my actual, literal, BODY of work

It’s going to be 2012 soon. The year everyone thinks will be the end of the world. Well, not everyone. As an added bonus, my husband’s birthday is the day after the big croak. Woot! No presents for him

Now I don’t think the world is going to end a year from now, but what if it does? I posted something on my facebook a day or so ago that just said: “do good work” and a lot of people liked it and whatnot. But it started me thinking about what I do, what you do, what we all do.

There are thousands of articles and blog posts on how to be more productive, how to fit more into each day, how to be transparent and effective and even more authentic (I’m not going to pretend to understand that). Like so many hyperactive preschoolers we leap from activity to activity, hoping the next one will prove our theory or bring more business or focus meaning on our work.

What’s interesting about that (to pull a Sumser) is that sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. When you go in search of the money or the recognition, you often find those things, but very rarely do you actually find meaning. And perhaps it’s post-Christmas, slightly hungover (from serious amounts of meat mostly) Maren talking, but the older I get the more I find that meaning is a big old chunk of what I want to see reflecting back at me when I look at a body of work.

I recently went through my notebooks from the last five years and saw less meaning than I’d like. There were strategies, and little plans, people to meet and collateral to create but I saw none of the early things I did that gave me so much love for the industry. So here are my resolutions, in no particular order, for the coming year:

1. I’m going to talk to more people. And not just the people I know either. I’m going to talk to the brand new blogger, to the person at the expo that can’t do a thing for me or my business. I’m going to chat up the person next to me in the salad line and follow up with phone calls long put-off.

2. I’m going to stop comparing myself to others. If I have not yet realized my value in where I am and what I do, in a completely separate way from others, then I need to get into a new line of work. Period.

3. I’m going to get more involved in my local scene. This blog was named “Big O Recruiting” when it started and I sometimes talked about local things. I was on local boards and met local people. I had a vested interest in things like Big Omaha, Silicon Praire, the AITP and HRAM (our local SHRM chapter). I’m going to reignite my responsibility to the local community.

4. I’m going to walk. Not run, not bust a move on the treadmill, just get out of my house and walk down the street.

5. I’m going to start sharing my opinions. When I first started blogging, I wasn’t that involved in Twitter or Facebook. I didn’t know thousands of people around the world. But now I do, in one sense or another and I live in constant fear of offending just one of them. If you are scared to share your opinions (about professional things of course) to more than a handful of people, you are just a gossip. And when I say you, I mean me.

6. I’m going to start asking for favors. Yup, you heard right. I’m going to start calling in my chits, or chips, or whatever the saying is. I mean, if the world’s gonna end and all….