I've got the power!

Every year, my New Year's exhortation is the same. Make the year a good one. Don't hope and pray that it is. It's in your hands, so figure out what good (or better) looks like for you, and figure out how you might get there. Product Management 101! As you attack that, if you have the opportunity to help and impact others positively on their journeys, take the time and make the effort to do so, even in small ways.

We'll leave aside for this discussion the inherently arbitrary nature of setting and resetting on January 1st as defined 450 years ago by Pope Gregory's decree in which he fundamentally wanted to ensure that the Easter Bunny didn't hop into people's gardens on the wrong day.

This is all about agency, and taking ownership of your own life and outcomes, versus meandering along and allowing it all to happen to you (or not happen, as the case very often will be).

There's a deeper discourse to be had around free will and destiny, as there has been throughout history. On my reading list for this year is Sapolsky's "Determined" which I'm told argues that free will is an illusion. I'm not inherently willing to go there, but I do accept the contention that what we consider to be an unencumbered choice is actually influenced (determined, even) by everything that has led up to that point. The best profundities are characterized by an apparent obviousness, and this is perhaps no exception. The fact that a choice you make in the moment is predicated on what has gone before does not render it any less of an active exercise. In any case, I'll save that debate for after reading the book!

I wouldn't have much interest in a life in which everything was pre-ordained, and I see little value to a life in which you just let life happen to you, rather than going out and living it.

I don't always get it right. In fact, many close to me will tell you that I often get it wrong. What I do, however (and here I would have said "What I try to do," but the Yoda on my desk, courtesy Darius Paczuski, won't let me get away with that), is own that I am making or have made a decision. It's remarkably liberating, because with that simple understanding I wrest back any power that I may have surrendered to anyone and anything else in my life. I no longer cede control over myself, my emotions, or my actions and reactions to someone else - they are mine, and mine alone.

The result of this, when I'm on my game, is that I'm in control of myself, and that enables me to approach things with intentionality. That's of course quite the buzzword these days and I'm not ashamed to leap on the bandwagon. If I want things to happen a certain way, I go out and work towards them.

I don't hope that this year is a better year. I strive to make it so - by defining what success looks like, hypothesizing how I can best get there, and then experimenting, learning, and iterating. As I asserted earlier - product management done well is fundamental to life!

Back to where I started - take charge of your year. Don't just make a couple of sloppy resolutions. Be clear about your goals, and what matters to you, and then figure out how to make it so. You have the power - wield it.