I started today by posting my Personal Slowest 5K time at the Commitment Day Run in downtown St. Louis on a 28 degree morning. Sound fun?  It was! There's something about being out there with several hundred brave souls doing their best to get the year off to a good start.

 

As I jogged along, I ruminated about a long list of good intentions/ resolutions I have been thinking about for the last few days – eat more veggies, watch less TV, drop my 5K time, write more, yada yada. Ultimately I kept circling back on two themes that are most important to me. So here are my commitments to myself.

 

1. Seek balance between work and life. Notice I didn't say Find balance. It’s an ongoing search. New stuff pops up at work all the time that we have to deal with. Last year things got too far out of balance at times, and working long hours did not always produce good results. Jack Welch said there is no such thing as work-life balance, only work-life choices. So I will focus on making better choices. Taking ten minutes at night to make a list of priorities for the next day has worked well for me, so my commitment is to do that every day. I set up a new “Things to do tomorrow” journal in my Evernote account. It will be interesting to see where it takes me.

2. Tend my gardens. Not just the ones in the yard with food and pretty things growing in them, but also the relationship gardens. There are so many good people who have touched my life, but I have not seen them in months or years. An occasional Facebook “like” or comment is nice but ultimately not very satisfying. This year I will pick up more of those threads, meet more people for coffee or lunch, and get more actual face time with those I care about.  How will I make time for this? It will have to figure into that daily list of priorities . . . see commitment # 1.

 

So far, so good as of Day 1. Being a holiday, work-life balance wasn’t too difficult. Still, I made my short list of priorities for tomorrow and had lunch with a dear friend.

 

What commitments will you make to yourself this year? How will you make it happen?

  Thanks to Yvette for a fun lunch. There will be more of these in 2015!