About every three years at work I get a new laptop computer. I just got a new one yesterday. For a computer guy, there is almost nothing sweeter than a shiny new PC. It’s a blank slate with all kinds of possibilities yet to be discovered.
The process of switching from one computer to another is anything but fun, though. Questions to address include: Did you get all the necessary files backed up? Will all the applications you used on the old PC work on the new one? How much time is it going to take to configure everything to be just the way you want it – enough like the old one for convenience in the transition, yet taking advantage of new features and capabilities the old one didn’t offer?
In setting up the new one over the past day, it feels like a fresh start. If there are old files and folders and applications I no longer care for or think I’ll need, now is the time to put them aside and make way for what the future holds. It’s the kind of feeling you get around New Years if you are in the habit of making resolutions and actually trying to keep them – out with the old, in with the new.
It’s rather nice that I’m doing this at the exact midpoint of the year. It’s giving me a midyear New Year’s – an unexpected new beginning.
I wonder if there are other aspects of life where it’s time to declare “out with the old – in with the new”? What about you?
Leap Year Lesson #178 is Give yourself a midyear New Year’s.
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