2014 - LEARN 1

Happy, merry 2014!!!  I wish you and yours nothing but the best in this new year!!!

For the past several years I've either signed up for or pretended to follow the One Little Word project that Ali Edwards created (One Little Word).  I've chosen "declutter" and focus as the last two words I chose.  I actually did "focus" two years in a row, and wasn't very successful.  (Let's not discuss the abysmal failure of my intent to "declutter" both mind and home...)

THIS year, however, my word was chosen for me.

LEARN.

My job has changed and while I've been able to skate through the past six months just sort of "faking it"' when it comes to learning the new things I need to know to do the job well, I have to really buckle down this first 1/2 year to ensure I still have a job on May 1st.  Skating just isn't going to cut it.  There is a lot more expected of me, a lot more I expect of myself, and the only way I'll succeed is if I declutter my mind and focus on learning.  (See where I went there?!?)

So LEARN is my new word.

My dad used to say, "Use it or lose it."  You know what, folks?  I used to be quite bright.  In fact, I was one of the smarter kids in my school.  But lately I feel as though I've forgotten how to learn, or perhaps I just haven't felt like applying myself.  I've lost it.  But I no longer have a choice.

I have an entire industry to learn, basically.  I will now be concentrating on architecture, engineering and construction, and the bulk of my accounts will fall into one of those three industries.  At my publishing company, we lump them all into one AEC category (see underlined, above).  I'm the lead for that category of books in my sales division, in my sales community.  (Team and community, by the way, are two words I'm beginning to dislike immensely.)

I have to learn the books, the authors, the accounts, industry trends, vocabulary, and personnel.  I have to learn to sell books (although I've been doing it for the past nine years, I'm going to be much more accountable).

I want to learn, too, to be a better person, a better wife, daughter, sister.  I want to cook better, read faster, think more clearly, be more creative.  And learning is involved in all of those endeavors, too.

So here I am, people, putting it out there for you all to see:  I plan on LEARNING in 2014.  And I plan on LEARNING a lot.

(I can already feel the gears grinding in my brain...)