Explore new ways to step outside of your box in 2020
Write better, dare more and share knowledge when it’s a challenge.
While everyone is revising and compiling their NY resolutions, I like to also review the lessons learned from the previous year, the things that made my life easier and my heart tick a bit faster. To focus a bit more on the small choices that pushed me to explore new things outside of my usual circle.
Write better
I find writing to be like a muscle you need to train who’s fitness gets better and better with constant practice. While you can write like a sprinter or put down the words at a slower marathon pace, you should always favor quality over quantity. My adventure started in mid-2019 with some technical content on my company’s blog and ended up on Medium writing about management, HR or lessons learned. I pledged to ignore stats and keep writing in 2020.
I treasure this newfound hobby because the dedication it needs generates a balance to the other side of my job in tech as a Support Manager at XWiki. As mentioned by Winston Churchill in his essay Painting as a Pastime, committing to a hobby can be a clean way to lower a bit day to day stress.
A man can wear out a particular part of his mind by continually using it and tiring it, just in the same way as he can wear out the elbows of his coat. There is, however, this difference between the living cells of the brain and inanimate articles: one cannot mend the frayed elbows of a cost by rubbing the sleeves or shoulders; but the tired parts of the mind can be rested and strengthened, not merely by rest, but by using other parts. It is not enough merely enough to switch off the lights which play upon the main and ordinary field of interest; a new field of interest must be illuminated.
Dare
It’s easy to get to that place where we only do things that we’re already good at doing. I love that place. But it’s not good for me. So, I’m choosing to go back to the 7th grade cafeteria and carry my tray as best I can given my sweaty hands and anxiety-prone introversion. I need to seek out a couple of new tables with new challenges and opportunities. Dammit.
Awkward, Brave and Kind in 2020, Brené Brown
Nobody says it better like Brené. 2020 is just a new opportunity to step out of your box. To try something that you know is good for you but you are terrified by its potential failure. Like honest writing about subjects you actually care about or public speaking in front of people smarter than you.
Share knowledge
The more you give to others the more you will receive. Call it “karma” or just being a good person. Take time in 2020 to offer feedback or mentor someone outside your usual circle. Not just the team members you like and admire, who make it easy to transfer knowledge, but more the ones that give you a hard time as a manager. Who challenge you every step of the way.
Listen more
Back to work at the beginning of 2019, my reading and learning curve needed some love. Audible was popular in my social circle around that time and I gave it a chance. Acquired by Amazon in 2008, the platform delivered on UX and offers a good diversity of audiobooks, a bit of everything from business, fiction to popular autobiographies. My top choices in 2019:
- The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
- Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About The World — And Why Things Are Better Than You Think
- Michelle Obama’s Becoming (my favorite from 2019, probably the most relatable to me at that point in my life).
Before the end of the year I also came across the 50inTech platform and their insightful podcasts perfect for a quick drive home from work. Each interview is more than a monologue from a high profile author because you feel an instant connection to each story.
2020, challenges accepted!
[This blog post does not include any affiliate advertising, the recommendations represent my opinion.]
