Support Systems, Part Four

When I think about how to build a support system for my personal life, I’m immediately struck by how I have to show up better. 

I want to be the kind of person that knows when every friends’ birthday is, and who goes out of their way to send a special birthday message. In reality, though, I am terrible at this. I constantly forget birthdays. I am the queen of “Happy Belated!” 

One way to get better at this is to build a proper birthday list, similar to the list I use for Christmas cards.

I learned this trick early in my career when I worked for an executive who sent some two hundred Christmas cards to various personal and business contacts. 

Aside from investing in and celebrating the people I care about most, I also want to reconnect with the interests and hobbies that I’ve somehow let lapse. 

Early in my career when I worked in Swiss timepieces, I became deeply interested in horlogerie and unique watches. Over time, though, I let this interest go dormant. Several months ago I went to a watch enthusiast event in Frankfurt and had a wonderful time.

It was a great reminder that you have to water what you want to grow - in this instance, an interest, but also talents like playing tennis or learning an instrument, or a craft like poetry writing or watercolor painting. 

So that’s it, in terms of my personal support systems, I think the onus is first on me to invest in the people and interests that I care most about, in order to ensure that they grow with me in the coming years.