Plateaus

I have been thinking a lot about plateaus. A plateau on a graph, not the geological formation. The geological formation, though beautiful at times and impressive in size and shape, does not resonate with me in same way as a plateau on a graph.

The plateau on a graph has an upward slope into it. Then it levels off for a little bit. Then it rises again. However, if my x axis is time and my y axis is growth, then when my growth line pauses and becomes parallel to the x axis, I have plateaued.

Time does not stop because I have stopped growing. Time will drag me along no matter what I do.

The best reference I can find is the Golden Gate Bridge, a giant undertaking and enormous structure. A structure taking from January 1933 to April 1937 to build, four years of someone’s life was spent building it. However, the story of the bridge started in 1916.

A project almost twenty years in the making. After it was built, the instigator of it all. The engineer who fought and struggled to bring it to fruition, he passed away in 1938.

He spent from 1916 to 1933 working to bring the project to life and only enjoyed the bridge for a little over a year before passing away.

When the engineer encountered the opportunity of building the Golden Gate Bridge, it was all he worked on for the rest of his life. He worked on a project of significance, but it was all he did for his life. It marks the San Francisco Bay area, but it also defined his life, and he was barely there to enjoy it.

What are you working to do? When do you step back to enjoy the work you are doing? When do you stop to enjoy life around you? How are you growing with time? Is the work you are doing now the work you want to define the rest of your life? Who is helping you find where to go next?

X & Y,

–JT

Knowing Now and Later

You are a leader or a subordinated or both. As I am in my position now I have people I lead and people I follow. I see the people I lead and the people I follow. I need to be taking notes on both. I need to be writing down what I think the people I follow are doing well. 

I literally need to write down what I think people are doing well and what I would not want to repeat. These ideas will always be available to me as I continue to grow and mature in my life. I will always be able to look back and see what works and does not work and what I can do well. 

A journal full of leadership ideas will serve me well as I look to continue to grow and lead and mature. These ideas will also stick with me as I grow. I will not be able to step into a role where I make these same mistakes. I will not be able to forget what it was like following someone in my position. I will always be able to keep a perspective on who I am and how I came to be where I am. 

What is the perspective of someone who follows you? What do they see? What do they know? What is it like to follow you?

Journaling,

–JT

What Is Next

I’m not the sort of person to make lots of huge grandiose plans. I don’t generally go all out or blow the top off of anything to make something happen. I am rather easy going and I go into most of my larger plans with a general idea that will be fleshed out when I get to the end. This is great if I don’t have any ambitions or plans for the future. However, it is not great if I do. 

Let’s be real, I do have plans for the future. They may not seem terribly ambitious. However, they are reasonable enough. I want to be a better husband, friend, coworker, and leader. This is ambiguous I agree. But the reason it is ambiguous is because I do not do a great job at planning what that looks like. I just set the goal. I am never disappointed that I do not achieve the goals I have set. I just never reflect on whether I set goals in the first place. 

Looking forward, I have a few plans set out, achievable plans. First, I will continue to write. I will write here, two or three times a week. Continue to process my feelings, thoughts, and generally my issues that I may or may not realize exist. I look to continue to be authentic and real. I will continue to write about my counseling, process my baggage, and anything else relevant to the conversation at hand.

Second, I am going to start reading. I do not read much. A better way to say this might be, ‘I don’t really read books.’ I will read my twitter feed, articles I find interesting on the internet, and I read the news every so often. However, I don’t sit down and read books very often, whether it be a physical book or an ebook. I don’t read much and I don’t read enough. So this year will be a year of reading and writing for me. 

You might now point out reading and writing do not accomplish my goal of being a better friend, husband, coworker, and leader. Ah, great point indeed. I would argue, these two thing do make me better at all of those. I will be reading insights in who I am and who other people are so that I might have new tools to use as I am trying to improve on these aspects of my life. Also, writing will help me process these portions of my life. 

Ambitiously,

–JT