“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.
I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.
When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town.
I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself,
and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself,
I could have made an impact on my family.
My family and I could have made an impact on our town.
Their impact could have changed the nation and
I could indeed have changed the world.”-Unknown Monk, 1100 A.D.
Happy New Year!
I hope you got some downtime with family and friends and had time to reflect and rejoice on last year’s wins and refocus on this year’s goals.
If you follow MCFA, you know we have a big vision and focused mission. This week, we refreshed the team with our annual outlook. We talked about who we are, where we’ve been and where we are headed. We drew a picture of the company we aspire to become over the next 1, 3-5 and 10 years.
But what we really focused on was the theme of this year and the priorities of this quarter. At the end of the day, it’s hard to connect our daily actions to a fuzzy picture (for me, it’s crystal clear) in the future. Still, we can see how our day-to-day can impact the quarterly priorities and how the quarterly priorities nest with our annual goals.
Our theme for 2022 is “excellence.” Our priority for the quarter is “lead yourself first.”
Pretty basic, sure. But sometimes, the simplest things are the most powerful. Just as the poem above emphasizes focusing on improving ourselves before worrying about “changing the world,” at MCFA, we wanted to emphasize starting at the individual team member level to define excellence for ourselves. If we can all be a little more focused, a little more intentional, a little more excellent in our individual roles, then the collective impact will compound.
So, I challenge you to define what excellence looks like for you – individually – professionally and personally. If you could accomplish one thing in each of those parts of your life this year, what would they be? What could you accomplish this quarter to get yourself there? And while financial goals are appealing, I challenge you to impact a more important P&L, as I shared on LinkedIn this week.
Maybe you are looking to make a career change? Maybe you want to pivot to a new industry? Maybe you have an initiative that you haven’t been able to get off the ground? Maybe you want to focus on faith or fitness or family or fun? Whatever it is, write it down, make a plan and start executing that plan. If MCFA can help, in any way, get in touch with me – personal or professional – I am willing to help with a book, a word of encouragement, an introduction, a contract vehicle, a couch to 5K, a diet suggestion, etc. I’m happy to help anytime and in any way to make 2022 your best year yet.
Wishing you a fun, healthy, meaningful and impactful 2022. Let’s go!
BJ Kraemer, President