This has been an interesting year. Trump is heading back to the White House, Oasis announced a reunion and Armagh won the All-Ireland. If only I had a De Lorean, a flux capacitor and hitting 88mph could bring me back to January 1st then I’d make enough to retire with a treble on those events.
That being said, I have had some solid learnings over 2024: and here are the three ones I remember most:
I heard a great quote, attributed to Arthur Ashe, that goes ‘Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can’. Too often we are in a situation at work facing a challenge where we immediately think we need more. We place ourselves on the back foot immediately because we feel we don’t have everything we need for success right here, right now. We want better systems, smarter technology, more people: if only, if only.
Ashe reminds us that we should first take stock and get on with things as they are for the time being. That’s how we can really assess what’s going on. Of course, we eventually may seek improvements or help down the line, but how do we realistically know what we need if we don’t work with, or properly understand, what we have available first.
We can’t just sit and pout. Sometimes we just need to get going and see how things move from there. Accept the challenge, get started and work things out as you go. Don’t procrastinate, sit in the corner and do nothing just because everything isn’t 100% the way you want it.
Life rarely runs smoothly, whether that’s at home, at work or socially. Like the old saying goes; ‘if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans’.
You will always get speedbumps in life. How you react is the important thing. Cars can crash, accidents can happen, you can get sick on holiday or miss out on your dream house/job/whatever.
It’s important to accept that nothing in the past can be changed. How you react however is totally in your gift. Learning what you can from your experiences, focusing on the good and being positive, rather than fixating on the negatives will make you feel better going forward. It’s easy to catastrophise and let things get out of proportion, so developing a healthy sense of perspective is key. Life goes on, cars can be fixed, holidays rebooked and so on.
In fact, Cormac McCarthy once wrote ‘You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from’ and that’s very true. So maybe that uneven pavement you tripped over just saved you from walking out in front of a car!
You can make a choice on how to view the past. How to frame it and what to take from it. Look at Clann Eireann in Lurgan. They were beaten in last year’s Armagh semi-final, by their cross-town rivals. Devastating at the time. They didn’t sulk, whinge or crawl into their shells however, they just got on with things. They took the positives (a Division 1 league title and reaching a Senior semi-final), addressed the negatives constructively and used that insight and motivation to go and win a league and Senior Championship double in 2024 (beating those same rivals in the final this time round).
Thirdly, I learned that sometimes we focus too much on marginal gains and forget the maximal ones. Having the right pillows to enhance your recovery nap won’t help you much, if you have not put in the years, days and hours on fitness and technique prior to that. Oxygen chamber recovery sessions won’t win you games if your team can’t run, pass or shoot.
Same in work. If you move to a new role or company, master the core activities first and hone the rest after. Focus on maximal gains. Gus Bradley once said ‘consistency breeds credibility’. Be good, over and over again, at what your main job entails and then once you have established your credibility, you will have much more goodwill in the bank to allow you to expand into other, less familiar areas.
Finally, I’ll leave you on another great quote, this time from my wise beyond his years nephew (who managed to eat almost an entire pizza somewhere between the pizza truck and the five-minute drive home) that simply goes: ‘When life gives you pizza, you eat it!’.
Sometimes, things just are that simple. If you have a great opportunity, go for it. Don’t debate, delay, pontificate or hope for something else to come along that’s maybe just 0.1% better. Don’t wait till your pizza gets cold. Just eat it.
- Barry Shannon is a specialist in HR matters
