Many of you know I graduated from ND with a BBA in accounting and quite a few of you conclude I do accounting for a living. Some of you who are familiar with the career path are thinking maybe I’m an auditor, but based on some of the questions I receive or the assumptions I’ve heard being made, I’d say the bulk of you have no idea what I do :) which is ok! because the majority of you are not in business and because I love explaining and sharing what I do. For those who do know, skip the next paragraph, for those who don’t here’s high level intro of what I do do. 

Far from being the traditional accountant you see in movies, my area of expertise is in Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A from here on now) and process improvements. Think of FP&A as the process of putting together and analyzing the organization’s long term financial strategy. The teams I’ve worked with focus on understanding the organization’s operations, future business strategies, and the economics of the industry. Using said knowledge we work on developing budgets or forecasts, aka - we plan the organization’s future financial performance. You get to be involved in calculating the monetary impact of potential business decisions, you become a business partners to all non-finance people and above all you get to do all sorts of analytics to advise and support business leaders. It’s fun, it’s challenging, and it’s primarily forward looking. Meaning, we focus on the future, on what’s to come, and how to prepare for it. 

However, I do want to highlight the word primarily, because every good accountant/analyst knows that in order to look forward, we must have a full understanding of what happened in the past. How did we get to where we are (aka our new starting point)? Were the actual results and performance of the organization for the prior period far off from what we had previously predicted? If so, what drove the variances and how do we address them going forward? If you think about it, one needs to understand how they got to the present before they can design a strategy to go forward. So - before we do the forewarding looking work, we analyze the past or at least partner with those who focus on the past (aka accounting, closing the books, etc) to understand what happened and how that'll drive the future.

Anyway, this intro is getting long, I brought this up because I wanted people to understand why I took the bulk of Jan to reflect and meditate on what was of 2016. Having taking lessons from the hard times, understanding how I could handle those situations different, and what drove the best parts of 2016 helped me come up with my plan and goals for 2017. 

So without further a do…my 2017 goals/themes

Do more things that make us happy as a family 

(aka don’t drag Kiki to things that require her to sit in one place for long periods of time)

Spend more time outdoors

(As soon as I went back to work, my time outdoors dropped to practically nil. No explanation required as to why this is beneficial and why I’d want to get back to it)

Get back to working out

(It’s no about weight or looks. It's about health & endorphins.. but also I need to be able to open heavy doors and pick up luggage, it’s getting embarrassing)

Work in something that’s fulfilling and challenging but also a building block in my career

(This isn’t all figured out, need to figure out what/how my career moves forward from here. Expect a blog on this.. maybe two)

Focus on the  positives and the happy moments parenting brings 

(the hard times are many, often, and felt strong. But brewing in their negativity and letting nostalgia of our old life only makes me feel more guilty and worse for wanting my life back - expect blogs on this)

Stop wishing or thinking of what could have been - embrace the life we’ve been given/chosen

(blogs to come)

Do something for myself more often - Be more selfish

Live, Laugh, Love

Honestly, I just want 2017 to be a better year than last and by better I mean, where smiles outnumber tears by the thousands. This list is just my way of making sure I do everything in my power to make it feel that way and to remind me that if that power is taken away, then I embrace what is given to me and make the best out of it.