Milestones

Sitting here at the start of 2010, desirous to reach out toward new goals and fresh milestones, I feel a bit thwarted by unfinished business which belongs, really, with the passing year.  I'm very happy to say I reached my yearly sales quota and qualified for the big kicker which will mean a much more financially secure 2010 for me.  Still there is a large promised check still out there from one of the firms who has promised to move forward with our product.  Our accountant has agreed to hold the sale in 2009 if - and only if - they actually fax or email the check on Monday, January 4th like they promised.  She also expects to receive the real check within the week.  It would mean quite a bit more money to me if it were counted in 2009 - and so I am eager to see if they will be good to their word, and that's what has me feeling like I have unfinished business.  It's a strange and anti-climactic feeling to be waiting on this final bit of business, and I'm truly ready to be done with the stress of the last couple of months.  It has exhausted me and my energy for things I'd also like to focus on, like my family, writing and planning for the new year.  Of course I am relieved to have hit the number I needed to hit, but I find it a tad irksome to still be without final closure in that regard.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow to find out just exactly what kind of closure I will have.  It's nice to know it will be either very, very good, or it will be phenomenal!

It's funny how my job so parallels life.  Here at the start of a new year I, like most people, think about new goals and fresh starts.  About what I want to achieve, how I want to be different or better, and what I will continue to nurture.  Sales is so like that.  I sit down at the beginning of each month, each quarter and especially each new year and I think about what I achieved in the past.  I think about how I have managed accounts, about what worked well, and what I could do better.  I take stock of how much I've learned about our software and what I want to be able to better show my customers.  I start planning for the next month, quarter or year, and how I want to become more competent.  Some of it is out of my hands, as I don't set my quotas and can't control what my territory will be.  I do know what I've done well, and what I could be better at personally, and I have grown more confident about my unique abilities and what I can actually achieve and contribute as a senior person on our little sales team.   I'm ready to really own my position at work, just as I am ready to jump into 2010 with gusto and confidence about what I have to offer in my personal life.

I continue to be thankful for the opportunity afforded me by this company I work for.  As I strive to improve what I do for them, I am also improving what I can do for myself and my family.  I am now in a much better financial position to be even more independent than I've been since I started working nearly four years ago, several months after I left my unhealthy marriage.  I'm also better set up to take care of some important business of closure with regards to that time.  Personal milestones will be met and new, more exciting ones set.  Like in my job, I won't be able to control everything that happens, but I know what tools I have at my disposal to use when I need them. 

I like where I am today.  I've got all I need to continue to pursue a very satisfying life.  I'm fortunate to have my precious loved ones, my good health and a good paying job that I enjoy.  I don't want to squander the opportunity that comes with this current balance and good fortune.  I want to apply the strategy we use in sales of setting goals and milestones, both short term and long, to this upcoming year and decade.  I haven't done it fully yet, because I'm still hung up a little on 2009, but I plan to sit down very soon and really priortize my personal goals and figure out how I can meet them.  I never want to quit striving to live in and appreciate the current moment, because I'm convinced the journey truly is far more important than the destination.  But I wish for this moment to flow easily in the next one, and then the next  moment and then the one after that.  I wish for that flow, which I know will ebb from time to time, to continue forward and become more full - so that I can share more joy and ease more pain in this good life.