AyeAsAnEndOfYearTrigger

AYE is part of my yearly rhythm, both from being at the conference proper and by way of the behind-the-scenes work that leads up to it. For various reasons, my life goes red-line a few months before the conference, and the half day of travel to the Phoenix is the first chance I get to stop and take a breath before switching gears to "conference mode".

A pattern that I've noticed is that I've used the flight to AYE as an opportunity to rebuild the list of all of the stuff I've got to do: end-of-year stuff and life stuff in general. Then the conference happens, and I come away with a whole new list of exciting possibilities and things to follow up on.

These two lists (stuff to do vs. possibilities) form a dynamic tension that colors my life until the next AYE rolls around, at which time much of the stuff remains undone, and few of the possibilites have been acted on. The glass-half-full view is that I've actually done stuff, but it's the glass half-empty-view that leaves me feeling unsatisified. Life is too short. There isn't enough time. Yada yada.

Is this familiar to anyone else?

DaveSmith 2005.11.01

Yes and No. Do you use AYE in place of the traditional New Year's Revolutions? (Being so close to them?) My reference is the conference I go to in April each year. That generates steam for new possibilities and to-dos. I usually run through that list in about six months and wind up generating new ideas around the holiday season. This is my first AYE, so it will be interesting to see what it generates and how long it lasts.

KurtSimmons 2005-11-02

It is familiar but not in the sense of list generation. For me, AYE has been a kind of crowbar. When I put my head down and pour myself into my work, well, I can't see anything. AYE reminds me, first hand and face-to-face, that my way of doing things is not necessarily the only way. So, I need to look up once in a while and especially before I get started on something new. With each new AYE, I like to think that the crowbar I need to pry myself up is getting smaller. It certainly seems less like the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it when I get pried up now. Then again, maybe I'm just feeling fine.

MikeMelendez 2005.11.02

Updated: Wednesday, November 2, 2005