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Looking at 2020 through a crystal ball

So, how are things in your world after 2020?

Wow. It’s hard to believe I’ve been radio silent on my blog approaching 4 years. Such is life with family, employment, business, and all the other endeavors planned and otherwise that fill up one’s days. This is a quick post to update all five of my readers. Thanks for checking in!

How are you doing these days?

Are you as busy as I am? Are you as jumbled, stressed, blessed, distracted, productive, anxious, and hopeful as I am? I hope you are. No, that’s not right…I hope you’re managing better than I am. Today is just as good a day as any to evaluate where you are and how you’re managing things. The one consistent factor running through all of the days of your life is not always obvious — it’s you. No matter how powerless we feel or how untamed the path that life has taken, each individual is the one carving that path. It’s a good idea to take an honest inventory of that person you see in the mirror.

Hindsight is 20/20.

AJ Design was one of the best things to occur in my life, certainly in a professional context. I shied away from following my dad’s footsteps in medicine (even though the joke in my childhood was that I was a chip off the ole’ block or a clone of my dad). Maybe I was lazy, or maybe I just lacked ambition. One of the conscious ideas I held as a teenager and young adult was that I didn’t want to work all the time. I reasoned that I would rather have 40 working hours in a week with an income of $30,000 versus a 60 hour work week and $60,000 (those were late 1990s dollars, mind you). Among the things I didn’t account for are:

  • How tough it is to raise a family on a humble to modest income.
  • How tough it is to unplug from work when you enjoy what you do.
  • How difficult it is to say “no” when there are plenty of rewards dangled in front of you just on the other side of “yes.”

My spotty career path prior to AJ Design was the perfect preparation for a successful self-employment venture. The lack of income and stability equipped me with a solid work ethic that helped my business thrive.

What I’ve been up to lately.

Anyone whose been a client of mine probably already knows this, but let me just state for the benefit of anyone else. I networked into a job opportunity with Savannah Lakes Village in McCormick, SC in the fourth quarter of 2017. I wasn’t really interested in a job. I decided to send in an application and thought I would just take a look. To my surprise, I was called for an interview. It was a series of green lights from there, and the rest is history. I’m marking 4 years of service at Savannah Lakes this week.

Website hosting? Yes. New projects? Maybe.

I’m able to continue offering website hosting and management for my clients. I also have a limited amount of availability for small-scope work. My default posture is that I’m not able to take on anything urgent or large in scope, but I might be able to assist if things line up just right. No matter the changes in my career, one thing hasn’t changed: I’m always up for a chat to learn about what someone needs and point them in the right direction.

The future is bright.

Can you believe it? I didn’t mention ©0?|D to this point (except in the indirect, glancing way found in the second paragraph, and I think that’s about right. The details of our circumstances occasionally have great importance for our lives. More important than the direction the wind blows or the way the circumstances unfold, our lives are guided by our principles and the shape of our character. I am far from confident in my own abilities as “general manager” of the universe, my home, or my individual life. But I know who holds me firmly in his grasp.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!

~ Moses in Psalm 90