In last week’s newsletter, I mentioned that coming next this quarter was a deeper look at how goals and expectations work together. This week, I want to begin that with something to celebrate and something to examine.
This summer I completed an outcome under Fosgail’s integrated planning goal to model sustainable and ethical practices. The result is that the Fosgail website now has a significantly reduced carbon footprint. It’s not a terribly dramatic achievement, but I thought it would make a small case study for revisiting goals and the value of ritual practices pertaining to goals.
Celebrating accomplishments is advice and encouragement I’ve received more than once over the past several years. Uncomfortable with sharing my success (isn’t that boasting?), and quick to move on to the next thing demanding my attention, I find it quite challenging to pause for celebration.
However, this pause to celebrate creates space. Space to name what we’ve achieved. Space to honor the outcome and the work that went into it. Space to reflect on the vision and the goals that inspired us. Space to trace how our expectations shifted and changed throughout the process as we faced challenges and setbacks. And space to close a chapter of our work with ritual and recognition before turning our mind to what comes next.
So, let me try this out. Pause with me to celebrate the redesigned, low-impact Fosgail website.
While Fosgail’s first website was light and built with Hugo, an open-source static site builder, it scored quite low on two carbon impact tests. In order to improve our score, I needed to migrate the website to a new theme. The theme I chose turned out to be a framework within Hugo, which meant reconfiguring a lot more files and front matter than I originally anticipated. What I had hoped would be a weekend project turned into five long days.
In spite of the hair-pulling moments, reducing the carbon impact of the Fosgail website was really important. Sustainable practice is one of our values. As a benefit LLC, I’m responsible for reporting every year on Fosgail’s impacts on the economy, the environment, and people. Aware that our website was failing the Ecograder test with a score of E (55 out of 100) was a greater source of frustration than the migration experience. We could do better. We needed to do better.
Although I was still a relative newcomer to using Hugo, I expected changing from one theme to another to be a relatively straightforward process. Once I discovered that my new theme was actually a framework, I had to adjust that expectation. As I continued to work with the new framework, I discovered that my expectations needed continual recalibration. What could be reused, how each page would look, if I could retain permalinks—these are all expectations that led me into distinct challenges to problem-solve.
Like most websites, the Fosgail site is a work in progress. It is far from perfect. However, it’s now scoring an A (86 out of 100) on Ecograder, with the most dramatic improvements in page weight and UX design. If you look at WebsiteCarbon.com, we improved from a C to an A+! And while I have a list of things I’d like to adjust, and features I’d like to add, for now we’ve succeeded in reaching our outcome to align the website with our sustainability values. And this is something to recognize and celebrate.
We’re quick to notice gaps when expectation and reality don’t match. We’re much slower to pause and intentionally notice when they do align. As I’ve become more aware of my own tendencies, I’ve wondered if that imbalance is jeopardizing our mental health. There is published research showing that insufficient rewards is one of six areas that can increase the risk of burnout.
When I finished migrating the website, I think I remember rewarding myself with a day of binge-reading a novel. However, this newsletter has served as a healthier ritual—a reflective pause that I find it difficult to allow myself. Yet through this pause, I’m able to see and appreciate the new website in a new way. Thank you for bearing witness to the space to name, to honor the outcome and the work, to reflect on the vision and goals, to trace the evolution of expectation, and to close with recognition.
My hope is that you will try this too. What’s one goal or outcome you’ve reached this year? How might you celebrate it? What might you notice about your achievement within the space that this kind of pause creates?