New Thing 38, New Thing Every Day -- Learn to Write My Name in Chinese

Okay, so this was a really easy one, but it is still new to me, and I learned something.  Now, maybe I should get this as a tattoo?

New Thing 37, New Thing Every Day -- Write a Note to a Company I Like

What I tried to do for this New Thing was identify a company that make a major impact on my life. Facebook certainly would have qualified, but I felt like they are so big that it would not have mattered. I chose Schnucks, and they still may be too big, but it felt closer to home, and they definitely make a huge impact on my life. It felt good to thank the CEO for the store's role in my life.

New Thing 36, New Thing Every Day -- Use a Financial Calculator

I had something totally different planned for today -- something that now gets pushed to next week. Instead of that unnamed thing, I chose to make using a financial calculator my new thing because it really did happen, and it really is new for me.

My dad was an engineer and had to use everything from a slide rule to a fancy calculator, but I have never had a need for anything more than the basics, and we have our laptops and phones and whatever for that now. I am taking college-level finance, though, as part of my effort to get an MBA, and we actually need financial calculators. Would you believe it actually cost almost $70.00? I suppose that is nothing, compared to what it would have cost 30 years ago, and I am betting that not many are sold today, so surely that keeps the price a little higher than the technology is actually worth.

So now I have my financial calculator, and I used it to do today's homework, and hopefully I will need it off and on, over the next three years of my MBA.

New Thing 35, New Thing Every Day -- Write a Letter to Myself, 30 Years in the Future

Here are 10+ things about Writing a Letter to Myself, 30 Years in the future.

1. The letter was written over three days. 
2. The letter is written to myself in 30 years because that is the day I have decided to officially retire. Yes, writing the letter made me think that through and make that decision.
3. By retirement, I mean retirement from any title -- regional director, CEO, etc. -- I will still lots of projects, though.
4. Sometimes I confused myself as I wrote, thinking of my self writing today, and reading in 30 years.
5. My MS is not mentioned in the letter. I decided that it is just not important enough in my life.
6. Should I share it with people? It could have gone either way, but I finally decided yes. As we know, I am a sharer.
7. Writing the letter was totally fun and I think you should do it. The process really made me give some serious, structured thought to who I try to be.
8. At one point, I considered writing about a bunch of the things I will have done by the time I hit 76 -- specific travel, business things, etc. -- but I decided against it. In a way, doing that felt liiting; my plan is for the next 30 years to exceed my wildest expectations.
9. Of course, Leigh would have to figure prominently in a letter like this.
10. When I read this letter in 30 years, I hope I smile and I hope it helps me keep moving forward and accomplishing things.

Here is the letter. What kinds of things would you want to say to yourself in 30 years?

Saturday, February 4, 2017

To be read Tuesday, November 27, 2046

Dear Future Sean,

Today, you are 76 years old. Good job! My hope is that you are planning a day surrounded by family and friends. It is also your retirement day, and the next day of the rest of your life. Do your best to make the most of it.

When you finish reading this letter, be sure to go give Leigh a hug and a kiss. Nothing you have done, nothing you have accomplished, would have been possible without her. However much time the two of you have – as you head toward your 40^th anniversary, next year – recommit today to making the most of it. For the over 40 years that you have known her, she has made every day better. She is the best thing that has ever happened to you.

Part of me really wants to just ask you a bunch of questions, but you can’t answer, and I wouldn’t really want the answers, anyway. I would not want you to tell me the mistakes I am going to make, because then I would avoid them and not get the lessons.

So I guess what I will do is make some predictions and we will se how they turn out. Worst case scenario, making the predictions will help clarify where I want to be in 30 years, give me some things to shoot for, and maybe make it more likely that reality will meet ambition.

In 30 years, here are the things I want people to say about me.

·               Sean was awfully nice to me.

·               Sean made me feel valued.

·               Sean made me laugh.

·               Sean made the world a better place.

·               Sean failed plenty, but he always got back up.

·               I am really glad I invested in Sean’s projects. He made me a lot of money.

·               Sean really made a splash in this life.

Today, I look back over 46 years of life and there is very little that I miss. For good or bad, I just do not hold on to things. I move on, focusing on today and tomorrow, leaving yesterday behind. In 30 years, I think the short list of things I miss will include my dad (Mom will just be 108, so she will still be around); my grandmothers (never really knew my grandfathers); and a handful of family and friends who have passed. Really, that’s about it. There is not a single possession or job or anything else that I miss. I want to just keep moving forward.

You know this, but as a reminder, I would like to mention some of the key things that have gotten you through 76 years as one of the happiest people I know.

·               Nothing was ever as bad or as good as a lot of folks thought it would be.

·               Dating is the best way to move forward from a broken heart. Everything is like that. Always force yourself to move forward.

·               Every day, just do your best. Give it your all. That's plenty.

·               It is my responsibility to make myself happy.

·               More "we" and "ours"; less "I" and "Mine".

·               Set high goals and take happiness from the striving, regardless of result.

·               Time and experience have shaped how we emotionally respond; so we have the power to shape ourselves for good.

·               To accomplish big things, figure out the little steps and get started.

·               As long as I am alive, I am winning.

·               I don’t do regret.

With that, I think I am going to leave it. You have a big day ahead of you, and a big rest of your life. You got to where you are by keeping the looking back to a minimum, so this is enough for today. Enjoy your party. Enjoy what’s next. Be nice. Make the world better.

Sincerely,

Sean C. Spence (46 Years Old)

P.S.            Tell Leigh I said hi. I feel sure you will agree that she is the best thing that ever happened to us.

New Thing 34, New Thing Every Day -- Look Up 10 Things Using Wikipedia's Random Article Function

Did you even know that Wikipedia has a "Random Article" function? That is one of the great things about my New Thing Every Day project; it is the only reason I know about Random Article. So, for my project, I looked up 10 articles and read about them. Honestly, I did not learn very much that will ever be useful to me, but it was still fun. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that the randomness actually shared the names of two soccer players with me. Weird.

Check it out when you have some time to kill.

1. Birdbrook Road Nature Reserve
2. Suffosion
3. Karyoklepty
4. Pak Sadat Colony
5. Paisley (design)
6. Drill Shed, Fortitude Valley
7. Serginho (footballer, born 1984)
8. Sinornithosaurus
9. Teridian Semiconductor
10. Ayo Saka

New Thing 33, New Thing Every Day -- Attend a Columbia Chamber Government Affairs Committee Meeting

I have attended an awfil lot of Columbia Chamber meetings over the the course of my life, dating back to about 1994, but today was my very first Government Affairs meeting. It was co-chaired by Heather Hargrove and Jerry Dowell and I thought they did a really good job.

I like the mission of the committee, which is basically to educate chamber members about issues that are important to them. For several years, they endorsed candidates, but it turned out they were pretty bad at that, and endorsed lots and lots of people who lost. So they angered huge portions of chamber membership -- those who did not agree with the endorsements -- and got basically nothing back to show for it. The education mission is definitely serving them better, and I think it will continue to.

My guess is that I will not be going to many future meetings because I have plenty of things to do, but I may go back from time to time, if something interesting is going on.

New Thing 32, New Thing Every Day -- Watch One of the "Real Housewives" Shows

I feel very sheltered. Somehow, I have managed to live 46 years without seeing any more than about a minute of any of the "Real Housewives" shows. Today, I have remedied this deficit in my life. Here are the thoughts that went through my mind, watching the show, as I had them.

1. The women I know do not dress like this.
2. Many of the men I know do dress like this.
3. So much cleavage.
4. These people sure have a lot of money.
5. I like the word "frenemy".
6. Sex toy business?!?
7. The way the people in this show talk is very different than the way I talk (the sound and nuance of the language).
8. Okay, we are moving into a scene where these people are totally going to have sex. This is an example of why I will never get a reality TV show.
9. Are there really business people who dress like this in the office? I like it!
10. I want to start waving my finger in people's faces when I talk.
11. This one woman is definitely an attorney like I have never seen before.
12. Hammer pants!
13. Goodness! That one guy hit that other guy,
14. "How do you keep it lit in the bedroom?" Really, I don't know.
15. So much boy-girl drama.