HBR on Return, Reenergize & Reinvent

I'm writing this blog post in January, to post in March, just as my students leave for Spring Break.  Why? Because about that time we'll be closing in on then of Q1 for 2011, so I'll need reevaluate my progress on my 2011 goals and also determine if how to keep myself going until the end of the semester (for my students) and through the next quarter of my own classes.  So thanks Harvard Business Review blogs, for giving me inspiration throughout the year, even when I actually plan two months in advance to tap into it :-)

Goal #3: Reading More Broadly

I finished Kate Morton's The Distant Hours, a novel about the ties that bind us, the perceptions we carry into the world, and what we will do to hide from our worst selves. Another book that counts toward the Support Your Local Library Challenge, but only as a bonus for the Where Are You Reading Challenge, as it set in Kent, England.

Goal #3: Reading More Broadly

I picked up Craig Robinson's A Game of Character as a lighter, uplifting read. I like these kinds of lighter reads for my ebook picks as it is easier to pick up with interruptions, are wont to happen during my daily commute. I used the Chicago Public Library's ebook system to download it onto my iPad, which has it count for the Support Your Local Library Challenge.  As the parts I enjoyed the best (though were largely glossed over), were his Princeton years, I also added this to cover New Jersey for the Where Are You Reading Challenge.

Goal #3: Reading More Broadly

Goal #3 of Reading More Broadly --  I've finished Wes Moore's The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. This one actually counts toward my goal in the Where Are You Reading Challenge? (as their stories largely intersect in Maryland, that is where I'll pin this one) for my Where Are You Reading Challenge? plus my Support Your Public Library Challenge.The writing was a bit simplistic, and some of the story rushed (likely due to not being able to fully develop or mine all the information), but I enjoyed it as a quick read that underscores the uphill battle, and various broken systems, that exist in climbing out of poverty.

Goal #3: Reading More Broadly

Goal #3 of Reading More Broadly --  I've finished Andrew O'Hagan's Be Near Me. It only counts as a bonus  (as it is largely set in England & Scotland -- I'll add this pin to Scotland) for my Where Are You Reading Challenge? but it still counts fully toward the Support Your Public Library Challenge. If you want to contemplate solitude, and the ways we respond when we are lonely, disenchanted, or adrift, you'll enjoy this book. My flavor of Catholicism is different, so some of those pieces dragged for me.

Goal #3: Reading More Broadly

Goal #3 of Reading More Broadly -- yesterday I finished Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It only counts as a bonus for my Where Are You Reading Challenge? but it still counts fully toward the Support Your Public Library Challenge. It was an interesting read, and I've placed The Girl Who Played with Fire on hold as an eBook through Chicago Public Library.

Goal #1: Already Abandoned

My sanity and sleep won out and I'm down to taking only one class this term, which means that I'll stick to this plan, and just be okay with it being June or December 2012 before I'm done.  That's just the way it is.

Goal #3: Where Are You Reading Challenge Update

Earlier today I added Tami Hoag's Deeper than the Dead for my California entry on Goal #3: Where Are You Reading Challenge.

Goal #1: Complete my Graduate Degree

In Fall 2009, I began the Master of Science in Public Service Management degree at DePaul University School of Public Service.  Credit-wise, I'm just less than half finished.  But if I sacrifice some sleep, I might be able to finish it in 2011.  So here's what's up for Winter Quarter 2011:

Goal #3: Support Your Local Library Challenge

So Goal #3 for 2011 is to READ MORE BROADLY. One of the Book Challenges I've signed up for is the Support Your Libraries Challenge (Mega Size: 51+) to help me with that goal while also working on Goal #4: Save More Money. Here's the running list (started on January 6, 2011, and with the updated dates to follow each subsequent title).

Goal #3: Where Are You Reading Challenge

In order to support Goal #3 of Reading More Broadly, I have signed up for the Where Are You Reading Challenge. This also fits with the Support Your Local Library Challenge very well and forces me into a bit of creativity -- I'm pretty excited about finding new blogs written by folks who love to read about their home town/state/region, and those librarians that also promote local reading. This will be a running list as I progress through the year and this is the map.
View Alisa's Where Are You Reading Challenge Map in a larger map I'll update the list as I go with all the places I go in my mind with the appropriate date.

2011 Goals

In the adventures of my life, I have four major goals for 2011:

Goal #4: Save More Money

Goal #4 for 2011 is to Save More Money.  I'm trying to stick to simple ways to do this as I don't have time to engage in an elaborate system.  Step One is to Set Clear Financial Goals.  Here's what I've got:

Convergence

So the last couple of weeks, I've been putting off being blue. I've been really busy with travels, and then coming back to complete summer school, and start off the semester at work (my graduate program is on the trimester system). It is amazing how busyness can distract from finding time and space for true contemplation.

So in the back of my head for a while is the idea that I need to do more with my life. It seems like volunteering is only giving of myself so much. Of course to truly give, to truly do more, I have to be willing to risk. I know part of the risk that scares me the most is the fear of being hurt. Oh, I'm okay with that I'll be hurt -- that is inevitable whenever you give of yourself fully. But I am afraid of learning what my breaking point on that pain is. I have enough baggage -- Catholic guilt tendencies, total defensiveness, a protective loyalty -- all of which create their own barriers even as they buoy me through tough times. Lord knows that the friends and family He has provided me as my support circle provide the foundations to that strength, and the grace that I all to infrequently recognize and embrace.

So convergence has bitten me, and bitten me hard this evening. As I had someone else from undergrad friend me on Facebook, I wonder if I'm just as shallow as the last time he saw me more than a dozen years ago. I wonder at what point I'm a lost cause. I think this just means that I need to embrace some uncertainty, this level of discomfort with being blue and feeling lost, and hold onto the faith that I have that an answer will come. It will not likely come all at once, and certainly not neatly packaged, but it is out there. God grant me the patience, strength, and grace to recognize it, and the wisdom to know that I can handle it, no matter the price or heartbreak.

Spring cleaning . . . all of it. . . .

So I'm theoretically on a staycation yet I have committed myself to reading through my Google Reader (a full six weeks behind), updating my resume, looking for a teaching gig for the fall, meet with my retirement advisor, get my peepers checked out, set up a NALP conference call, and organizing my apartment. Oh, yeah, and I started a new part-time job this morning too. So not surprising, one of my favorite bloggers/LinkedIn experts, Lindsey Pollak, provided me the kick-in-the-pants that I needed through one of her blog postings. It was only the third thing I had read in my Google Reader! After a six week hiatus in the middle of my staycation!

What this comes down to is that I'm sometimes as bad as the overbusy students of whom she speaks. So it comes time to take stock, determine what I need/want, and how I'm going to get there. And that my friends, is why I love career advising folks. We're practical, yet hopeful and wishful, charting paths new and old. So thanks Lindsey, I needed that kick-in-the-pants.