My Goals for 2010
I saw a quote today that got me thinking… The quote was “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” I love quotes! Sometimes they are cheesy or corny or common, but the ones that stick with you are little bits of wisdom that can permeate the mind and change your perspective.
A little later in the day I read a blog post by one of my favorite Twitter buddies, @CouchSurfingOri, who listed out his goals (- NOT resolutions) for the year and what he was going to do to achieve those goals. Between the quote this morning and Ori’s blog post, I was inspired to set down my 2010 goals here in my blog and start working to achieve them. So, here goes… (by the way, these are in no particular order)
Toastmasters:
- I plan to earn my Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB). Earning the ACB entails giving a total of ten speeches from two Advanced Communicator Manuals (five from each manual). I have ordered and received two manuals already. The first is the Public Relations manual and the second is Communicating On Television. I chose the Public Relations manual because I am the Vice President of Public Relations for both of my clubs and because being able to get the message out about anything is of key importance to my plans for the future. I chose Communicating on Television because I would like to turn my podcast into a video podcast in 2011 (if not before) and don’t want to look like a fool when I do so.
- I plan to earn my Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB). To earn this award I will need to conduct two programs from the Successful Club Series or the Leadership Excellence Series. I ordered two books from the Successful Club Series: Finding New Members for Your Club and The Toastmasters Educational Program. I decided on these two because both of my clubs are having membership issues. I thought these might be the best two for helping to recruit more members.
School
- Complete my dissertation proposal. I have two classes scheduled with my dissertation mentor to do just this. I plan to submit my proposal in the Fall and start working on the project in January once the proposal has been approved. My mentor assures me that this is a reasonable timeline that will not cause me undue stress. I told my mentor that I wanted to get through the dissertation process with my health, my sanity, and my marriage intact. My husband says he agrees and approves of the priority listing.
Work
- Teach 12 Video Webinars this year. I enjoy doing webinars for my coworkers on new or better ways to use Microsoft SharePoint 2007 to create and maintain our corporate intranet. To achieve this goal I will:
- Schedule dedicated time to work on and prepare these webinars
- Conduct a survey of my customers to find out what topics they most want to have covered
- Advertise these webinars in advance of each one so that we get good attendance at each one.
- Start an educational blog. I plan to post weekly articles that will answer questions and give tips and tricks to help our site administrators maintain their sites in an efficient and effective manner. To achieve this goal I will:
- Schedule time to research & write articles each week
- Survey my site administrators to find out what questions they have so that I can write articles that address these issues
- Advertise each posting with our site administrators so that they are aware of this new resource
Life
- Meeting health-related challenges. I have had some recent medical challenges that need to be met and overcome. This includes issues with my blood sugar levels dropping dangerously low due largely to a poor diet following gastric bypass surgery. To meet this goal I will:
- Consult with an endocrinologist to try to regulate my insulin secretions
- Consult with a nutritionist to start eating healthier food and developing better eating habits
- Schedule time to exercise regularly
- Spending quality time with my husband and dogs. I need to make sure that I am spending quality time on my relationships and the most important relationships I have right now are with my husband and dogs. They all rely on me for love and nurturing and I need to make sure they are taken care of. To achieve this goal I will:
- Schedule a date night with my husband so we can have some quality time alone together doing fun, relaxing, or adventurous activities
- Spend time playing with my dogs every day and when possible, take them with me when I exercise.
- Turn StudentTech into a weekly audio podcast. Last year I did three episodes of this podcast but did not lay out a schedule of time or topics for further episodes. To achieve this goal I will:
- Set up a list of topics to cover each week using Google Wave
- Schedule time to write and record a podcast each week
- Try to find people who want to be guests on podcasts in order to change things up a bit
That’s all that comes to mind right now. Do you have any suggestions for other goals I could add to the list? How about ideas for methods to achieve the goals I listed above? Please comment or connect with me on Twitter.
Image Credits:
The Goals poster was found on Drop and Give Me 20 … Pages! using Google Images.
The Chapter One image was found on A Plethora of Positive Energy using Google Images.
The Healthy Food photo was found on Mom-Going-Organic-Sensibly.com using Google Images.
Catherine, it was good to finally ready your blog. Something I have meant to do a long time ago but never got to. I got to know you more from the About page and your goals for 2010 is admirable. You have a lot going on. Your goals inspire me to write down my own in my pending first post of 2010.
Let me know if and how I can help you with some of your goals — the podcast or the educational blog maybe? Why – because I think you are on to something big and I would love to be a part of it.
Something to add to your goals possibly is the Autofocus TM system that I have stumbled upon a few days ago. I am starting it today. I think it will help you as well in getting your goals “done”. If you havent heard abt it yet, follow my tweets from today on it and we can try it out together.
More later. Take care. Happy New Year!
Hi Raj!
Thank you for your kind words and encouragement. I may take you up on helping with the podcast! Let me get a schedule down and we’ll see what develops.
I had not heard of Autofocus TM. I will look it up and see if it can help. Thanks for letting me know…
Very well written. I will write in the order that I read them in.
Toastmasters– I shall be joining this year
If your writing is any indication of your presentation skills (which basically is just an extension of how you think)– I think that waiting till 2011 would be a shame, and a lot of lost time. I think you should start video podcasting now. You heard my radio show… I didn’t even take the time to throw it together! I just decided to do it, spent two hours driving traffic, and went live. I was NOT prepared, did not know what to expect, and the feedback was awesome. Before any feedback, I was able to give myself feedback– need structure, and need someone to filter through the chat for me, as I’m way too distractable. It’s kind of like learning to walk.. you just do it, and you know how to adjust. Read the manuals… sure… but start video podcasting NOW. I’d say do the Toastmasters presentation to your video podcast– say what it is, and see how your tribe likes it. That’s the ideal way, but if you can’t bring yourself to do that, then at least use your webcam and make podcast video episodes that don’t get uploaded. At least you’ll get to see how you look, and have extra practice for ToastMasters. As far as recruiting more members— there are numerous ways that can quickly be done via internet marketing techniques for local keywords, and of course, you’re well versed in social media. We can talk about that off-comment though.
By the way, you did a great job breaking these down into specific measureable steps. Very nice.
Since you asked me to check these out and give thoughts on achieving these– you could use an autoresponder… both in making sure that there is attendance for your webinars, and both for your recruiting efforts for Toastmasters (My favorite is French Toast… salted, not sweetened).
The life goals are great. It sounds like you really like teaching and communicating. I’d totally get into video podcasting sooner… I suspect you will become addicted.
You & the hubby can start planning out what some amazing dates would be. I recently lectured a few folks on this (I’ll probably talk about this on tomorrow’s show)– When I plan my time with people that are coming in from out of town, I spend time researching what would be a blast for them (For example- going Ziplining with Elizabeth Potts-Weinstein this weekend, and drinking sake, and taking crazy photos, since all her photos are way too normal)– so date night… you guys should look ahead for the year to see what exciting things are scheduled around… so maybe certain festivals, or certain concerts, or even destinations you’ve wanted to go.. i.e. camping. No one says that date night is restricted to only dinner & a movie. Keep it exciting, and non-routine.
Sounds like podcasting and writing are hobbies that you enjoy… but I didn’t see hobbies specifically mentioned. What are you doing to unwind this year?
Good luck achieving your goals– the way you’ve got them written out, I have no doubt you shall succeed.
Hi Ori!
Thanks for your feedback! You asked what I do for fun. Believe it or not, but I do find school and podcasting and social media fun. They give me a sense of accomplishment and I LOVE learning new things. Each new thing or skill that I learn is an adventure. Also, spending time with my husband and dogs are relaxing.
I unwind by watching TV, playing computer games, hiking, and walking my dogs. Because of the medical issues I am dealing with, I have a feeling that regular exercise will become more of a feature in my life too. My dogs should LOVE this!
Catherine,
I wish you luck. I was amazed to see that we have several parallel goals, but I have the bar set lower.
In Toastmaster, I earned my ACB in July and I am trying to parlay that into a triple crown by getting an ACS and finishing my CL before June. If I do that, I am planning to relax the pace a bit.
I co-author a training blog with my daughter (as well as authoring a SharePoint blog) and making weekly updates to both is about as much as I can handle. I’ve been asked to participate, periodically, in a friend’s training podcast and, although I agreed, I’m hoping it doesn’t amount to too much additional work.
I am responsible for training at work, and I hope to deliver 12 new training sessions as well as 8 editions of our training newsletter. We are also planning to conduct training for our Intranet users but I’m shooting for two or three webinars and one live session at our annual meeting. I’m also responsible for IT and we have a bunch of goals on that side, including upgrading SharePoint, Exchange and Office to 2010.
I completed the AIIM ERM training in December and I hope to submit the case study required for certification in time to be able to wear ERMm at the AIIM Expo in April. Compared to planning your Doctoral dissertation, um, well, I don’t think there’s any real comparison. Walking up hill v. climbing mountain, taking a shower v. swimming across ocean – things like that come to mind… Beyond a few seminars, I have no additional plans for education.
Wife, dog, two cats and time with our (grown and gone from nest) daughter all has to fit in there somewhere but I’m not offering firm commitments. I also have a major home improvement task to throw in but I truly enjoy that and it will be my vacation
Best of luck to you; I enjoy your blog and I look forward to following your progress.