2011: Let’s fly

here we go
come with me
there’s a world out there
that we should see
take my hand
close your eyes
with you right here
I’m a rocketeer
let’s fly

—Far East Movement, “Rocketeer”
(video above provided by VEVO.COM)

I don’t think I’m alone in saying that the last couple of years have been spent “grounded” with the bad economy and everything that goes with it.

2007 in my life ended with being laid off, separated, then in short order thereafter divorced from 9½ years of marriage and four years of being a dad. The new year 2008 was supposed to be the year things started over. I moved from Lakeland to Plant City (into an apartment literally sight unseen but thankfully exactly what I wanted), settled into a new church fellowship, and used up the rest of my severance package to pay the rent while I looked for a new job.  In April I picked up a contract doing VB development in Tampa for $25 an hour and things were beginning to look like they were going to take off again.

But then 2008 ended like I started it. I got fired from that job a few weeks before Christmas, so I was once again unemployed (but without a nice severance package like I had before), so I cashed out the rest of my 401(k) to live on while I applied for unemployment, and started again looking for work.

I spent all of 2009 and half of this past year unemployed. I started 2010 in Chapter 7, which removed everything but the student loan (which I still can’t pay) and support for my son (which is being taken out of my paycheck whether I want them to or not). Vondalee moved in from California in the middle of 2009, and shortly after that I went back to the Catholic roots I grew up with. Both of those things provided much-needed stability and encouragement to stay positive and keep things looking ahead during the worst of times. We narrowly avoided living on the streets as homeless people.

Now that I’m working again (since July) in a position that’s currently temporary but looking to become permanent as the company continues to grow, I can approach my plans for the new year 2011 with a little more confidence and with at least a bit clearer image of where things are going.  I’m not as much looking to soar this coming year as I am toward simply letting God’s divine wind get under my wings and at least get me off the ground and into the air again.

I don’t do resolutions, per se. They’re usually broken within the first twenty-four hours of the year. I’m not quite ready to set any firm goals for the new year, either; things change so much lately that I can never establish measurable objectives with any self-confidence.

But I do like to establish “points of reference”—things that I want to spend the coming year significantly improving or changing in my personal, professional, and spiritual/emotional life. Points of reference can remain steady no matter what happens during the year.

• Having to rely on my own resources and knowledge over the year and a half I was unemployed and working through the public assistance maze has led me to continue the “lone ranger” mentality into my current job, that I have to be able to solve everything on my own with my own tools and force of will instead of tapping into the knowledge and resources of others. The first point of reference in 2011 is breaking away from that mentality and reaching out more to colleagues and others to help solve problems and gain additional knowledge and experience.  I don’t know everything and therefore shouldn’t keep pretending to.  I used to be really good at tapping into others, and I lost that ability during the past couple of years.  In 2011 I want to get it back.
• That self-sufficiency mentality has to be broken in my personal relationships too. Vee and I need each other to lean on as we live with our individual mental and emotional issues and how they affect our daily lives, and I have the insane habit of locking people out when things go wrong, or changing into “business mode” and running people over when I have the far better choice not to.
• I need to keep better track of things—commitments made, money spent, activities completed and details of the work that I do personally and professionally. I’m great at archiving things but not so great at being able to refer back to them and do proper follow-up.Evernote has become my savior in this process, and I’ve already started this process more widely with my new LiveScribe digital pen system, which also happens to integrate with Evernote. I’m two days into the new pen-and-digital-paper process, and so far, so good. Now if only my printer at home could print these pages (so far only the fancy color laser printer at work can print LiveScribe pages). I’m starting to learn how to produce my own pages as well so I can have better digital records of more parts of my daily life.
• I need to establish a more consistent spiritual practice in the coming year. With the insanity of the last couple of years that part of my life has slipped considerably. Whether it’s engaging in a daily habit of lectio divina or watching (and participating in my own way) in a daily Mass (which CatholicTV provides as a podcast, hello!), having a regular, consistent spiritual discipline is the foundation for every other part of life, and to be honest, Catholicism does this the best as far as being a Christian with spiritual discipline is concerned. Part of this also is getting my confirmation in order to complete the process of becoming fully a part of the faith.

So there they are—you’re free to hold me accountable to these points of reference through the coming year. Also, feel free to use the comments (they’re now enabled; I forgot it actually had to be turned on!) to share your points of reference for the coming year.

Get ready to fly. Together.