New year, new you? Aaron Huizenga looks back and plans ahead

New year, new you?

Generally, this is a time in our lives when we look back at the calendar and through your photos of everything that you did in the past 12 months.

The good, the frustrating and the exciting.

It’s a time when we take stock and evaluate our lives.

A time when we look at that hourglass of our lives and realize that there may be more sand in the bottom than in the top.

As we age, the timeline of lives appears to speed up ever faster. Weeks go by like days, months like weeks, and the years … well, let’s just leave that one alone for now.

The holidays are past and credit card bills are due, so it is time to get back to work. But what are you going to work on?

What are you going to do with your time?

For some of you, this may be the last year that you plan on working full-time – your chance to have every day be Saturday.

For the rest of us, it can be a time to plan our steps and projects for the coming year. We can write out our roadmap on what we want to get done, where we want to go, and what steps are needed to turn those plans into successes.

Personally, there are some goals, not resolutions, as those seem too constrictive, but intentions – the things I want to do. Read more, write more, learn more, engage more, enhance more, contribute more, work on that legacy thing we all want to leave behind. That is a lot of “more,” so how are we going to get there? Last I checked, we all want more, but there isn’t actually any more time to get all of these intentions checked off that list. Which then begs the question, how are we going to do that?

We are going to upgrade our skills. We are going to enhance our strengths, correct some of our weaknesses, and upgrade. This year, through these articles, I am excited to share some ideas on time management, leading with the intent to follow, warp-speed productivity and cleaning out the clutter in our minds and in our lives. I am also going to be sharing on topics of different types of leadership styles, mentoring and more. That will take us until the fall of 2025 at least.

I also wanted to say thank you. Thank you to LP Gas and Brian Richesson for the opportunity and page space to share my words with all of you. Thank you to each of you who have taken the time out of your lives to talk about something I shared. Thank you to those of you who continue to send me book recommendations and ask questions about a topic that we can explore together. Thank you to Lakes Gas and the Sergeant family for cultivating an environment where we can engage and express ourselves as we share about the industry and our passions. Thank you to my family for understanding why I randomly disappear from time to time because, “I have an idea that I think I can write about.”

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Let’s work on your upgrade!

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Aaron Huizenga is East Division manager for Lakes Gas in Wisconsin. Reach him at ahuizenga@lakesgas.com.