When we get into a new year, it's almost like a mulligan in golf. We've got the chance to examine what we have done in the past and chose to do some things a little differently. It's kind of like that do over you get on the golf course, a second chance to make changes and improve upon that last shot.
I am an avid runner. I love getting up at 5:00 in the morning to go pound the pavement. In fact, I am quite selfish with those 60-90 minutes. It's my time - my time to run and my time to think about almost everything in my life.
Well, I have had the opportunity to change that just a little bit. I have a nine year old girl named Cami. She loves to run too. So this year, we've been running together a day or two a week. This morning as we were flying down the road at a 13 minute per mile pace, I realized that some changes are good. Life is short, and the time I have to share with Cami is limited...
So as we reflect on last year, I am sure we did many things right. I am also sure we can all identify some things we want to do a little differently moving forward. Perhaps that includes making the time to coach new employees to be more successful. We may want to look to new ways to do our jobs so we work smarter and more efficiently.
It might mean learning more about social media or how to use an iPad to better communicate with customers. Although these tools may seem unnatural and intimidating to you. For the next generation and kids like my daughter Cami, they are as natural and intuitive as our first car stereos and home video game systems were for my friends and me.
Just think of how technology and communication has leaped ahead in the last 25 years. We now discuss Facebook, wireless networks, and Flip video. Meanwhile words that meant cutting edge to us (but stymied our parents) like microfiche, videocassette recorder and Walkman are all but vanished from the lexicon.
It moves faster every day and that's why at BASF Professional Turf & Ornamentals, we work hard to stay ahead of the game and anticipate new technologies to give you that extra edge to be successful and develop new solutions to deliver on those unmet needs of the turf professional.
Make that commitment to embrace new technology in 2011 so that if nothing else, it saves you the most valuable commodity there is - time. Because as hard as we work in this industry, taking time out to spend it with the ones you love matters just as much as it did 30 years ago when I plugged into the Atari for a game of Space Invaders with my big brothers.
These days when I get up and run with Cami I know I'm really hard at work…making memories that will last a lifetime.
Brian Lish
Posted at 10:40 am
About the Author
Brian Lish
Brian Lish is the business manager for BASF Professional Turf & Ornamentals and is based in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
