Week 45, 2024 - Diary of a Revenue Engineer
Quote of the Week:
"Turn your wounds into wisdom."
- Oprah Winfrey
What I thought…
My first week back from PTO was a tough one! Mainly because it took me two working days to get back into the momentum and speed required to get things done at the current rhythm of work.
I had several insights, little wins and big losses this week - as is the want of life, and it’d foolish of me to not mention the tumultuous events of this week in the US election… but that’ll be it, that only mention.
Politics is not my thing and there’s approximately seven trillion opinion pieces about it all out there. This can be a safe space from it and a re-focus on the immediate.
So - how did this week go?
What I learned…
Somewhat on point this week, I’ve been really engaging in some great podcast content as well as continuing my progression work through binging on blinklist. I found Charles Duhigg’s “Faster, Smarter, Better” to be a bit bland and uninspiring, but the antidote was “Make Time” by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky - a new, albeit somewhat boomer approach to prioritisation. I found a few of the tips (why not put an internet blocker up to stop you going onto Facebook) and the rebranding of social media platforms to “infinity pools” a little staid, but a lot of the content was salient and applicable
I learned a metric shit tonne about politics and history by binging, with avid hunger the fine works of The Rest is Politics, both the UK and the US versions and following their coverage of the election on Youtube.
I’ve also been dragged into one of the best produced podcasts on Spotify, “How we fix this” with Alexander Skarsgard where I learned some frightening figures about the methane production of cattle in the beef industry.
It did get me thinking about the whole ecological process and the lack of green issues in pretty much any political race of late. I don’t understand how countries can burn and people can drown in floods and so-called “green” issues don’t even make it to the podium.
Perhaps the issue lies with the category itself? “Green issues” are now aligned and maligned by the same groups and the word is a type of stigma. In many ways similar to “Woke” as a term.
Perhaps the solution here is a good-old fashioned rebrand?
One way or the other, I’ll happily put down in writing here that even if it’s not financially attractive right now, I don’t see how saving the world by being more efficient won’t be a gold mine in the near future.
It maybe time to sharpen my pencil and step up to the fold.
What I built…
This week I focused on building a platform for my team to author their own futures.
Namely, by creating deeper opportunities to focus on their own skill sets and super powers.
This is probably the same for everyone, but I’m keenly aware that sales operations and enablement can easily become “inbound” functions, reacting to poorly communicated, already-launched initiatives, and busy work.
It’s both our function and our downfall. We catch all the items and the collateral and the training and process refinements that are required to support the sales team, but so much of it is reactionary and poorly measured.
So, this week - after a late night session thinking “How do we do better?” I decided that we have to either get busy on the work we are seeing as critical, or stay busy doing what other people want us to.
Happily, for me at the moment, we have a great culture and an opportunity to achieve both, but there is still a need for us to author our future and our success.
More and more I see organisations focused on ROI, quite rightly. Therefore, In this environment, you’d be foolish to not point your efforts and time towards those chunky initiatives that deliver the most tangible impact.
We’ll see where it leads, but I’ve asked the team to seek out those projects, speak to the teams and the managers, collater, create and curate a list of what can drive the best outcomes and then, I hope, we’ll get to making them happen.
How I lived longer…
Finally - I managed to get back on a more effective nutritional plan this week. It’s been a couple of weeks of indulgence with high work loads and some delightful PTO with the family - but a 2% increase in body fat over a three week period at 96kg is excessive. I make no apologies.
I re-read the overview and highlights of “The four-hour body” by Tim Ferris once more and decided to just ding white foods completely.
I reinvested in taking the time to make my own high protein, fish burgers (as is my want), and even re-comitted to an eight-hour “time restricted eating” plan.
On top of this, I also committed, fully, to the weeks exercise plan - with a slight increase in Zone 2 cardio compared to the usual HIIT.
All in all, I ended the week feeling about 10 years younger and much more motivated than ever before.
How I stayed happier…
I’ve struggled with this over the last few weeks. There are some things in my personal life that have been harder and harder to deal with of late and it’s been a struggle.
I won’t go into detail here, not yet, but suffice to say that balancing all the personas I’m looking to inhabit right now does not come without its costs and challenges.
I’ll write about this too, in due course, but I’m also battling with an addiction I didn’t even know I had. That may be strange to hear, but it’s true.
There’s been something secretly insidious in my life since I was about 12 years old and I’ve only come to realise it’s hold and impact on my very recently.
I’ll find the time and a way to work on it first, and I probably will write about it at some point, but right now it’s just good to be honest and say - I’m struggling.
I will say, however, that even struggling now, I’m in a much better place than I have been at other times in my life and I’m in no way broken, or sad, or held back. It’s just not super easy right now, and I’m okay with that.
Final Thoughts…
Overall, I’m struck with the ongoing challenges and hardships that are in the world right now. I’m struck how luck I am to be who I am, where I am, when I am.
I’m amazed at the opportunities and adventures that lie before me and I’m so… so fucking eager to get after it I wish I had a thousand years to do it all.
In lieu of that, however, I’ll just fill what I have with what I can.
