End of an Era and a Nod to New Beginnings

While this move has been something of a work in progress for a while, it's gotten very real this weekend. I have a room with a bed and some odds and ends clothes and things, but that is it. Courtesy of some help from my brother Toph, the furniture out of my room has been relocated to the apartment.

Rather that reminisce and make this a morose kind of a post (which it inherently would be when I think about moving out of a house I shared with one of my best friends), I am choosing to focus on the new beginning element of it. Apropos, considering this blog will also cover the expounding on my "Resolutions" post a few days ago.

I resolve to set goals and will not lose focus. While not doing work and spacing out make for hilarious movie fodder, they really have no place in the real world. Not that I feel like a slacker at work, but I can always refocus and get better at what I do. I have a great job that I thoroughly enjoy, and I am resolved to continuing to improve at it.

This point was primarily for work, but it is also applicable to the rest of my life, as I will make a concerted effort to enrich and deepen the relationships I have with my family and friends. Too often we get busy and lose focus on (or outright neglect) this. Not good...lots of room for improvement in '09.

I resolve to eliminate clutter and refuse to settle. Kind of a follow-on from working to enrich solid relationships, there is the other side of the coin in which some people and activities are really nothing more than clutter. They are a void and a time/productivity black hole. The resolution here is that when I feel as though I am about to waste time with one such peripheral person or activity, that I catch myself and reroute.

There are far too many important people in my life to waste my time on anyone other than them. I've finally come to the realization that there are only so many hours in the day, and while productivity and doing 100 things can be admirable (and is certainly necessary from time to time), part of being efficient is more effectively balancing things.

I resolve to return to basics and refuse to cede control. Those of you who read this clearly know me and are probably laughing that a control freak such as myself is refusing to cede control. No, I do not resolve to become a domineering person all of a sudden. Rather, I am working to be more proactive in things I do.

Part of this is the fact that I've read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Proactive simply means to not leave things to chance. Think about the end result and the side effects of what you say/do before you say/do them. This takes foresight and practice. What better time to start on it than 2009?

This series of resolutions has a little to do with work and a lot to do with life. I am feeling as though I've let my focus slide a little, and I want 2009 to be the year I snap it back into focus. Moving out of the house on Cohasset was a brutally difficult decision, but in the end, I am confident that it is the right one.

It is the end of an era, but with the end comes a new beginning. For me, it's a time to realize that I've let myself stagnate, but there has never been a better time for me to shake out of it and refocus.