Suki, the Year in Review and the Year Ahead
"Those with the greatest awareness have the greatest nightmares."
- Mahatma Gandi
"Just because you like Jimi Hendrix doesn't mean you can play like Jimi Hendrix.”
- Anthony Bourdain
I am currently sitting in the next guest room that I plan on laying claim to. I'm in Santa Barbara via Los Angeles, getting ready to go eat dinner. My cousin Lara and her husband Travis have spent the past two plus years renovating a 1960s ranch style house/surfer bungalo. To say that it's beautiful isn't appropriate. The guest room is painted Straw, and Travis' "Man Room" is painted Nantucket Fog. Side by side the rooms colors don't mean much, but go from room to room and you feel like have moved from the beach into the Ocean. Their house is a home that reflects their personalities, interests, and deep sense of family.
On my way to Los Angeles I stopped by the airport book store to pick up some light reading. It's mid month and the new magazines are hitting the shelves. Unfortunately, the new GQ and Esquire aren't stocked yet. Instead of reading about the amount of shirt cuff I should show with a suit to maximize effect, or the like, so I was forced to just sit there and wait with my own thoughts.
This experience of being in between places wasn't exactly scary, but it was different. I'm not functioning in my life in Phoenix, and I am not functioning in my life in Los Angeles. People are coming and going, and I am just waiting. Ironically, the Japanese have a word for such an experience, they call it suki. According to my tennis coach, this is the space in between two notes of music. That's where I was at, just sitting in between worlds. I'm not saying that this was a moment of Enlightenment, but it was a moment of clarity.
So what did I discover? Well first of all, paying $12 for a gin an tonic is highway rape. How can these people charge that much for something like tastes just like rubbing alchol and lime? Maybe more importantly, I got a sense of what this year has been about, what I've accomplished on a fundamental level, and what changes I'd like to see come about in 2008. In a sense, I'd say this is my year end inventory. I usually save this post for the end of December, but I'd like to put these things to paper so I can begin working on these items and have some fully formed practices to start off 2008.
Looking at the major accomplishments of this year, I wouldn't say that I really created or built anything of great significance. Rather I would say that 2007 was a year of "undoing," or "clean-up." I would say that this undoing applies specifically to my finances, my continuing mission to become a world class swimmer, and my ongoing efforts to become a fully formed professional.
For various reasons, I broke ties with a property that I was a co-owner of, moved in with a friend of mine, and put the the excess cash flow to paying off consumer debt--which is a lot more fun to create than it is to extinguish--and student loans. In this case, I had to let go of an asset in the form of a house and the corresponding mortgage note--which was unexpected; the the silver lining here was that I was able to eliminate debt much quicker than I initially planned. The undoing here was all about increasing my operating cashflow for 2008. The consumer debt is on the cusp of being paid off, and with it's elimination I can put the excess cash flow that was previously earmarked for debt destruction to income generating projects. So...undoing before doing.
Mid-year the swim coach I was working with--who was the first coach to inform me that the "core is the main hydrodyanmic lever"--took a job as the assistant swim coach of the University of Auburn. Brian, my coach at the time, is a great coach and introduced some the beginnings of "undoing" of my freestyle. As he left, I was a little worried about finding someone to assist me in my quest; luckily, a new age group coach came to my swim club, and I've been working with him for about 6 months now. Since that time, we've identified some inefficient habits. As Rabbi Max Cohen would say, "It all starts with awareness." So there is awareness now about what's not working in the water, and I am practicing. I haven't been able to master this practice as quickly as I would like, but that's Life. Again, more about undoing than specifically "doing."
As for work--my favorite full-contact sport--it's been a good year, probably my best professional working year ever. For a long time I've held that working hard means working long hours and clubbing things to death, somethings for the shear sake of the clubbing. Well, this year I was forced painfully to let go of this ideal, along with a few others. Ideas are almost as hard to let go of as habits. Reimagining how to get things done in the work place was painful. I'd submit that I am largely on the other side of the looking glass, but going through it wasn't fun.
While in Los Angeles, I had a chance to go back and read some of my older posts, specifically the ones where I list out all the "magic bullets" that I discovered as cures to my problems. I think my mind has opened up a touch since then. I'm now more concerned about healthy, and sustainable practices than I am about "answers." Creating change is challenging, and the one-shot responses rarely solve problems. As I look at what I want to create in 2008, it's more about sets of things working together than it is about making one change and waiting for everything go my way.
As I thought about what I wanted to create in 2008, I went to Gordon Byrn's blog for direction--http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/2006/09/personal-planning.html. I am using his model as a rough guide. I'd recommend that you take a look and see if there is anything that speaks to you. So, here's my rough plan for 2008:
Key Objective #1: Pass the CPA and corresponding Ethics Exam. Okay, I've been dicking around with this one for awhile now. I took two parts in 2007, failed both of them, and then got blind sided by some family stuff. Lessons were learned, but I didn't fully execute. The plan now is to sign up for a CPA review class in early 2008, and start working on knocking this thing out. I'm not putting the hard deadlines on this process the way I did previously. My plan is to put my butt into a chair each night, and work smart.
Key Objective #2: Continue to work with Coach Kevin on my freestyle, build an efficient technical base, and then build the corresponding aerobic and fitness base as the technical mastery appears.
Key Objective #3: Continue to add new projects and skill sets to my bag of tricks. 2007 was a good "base" year. The plan is to really build, and then polish the key financial reporting skills in 2008. Combined with the CPA exam, this will put me in a solid position professionally.
Key Objective #4: Maintain and/or expand operating cashflow. Eliminate chunks of the student loans, and sock away away money in a Roth IRA as well as the company 401(k) plan.
All right, that covers most of the "business" items for 2008. But if that's all I do in 2008, then I am going have achieved much, but I'll probably be about two steps away from putting a shot gun in my mouth. Point being, there is more to life than just achieving; without rest, focus cannot be held. Here's a list of the things I want to do just for the sake of fun and enjoyment in 2008 as well as the next few years. I'm sure the list will change, but it's fun to dream out loud some times:
- Mahatma Gandi
"Just because you like Jimi Hendrix doesn't mean you can play like Jimi Hendrix.”
- Anthony Bourdain
I am currently sitting in the next guest room that I plan on laying claim to. I'm in Santa Barbara via Los Angeles, getting ready to go eat dinner. My cousin Lara and her husband Travis have spent the past two plus years renovating a 1960s ranch style house/surfer bungalo. To say that it's beautiful isn't appropriate. The guest room is painted Straw, and Travis' "Man Room" is painted Nantucket Fog. Side by side the rooms colors don't mean much, but go from room to room and you feel like have moved from the beach into the Ocean. Their house is a home that reflects their personalities, interests, and deep sense of family.
On my way to Los Angeles I stopped by the airport book store to pick up some light reading. It's mid month and the new magazines are hitting the shelves. Unfortunately, the new GQ and Esquire aren't stocked yet. Instead of reading about the amount of shirt cuff I should show with a suit to maximize effect, or the like, so I was forced to just sit there and wait with my own thoughts.
This experience of being in between places wasn't exactly scary, but it was different. I'm not functioning in my life in Phoenix, and I am not functioning in my life in Los Angeles. People are coming and going, and I am just waiting. Ironically, the Japanese have a word for such an experience, they call it suki. According to my tennis coach, this is the space in between two notes of music. That's where I was at, just sitting in between worlds. I'm not saying that this was a moment of Enlightenment, but it was a moment of clarity.
So what did I discover? Well first of all, paying $12 for a gin an tonic is highway rape. How can these people charge that much for something like tastes just like rubbing alchol and lime? Maybe more importantly, I got a sense of what this year has been about, what I've accomplished on a fundamental level, and what changes I'd like to see come about in 2008. In a sense, I'd say this is my year end inventory. I usually save this post for the end of December, but I'd like to put these things to paper so I can begin working on these items and have some fully formed practices to start off 2008.
Looking at the major accomplishments of this year, I wouldn't say that I really created or built anything of great significance. Rather I would say that 2007 was a year of "undoing," or "clean-up." I would say that this undoing applies specifically to my finances, my continuing mission to become a world class swimmer, and my ongoing efforts to become a fully formed professional.
For various reasons, I broke ties with a property that I was a co-owner of, moved in with a friend of mine, and put the the excess cash flow to paying off consumer debt--which is a lot more fun to create than it is to extinguish--and student loans. In this case, I had to let go of an asset in the form of a house and the corresponding mortgage note--which was unexpected; the the silver lining here was that I was able to eliminate debt much quicker than I initially planned. The undoing here was all about increasing my operating cashflow for 2008. The consumer debt is on the cusp of being paid off, and with it's elimination I can put the excess cash flow that was previously earmarked for debt destruction to income generating projects. So...undoing before doing.
Mid-year the swim coach I was working with--who was the first coach to inform me that the "core is the main hydrodyanmic lever"--took a job as the assistant swim coach of the University of Auburn. Brian, my coach at the time, is a great coach and introduced some the beginnings of "undoing" of my freestyle. As he left, I was a little worried about finding someone to assist me in my quest; luckily, a new age group coach came to my swim club, and I've been working with him for about 6 months now. Since that time, we've identified some inefficient habits. As Rabbi Max Cohen would say, "It all starts with awareness." So there is awareness now about what's not working in the water, and I am practicing. I haven't been able to master this practice as quickly as I would like, but that's Life. Again, more about undoing than specifically "doing."
As for work--my favorite full-contact sport--it's been a good year, probably my best professional working year ever. For a long time I've held that working hard means working long hours and clubbing things to death, somethings for the shear sake of the clubbing. Well, this year I was forced painfully to let go of this ideal, along with a few others. Ideas are almost as hard to let go of as habits. Reimagining how to get things done in the work place was painful. I'd submit that I am largely on the other side of the looking glass, but going through it wasn't fun.
While in Los Angeles, I had a chance to go back and read some of my older posts, specifically the ones where I list out all the "magic bullets" that I discovered as cures to my problems. I think my mind has opened up a touch since then. I'm now more concerned about healthy, and sustainable practices than I am about "answers." Creating change is challenging, and the one-shot responses rarely solve problems. As I look at what I want to create in 2008, it's more about sets of things working together than it is about making one change and waiting for everything go my way.
As I thought about what I wanted to create in 2008, I went to Gordon Byrn's blog for direction--http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/2006/09/personal-planning.html. I am using his model as a rough guide. I'd recommend that you take a look and see if there is anything that speaks to you. So, here's my rough plan for 2008:
Key Objective #1: Pass the CPA and corresponding Ethics Exam. Okay, I've been dicking around with this one for awhile now. I took two parts in 2007, failed both of them, and then got blind sided by some family stuff. Lessons were learned, but I didn't fully execute. The plan now is to sign up for a CPA review class in early 2008, and start working on knocking this thing out. I'm not putting the hard deadlines on this process the way I did previously. My plan is to put my butt into a chair each night, and work smart.
Key Objective #2: Continue to work with Coach Kevin on my freestyle, build an efficient technical base, and then build the corresponding aerobic and fitness base as the technical mastery appears.
Key Objective #3: Continue to add new projects and skill sets to my bag of tricks. 2007 was a good "base" year. The plan is to really build, and then polish the key financial reporting skills in 2008. Combined with the CPA exam, this will put me in a solid position professionally.
Key Objective #4: Maintain and/or expand operating cashflow. Eliminate chunks of the student loans, and sock away away money in a Roth IRA as well as the company 401(k) plan.
All right, that covers most of the "business" items for 2008. But if that's all I do in 2008, then I am going have achieved much, but I'll probably be about two steps away from putting a shot gun in my mouth. Point being, there is more to life than just achieving; without rest, focus cannot be held. Here's a list of the things I want to do just for the sake of fun and enjoyment in 2008 as well as the next few years. I'm sure the list will change, but it's fun to dream out loud some times:
- See Jerry Jeff Walker at an Indian Casino--feathers, not dots.
- Take a few cooking classes with my cousin Emily.
- Buy a "Man" chair--one of those big ass leather chairs that every man should have. It's the type of chair that a man doesn't share with anyone; if someone is sitting in it when I walk into the room, they will get out of the chair, and move to the couch. It's a man's place when they are in the common area. It's the type of chair that comes with a fine bottle of Scotch whiskey upon purchase. Depending upon my living situation, I'd even be willing to entertain the idea of getting dog and a smoking jacket just so I can complete the picture.
If I have a significant other in 2008, I'd like to take some ballroom dance classes. I think that would be fun. - Go to a concert at Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA. Beautiful venue, I'd say that it's even better than Red Rocks in Colorado.
- Add to the Scotch collection. I'll probably add an Oban, and an Aberlour to the collection before the year is over.
- Travel abroad. I had planned on going to Norway in 2007, but that changed as plans often do. So, I'd like to either go there or Italy in 2008.
Start earmarking money for a property in New Zealand. MAD was right: I won't do well in an environment where I have minimal contact with people, and little to do. So, I think that I will still plan on raising sheep, but I'd also like to keep a garden there. Also, New Zealand has a good swimming community. - Continue to contribute to the world of micro-finance: http://www.kiva.org/
- Put "blood money" in the bank.
- Paint my bedroom Nantucket Fog. It worked for Lara and Travis.
So those are my thoughts on the 2007, and what I'd like to see happen in 2008. It's a practice and a process, but I'd like to go into this year with some momentum. As always, I'll keep you posted on my progress.....
Namaste
posted by Zen_Accountant at 5:15 PM
2 Comments:
You forgot one important goal: FINISH THE P.F. CHANGS HALF MARATHON!!!
I was a bit miffed to read your plans for ballroom dancing with a significant other. What am I, chopped liver? Thought you were smarter than that, Michael. Why would you take dancing lessons with an unknown when you could master the dance floor with me? Think about the benefits of learning to dance with a family member. You could step on my toes, drop me on my bottom, conspicuously count time and repeatedly look like a fool with me and THEN when you have perfected the art of ballroom dance, you could wow a prospective significant other with your twinkling toes. Let me know if I fit in with your 2008 schedule.
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