In today’s fast-paced world, there’s a lot of talk about finding balance in life. For myself, it can feel like there’s immense pressure to maintain perfect balance every moment of every day, and if I don’t, it often feels like I’m failing. This perceived failure can lead to even more imbalance as we scramble to fix things, much like the chaotic factory line scene in the classic “I Love Lucy” episode.

When we sat down to define our core values, we started with a long list. As we worked to refine it, we realized that many values were actually distillates of others. For example, we see honesty as a distillate of integrity. This led us to focus on identifying root values that drive all the others. That’s how we arrived at the concept of Impact.

In the fast-paced world of IT, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s truly important. We all have core values, but the daily hustle can lead us to forget them or make small compromises that steer us off course. I face this challenge too.

There are countless resources on setting priorities, defining values, and maintaining focus. The key is to distill our focus down to specific, core elements and ensure everything aligns with these values. We must clearly define what is valuable to us and ensure every action ties back to that focus.