2016 and Sydney

I like reading old posts.  The last new years one (http://sundayswithkev.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/new-year-2015.html) was interesting, in that it was less about less about goals and more about themes of life.  I am going to try to continue with this.

2015 was good.  The things that I wanted to do I did, especially with the Korea trip.  3 months away from a business and coming back to find it was still running well is a testament to the people that we have in the business and the resilience of that business.  As I have already written about Korea, no need to rehash that stuff here.  I maintained if not increased my energy levels with the sad realisation that I have gone clubbing for more years of my life than not clubbing!  Surely the knees will give out on of these days.

I really relaxed and as a friend has said to me, I am in a very strong mental state.  Calm, mostly positive,  and inquisitive of things and of people.  But 2015 could be considered "lazy", with the exception of Korea, I was not really "challenging myself" last year.

So whilst maintaining my physical, mental, spiritual and social themes, the word for 2016 is "growth".  Growth of the business, growth of my abilities, growth of my effectiveness and productivity.  And with growth there is usually growing pains, or at least some uncomfortable feelings.  And that uncomfortable feeling is what I am looking for.

Since I will be multi tasking with Lend Lease, Morganfield's, Rewind and back office app (need a cool name for this!), I need to work out how to be effective quickly.  Which means ramping up quickly and making decisions quickly.  I also need to improve my "current status of things" and be aware of where things are, what to follow up, what to review, what to not worry about at the moment.

But let's make sure I have commitment to the 4 basics:
1. Physical - Boxing helped me feel fitter, but in reality I was not stretching properly for my muscles to be supple, leading to injuries over Christmas.  However, awareness is the starting point.  More stretching prior but keep it up!  New habit - 50 pushups every day.

2. Mental - I have a new problem to solve, which is the application problem.  Also I will have another new problem which is how to build up a business unit in Lend Lease.  I am sure these things will keep my brain active,  New habit - 10 ideas a day.

3. Spiritual - This one was good from travelling solo around Korea.  I liked the feeling on being aware of the "now". but keep having to travel to cool nature places to experience it.  Would like more of that "being present" feeling on an every day basis.  New habit - 1 min meditation every day.

4. Social - I continue to meet new people, which is good.  New habit - every time I go to a bar, say hi or make a comment to someone new.

With all these new challenges, I need to be focussed.  With the corporate job, I am not there to make friends, I am there to build a business unit.  Stick with the 9-5pm, but make sure every minute counts.   Make myself consistently available.  I will be available all of Tuesday and Thursdays.  I will work on Lend Lease stuff on Wednesday. With Morganfield's, I will build a new outlet, focus on cost savings. I will save my Monday and Friday for it, make it 10am to 5pm (could be done at home).  This leaves Saturday to work on my app (9pm to 3pm).  With the app, I want to launch and have at least our company and 2 suppliers using the app.  I think the app will bleed into Fridays as well.  I should still have all dinners free, and at least one club night!  And with Rewind, at least one pool party :)

What this means is that I need to set up my environments to allow seamless work transitions and to reduce the amount of "thinking" for things that should not need thinking.   One example is food.  Breakfast should always be the same, lunch should always be the same.  Even clothes make be required to be the same, at least the corporate gear.  Having a maid will remove the stress of cleaning.  Think a bit more about how to work with two different computers (LL and GAP).

It is good to have habits, but also it is good to know when to really push.  I want to really push and see what the boundary is for my capacity.  As a safety valve, I will do a reassessment in June and see how I am handling it, and if my health or mental state is being compromised in any way.

One additional note:  I believe the key to success lies in the ability to shed identity and to assume new identities and embrace the learnings.  The challenge here is to be able to be a corporate worker and my own boss and a start up all at the same time, and perhaps even bring those different skills sets together in ways someone from a pure corporate background cannot.  Be aware of those opportunities.

~*~*~*~*~*

On a separate note, Sydney was great, it is a beautiful city.  Catching up with old friends, it is very easy to slip back into a routine lifestyle here.  Reminiscing about old times,  talking about current events, seeing kids galore, it is familiar and yet it feels very distant.  I feel I can achieve more if I am not in Sydney, but in Sydney it feels quite relaxing, maybe almost too relaxing.   I did tear up a bit when on the cruise boat they sang "I Still Call Australia Home"!  So given that I would want 2016 to be a year of growth, definitely Sydney does not give me that impression.  Perhaps when I have a yearly theme of "Relax" I should move back here!

I was so happy to spend time with family on the cruise boat, not even to do stuff, but just to sit in the rooms and catch up.  I will make it more of a theme to come back to Sydney even for short holidays to hang out.