Saturday, January 02, 2010
Looking Ahead
I always take some time at the end of the year to look back on all that's happened and try to make sense of it. As we hit these "Hallmark dates," as Linh called it, it's normal to pause and reflect (sometimes too much!). But it's important to also look forward, to get an idea of what I want to do so I can move in that direction. If 2009 was about just enjoying what I have (and that's as close as I can come to defining what last year meant to me) then 2010 will be a year of self-understanding and improvement.
Though I don't set New Year's resolutions for myself -- if something's worth doing, there's no reason to wait for a single date on the calendar to do it -- I do have some things I want to accomplish in the next year. In all cases, I'm already making plans, and I'll do what I can to make them all happen. These are the most important new things I want to take on.
New job My original plan for 2009 was a major career change, with retirement from my current line of work and a transition to something completely new. Well, those plans are on hold because I was selected for promotion (which will kick in July 1, as near as I can tell) and i saw opportunities that didn't exist before, so I've decided to stick around another couple years and see what happens. Though starting a new job isn't the most important thing to me, it's the one thing that will probably have the most profound impact in my happiness this year. Since my current job has been largely a waste of my time and talent, I'm looking forward to something new...specifically, to a teaching position for which I'm being considered. It would involve teaching at the master's degree level, which I enjoyed while in Singapore, and it would allow me to stay in DC, which is my #1 job consideration. I love teaching, and from what I've seen of the working environment at this school, it would be an enjoyable place to work. Not perfect, not somewhere i want to stay forever, but a good stepping stone to other things i want to do professionally. If the teaching gig falls through, i'll have to reconsider my retirement plans, so it'll be interesting to see where I am a year from now.
Travel with Linh I've known Linh for over 2 years, and even though we both love travel, we have yet to travel together. The closest we've come is a dinner and short adventure one evening in 2008 when I was visiting Bangkok and he was there for an internship, and a short layover for him in Singapore 363 days ago while I was living there. Those, of course, don't count, and so I've been hoping to actually take a trip together sometime. We talked about a couple ideas in 2009 after he graduated but our schedules didn't mesh. Now, we're looking at a week-long trip in March, and hopefully we can coordinate our personal and work schedules to make this happen. Though I often enjoy traveling on my own, I get a real thrill from traveling with someone important to me, as past trips with others have shown, and I would love for this to work out this year. Ideally, we'll go someplace neither one of us has been, allowing us to really get into exploration mode. We've discussed a couple options, and no, it won't be to Asia!
Explore emerging interests In the last few months there are a few things that have popped up as new or returning interests, things I want to explore more fully in 2010. For some reason, don't ask me why, I've gotten interested in massage. Perhaps because I know how good it feels to receive one, I'd like to give that good feeling to others. I've been teaching myself some basics using books and practicing on friends, and in the spring I'm planning to attend the Wat Po School in Bangkok to study traditional Thai massage. This sounds like fun, and some friends are already making requests for massages. I've also been enjoying cooking and baking a bit more lately, and with encouragement from Linh I'm going to try to take my baking to a new level, not just with the cookies and candy I make but moving on to cakes and pastries as well. I'd like to get really proficient at creating desserts, and if nothing else I get to eat the mistakes. Finally, in the last few months I've had the time to start dabbling more in photography again, an interest I sort of gave up a few years ago, for reasons i don't understand. Anyway, it's time to get serious about this again.
Run a marathon for fun Ever since I started running in January 2007, and ran my first race that spring, I've been trying to improve. I don't compete against others in races, but I do compete against myself. I like the idea of continuous improvement in my running times, and I was pretty successful with that in 2009. But at the same time, I want to be able to step back from that, to not worry about the results but just get out there because it's fun to be part of a big race. When I go to Hong Kong for February's marathon I'm planning to push myself (though my training for that race is not going so well) but in May I'm running the Flying Pig Marathon with Ethan, and I'm just going to plan to run his pace regardless of whether that's faster or slower. I'm going there to run with him, so I plan to do the whole race with him, and if that's at a faster pace, great, but if we're slower, that's cool too. Sometimes we should forget about improvement and just focus on the doing. I'm also hoping to run the New York City Marathon in November, but haven't decided which approach to take to that one -- I think it depends on whether I'm running it alone or if Ethan is running it too.
Start a business As part of my preparation for retirement and career change, I intend to set up a business this year. The idea is to start learning about what I need to make a consulting business successful, and begin laying a foundation for when I actually do retire. Though I can't work on it full time, I've already talked with Stan and Linh about being a part of this, giving them an opportunity to put their particular talents to work, to do something a little different, and maybe to make a little extra money (which no one minds doing). With their collaboration this could be very cool. I expect this to start small and grow slowly, so not much is likely to happen with it this year, but at least I can take the first important steps. As part of this, I'm hoping to expand the exposure of my professional blog and also start generating some more income from that, so at least it pays for itself.
There are some other things I want to do this year, and later in the future too, but I'll save those for next time, as this is turning into a longer post than I planned.
Though I don't set New Year's resolutions for myself -- if something's worth doing, there's no reason to wait for a single date on the calendar to do it -- I do have some things I want to accomplish in the next year. In all cases, I'm already making plans, and I'll do what I can to make them all happen. These are the most important new things I want to take on.
New job My original plan for 2009 was a major career change, with retirement from my current line of work and a transition to something completely new. Well, those plans are on hold because I was selected for promotion (which will kick in July 1, as near as I can tell) and i saw opportunities that didn't exist before, so I've decided to stick around another couple years and see what happens. Though starting a new job isn't the most important thing to me, it's the one thing that will probably have the most profound impact in my happiness this year. Since my current job has been largely a waste of my time and talent, I'm looking forward to something new...specifically, to a teaching position for which I'm being considered. It would involve teaching at the master's degree level, which I enjoyed while in Singapore, and it would allow me to stay in DC, which is my #1 job consideration. I love teaching, and from what I've seen of the working environment at this school, it would be an enjoyable place to work. Not perfect, not somewhere i want to stay forever, but a good stepping stone to other things i want to do professionally. If the teaching gig falls through, i'll have to reconsider my retirement plans, so it'll be interesting to see where I am a year from now.
Travel with Linh I've known Linh for over 2 years, and even though we both love travel, we have yet to travel together. The closest we've come is a dinner and short adventure one evening in 2008 when I was visiting Bangkok and he was there for an internship, and a short layover for him in Singapore 363 days ago while I was living there. Those, of course, don't count, and so I've been hoping to actually take a trip together sometime. We talked about a couple ideas in 2009 after he graduated but our schedules didn't mesh. Now, we're looking at a week-long trip in March, and hopefully we can coordinate our personal and work schedules to make this happen. Though I often enjoy traveling on my own, I get a real thrill from traveling with someone important to me, as past trips with others have shown, and I would love for this to work out this year. Ideally, we'll go someplace neither one of us has been, allowing us to really get into exploration mode. We've discussed a couple options, and no, it won't be to Asia!
Explore emerging interests In the last few months there are a few things that have popped up as new or returning interests, things I want to explore more fully in 2010. For some reason, don't ask me why, I've gotten interested in massage. Perhaps because I know how good it feels to receive one, I'd like to give that good feeling to others. I've been teaching myself some basics using books and practicing on friends, and in the spring I'm planning to attend the Wat Po School in Bangkok to study traditional Thai massage. This sounds like fun, and some friends are already making requests for massages. I've also been enjoying cooking and baking a bit more lately, and with encouragement from Linh I'm going to try to take my baking to a new level, not just with the cookies and candy I make but moving on to cakes and pastries as well. I'd like to get really proficient at creating desserts, and if nothing else I get to eat the mistakes. Finally, in the last few months I've had the time to start dabbling more in photography again, an interest I sort of gave up a few years ago, for reasons i don't understand. Anyway, it's time to get serious about this again.
Run a marathon for fun Ever since I started running in January 2007, and ran my first race that spring, I've been trying to improve. I don't compete against others in races, but I do compete against myself. I like the idea of continuous improvement in my running times, and I was pretty successful with that in 2009. But at the same time, I want to be able to step back from that, to not worry about the results but just get out there because it's fun to be part of a big race. When I go to Hong Kong for February's marathon I'm planning to push myself (though my training for that race is not going so well) but in May I'm running the Flying Pig Marathon with Ethan, and I'm just going to plan to run his pace regardless of whether that's faster or slower. I'm going there to run with him, so I plan to do the whole race with him, and if that's at a faster pace, great, but if we're slower, that's cool too. Sometimes we should forget about improvement and just focus on the doing. I'm also hoping to run the New York City Marathon in November, but haven't decided which approach to take to that one -- I think it depends on whether I'm running it alone or if Ethan is running it too.
Start a business As part of my preparation for retirement and career change, I intend to set up a business this year. The idea is to start learning about what I need to make a consulting business successful, and begin laying a foundation for when I actually do retire. Though I can't work on it full time, I've already talked with Stan and Linh about being a part of this, giving them an opportunity to put their particular talents to work, to do something a little different, and maybe to make a little extra money (which no one minds doing). With their collaboration this could be very cool. I expect this to start small and grow slowly, so not much is likely to happen with it this year, but at least I can take the first important steps. As part of this, I'm hoping to expand the exposure of my professional blog and also start generating some more income from that, so at least it pays for itself.
There are some other things I want to do this year, and later in the future too, but I'll save those for next time, as this is turning into a longer post than I planned.
Labels: Friends, Life, Running, Teaching, Travel, Work
