A Time to Pause

Once again, I am going through one of those times where every single podcast I listen to makes me want to stop and think about what I am doing. I keep hearing answers to questions I have been asking or something that motivates me to keep moving forward. While thinking about everything that was going through my mind, I decided that I needed to take some time to just pause and reflect about where I’m at. If I added it up correctly, last week’s article was the eighty-fifth article that I have written for this site. Not a huge number, but a number I can be proud of. It all got me thinking, am I using this space to do what I intended it for. When I started it, is this where I saw myself after eighty-five articles? To figure that out, I must go back and think about why I started all of this. I had a few goals at the beginning, first, I wanted to do something creative. I think I have done that. Second, I wanted to help people become better leaders. In my mind I’m fifty/fifty on that one. I think I have done some positive things, but not anywhere close to where I want to be. Lastly, I wanted to bring the unique perspective of someone who works overnight. People who work when everyone else is sleeping, they are just different. They bring a whole new perspective of doing a job without the resources that most people have who work during the day. Less management, no HR people are around. Dealing with medical emergencies or natural disasters is more difficult. I feel like people who might be less qualified to make decisions are forced to make decisions. Hopefully in the end it makes them better at not only making decisions but also being a leader. When I look back at my articles, I don’t think I have done a very good job of pointing out that perspective. So out of three goals, I have one good, one bad and one medium. Not my best work!

What’s Next?

The first thing I want to look at is exposure. When I first started this, I didn’t think about anyone reading it. Again, I just wanted to do something creative. I think I have successfully accomplished level one, now it’s time to move up. I want to interact with everyone more. I’ve added an email button on the home page and in the new articles. I want to ask more questions and get more comments. I want people to feel free to ask questions that we can answer in future posts. I also want to do a better job talking about books I’m reading or other things that I am consuming. I want to have links to podcasts or YouTube videos that I find interesting for some reason. I know not everyone loves to read but watching a video that can help you can be just as valuable. I’m also going to talk about working overnight more often. It might not be in every article, but hopefully at least a few times a month. I don’t want to exclude a large amount of people, but I just don’t see a lot of information out there about working overnight. Sometimes working overnight can be great so you can get things done during the day. Other times it’s the worst thing in the world. How can we help more people experience the good side of working nights instead of always focusing on the bad parts?

And Finally

I have a couple of other ideas that I have been thinking about. I’m hoping over the next month or so I can get those out there. I don’t want to make too many changes at once but look for some more things to happen. I encourage everyone this week to think of one thing they want to hear about. Maybe it’s about leadership or maybe it’s about working overnight. It could even be something I haven’t mentioned or maybe you have an idea of something new we can do. All ideas are welcomed, let me know!