It is one thing to say you are going to do it and another to actually do it

When I am thinking of the Adopt the Driveway program, I think that as a team we failed this year. It is not that the driveways are not cleared. But there are some elements missing from how we are doing it that takes away many of the benefits that could have been realized from this program.

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There were too many times this year where someone cleared the driveway alone. No team building here.

I'm not aware of any SRKF member who is not IHC member (other than kids of...) that joined the shoveling effort. We did not inspire the kwoon to join.

There are only a handful of IHC members who actually went to shovel this year and many who did not even gone once. This imbalance in the team is not healthy.

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I would assume that it is not convenient for anyone to go and shovel. We are all busy and have our own agendas. But if as a team we signed up for this, understanding the benefit of helping elderly people with this, I would have expect that people would prioritize this and make more of an effort to help with shoveling.

As we are still in the midst of winter, I challenge everyone in the IHC to participate in this team effort. There is still a chance to make it a success.

Balance

Life is a balancing act. There are competing priorities for every single minute and every single energy we have. If we had one and only one priority, we would be doing it 24-7, getting REALLY good at it. But, we have multiple priorities and a limited time and limited energy resources and therefore we need to choose wisely what we do and when we do it.

Part of my decision this year was to progress at work into a different role. This new role requires me to put more effort into training and it also result in more time away from home. This time is not there for picking. There are consequences to this. It means I have less time for things I used to do.

What is important for me is that my values, what I consider the "non negotiable" activities, are not negatively affected.  As I said, this is a balancing act.

Fitness class

After a break of about 7 months, we had fitness class again. There was a very good turnaround for the first class of this seminar and as always- Sifu Masterson’s class was great.

It was hard and fun at the same time.

Working as a group

I love working in a healthy team. The power of a healthy team is greater than the sum of its parts. This is why there should be collaboration, idea sharing. acceptance within the team.

Teams like that inspire and motivates the team members to do more and to be able to produce more than what they would have by themselves. When I work in a team I strive to get to that. I really don't enjoy working in teams where there is no collaboration, where there is intimidation, where people tend to work alone.