I have just one New Year’s Resolution for 2017: I’m going to hit pause for some amount of time on a daily basis. No social media, no devices, no to-do that must be done. Just being in the world for some amount of time every day and letting my mind sit in the quiet space of its own thoughts. In his new book, Thank You for Being Late, Tom Friedman says, “When you hit pause on a machine it stops. When you hit pause on a person, we start.” Tom Friedman is one of the writers and thinkers whom I admire most in the world. The pause is a gift; it’s where we bring together disparate ideas, where we figure out how we think and feel given everything we’ve seen, heard, and experienced.
2017 marks 10 years since I graduated from my MBA program at Darden. It’s been a decade of tremendous change for me, personally and professionally. In 2007, I never could have predicted how my life would change in these 10 years, or how the world would change in that time. And the rate of change is only accelerating. As much change as this decade has held for me, I’m sure the next decade will hold even more. To make the most of that change, to really understand and respond intelligently to what’s happening, the pause is necessary. And I’m very much looking forward to it.
Christa Avampato 