I left Mum and Dad’s place in Northcote at about 4pm NZDT Saturday and arrived at home in Lake Zurich at about 9pm CST – 4pm Sunday in NZ – 24 hours door to door. The trip went fine. At check-in in Auckland I was offered a seat on the LA flight next to one that wasn’t occupied, which was a nice bonus. I slept pretty well across the Pacific with the help of some Melatonin, and read most of the way from LA to Chicago.
I bought a book at Auckland airport called “Work Smarter Not Harder” by Jack Collis and Michael Leboeuf about setting and achieving goals. It seems to have some good practical advice, despite a brief lapse into the New Age mysticism that asserts we can create our future purely through our thoughts. Here’s a quote (p35):
There is nothing other that what we think about. The world to you and me is the reality of what we think about. We can create the world we want by the pattern of our thoughts. Life will be as beautiful as we can imagine. We will be as successful as we imagine. We will be as rich as we think we should be. Remember, in some marvellous way which we do not understand, vividly imagined events supported by purposeful action and sustained by faith, come to pass.
Yes it sounds pretty scary, but in fact the vast majority of the book is far more practical and I’m quite enjoying it. We will see whether it bears any fruit as time progesses.
I managed to get through the first couple of chapters on the plane. One exercise that it suggests as a precursor to developing personal goals is to answer the question “I am a...” in as many different ways as you can. Here’s what I wrote down, in my stupified, jet-lagged state (in no order of any significance). I am a… Christian, research manager, runner, sailor, thinker, introvert, writer, sinner, New Zealander, procrastinator, photographer, homeowner, bachelor, expatriate.
Well despite enjoying my time away enormously, it’s good to be back in the US and to be able to get stuck into a new year with lots of challenges ahead. I think I have about 30 hours of meetings scheduled this week!
It’s always amazing to be transported so quickly between such different environments. On Saturday I was in lush, warm NZ with its hills and harbors, and today I’m facing the icy breeze of a Chicago winter with bare trees, and snow on the ground and dodging goose poo on on Motorola’s campus footpaths.