Holidays are a great time to “Press the Reset Button On Your Life.” Whether you’re taking time off for Christmas, or protesting for a more inclusive holiday season free from religion, the fact is, that people are socializing, spending time with family, or on vacation. Other than the service industry, things do slow down, and this presents an opportunity to revisit your priorities, plan for the upcoming year, and reflect on the concluding year:

1. Refine and validate that your goals are still aligned with your values. Call it New Year resolutions or what you may, goals are important because it gives you milestones to track your progress. A healthy balance of long-term strategic goals and short-term quick wins can help you monitor your success. Reflect on what has worked and what hasn’t worked in 2008 and what you can do differently in 2009.
2. Revisit and prioritize your commitments. In a world of limited resources, primarily time and money, we have to ensure that we’re committing our resources to what’s working and reduce or eliminate to what’s not. This means evaluating what social networks you belong to, whether it be virtual (twitter, facebook) or real (clubs, associations), and determine the time and resources you are committing to each. Are you putting in too much effort for little return? If so, consider eliminating that from your commitment and focus your energies on the ones that are providing you a healthy return (more contacts, personal satisfaction, conversations).
3. Secure your life though financial independence and adequately insuring it. Take the steps needed to financial peace of mind. If you’re not there yet, try Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps. This means saving for an emergency fund, paying off debt aggressively (if you have debt), and taking steps to save for retirement (never to late or never too early). Also don’t forget to make sure that you’ve adequately insured yourself to prevent catastrophic losses. This includes home insurance or renter’s insurance, adequate insurance for autos, particularly for bodily harm, and flood/fire/etc as relevant in your geographic location. The more you have, the greater you have to lose, so protect yourself accordingly.

Regardless of the amount of reflection, planning, and prioritization, be thank for for what we have. In these tough economic times, we’re lucky to have a job, a roof over our heads, and a warm meal. Things can be worse, and they are for 95% of the world.

What else are you doing to prepare for the new year?

$700B to the financial sector. $25B to the auto makers. A couple billion here and a couple billion there. At the national and federal level, decisions are made that affect millions and cost billions. At the local level, say city and county, decisions affects thousands and costs thousands to hundreds of thousands to a few million tops. It can be as simple as where to transplant a tree to how far back from the curb should the property be.

“When you choose to serve — whether it’s your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood — you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That’s why it’s called the American dream.”

Lessons Learned

I recently applied for and was appointed to the City of Davis Finance and Budget Commission. As a commissioner, I review technical finance and budgeting issues that the city faces and make recommendations to the City Council. Here is what I’ve learned so far:

1. Local government is very low level work. The issues that face local government does not have the same appeal as national issues. It includes how much to budget for fire and police services and whether to fund another fire station. However, local government is where the real action happens. It’s where the Billions from the federal government finally get spent and effect positive (or negative) change.
2. Participating can be very rewarding. While participating in local government for a small city won’t give you the press that most politicians get or even A-list bloggers get, it can be very rewarding. Decisions made and recommendations presented affect people. This is real change down to the lowest level.
3. It’s great on the job training. Where else can you learn about development impact fees, the city budgeting process, or financial forecasting but actually see it and experiencing it. True, most of my undergraduate and graduate courses have already covered these topics, however, seeing it first hand is something else. Depending on how you participate, it can provide subject matter knowledge and experience.
4. People you meet are well established. Local government is typically resourced by experienced and well established people. There are also very many 20-somethings in prominent local government positions including City Council, Mayors, and County Executives.

photo credit: Chuckumentary

How to Participate

There are many ways to participate in local government above and beyond voting. Here are just a few ideas.

• Sign up for President-Elect Obama’s “America Serves“
• Visit your city’s website and search for appointed positions, such as commissions, committees, or work groups
• Volunteer for local city services such as libraries, public safety, parks
• Run for office
• Attend city council meetings
• Attend public meetings for transit agencies
• Make sure that government is open
• Find resources at change.org
• What other ideas do you have? Post them in the comments below.

Since joining the commission, I’ve found that the lessons learned, connections made, and reward are many fold. Not only does participating returns positive results, it affects the community you live in and the lives of those around you.

Brazen Careerist, an online community known as the career center for Generation Y, recently revamped its site and make it more socially interactive. It started as a network of 50 beta bloggers and has grown to over 350 20-something, Gen-Y bloggers (I joined in May 2008). First off, congrats to the BC team for their hard work and how far they’ve gone and how far they’ll continue moving forward.

What is amazing about the site/community is the commonality shared among the entrepreneurial members. Each member brings unique aspects of their young, yet accomplished careers. For example, I met Allie, a public relations and social media analyst who had a great podcast interview with Blagica, an Internet Marketing consultant. Earlier today, I had a brief phone conversation with Clara, a recent MBA grad and we bounced ideas on social media marketing. We exchanged over twitter. Additionally, I wrote a post on experience and political careers and referenced Jen who now writes for change.org on Women’s Rights. This goes on and on and on.

I look forward to future opportunities and doors opening by remaining active in the community.