Abandon Text!

W. H. Auden once said: "Poems are not finished; they are abandoned." I have been abandoning writing projects for many years, since only the pressure of deadline and high expectations ever got me to finish, or even start, anything of merit. This blog is an attempt to create a more consistent, self-directed writing habit. Hopefully a direction and voice will emerge.

Sunday, December 31, 2006

The Best and Worst of 2006

My life, in a year-end side-bar column on page 2:

Best Personal Accomplishment: I blogged. Since I started on January 1, I have made 361 posts in 365 days, which is 98.6% of what I intended to do. I write every day, which is a good beginning for a writing vector. Best of all: I really enjoyed it. There is hope for me yet.

Worst Personal Failure: I dragged my feet on financial matters through the entire year. It took me vastly more time than was warrented to prepare an investment plan and execute it. I still have five months of data entry to catch up on.

Worst Personal Failure Runner-up: Poor track record (no pun intended) on exercise and health. I probably ran about a third as often as I ought, often going weeks at a time without exercise. My kids confront me about not eating my fruit and vegetables and washing my hands.

Best Professional Accomplishment: Relevant added two new full-time employees, and we survived the expansion, with only a marginal ~5% drop in my personal revenue.

Best Professional Accomplishment Runner-up: I did my first Microsoft CRM project. At last, we have another CRM offering with legs.

Best Professional Accomplishment of 1993, deferred until now: Identify Software, a software start-up in which I had a substantial stake for the last seven years, finally sold to BMC Software.

Worst Professional Failure: Continued failure to manage large projects effectively. Over-promising and delivering late continues to be, while not the norm, fairly commonplace.

Worst Professional Failure Runner-up: I'm still doing my billing notes only hours before they need to be in. My life would be a lot less stressful if I could manage my billing and scheduling on a daily rather than weekly basis.

Best Spiritual Accomplishment: accepting primary responsibility for the UNC Self Knowledge Symposium. I desperately needed a renewed committment to spiritual community, and I got that in spades this fall. I'm glad I had the courage to put myself back on the front lines.

Worst Spiritual Failure: poor leadership with the UNC SKS. I came to the group with rather low expectations, and (surprise!) my expectations were met. I did not subject myself and others to enough tension when it was warrented, and business matters were handled squishily.

Overall: a good year. Things are moving.

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