Resolutions

I’m a bit behind on making the obligatory post on resolutions, but that’s okay, because I didn’t really make any this year. I won’t go into a convoluted wrap-up of 2008, either, other than to say that the last quarter of the year was one of my busiest ever for both businesses, and that the busyness forced some reflection on how I was spending my time, which led to a realization that I was going to have to do some rearranging of my priorities and how I choose to spend the free time and energy I have.

The biggest change is that when my term as communications director on the board of the OSU Alumni Club of Greater Cleveland is up in February, I will not be seeking reelection. I’ve served as communications director for three years and as a rank-and-file board member for three years before that, and I’m a bit burned out. I’m pleased with what I’ve accomplished: a good-looking, properly spelled newsletter and website; a discussion list for board members; an e-mail announcement list for members; some automation in event registration; getting to a place where we can accept credit card payments for our big event; shared master documents for our membership database; a much more streamlined and less labor-intensive way of sending out paper newsletters; and a bunch of other little things. As with most such things, there are always some things I had hoped to accomplish but didn’t get to, the biggest being some kind of self-serve membership web thingy where people can join or renew their memberships online and handle their own address and similar changes. C’est la vie. This change alone will give me a couple hundred hours of my life back over the course of 2009.

I returned to yoga in the fall, and find that I really look forward to it every week. It’s been helpful both physically and mentally. My instructor usually asks us to set an intention for class, and I find myself returning again and again to the concept of flow, not just for the hour on the mat, but in my life. And when she asked us in the first class of the new year to consider an intention for the new year, my mind instantly returned to flow. So, in lieu of a list of concrete new year’s resolutions, I’m dedicating 2009 to finding a state of flow, eliminating or working around the dams erected by myself or others, dealing with the here and now rather than slogging through outdated intentions I’ve set for myself or letting things pile up to the point they become inpenetrable.

I will continue to be scarce and in communications triage mode for the month of January. A plum, door-opening writing project landed in my lap, but with it came a crazy deadline, and it is sucking up most of my time lately. I’ll be in a better place to talk about the project once I’ve wrapped up my piece of it.

And with that, I’ve used up today’s allotment of “free time,” so back to the grindstone. Happy new year!