Strength in the New Year
Erik Boemanns
Derisking technology with a lawyer's lens and a technologist's techniques. Governance, Risk, Compliance, and Security Executive supporting businesses focused on their next stage of growth.
It feels like this year is ending faster than most. Thanksgiving (here in the U.S.) was late in the month, and with Christmas and New Years Day both on Wednesday’s, it’s like the next two weeks are much shorter. And this year, Hanukkah lines up with those holidays as well. While there’s still one more weekend this year, it will be a blur. Winter began yesterday, and with it, it brings a “winter’s pause” for the rest of the year. In two weeks, we’ll emerge from it, face the cold (if we’re on the northern side of the world), and step back into life on January 6th. And it’s anybody’s guess what we’ll be stepping into.
For those of us who are building something new, or searching for our next role, a pause is hard. We lose momentum and risk breaking good habits we’ve been forming. While the rest of the world rests, do we? My answer is yes, and no. Yes, we deserve to rest as well, and spend some time with friends, family, or wherever you go to recharge. And no, because this is a chance to get ahead with things we may otherwise be neglecting. We can’t schedule meetings; there’s no point in making calls or sending messages. But there’s every reason to analyze what we’ve done and prepare new materials, plans, and efforts.
If there’s a side project which you believe could help you be more effective but haven’t had a chance to work on it – now’s your chance! Perhaps there’s people you should talk to next year – go through your contact lists and see who you haven’t chatted with recently. Update your marketing material or your resume and make sure it best represents you for 2025. Read that book you’ve been looking at. Work on writing your own book or articles. All the things you never get time to do, but want to, these two weeks are the gift the world gives us. And we can still do all of this and rest a bit as well.
I know I’m doing a bit of all of this. I even consulted my friendly neighborhood chat bot to help create a schedule. Of course, I’m off track on day two, but at least I have a plan. I hope to wrap the year with some new building blocks for what I want to achieve next year. I hope to have preserved momentum to face the uncertainty the next year will certainly bring. While none of us can predict what the next year will bring, we can predict the fundamentals which never change. We can use these two weeks to take any successes from the past year and make sure we anchor them in those fundamentals.
Whether we’re battening the hatches or furling the sails come January depends much on how we face uncertainty. There will be reasons for either approach. For each of us, we’ll have to decide when to choose our path forward.
Until then, I wish you all Happy Holidays and strength in the New Year.
Coming Soon
Just in time for making your New Year Resolutions, Episode 10 of E. B. Spoke - Building a New You, will be released soon! My guest Daniel Scheufler and I talk about the power of habits - good and bad - and how to use them for improving yourself and your team.
If you don't want to miss it, be sure to subscribe to my Substack.
Week In Review
One of the fun things about posting daily on LinkedIn is you get a great sense of what the algorithm does and doesn't like. For example, it loves selfies and interesting polls. It loves SMS scams even more. It hates things that feel like an ad. Especially if you didn't pay for it to be an ad.
Here's what I posted this past week. See if you can guess which got the most and the least impressions.
Here's a hint - none of the polls are the top, but one of them was in second place.
In Conclusion
There's one more Sunday in 2024. I'll be posting my "Year In Review" special edition - reflecting back on all the conversations we've had here together. The past year has been a hard one, but also has many successes. I look forward to reflecting upon it and sharing with you.
If job uncertainty is still a concern as we wrap up the year and you would like to be in the job seeker spotlight, the You Just Found ME™️ job seeker spotlight is free to all jobseekers! Send me a note!
Recommended by LinkedIn
New things are coming in 2025 for my business, but before I say more, I want to remind everyone I offer referral bonuses to any work you bring me through Mirability, LLC - if you're interested. If there's anything I can help you with, I'd love to hear about it.
I hope this coming week is what you need it to be!
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Check out #EBSpoke for more of my recent posts here...
About Erik
Erik Boemanns is a technology executive and lawyer. His background covers many aspects of technology, from infrastructure to software development. He combines this with a "second career" as a lawyer into a world of cybersecurity, governance, risk, compliance, and privacy (GRC-P). His time in a variety of companies, industries, and careers brings a unique perspective on leadership, helping, technology problem solving and implementing compliance.
He's available to help you with any of this now too!
Cybersecurity & IT Consulting - gigabunny.com
5dWish You & Family Happy Holidays, Erik! There is no rest though, some other Hack happens, and I'll be amazed by Human Ingenuity and Ignorance simultaneously.
Empowering Dreamers to Become Doers by guiding startup and early operation owners in building sustainable, solid growth companies. | Social Activism - Reentry Support, Criminal Justice Reform, & Ending Homelessness
5dGreat article this week Erik Boemanns Using these two to review your business strategy is a great use of the time. This provides the opportunity to fine tune heading into 2025.