Managing Life: 2021 Edition (Volume 1)
Intense and sluggish is how one innovator described the year and why that matters
We are quickly getting to the place where New Years Resolutions start to fall apart or at least fray a little. If ever there was a year when excuses counted for something, this is it. In my engagements with innovators in the two weeks that have made up 2021 the best word pairing I’ve found is “intense and sluggish” to describe how people are feeling.
On one level, the New Year and all it brings often inspires change-making (or at least change attempting) as new initiatives, projects, health regimens, and habits seek to be established while the weight of winter, 2020, the pandemic and all its [ ! ], global political affairs, and….all seem to be making a period that can be blue, seem all the more so this year.
I usually send out New Year’s cards to mark the season of change and this year I’m waiting until Monday — often called Blue Monday - to send them. This year that day will have a slightly amplified meaning for many people. It’s also a time to remark on and honour what we’re feeling. Intensity is something that innovators are known for — it’s fuel to their creations. Sluggishness is viewed as an enemy of creation and shipping our work.
This year, I’m finding both of those terms more meaningful in so many different ways than I would have in other years. Maybe I’d be writing about how to tackle sluggishness or channel intensity. This year, it’s about sitting with both.
And that ability to do that is innovative enough.
Keep well. - Cameron
Photo by Bradley Dunn on Unsplash