Three Wishes

I am not the kind of person who is very keen on doing the usual predictions or resolutions blog post for the New Year, in this case for 2011; I have never done it in the past and don’t intend to get started now, but for the last few days I have been having this blog post inside my head screaming out loud to be published pretty badly, specially now that I am back at work (Second day today…), after having finished up my vacation and having fully recovered from a massive flu that had knocked me down for the most part of the last few days of the holidays, which is the main reason why you haven’t seen any other blog entries coming along over here lately. Thank goodness, I am now fully recovered and back into the full swing of things, both at work and on a personal level. You would have to excuse me for going a bit sentimental on this one though, but, like I said, the following post is something that has been brewing inside my head for a little while and I just couldn’t help but sharing it along today: my 3 wishes for 2011!

Yes, that’s right! They don’t have anything to do with predictions, although perhaps they may well have something to do with resolutions for the new year; either way, this entry is going to help me as well get back into my regular blogging schedule once again, as we get things going with another exciting year ahead of us. It will also help me mark the beginning of a new phase for this blog, after having made its 5th anniversary just recently, since I plan to change a few things in here from now onwards. After you have read this post you will see what I mean with those changes…

So, what are those three wishes for the new year that have been in mind for a little while, you may be wondering, right? Well, like I said, you could think of them as some kind of new year resolutions themselves, but, to me, they will mark what my focus areas are going to be from here onwards, both at work and on a personal level, both for my offline and online activities, more than anything else, because I feel it’s the right time; and that’s where the sentimental part kicks in and you will see what I mean shortly… Thus let’s get started; here are my 3 wishes for 2011 and beyond!:

• Stay Healthy: Yes, for sure, because, and I do realise I am about to state the obvious in here, there is nothing more important in our lives than being healthy! Like Joe Fahmy nicely put it a couple of weeks back in a rather inspiring blog post “Health is everything! Without your health, nothing else matters!“; this is something that has really been in my mind for a long while, specially because of how most of us take such little things for granted thinking it’s always a given, when it eventually is not! In fact, all along it’s always been my only one true wish for the new year, year in year out, but this time around it’s been a little bit different, specially, due to that flu I managed to cultivate for a good part of the beginning of the year, knocking me down pretty badly for a few days, making me realise pretty close that without good health we haven’t got anything. So my first wish for everyone out there is to stay healthy no matter what.
  
  To me, that means staying away from the computer for longer periods of time (I know that’s going to be a challenge on its own already!), do plenty more exercise, eat even healthier, get plenty more sleep (I know some of you will be having a giggle or two while you are reading that one!) and, eventually, continue to take much better care of myself, since I know no-one else is going to do it. Not even work! hehe
• Sustainable Prosperity: Here we are… Prosperity. Here we are, indeed, 2011 and still think that one of these years the financial crisis is going away and we are going back to business, the usual business. *The* same business that brought up all of this trouble in the first place a couple of years back. The same business that continues to struggle to make it through any further into the 21st century. Well, I hope not. We need a new prosperity; a sustainable one that takes a new meaning for real and a new radical leadership to focus on what we need to focus on: sustainable growth. If a bunch of us have been claiming that business is all about cultivating and nurturing our very own personal business relationships for the things that matter, somehow I suspect that this year will mark the before and after on making that successful transition into the Knowledge Economy that keeps resisting us time and time again. 

  So here is wish for 2011 and beyond: be sustainably prosperous, be ready for the change. It’s unstoppable, so we may as well jump into the bandwagon and make the most out of it…

• Be More Human: And, finally, my last wish for 2011, and beyond, too, for everyone out there who may be potentially reading this piece. Plenty of folks keep saying how the real, big impact of social computing within the enterprise, as well as out there in the Social Web, has always been that one of making us become more human, more responsive, caring, helpful, engaged, etc. towards fellow colleagues, friends and family. Well, I think it’s probably a good time now to show that for real! My good friend Jay Deragon has got a rather interesting and very thought-provoking blog post on this very same subject under the heading “The Influence of Technology on Humanity” that I can certainly recommend everyone to go and have a read. One of his conclusions surely is spot on with regards to how I feel myself about the impact that technology and humanity have got with one another for over the last few decades. To quote: 
  

  “While the influence of technology on humanity always has been and always will be significant the real influence on society is what humanity does with the technology to create meaningful value for all humanity“

  The interesting thing is that, slowly, but steadily, and thanks much due to our extensive use and deeper involvement with social software tools out there in the Social Web, we are starting to see plenty of very inspiring and WOWing human experiences of what technology can help us achieve by the end of the day making us all feel more humane altogether. To such extent I would love you all to have a look and take the time to read the absolutely wonderful blog post that the always insightful Jessica Lipnack shared under “David Goodman on food, water, energy, health & wellness, governance & public policy“. It won’t leave you indifferent, I am sure!

Well, folks, that’s it for me! 3 wishes I have been wanting to share across with you all for a little while now and which I am hoping will find you safe and sound, looking forward to a rather exciting year; perhaps the tipping point one; perhaps the one we have all been waiting for. Who knows … Time will tell… One other last thing for sure though that I also plan to do during the course of 2011 and which I strongly believe we should all do plenty more about, and that’s perhaps my fourth wish for 2011, is to eventually have plenty more fun: yes, indeed, fun, fun, fun, both at work and in our personal lives. Life is just too short not to enjoy it to the fullest having plenty of good fun. Don’t you think? So in the new year I am hoping to take that into practice a whole lot more, and perhaps make my blogging over here a whole lot more personal and human; after all why can’t we have some good old fun while at work, right? Specially, when thinking that one third of our lives is dedicated to sleep already, and another third is dedicated to work (I bet for most of us is a lot higher than that!). So what do we have left?

Work needs to change; the future of work needs to change. We don’t have many more options left, I am afraid, so why not start today? What’s stopping us? That’s exactly what my good friend, Kevin Jones did when, just recently, he shared this particular blog post: “When I Grow Up (Video) – We Never Intended to Work This Way” with a rather short YouTube video clip, which is truly a gem, a golden nugget, that everyone out there should watch. It’s a must-have. Then you will know what I mean exactly about having fun while at work…

Yes, yes, I know! I do realise about it! I told you this was going to be a rather sentimental blog post, right? But … why not? Why can’t we get our Hippie 2.0 side back on and try to make a difference where we know we can? Well, those are going to be my wishes for 2011 and beyond, because I don’t think there is going to be a way back anymore. Quite the opposite! Only ever moving forward…

Happy 2011 everyone!