Resolutioner
Last October I turned 40 years old. This means I am coming up on 41 in a few months. My 40th birthday was rather uneventful. Or depending who you ask it might have been quite an experience.
In January 2022, I made a big jump from a manufacturing company to an energy company. A core competency and mission critical function of the company is reliability and responsibility to customers, including restoring power after a storm. Living in a hurricane zone, this includes the highly efficient process of bringing linemen and vegetation crew from all over the US to come to FL to work 16 hour days until the power is back on to the customers who’s property can support it. Almost all Florida employees have a storm role or business continuity role to ensure a quick and safe restoration.
Late September of 2022, hurricane Ian stirred up in the Gulf and struck the west coast of Florida making its way across the state to the Atlantic. On September 27th I was deployed on my first power restoration mission. Little did I know I would be away from home for 16 days, including my 40th birthday. I did not have anything in particular planned, but spending the day with 11 people I had not known the week before wasn’t what I would have thought. Being away from my family and friends was a really good way for me to avoid the fact that I didn’t really even have something planned.
Sometimes everything happens for a reason, or at least there’s a silver lining. While I may not have known the team members in the group to start, I did get to know them and had fun in our own way. On my birthday, the last team member joined from vacation. She was someone that I did know from many years before and this made my day. I did not even know we worked at the same company.
At some point in the trip, another friend shared with me his 30-40 year bucket list. This got me thinking about what I wanted to achieve personally in the next decade. I did not come up with the list overnight, but one of the bucket-list items was “to create something.” I had no idea what “it” would be. I was thinking I might start doing something with art or photography. I even started reading The Artists Way and writing morning pages to figure out what I might create. Finally after listening to tons of podcasts on my daily commute, I decided I was finally going to start a blog.
The girl who was always coined “a person of few words” starts a blog!
The difference between a resolution and a goal is a bit like the difference between sight and vision. I had attempted both resolutions and goal setting when I turned 40. I had my list of things I resolved to do or not do in my 40th year, most of which I had really failed to start. I also created goals, more achievement related and require some effort over the long hall.
It doesn’t feel good to make a resolution and fail. Instead having a goal or bigger picture in mind can better endure bumps in the road. If anything, I resolve (hehe) to do more goal setting in this decade.
