A year lived day by day

This year, unlike last year, I chose not to make an overall review, it’s been a really tough year and I’d rather not put myself in front of the question: was it a shitty year or a chocolate one?

Throughout 2021, I’ve remained more true than ever ( in fact, I should say clung to!) my natural pragmatic tendency: see each day for what it is, not all good, not all bad, and in any case always lived to the fullest. 

However, wanting to end the year with the healthy habit of budgets and good intentions, I’ve tidied up a bit and put on the table everything that, for better or worse, I feel right to share here with you: the things I want to trash, the things I want to celebrate and a few promises, which I declare because a promise with you is a promise with myself that I am obliged to keep.

So here are three summarized year-end “lists”.

Seven things that I throw in the trash

I’m starting from the garbage can because, you know, I love downfalls that work out to rebirths, and to make that happen you need a certain order, you need to start from the bottom, from the hole….

1. The overabundance, or rather the excess, of superficial information which, when it is superficial, turns into tumbleweed. The classic dry rolling bush of western movies that in Italian is called “rotolacampo” or “ruzzolacampo” (a much nicer name). But let’s dwell a second on its definition: ” Vegetal growth typical of some species of plants that, once mature, detach themselves from their roots and roll pushed by the wind, a process that allows the plant to spread its seeds”. Superficial information, thanks also to the current dissemination channels, is a tumbleweed… it is up to us to commit ourselves to stop this uncontrolled rolling!

• The bad use of words and here I mention only the one that most shocked me: dictatorship. Are you serious? (If you are, maybe it would be well worth taking a tour of other places on the planet…).

• The trend – which is not so much of a trend, maybe it’s more of a tradition now – of stealing ideas from others and with the F.L.A.A.

• The trend – and this is a trend for real – of making people work on a project for nothing, and here I won’t dwell on the amount of projects and proposals submitted that ended up in the Swamp of Let’s SeeMakeDo (I want to imagine that at least one place where all this work finds a home is there…). Suffice it to say that over the course of 2021, this trend has reached levels worthy of important considerations and, above all, has led me to find practical and productive solutions. We will give it a big push!

• Mindfulness experts in suits, starched shirts, and sometimes with ties. Again? Really???

• Nostalgic leadership experts living anchored to a world that no longer exists. And here I deliberately indulge: not to a world that has changed, but to a world that just isn’t there anymore! Can one be a leader of something that no longer exists? And above all, can one, as a leader, not be aware of it? Perhaps it really is time to open our eyes and move our butts.

• The advocates of sustainability that lies outside…Who in my eyes are as anachronistic as the Leaders of the WorldThatDoesn’tExist, today we know that sustainability is a concept that not only has to do with the environment, in order to concern the environment first it has to concern the human being, his relationships with others and with all of the creation that surrounds him … And with this I mean, let’s try to go a little ‘beyond Greta Thumberg, right? I think it might be worth looking at things a little more closely! 

Eleven things I will raise my glass for:

1. My hens, who confirm that they like the luxury of the new hen house, are happy, well, and certainly enjoying life and the 32 (!) chicks they have hatched this year. 

• A lot of projects have been successful, and among these I can’t help but mention the books that are always a huge effort but are among those things that I think are really worth the effort. Among these, the hardest work of all was writing Il Team Invisibile (available in audiobook ) to which, however, certainly deserves the credit for having created the space for a topic that is close to my heart and that I have been wanting to talk about for a long time.

• The recruitment as a speaker, arrived thanks to “Il Team Invisibile” but not only, which took me to different companies and contexts to share, exchange views and above all work on the concept of team from new perspectives. (Hurray, hurray!!!)

• Ornitorianna, whom I thank and toast to for the fourth year in a row! And this year, there’s one more reason to celebrate her: she had the honor of being a “Rare Disease Cheerleader” for the Rare Disease Observatory’s (OMaR) #therareside campaign. 

• A new workspace also at home in which to welcome partners, clients and suppliers for a meeting, and, if necessary, a stay in the scent of the countryside. Creativity feeds on lateral thinking, which in turn needs to reconnect with the essence, and, there’s little you can do about it, the essence inhabits nature.

• The agency, Sports&Beyond that has grown (and, let me tell you, even despite points three and four on the previous list!). I’m also toasting because it’s good to remember that dreams are desires that, if translated into goals, lead to something good.

• Even in Veneto they are admitting 😉 that I exist and that my work reality exists. After eleven years, it seems that we are finally managing to be prophets in our own region (and not only prophets in Lombardy).

• Elizabeth Gilbert who freed me from a chain by making it possible for me to look at a great disappointment with renewed eyes (see also point three of the previous list). Thanks to her, and to her book Big Magic, I learned that if I am not really ready to develop an idea, that idea now exists and wants to live so it will go looking for someone who can give it life: in short there is no one who steals but there is an idea that moves to be able to see the light. 

• A new small piece of knowledge: if I died tomorrow having cleaned and tidied my house would be one of the things I would be happy about. There’s nothing to it, I live well in cleanliness. This awareness, in practice, leads me to stop listening to those who tell me “Forget it, if you died tomorrow you wouldn’t regret not having cleaned!” because now I know that they are wrong. Never forget that, after having listened to others, it is important to go back to listening to yourself, to put things in order and see if there is harmony between points of view.

• A great new awareness: mindfulness steps really do improve lives, no matter from where and in what sphere, BUT most importantly, after a certain amount of mileage, we fill a pantry inside of us that allows us to slow down or even curb the need for new awareness, and if necessary can keep us going with automatic driving (thanks Mark Manson!).

• COURAGE, which, speaking of awareness, was confirmed again this year as a tool that is never missing from my toolbox: an ally I can always count on. Not bad at all!

And now for the best part! In keeping with my promise to you (and me), a few promises.

Five promises I make at the mirror:

• In the new weekly plan there will be more space and time for reading and writing and an hour a day of walking.

• I will return to travel as-God-(or Marianna)-commands.

• Once the weight of disappointment and nervousness has been dumped, I will focus on projects I care about with optimism, confidence and tenacity.

• Whatever hole comes my way (should it happen), I’ll welcome it, maybe even cursing it… and then settle in just long enough to figure out how to get out of it.

• I’ll be writing a trilogy of Ornitorianna on the themes of falling, doing, celebrating. The first one is already in the pipeline and will be ready in March… When exactly I’ll reveal it to you along with a super project that will combine my two souls, sports and the platypus with the red bow on his head 😉 

For now, all you need to know is that the date is iconic!

Okay, now I’m really done…and how is your 2021 wrapping up? I wish you all the best in carving out some time to enjoy your end-of-year budgets, so that they can have the importance they deserve while creating space and fertile ground for all that is yet to come! And what better time is there to take some quality time than Christmas? If it snows even better.

So Let it go and Let it snow! 🎶  😉

Happy New Year and a happy beginning! 🥰

Il mio regalo di Natale per voi è Holly Dolly:

Mmhmm

Ah huh

Mmhmm

Christmas is a time for caring

Being at your best

Christmas is a time for sharing

Knowing you’ve been blessed

Christmas is a time for giving

Love is made of this

That’s what Christmas is

Christmas is a joyful time

If you’re the lucky ones

…

It’s all about kindness

Love and compassion

Better to give than receive

That is a true fact

…

‘Cause that’s what Christmas is

Is a time for caring

Being at your best

Christmas is a time for sharing

Knowing you’ve been blessed

Christmas is a time for giving

Love is made of this

That’s what Christmas is

Mmhmm, mmhmm, mmhmm

That’s what Christmas is