Daryl Hunter – Hubby, Daddy, Mentor, Friend

Let's take a quick break from the typical techno mumbo jumbo…

I'm a fairly goals-driven person.  I am a high achiever and "compete" with myself to become better at my career (technology) and become a better leader. For the last several years many people I admire and trust have been employing the @chrisbrogan "Three Words" philosophy in their life. I've watched them have laser focus on their families and careers.  And I wanted to experiment this year to see if it could help me gain focus.

Here are my 3 words for 2010 – Read, Share, Play.

Read
I love to read.  I read a lot.  I read "funny" books, I read blogs, I read trade magazines, I read my Bible, I read Inspirational / Motivational books, I read Leadership books.  This year I will read 40 Inspirational / Leadership books.  More than anything, I want 2010 to be a time when reading is more than just something I "do" but something I'm always looking for.  I'm "okay" at this, but want to be better.  I always want to learn more.

One area to be careful here – for me – is hoarding that information.

I recently read a statement by a philosopher named Publilius Syrus that helped me understand this more clearly.  He wrote "it is no profit to have LEARNED well if you neglect to DO well."  This year I will DO well.

Share
That leads us nicely to my next word – Share.  I am looking to "share" my gifts and talents and knowledge more readily this year.  I have a tendency to be a data nazi.  I love data.  I love "updates."  I love learning more and more and more.  When asked, I will share – but THIS year I want to be more proactive with that.  I want to have a mental capacity to process my learning with a "oh, so and so might enjoy that" – and then follow through and share that.  No, I won't be espousing technical diatribe if it's not wanted.  I will be nice about it.  I want 2010 to be the year I'm thinking more about what I can "share" based on my learning. I'm hoping this bleeds over into the opportunity to invest more in a few specific people in my life.  I want to find an active and fulfilling volunteer role at my local Church where I can use the things I'm good at.

Play
This one is very important to me.  For those of you that only come here for random techno stuff, I'm married to a great gal and have 3 boys.  Nathan is 4 1/2 and is a trip.  He's very smart and really into numbers and math and learning.  He's mini me.  Jacob is 3 and is our monster boy.  He's VERY into Monster trucks, and cars, and animals (dinosaurs especially) and loves to play with his LITTLE brother.  The baby is Andrew – he's 8 months old (Born 5/5/09).  He's developing very fun gross motor skills.  He's crawling all over – hard to keep up with.  His newest trick is pulling up on everything.

Over the last 15 years, I've forgotten how to play.  I know that sounds silly.  There was a time when playing is all I did.  In the last 15 years, I've cut my hair (don't ask), got real jobs and traveled the world, went to rehab, went to college, went to grad school, went to Seminary, and for the last 7 years have focused my career on serving the Church doing non-profit IT work.  I'm a leader and a geek and very focused on being "better" at that.  But, I'm learning more and more that I don't know how to play with my kids.  This year I'm going to do better.  I've already become VERY acute of my attitude on this – and have taken time to play games, and do stuff they like, and generally just hang out with them.  It's hard because I'm a grown up and they are kids and we don't have much in common.  Don't judge me – this is hard for me!  :)  I'm REALLY looking forward to growing in this area and I hope that those of you that know me in real life will ask me how I'm doing with this  and keep me on track.

So – there you go.  Read, Share, Play.  That's my focus in 2010.

What's yours?