I quit my job at RTI International. My last day was Wednesday, March 2^nd, 2011.

I’ve already received many congratulations, which is exactly the response I was expecting to get. I’ve also received lots of questions like, “What’s your plan?” or “Do you have another job or interviews lined up?”

My “plan” really started a year ago and because RTI wasn’t part of my plan to achieve my goals, quitting was simply imminent.

No job lined up. So what is my plan now? I’m looking for the next big thing that will bring me closer to my goal of owning my own company and being a leader in my community by 2014.

I am still organizing PechaKucha Nights (oh hai, next one is coming up on Wednesday; you should come).

I am still heading up the Triangle Community of Developing Careerists meetups every month.

And I’m still putting in a few hours each week over at Live Work Play.

Most immediately my attention has turned to preparing for my upcoming trip to Austin, TX for SXSW Interactive from March 10^th through March 19^th. Oh, you’ll be there? Let’s meet up!

Taking it one step at a time…

[For more information about “what I want to do” see my Linkedin profile and resume; my bio helps, too.]

Related posts:

1. First Internship Lessons
2. Recognizing Essential Communities
3. Quit Planning & Just Do It!

#reverb10 December 7th prompt: Community.

Community has been such a significant keyword in my life throughout 2010 that I had to mindmap everything I could think of relating to community in my life this past year (hence the image to the left). Yea, a lot, right?

First of all, to answer the first part of today’s #reverb10 prompt, “Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010?” Believe it or not, online communities often help formulate IRL relationships. I know, hard to believe that having profound, intelligent, and sometimes emotional conversations in an online community could move you to actually want to meet a stranger in public. But it’s true. It’s 2010. That’s what people do. 3.5 places I found community this year:

• Brazen Careerist: If I were picking favorites here, I would pick Brazen Careerist (BC) as my favorite online community of 2010 (and part of 2009). I also want to take the time here to recognize two amazing community managers, Ryan Paugh and James Moreau, for being instrumental in helping me feel like a real part of the BC community and helping me to find (or create) good communities within the network. Oh, and Rebecca Thorman–because she encouraged me to participate more frequently & deeply by always posing the most interesting questions and continuing conversations offline about the network. So not only did I meet a group of motivated job seekers and professionals, we’ve continued to relate to each other as members of the community as if it were an alma mater. For example, just today one of my bosses interviewed a friend of mine for a job where I work. During the interview my friend explained that she met me through an online network, Brazen Careerist, even before she moved to Raleigh. And now we’re good friends. And I’m helping her get a job. Oh and I discovered (well, actually I beta tested…) Network Roulette on BC. It’s not exactly its own community, but it’s a great place to start to find just about anyone you may want to start/join/participate in an online or IRL community. In a nutshell: without BC I would literally would not be a part of any of the communities I am a part of today. It has been that important. Even if I’m not an active member every month, it’s importance will never go away.

• Tweetups: Tweetup: An organized or impromptu gathering of people that use Twitter. At fist I thought this was the geekiest Twitter fad ever. Then I realized they’re real. And fun. And not going away. Because basically it just means using Twitter to find people with common interests to join in on activities. Ummm awesome! Last I checked a community was “an interacting population of like-minded individuals”. Tweetups of all kinds have been instrumental in getting me out of my shell and into the community. I’ve gone to all sorts of tweetups: movie tweetups, social media tweetups, idea-sharing tweetups, ice-skating tweetups, not-at-sxsw tweetups, etc. I met some of my new best friends at these events. Whenever I travel somewhere and I have some free time I set up a tweetup or join in on one in the city I’m traveling to. I’m never worried about not fitting in with the crowd because anyone who knows what a tweetup is is a friend of mine and we’ll have plenty to talk about! The more the merrier! Thank god I have a social life!

• PechaKucha Nights Raleigh: I MADE THIS! I’m so freaking proud of building this community practically from the ground up. I must thank my mom dearly for asking for my help when she wanted to bring another idea-sharing event to Raleigh, PK Nights and needed help with promotion and getting the word out about the event. I was so wary of getting involved in another project when I was trying to focus on changing my career, but organizing and creating this PKN community ended up being the best thing I could have done this year. Imagine, I actually somehow convince between 100-200 people every few months to come stand in a room for 2 hours watching people get up in front of the crowd and talk about their passions, however odd they may be. PechaKucha Nights manage to bring together a group of people all similarly passionate about being open-minded, creative, and sparking interesting conversation. These are truly my people. Gawd, it makes me all teary-eyed!

• TCDC: Aka the Triangle Community of Developing Careerists. Uhhh “community” is in the name of the description. I thought I had to include it. This is another community a fellow Brazen Careerist member and I spent most of 2010 defining and finally putting into practice by October. I won’t say too much about this because this is already getting too long.

The second part of the prompt asks, “What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?”

The fact of the matter is, I feel like I’m being pulled in a million directions these days. I only mentioned the most important communities above, but if you knew how many other groups, teams, and communities I belong to you would probably think I’m insane (maybe I am)! Matt Cheuvront actually reminded me in his recent post on community that sometimes we need to let go of some communities. So for 2011 I would like to commit more time to one community (aka a team) rather than spend just a little bit of time on a lot of communities. I want something to put all my passion and energy into. If this is cryptic in any way, what I mean is: I’m ready to join a company full-time, for pay, working with a team that I really feel a part of and doing work that I can really get behind. At this very moment (a situation that changes monthly) I’m working 20hrs/week with a “community” that doesn’t care about me in the slightest, 8hrs/week interning with a small local startup that I *really could* get behind, freelancing a few hours a month purely to help a friend out and get a little extra cash, and volunteer organizing events for two different nonprofit groups (PKN & TCDC).

…

And just for kicks, I think it’d be pretty cool if I could pull off more deeply connecting with:

• My UNC-Chapel Hill alumni network. I’ve been seeing alumni pop up all over the place recently and I have an even stronger connection with alumni now than with the students while I was enrolled at school there. In full disclosure, I actually only spent a total of 4 semesters on campus at UNC and never had a hell of a lot of school spirit. But now that being an alum appears to be a GOOD THING, I’m way more excited about meeting other UNC graduates :)
• Organized, stress-free, GTD people. Now that’s a community I’d like to be associated with. I used to be the “organized” person in the family–organized my sock drawer, my closet by color, everything was in its right place, etc. Then I don’t know, I guess my life got busy or something? I’ve been reading David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and I’m in love. I must find others who’ve made an organized life for themselves and be their friend. I hear that you start acting like the people you associate yourself with.

…

In participation with #reverb10.

Related posts:

1. On Justifying Social-Networking (Or Why I Might Abandon Social Media)
2. Triangles Crowdsource Our Careers (Brazen Style)
3. Lesson From Social Media Day: I’m An Expert, Too

Letting go of people and things that are second-nature in your every day life or that once carried

significant meaning to you is difficult. While I let go of a lot of a lot this year—an old boyfriend who got engaged early this year, the home I grew up in, and a lot of my “stuff that had accumulated over the years—one thing stands out the most in having  contributed to my subsequent growth and maturity more than anything else.

Drama. I sort of hate that word though because people are always saying, “I’m drama-free” or “I don’t need any drama in my life” and they’re usually the ones surround by drama and just don’t realize it. That and well… heck my life is crazy. A lot of friends think I should write a book about my life (one of them actually has proposed writing a long-form article on my life). Change is actually a constant in my life. It’s one of the only things I can count on, so I’m generally acceptant of a little “drama” in my life or that of my friends’ lives.

Instead, what I’ve let go of this year is the unnecessary, fake, sad, often alcohol-induced girl drama. You probably know what I’m talking about. It’s when you and “the girls” go out to the same clubs every weekend “just to have fun” but usually end up crying in a cab on the way home because you called your best friend a “stupid bitch” just because she looked at you at the wrong moment and you were all just so drunk you couldn’t control what was coming out of your mouth. Or when you purposely sabotage your evening after you decide to “surprise” (just for the hell of it because you’re bored) the guy you went out on a date with a few nights before at the bar you saw him check-in to on Foursquare a few moments ago, only to turn into a jealous crazy person when they really didn’t want to see you that night (or at all… ever again).

Yea, those were two supremely long run-on sentences. I did it on purpose.

Early this year I started realizing that this group of “friends” I was spending a lot of time partying with on the weekends wasn’t actually doing me any good. Most of them were just party friends that I happened to have known for a few years. The type that you could always count on to meet you out on the dance floor with a drink in hand every weekend, but had little to talk about once the music stopped.

I thought letting go of them would be hard. That I’d be lonely. That I wouldn’t have a social life anymore because I didn’t have anyone to go out with. I thought they would yell at me to come out with them. None of that really happened. They actually didn’t care at all that I disappeared (hint?). My social life did suffer for a few months and I was a little lonely at first, but it gave me the opportunity to focus on my real goals in life and to make new genuine friends. I find myself able to be more genuine with myself and with others. I don’t need to drink that Kool-aide anymore. I go home after an evening out with my friends now with a smile (sometimes a tired smile…) on my face and always thankful to have them in my life.

So sure, I still find drama in life but now it’s the AWESOME kind—like celebrating new jobs, discovering new talents and interests, getting written up in the newspaper, and going on spontaneous road trips to meet friends!

Letting go is good.

In participation with #reverb10.

Related posts:

1. Happy Birthday to Me! (and my blog)
2. A Wise Decision, Things My Life Doesn’t Need & Appreciation
3. April Monthly Goal Meetup

Two months ago I got an email from Ryan Paugh of Brazen Careerist asking me & some other fellow rockstar “Brazenites” (as you’ll see I coined) to share the #1 thing we’ve learned about career success in a 30 second video. As flattered as I was to be solicited to give career advice, which may have actually been a first, I pretty much blew off the entire idea of it as soon as reading the email because:

a) What on earth would I have to contribute that someone else wouldn’t already say?

b) There’s really a million things to say. How would I ever decide on ONE thing to contribute (analysis paralysis playing here)?

c) I’ve never put a video of myself online, ever. For a good reason: I’m awful of public speaking. That’s why I write, duh.

Well, a few days later some of my Twitter friends and Brazen buddies mentioned that they’d already uploaded their career advice videos, and when I asked them about it they quickly began peer pressuring me into making a video, too. The strongest pressure probably came from Cameron Plommer, Emily Jasper, Jenn Pedde, and Ryan Paugh himself, although it didn’t actually take much to convince me I should just give it a shot. They tried convincing me by telling me how awful they looked in the videos, how it only took a few minutes, and even if it wasn’t perfect it would be a great opportunity to get some feedback from the community on how to improve my “video presence”.

It still wasn’t as easy for me as they said it would be. At all. I’m sharing this with you because I was extremely frustrated by the entire process and if anybody else out there feels the same way sometimes I don’t want you to feel alone!

So this is what actually ended up happening (written as if I were telling you how I made my PB&J sandwich):

1. I accepted that I would give it a shot & put it on my to-do list
2. I procrastinated a few days, until the weekend rolled around
3. An idea came to me in the middle of the night, which I thought at the time was genius: authenticity as the single most important way to rock your career, and jotted it down
4. The following day I brainstormed what I would actually say about that in more than one sentence to convince people it was actually important. Lots of words ended up on paper, but hated all of them
5. I took a few breaks, which mainly meant I whined to my mom about how this was harder than I thought and crowdsourced HELP from the twitterverse on how to make the process better (ie more fun and less frustrating)
6. I got some advice around the way of “just turn on your video camera and see what comes out”
7. I turned on the web cam, pressed record, and was immediately appalled by the words that were coming out of my mouth, the awful expressions on my face, and that I kept looking away from the camera. I turned it off and went back to the drawing board.
8. I did things my way: I made an outline, then decided on a topic that was perhaps less profound but more easily communicable for me: setting goals (I knew exactly what to say)
9. I crafted an outline in Word of exactly what I wanted to stress, practiced it a few times just reading it, then turned on the web cam, took 2 or 3 takes trying hard to just be myself (yes that means I let myself be serious/intense, even if that meant I came off less “friendly”) and look straight into the camera as often as possible.
10. Instead of being a perfectionist to the max I let my impulsive side peek its head out that day, pressed save on the 3rd take, and send it right off to Ryan without further worry.

The following video is what came out. You can also watch it and comment on it at the Brazen Careerist Fan Page.

Related posts:

1. Triangles Crowdsource Our Careers (Brazen Style)
2. Recognizing Essential Communities
3. Network Roulette: Easy Networking Whenever & Wherever You Want

Would I keep using social media and networking sites if I weren’t ever looking for a new job or clients? Already certain industries are more prominent on LinkedIn and Twitter (marketing, public relations, news sources, internet startups, consultants, freelancers, etc.) and more jobseekers than steady-job-havers keep active social networking profiles.

But at this stage in the game I just can’t see ever not using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Brazen Careerist, but believe it or not there was once a time when I barely used them (two of which I didn’t even adopt until 2009). Whoa was I behind the times. Thank god I caught up, huh?

I wonder, though, what would happen if I no longer “needed” to “network” to find a job or clients? Would I stop using Twitter (or at the least cut back on my use)? Would I abandon updating my LinkedIn profile (there wouldn’t be that much to update on my “resume” anyways, right)? Would I stop attending tweetups and networking events?

I wonder about these things because I don’t want to stop any of that. Right now–because I’m on the search for job opportunities–I can justify the time invested in all of that as well worth the value. If I couldn’t justify the time put in any longer, would I have to cut myself off from tweeting like a crazy person? Perhaps that’s the most responsible and productive action to take, though. Twitter and social media can be such a distraction that unless it is part of your strategy to reach your goals, we can really only consider it recreational fun and our time with social networking should be limited, right?

Not only that, but I want to make sure that I’m being authentic and my “brand” doesn’t scream, “I’m only here to help me, not you!” I want to make sure that I’m involved in social media/networking for the right reasons; reasons that will stick around for a while.

But in the end, you know what? I don’t think I would ever stop using social networking sites because networking is so much more than “finding a job”. Networking is so important in all aspects of life.

This is something I’ve always been told but didn’t realize personally and actually start taking it seriously until very recently. And after discovering how much I love connecting and talking with people I just don’t see myself ever in a position (for work or fun) that wouldn’t benefit from continuing to be socially-networked.

What about you? Do you see yourself cutting back or quitting social media any time in the future? Do you think it’s here to stay, or that once the economy picks up and people aren’t scrounging around for jobs anymore that social networking’s popularity will die down?

Related posts:

1. Lesson From Social Media Day: I’m An Expert, Too
2. Network Roulette: Easy Networking Whenever & Wherever You Want
3. Recognizing Essential Communities

Everyone else is saying it, so I will too. Thank God For Spring Weather!!!!!

Now let’s jump right into reviewing my goals for March:

1. Finish perfecting the killer resume. Honest to god, I have a rough-draft, but wow some things just take a lot more time than you imagined. I’m carrying this one over to April .
2. Finish the new blog redesign. You might not notice a huge difference from last month, but there was a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff going on. The only part I’m still trying to work out is the Photography page. Hrmmm. There seems to be no good way to create Flickr photo galleries and have them carry over into WordPress. Maybe a flash slideshow is a good idea. Except for the fact that I sort of hate flash slideshows.
3. Don’t be shy. PIECE OF CAKE! When you’re meeting new people who understand where you’re coming from and are open to new ideas, it’s easy to open up. As a result, I’ve got an amazing new group of friends (yay!). I met some really awesome people in NYC face-to-face for the first time, including Steph Auteri, who just opened up her own Career Coaching for Word Nerds business (and I get to be one of her guinea pigs for the next month)! My sister and I also followed Patrick Johnson & Elisabeth Rosario into the city after meeting for only a few minutes at the #PRStudChat tweetup at Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library in New Jersey. And on our last night in the city we braved the monsoon weather to sing karaoke (a first for me!) with Teresa Cantwell, Abby Schoffman, PRCog and others.

All in all, March was really amazing in quite a few ways. Great new friends, great new “extracurriculars”, great travel, great personal development, etc. There is still so much more progress to make. It was hard to think of new personal goals after such a productive month on a personal level, but here we go.

For April:

1. Finish my resume. Carrying this one over from March, but I hope that after working with Steph for a month there will be no excuse not to have it in tip-top shape.
2. Take a walk at least 5 times per week. I don’t know if anyone has noticed the burst of warm air outside? Yea, I plan on taking advantage of that and taking at least a 1 mile walk either at lunch during work, or at a park or downtown on the weekends. All you “fit” people are probably saying “Wow a 1-mile walk? That’s nothing, gosh I’m running marathons in NYC” (ahem… Beth, haha), but for me that would be a huge accomplishment (especially considering I seem to have a worsening heart condition and running is just not an option at this point). If I had more disposable income I would probably hire a personal trainer, but alas walking it is for now!
3. Spring Cleaning the minimalist way. I’m not even sure what that means yet, but I’ve been reading more about minimalism (most recently Everett Bogue’s blog Simple Minimalist: Far Beyond the Stars) and have been seeing it pop up in my life over the past few months. I’ve already jump-started this one by canceling our home land-line and cutting out $90 from the monthly budget. It was such a relief and an empowering feeling at the same time. I can’t wait to apply more minimalist concepts to my life.
4. Switch up the music on my iPhone. I am completely lame and haven’t added new music to my iPhone since Christmas. Considering we’re not allowed to stream music from the internet at work and I listen to my iPhone all day long, 5 days a week, I am totally sick of listening to the same songs over and over again. PLEASE CARLEE just put something else on there SOON! New fav song recommendations?
5. Spend less than $350 this month for groceries. Background: I live with my mother, grandmother, and sometimes my sister on the weekends when she comes home from school. For the past 6 months my mom has been doing all the grocery shopping for the house and I’ve been slightly disappointed recently. I honestly just think that I could buy better (healthier) food for less money. I challenged her this month to hand over her credit card, let me do the shopping, and see if I can spend a simple $50/month less than her. Doable right? If Rebecca Currie can eat for One Dollar a Day in my neck of the woods, I think we can eat for $4/day!

To participate in the meet-up:

1. Post a list of your career/life related goals for April, along with your checked off March goals if you’d like, on your own blog.
2. Come back to BrazenCareerist.com network and leave a link to your post in the comments (*If you don’t have your own blog, feel free to share your list here in the comments to join in!)
3. Then, check out everyone else’s lists as they leave comments - click their links, visit their blogs, say hello, meet, greet and support each other because that’s what it’s all about!

Related posts:

1. March Monthly Goal Meetup
2. January 2010 Monthly Goal Meetup
3. December Monthly Goal Meetup

February surprised me in a lot of ways. When I wrote my goals for February I thought that I had it all planned out. But then mid-month some new opportunities arose, events popped up, connections were made, priorities changed.

Cyn Mallard's New Paintings

I know that’s all very vague, but my point is that if you can’t go with the flow, you might just miss out on some really great stuff. For example, you might notice that I have a brand new WordPress website with my own domain! When my aunt offered (read: really pressured me) to host the new site for me and help with the technical side of things, I couldn’t pass it up the opportunity to learn the WordPress platform and get a little more serious about everything. So before I get into March let’s check out last month:

1. Do my taxes! I even got my refund back already. Onwards and upwards!
2. Arrange my first tweetup in the Raleigh-Durham area. An example of something that I would have worked on had some unforeseen more immediate events come up. Instead of working on our own tweetup, Brianne and I have been working with the Pecha Kucha Night event organizers to help out doing PR, spreading the word to get more speakers, and helping out the day of the event. It’ll be a meetup, even if not a tweetup. We both agreed to postpone the tweetup until after all the March events are over.
3. Up the blog frequency. This was so much easier than I thought it would be. Easier as in… I wanted to do it, so I did it. Not easier as it didn’t take a lot of work, because let me tell you — it takes a lot of work. So much fun, so exciting though! It’s as if there was a piece of me that was missing all this time.
4. Take on a part-time job. I did a lot of looking and made notes & bookmarks, but I realized that I really need to re-write my resume first. I needed to break up the big goal into smaller goals.
5. Keep having fun. I didn’t end up doing everything I thought I would do, but there were some exciting things going on last month. Most notably my mom had her first art show in over 5 years. I am so proud of her we had a fantastic night celebrating after the opening!

Reflecting on last month, I’m hesitant to make any predictions for March. What I do know about this month is that it’s packed full of events, traveling, networking, and birthdays! What do I want to get out of it all then?

1. Finish perfecting the killer resume. I started this in February when I realized it needed a complete re-haul. I’m even considering hiring a resume writer to help out. Personal recommendations?
2. Finish the new blog redesign. You all reading this are among the first to see it live, so tell me what you think. Feedback is ever-so-appreciated!
3. Don’t be shy. By this I mean get out of my comfort zone, talk to people I haven’t talked to before, and make some meaningful connections. There are 4 big idea sharing events that I’m going to this month (3 this week and 1 the last week of March) where there will undoubtedly be hundreds of people eager to have interesting conversation and I CAN’T wait. So excited. Not only that, but my sister and I are going to NYC March 10th – 14th. While we don’t have a plan yet, I will be happy as long as I come home thinking it was worth my time. I really hope to catch up with some old friends but also meet some new people that I’ve met online. So really, help me with this one, and if you’re in the NYC area please let me know so we can get together!

To participate in the meet-up:
1. Post a list of your career/life related goals for March, along with your checked off February goals if you’d like, on your own blog.
2. Go back to Brazen Careerist and leave a link to your post (*If you don’t have your own blog, feel free to share your list in the comments to join in!)
3. Then, check out everyone else’s lists as they leave comments - click their links, visit their blogs, say hello, meet, greet and support each other because that’s what it’s all about!

Related posts:

1. April Monthly Goal Meetup
2. February 2010 Monthly Goal Meetup
3. January 2010 Monthly Goal Meetup

I learned something about goal-making and goal-keeping this month. People don’t keep their New Year’s resolutions because they aren’t items that you can easily check off your list. They are too broad and too ambitious. Making long-term goals still have their place, but they don’t belong on a monthly goal list.

To participate in the meet-up:
1. Post a list of your career/life related goals for February, along with your checked off January goals if you’d like, on your own blog.
2. Go back to Brazen Careerist and leave a link to your post (*If you don’t have your own blog, feel free to share your list in the comments to join in!)
3. Then, check out everyone else’s lists as they leave comments - click their links, visit their blogs, say hello, meet, greet and support each other because that’s what it’s all about!

Related posts:

1. January 2010 Monthly Goal Meetup
2. March Monthly Goal Meetup
3. December Monthly Goal Meetup

I did much better in November with 3 weeks than in December with 4 weeks. December is one of those months that just falls into a black hole. Family comes in to town and somehow you’re mind is warped into believing that a regular routine and goals are so passé. Let’s give the review a whirl anyways:

1. Do all the “easy” stuff that I just never seem to make time for. Finally got my car checked out. Made a dentist appointment, went to original appointment, and knocked out 3 additional appointments all before December 29th (although these were not fun appointments, sadly). I’d say most of December was about doing the easy stuff; after all, I didn’t do a whole lot of thinking the last half of the month :)

2. Do something I’ve never done before. …yea, CHECK.

3. Read a fiction novel. Yes I did. It was horrible though, so I joined this site, LibraryThing.com that’s giving me much better book recommendations and I’m going to read a bunch more this month!

4. Include more of my photos on the blog. Seeing as how I didn’t really blog much this month, I can’t really check this off at all. I should have made this more of a 6-month long goal. That’s what I’ll do now.

5. Go to a free yoga class on campus at least 2 times. For the most part I did as much as I could. I went to this restorative yoga class during lunch one day and nearly fell asleep– it was that good. Unfortunately I had forgotten that all the fitness classes were canceled for the last 2 weeks of December… so I went for a nice relaxing & stretching type of walk around the lake instead.

6. Work & work hard. Mini-goal A: create a database of client case studies. Mini-goal B: Send out the e-newsletter by December 16th. Not sure why I thought I would work hard during the holidays since I never do. I did send out our newsletter & created my first web survey. I did make headway on the website and brainstormed on the framework for the content. I did not however get anywhere near to launching the site by January 1. In fact, there is still lots of work to be done. Ah, FAIL. Complete letdown.

For January, to start off the new year:

• Take more photos with the Nikon SLR. (Just got the replacement lens in, so it’s back in action!)
• Read a book I like gosh darn-it!
• Pay attention to me: sleep cycle, mental alertness, mood, physical shape
• Make a 6-month work goal plan.

To participate in the meet-up:
1. Post a list of your career/life related goals for January, along with your checked off December goals if you’d like, on your own blog.
2. Go back to Brazen Careerist and leave a link to your post (*If you don’t have your own blog, feel free to share your list in the comments to join in!)
3. Then, check out everyone else’s lists as they leave comments - click their links, visit their blogs, say hello, meet, greet and support each other because that’s what it’s all about!

Related posts:

1. February 2010 Monthly Goal Meetup
2. December Monthly Goal Meetup
3. March Monthly Goal Meetup

Oh yes, I definitely made those scrumptious looking cheese & ham puffs, and that was one of my goals for November! Now on to a recap of my November goals with my new December goals to follow:

1. Get out all of my holiday cards before Thanksgiving. They were all in the mail the day before Thanksgiving, but honestly I would have been really disappointed in myself if I didn’t make this happen considering I’m in the business of marketing and urged all of my clients to get their own holiday cards out early this year, too!

2. Create a sitemap for the new www.promotionplus.com website in WordPress. Umm I think so? I got the designer enough information to create a preliminary design, but I’m still learning what all needs to be done. I’m not sure I know what a sitemap is anymore. Watch out– Learning in progress.

3. Identify my company’s niche markets. Errr confusion. Fail. To my credit, I didn’t have the full month to ponder this one. I did however have an unexpected Starbucks meeting towards the end of the month with Ron Baron, a leader in the promotional products industry, who I sat next to on a plane a month ago on his way back home to Utah. We had exchanged cards on the plane and called me up the day before he was flying back to Raleigh for some other business and asked to get together and chat. He was really helpful in hashing out some of the ideas I’ve had and sent me off in a good direction.

4. In the spirit of GenYGivesThanks (Sharalyn Hartwell’s brainchild), share with my family how I am thankful this Thanksgiving. Duh: see previous “Thanks” post.

5. Make a real dish for turkey day. See photo above! Well actually those ham & cheese puff pastries don’t count because I actually bought those from Trader Joe’s. But I did make an experimental baked cabbage dish I found on CNN. Oh, and a pumpkin pie.

6. Return the 2 books to the library that I borrowed back in July. Being held accountable definitely helped. My friend was just a little surprised when she came to pick me up one night and I brought 2 huge books with me and asked her to stop by the library on our way to our night on the town!

7. Clean my room! There’s a difference I realized between cleaning and decorating. I did however hang my paintings, photographs, and lamps and reorganized my desk so that at least it feels more tidy and homey in here.

So November overall was a pretty good month. I hope it has prepared me for December because this month is going to be a whopper of a roller coaster. I’ll start with the “easy” stuff and move to the more ambitious of my endeavors.

1. Do all the “easy” stuff that I just never seem to make time for. Does it ever take you a month to make an appointment or run your dreaded errands even though it would only take 5 minutes if you took a moment to pause, and JUST DO IT? I need to make a dentist appointment. It’s taken me almost 2 years to just do it. I think it will help now that the new dentist’s office opening down the street is offering a free teeth-whitening if I make an appointment this week. Merry Christmas to me!

2. Do something I’ve never done before. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy like jumping out of an airplane. Something simple. Just to keep life interesting :)

3. Read a fiction novel. I’ve been reading a lot more than usual lately. However, it’s all been non-fiction and at a computer screen for the most part. I miss getting lost in a book and looking forward to reading another chapter at my next free moment. Last year I read 3 novels in 2 weeks but that was because I was a) traveling oversees on long plane rides and b) landed in a foreign country with no internet access for 2 weeks. I’ll settle for 1 good read this month.

4. Include more of my photos on the blog. I was telling someone about my new blog and explaining how I used to be so involved in photography and I’ve lost my groove. Her advice: “You should put some photography on your blog”. Could it have been any more obvious? I think I will, thank you.

5. Go to a free yoga class on campus at least 2 times. Where I work [during the day] there is a gym and fitness classes throughout the day. I used to go every Friday at lunch to pilates, but for one reason or another haven’t been in months. Since it’s free and only a short walk from my desk there really should be no excuse not to go, right? Except that morning classes begin before I wake up and evening classes start when my stomach starts growling, too. Anyone have some advice on scheduling fitness?

6. Work & work hard. I have a lot to get done this month with the family business. We’re launching the new website this month (goal is Dec 18th, but I’d be happy with anything in 2009). That means lots of mini-goals to reach the big goal. Mini-goal A: create a database of client case studies. Mini-goal B: Send out the e-newsletter by December 16th.

I know, I didn’t include any family/friends/holiday goals this time, but I’m pretty sure I don’t need any reminding or nudging seeing as how everything is going pretty smoothly on that front. Next time we revisit goals it will be 2010 – scary?! Good luck everyone on making the most of your last month in 2009!

To participate in the meet-up:
1. Post a list of your career/life related goals for December, along with your checked off November goals if you’d like, on your own blog.
2. Go back to modite.com and leave a link to your post in the comments (*If you don’t have your own blog, feel free to share your list in the comments to join in!)
3. Then, check out everyone else’s lists as they leave comments - click their links, visit their blogs, say hello, meet, greet and support each other because that’s what it’s all about!

Related posts:

1. January 2010 Monthly Goal Meetup
2. November Monthly Goal Meet-Up
3. February 2010 Monthly Goal Meetup