I was reminded this week of the value of catching up. As I write this, I am approaching the end of the year and it has been quite hectic to say the least. Brad, one of my prior colleagues at Intel reached out over LinkedIn and we agreed to meet for coffee. So I set off across town without any idea of what we would talk about.
As usual it was great to meet up with an old friend, but this turned out to be so much more. We shared what was on our minds and talked candidly about the ups and the downs. This was an open conversation without any underlying agenda. The conversation flowed wherever we allowed it to go. And it was fun to take a break from our hectic schedules.
What’s The Big Deal?
You may be thinking, well that all sounds nice and doesn’t Andy have anything more interesting to write about? As it turns out, this was much more than a conversation. It provided the opportunity for me to step back and reflect how things were going. What did I want to share with Brad from the previous year? What plans did I have for the next one? How about Brad, what had he been up to?
As I reflected on it afterwards, it was a time of deep reflection and introspection. It reminded me of what I had written about joy. Appreciating those special moments that come up every day. Our conversation wasn’t earthshattering, but the act of both being present and engaged made it special. It would have been so easy to skip it through lack of available time. After all, I could have gotten some things done that I would have to spend time later completing. My to do list would have been shorter and I would have been worse off for the experience.
Missing Conversations
I am writing this as a note to myself of all the other conversations I’ve missed of late. During my time at Intel, I rarely set aside any time for these kind of conversations. How sad. I was missing out on catching up. Which leads me to my takeaway. What conversations are you missing? I am going to reach out to two other friends once I am done here, what about you?
Hey Andy – Happy New Year! I love this post and in my 26+ yrs at Intel, find myself intentionally taking dedicated time to set up “catch up” conversations, and realize the HIGH value they bring to both me and whomever is sitting across the table from me (sometimes 2+ folks knowing we are all missing this experience). The pandemic exacerbated the longing for these “catch up” convo’s and your post reminded me of how important these conversations are in a world where we are moving fast and stopping to smell the roses is a feel good moment! Thank you!
Hi Laurie, It is so good to hear from you and I wish you a very happy New Year! I wish I was as wise as you, and invested more time simply catching up during my time at Intel. I hope the people around you are noticing how valuable this is. 😉