leaders called the Pause Principle. The title alone proves my point: so many people are yearning for reflection that this book is already rocketing toward Best Seller.

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On this New Year’s morning, I’m basking in the glow of time off with my family and savoring the pregnant promise of a new year. In some ways, more of the same would be nice. In other ways, less would be much, much better. Personally, I’m in slow and steady recovery from severe idiopathic angioedema: a fancy way to say “mysterious swelling of the sensitive soft tissues.” I’ve missed a lot of work and this causes me to think really deep. The culprit seems to be a common pharmaceutical which produces adverse side-effects in “one in a million” patients. Normally, it feels special to be one-in-a-million. In my case it was frightening, but also spiritually rejuvenating. In 2013, less time in the ER would be nice.

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Why does it take a health scare to force a pause for personal and professional reflection? I’m learning yoga, meditation and prayer at a deeper level. I like it. And I like the person I’m growing up to be. Why didn’t I learn this 25 years ago?

Good leaders make a habit of creating time to reflect, pray and listen to the world around them.  And they use the quiet promise of a new day to be calm, confident and strong in their endeavors — personally and professionally.

Drop me a note: what reflections are you carrying forward into the New Year?[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]