Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Happy New Year - Looking Back at 2012

Happy New Year everybody.  I hope everyone had a good holiday. 

I think 2012 was a pretty good year for me in general.

For this blog I really knocked the post rate out of the park at the end of last year.  I posted at least daily for the last three months.  I plan on doing that again in January, but my intent is not daily posting.  What I want to do it post regularly and often.  I think I want to post weekly at a minimum.  If I post additionally between my weekly posts that would be a bonus.  If I post daily for one month and then let weeks or months go by without posting then I'm not posting regularly or often.  I'm not sure if I want to officially make that a goal, but I will consider it.

I'll be posting my goals in later posts.  I think I going to expand my goal system.  Last year after I set my goals I realized that I had set them for the aspects of "Sharpen the Saw" and not for all my roles.  That's why I didn't have a writing goal last year.  This year I will set goals for my roles and the aspects of Sharpen the Saw.

How did I do this past year, 2012?


I didn't report on my goals quarterly, that wasnt' good, but forgivable.

My Goals, as summarized in February 2012:

Physical: Complete P90X

Physical: Get a new job
Spiritual: Earn Commissioner's Key
Mental: Learn Greek
Social: Quarterly Dates

In that post I also added the goal of finishing "Nightmares of Katrina" which I did, so let's start the review there, on a high note.

Spiritual - Commissioner Arrowhead - Good and Bad - I met all the requirements (I think) but I did not fill it out and get it signed.  I keep having it on my list of things to do, and I have even started out filling it out,  but since I took the position of District Commissioner I'm a bit confused on how to get it signed and on top of that I don't remember all the dates for it.  I will fill it out and get it signed this month sometime and somehow.

Mental - Greek - Good / Bad - I ended this poorly.  As reported in November I did a year of class, was the lead in a Greek play and started back in on Rosetta Stone.  I had studied daily for a while, but I've gone a couple of months without really touching it.  I've probably slipped in my knowledge and skill.  I will certainly have to work on that this coming year, but set a more measurable goal.
Social - Dates - Not good, not good at all - We had not one date.  We did drive my oldest to Boston, but never really had the time for romance.  I've already talked to her about that today, and I think we are going to do better next year.  The really good thing is that we are still madly in love with each other and love to be together.  We have just not made time for US.  I think it is partially because she never makes time for HER.  That's all the more reason I have to make time for us, so she will have half me-time.  Maybe from there she will be able to take me-time and help sharpen her saw.
For Physical Goals I had set interim goals of Get A Mentor for my Find a New Job Goal and Find Out P90X Requirements for my Health Goal.

Job Goal - Fair - I have a mentor, met with a lot of people on informational interviews and I've applied to a couple of jobs.  This was complicated by the announcement this year that Abbott is splitting into two companies and the moving around is less encouraged while they had been setting up the split, but that's really no excuse.  I have not really gotten any positive responses on my applications, so I will have to continue working on this. 

One very bright thing is that I have decided on my Work Goals:

1. Mid-term goal is to get into Learning and Development - that is really the field I enjoy and it does take me closer to my goal of getting a doctorate.  I want a doctorate in Archaeology as a life goal, and I think keeping up with my schooling with help with that.  It also gets me more into teaching which I think would be an enjoyable part of being an Archaeology professor.  It also gives me a grad school opportunity that I think I would enjoy very much.  I had always dragged my feet on grad school because I don't want a business oriented MBA.

2.  Long-term work goal is to be a site director.  I think this would be somewhat similar to what I did in Afghanistan and I enjoyed that work a lot.  This is very much a stretch, but that's what ultimate goals are for, right?  This would be my ultimate work goal.  After I achieved this I would absolutely retire and pursue my Archaeology goal.

Health Goal - mostly good - I rode my bike to work over 60 times.  That was less than 2011, but not too bad.  I will try to get back up to 75 in 2013 I think, but it is all good for me, the environment and our vehicles.  I also started P90X in November.  I started again after Thanksgiving, then I'm going to start again next week.  The Thanksgiving restart was because the holiday really threw me and I missed an entire week.  This latest restart is because a couple of weeks ago I hurt my calf doing plyo and the holidays are just crazy.  I will be in a regular routine starting next week and I should be good for three months.  By the time spring rolls around I should be awesomely fit.  Most importantly, I will be more fit than last February when I go to my annual checkup.  Continuous improvement is excellent, especially since my real goal here, my life goal is to live a longer, health life.

In summary, 2012 was a pretty good year.  I had no real setbacks and some definite improvements.  2013 is going to be challenging, but it should be very exciting as well.  I think I feel better about 2012 than I did about 2011, and I am looking forward to the new year and what I can accomplish.

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