an image of people in a meeting with the words "alone we can do so little together we can do so much"

My Resolutions For 2021

The last two blog posts featured resolutions from my community of business associates. Now it is my turn to share what I hope to achieve and work on for 2021.

BUILDING A COMMUNITY—OHANA

When my husband and I chose to join Office Evolution as franchisees, one of the main reasons was its corporate philosophy of Ohana, Hawaiian for family. I especially embraced the idea of using this ethos in my sales style—I want everyone who decides to become a member of our center to feel understood, welcome, and supported through every step of their business journey. 

At times, this has meant suggesting one of my competitors when I realized that another flexible workspace was better suited to a potential member. Fortunately for me, I had met one of my competitors early on and developed a relationship with him and his team, touring each others’ facilities. It has been a wonderful collaboration as we have each referred people to each other. 

I share this story to illustrate my commitment to making sure I design the best workplace solution for each member. My team and I will be seeing these people everyday and want them to be in the best possible setting. We stay connected and involved as their business grows and changes, assessing how to best support them. I have even had a couple different members who grew through stages of having a mailbox plan to a private office with two employees to their “graduation” out of our center into their own traditional office space when their business grew enough to warrant it. We celebrated with them the day they moved out! 

SETTING INTENTIONS

2020 was a truly unusual year to be in business, the months of the seemingly unending uncertainty taking a toll on us all.  Being an extrovert who found the nonstop networking of my role to be exhilarating and rewarding, I was gobsmacked by being forced to stay at home. Anxiety about the future was causing me to become mired in paralysis and despair. 

I finally started setting weekly, then daily, intentions to allow me to stay grounded in the present and not be overwhelmed by the nebulous future. For example, I spend a few minutes each morning over my coffee, writing a small to-do list. Crossing off each task and throwing away the paper each evening is amazingly satisfying. Other intentions have been to track my steps (so I keep moving) and to drink water! When stressed and overwhelmed, I forget to take care of my physical self, which is very counterproductive.

I will continue to set intentions, small incremental goals, as 2021 unfolds.

LISTENING

As a salesperson, networker, naturally gregarious person, I love to talk and spend a lot of time doing so. I have made a commitment to consciously LISTEN as much as possible. I have only been doing it a few weeks and I am very pleased with how much calmer I feel. I am learning a lot, of course, by asking better questions and then zipping my lip! (I have a charm I wear that reminds me to ZIP IT).

I know I have learned about the importance of listening before, in many different formats, but most recently during the Office Evolution corporate training. I know I nodded and agreed and fully intended to listen but have slipped up. Learning to listen is definitely a lifelong journey. 

Becoming a mother forced me to develop listening skills–and to practice the art daily!—because I wanted to really hear what my children were asking, saying, or pointing out. Children see the world differently than adults and when I was able to successfully listen and be present in the moment, I was gifted with many joyous memories of my children’s worldview, opinions, jokes, and evolution.

HAVE FUN

In 2021, I plan to consciously make time for fun—whether that is watching comedy or movies at home with my family right now and spending time with friends when it is safe to be together in public again. I love to go out to eat, mainly because I love to be waited on (must have been a royal in a previous life!). Being able to meet a friend for coffee, lunch, drinks again will be a gift I will not take for granted. 

So here’s to 2021 being a great year for us all!

About Office Evolution

At Office Evolution, we provide virtual office, coworking, and private office solutions at our shared office center. We offer meeting rooms, offices for rent, hot desking in a shared workspace coworking lounge, a shared reception, a business address, and virtual receptionist services. We have many options and price points, and all terms are flexible. Plus, you become part of a community of like-minded professionals.