Mid year retreat

I just returned from a 4 day trip to my village (the pic shows 120+ year old house of my (maternal) ancestors). Every time around this year, I make this trip to slow down, read some thought provoking stuff and review my progress vis-a-vis hierarchy of goals (quarterly, yearly and long-term) that I have set for myself. The process this time too was very similar to the one I had in early Jan this year.



I particularly like this time of the year. The weather is just about perfect - neither hot nor cold, skies filled mostly with small pieces of moving clouds, occasional drizzle, great breeze (the sound of which is particularly soothing) and birds chirping away to glory, dominated though by koyals. This time is also the season for Jack-Fruits and one can also catch up with the last batch of Mangoes. All these factors relaxes me to the fullest and helps me objectively assess my progress in the last 6 months and set ambitious goals for the next period.


I normally sit in the coconut-grove next to the house, in the old-fashioned "easy chair". This time I started by reviewing my strengths as discovered by the tool StrengthsFinder 2.0. Its important that the vision and the goals that are planned to realize the vision are rooted in strengths. BTW, my strengths (top 5 strength themes as they call it) are Discipline, Relator, Learner, Arranger and Responsibility. As I reflected back on the last 6 months, couple of things have gone pretty well, especially the booting-up of our Bangalore center. On the personal front too my reading, especially on the PMBA topics were on track and had a pretty balanced life, though one suspects my family may not agree citing the Europe and Japan trips. Major disappointment include unable to help our customer, one of the biggest global brand, to launch their music player that is powered by our chipset. Its a deja-vu time. 99.9% is done and there is one deeeeep bug that is delaying the launch. I could also not start learning music as was planned.

I concluded the exercise doing a SWOT analysis and making several changes to my calendar to increase effectiveness. The summary of the exercise will make the goals list that needs to be pursued. This time, I have classified the goals under the 4 categories - To live, To love, To learn and To leave a legacy, inspired by the teaching of Stephen Covey, as articulated in his book First Things First. Overall it was a very satisfying 4 days. I returned energized to the normal world. The key to success is to stick to the plan every day, week and month.

I'm intrigued by two recurring themes that keep coming back w.r.t where I want to be 3-4years from now (its different from what I'm doing now). These two themes are kind of opposite in the body of knowledge they embed. Next few days I'd be reviewing these and the goals with my support group and mentors. Next retreat is planned during last week of December. Same place.

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com