Two Other Things to Do for 2019

I had the opportunity to attend NAWBO Indy’s annual holiday luncheon and awards ceremony yesterday. As someone who works from home, it was great to take a break and get out among the masses. And, as a former and the inaugural NAWBO Indy Avatar Award Winner, I wanted to get into some woman-entrepreneur-powered-energy for a minute! (BTW — thank you to Gerry Dick of IIB and JP Parker Flowers for letting me party crash.)

The keynote speaker was excellent, Rebecca Fleetwood Hession. She runs a site called the Badass Women’s Council — that pretty much says it all there. But at this time of year, she suggested two points that I think are going to STICK with me for 2019, which I’m about to share here. By creating a writing here, the paranoid lawyer in me hopes that I actually DO the following 2 things she suggested before the new year.

Survive vs. Thrive

First, Identify whether you’re thriving, or surviving — Surviving is just knocking stuff out in order to keep things moving forward. It’s ‘catching up’. It’s ‘I need to get this done, THEN I can move on to other things.’ It’s exhausting work, but it also mentally and physically drains you. You’re just trying to stay alive — literally. You’re firefighting when you’re in survival mode. 👩‍🚒

Then, there’s thriving. This is the why behind your life. This is the stuff that gets you out of bed in the morning and excited about your work. It too may be exhausting, but you GAIN energy from doing it. For me, that’s fire lighting stuff. 🔥 Thriving is changing the world kind of stuff. My recent examples include the #STEMPrincess project and/or this brand new beta novel book club test we’re putting together at the day job for members with rockstars of pharmacy.

Rebecca’s query: Which are you doing more of in 2018, and which do you really want to focus on for 2019? Those who know me well also know that I’m also a firestarter — NOT a firefighter. So, note to self: start THRIVING more in 2019!

Stop Doing List

Her second suggestion was also a good one, and one I’ve heard about before, but never tried, which is this: What’s on your STOP DOING LIST for 2019?

This one I’ve been contemplating since her speech. As a paranoid lawyer/person who gets paid generously to organize meetings and education and loves to maximize things, this one is going to be a challenge. One thing I do know is that I’ve typically been a contributor rather than a manager of people. So, now that I’m back in a management role, I need to STOP answering and solving others’ problems. Instead, I need to empower others to come up with their OWN solutions, because inherently, they already have the answer they need. So I need to STOP TELLING THEM what to do and START ASKING QUESTIONS to get them to the solution that they need on their own.

Other things I need to STOP DOING: meeting logistics. I’m TERRIBLE at that. Thank heaven that there are meeting planners in the world. This list needs to grow — otherwise, I’m going to end up back in survival mode, rather than thrival mode. (Yes, I just made that word up — I’m going with it.)

There. Now I’ve shared with you what I learned at NAWBO Indy yesterday. And I’ll continue to ponder these two points as we move into 2019, which is frighteningly close by.

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Erin L. Albert is a writer, and senior director of education at ASCP. Opinions here are her own. (And the speaker’s from yesterday, obviously.)