We’re just winding down from Graduation Day, and it’s the highlight of the year seeing our BSc, MSc & PhD students transition to alumni.  The sun even shone.

I’ve been struck over the last few days how many students aren’t taking time to celebrate this milestone – they are instead focusing on the next set of challenges: new jobs, next stage of education, continued job search and so on.  Life is a little like that, there’s always something else to do, another goal to achieve or problem to solve, and it can seem a little self-indulgent to sit back and bask for a while in the glow of success.

It reminds me of a Project Management training course that I attended a few years ago.  Project Managers tend to be task focussed; relentlessly driving towards the end of the project.  Unfortunately the people working on the project may not be, or may just be there for a particular phase, so the course emphasised the need to celebrate chunks of project, such as reaching a milestone.  This pause, albeit just for a long lunchtime, say, is difficult for the Project Manager, but necessary for everyone else.

So my word of wisdom for today is to stop and smell the roses, just for today, because tomorrow will be here soon enough.