New Year, New Theme: Take a Risk!
Happy New Year! I hope your year is starting off in a positive direction. I know 2020 was a riddled with stressful moments, but it had some bright spots too. As I rang in the new year, I reflected on the challenges of the prior 365 days and noted that my word for 2020 was pivot. I repeatedly found myself changing directions I left my corporate job after 4.5 years, launched the Givens Consulting Group, accepted that I now wear progressive lenses (the Queen is not without new shades), and earned my graduate degree. All of that left me thinking, now what? The answer: take a risk.
As a project management expert, I manage risks every day and launching a business presented several. Managing costs, setting up the legal entity, hiring the right design staff (shout out to Kern Graphic for my website and Caroline Joy Concepts for amazing photos), creating my service packages, assessing the consulting landscape, deciding if the risk was worth the reward. There were risks aplenty but none of them were stop signs. I managed them and kept going.
Reverend Warnock. Jon Ossof. Jamie Harrison. Amy McGrath. The Stacey Abrams. Every single one of these people took a risk. Georgia will never be the same. Neither will South Carolina or Kentucky. Jamie, Amy, and Stacey did not need to win their seats to make a statement. They showed up and showed out and we witnessed what happens when people believe in their vision, capabilities, and commitment to change that which seems immutable.
If this week’s election results are any indication of what can happen when courageous people take a risk, I am leaning all the way in to 2021 and adjusting my risk profile.
The idea is not to leap without first counting the costs, no one swan dives into a drained pool, but once you’ve checked the depth of the water, and trust your breasttroke, it’s time to JUMP. Create your safety net, confide in your Trusted Tribe, outline your plan, and go for it.
With 2020 safely in the rearview, my word for this year is manifest; to call those things that as are yet unseen into being.
What is your word for this new year?
