November Goals

The good thing about having just come back from a conference is that I feel really invigorated as a researcher and inspired to work on my research and writing. It was fantastic to engage in the scholarly component of my job and career and to meet up with friends and become acquainted with other people working in my field. The bad part of having just come back from a conference is that the piles of grading that I left waiting (and the new ones coming in) are not taking care of themselves and I got behind on class prep and some other tasks. So in the spirit of trying to seek that ever-elusive balance and not run myself ragged into the final stretch of the term, I'm only setting a few goals this month. I've no doubt that I will consume a fair amount of coffee in the search for this balance.

Professional/Writing Goals
1. Revise and resubmit an article. As I did last year, I plan to try to channel the energy of NaNoWriMo but turn it into NaArtWriMo (National Article Writing Month).  Instead of writing an novel, I will be working on finishing up some article revisions and kicking this manuscript back out the door. In the interest of disclosure, this is an article that I resubmitted to a journal over the summer, and I found out at the end of September that the journal had decided not to go forward with it. It was a setback, but I have regrouped. I have a plan for attacking revisions and will be sending to another journal by the end of the month. My not-so-secret hope is that this will be out the door by Thanksgiving and that I can reward myself with a new (and functioning) Garmin on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
2. Continue to do research, take notes, and work on expanding the paper that I just gave into an article draft. I imagine that this project will stretch over a couple of months and that's okay. But I want to build off of the momentum coming out of the conference. I'm committing to carving out 2 hours every Friday to work on this for the month of November - come hell, high water, or department meetings.
3. Draft the syllabus for the upper level course I'm teaching in the spring. I have another new class prep on my plate for the spring, so I need to get cracking on this.

Fitness/Health Goals
1. Be present in the moment, be thankful, and express gratitude. I have been doing a better job of being in the moment, but I want to focus that in a more positive way this month. While I probably won't go out and buy any Pollyanna hair bows, I want to work on being more optimistic in general but to appreciate things as they come and as I experience them in particular. I want to be fully present while I enjoy a glass of wine, a conversation with my partner, reading a brilliant article about discourses of masculinity in early modern Spain, and the feeling of running on a beautiful late autumn day.
2. Maintain my food journal every day in the month of November. Sticker calendar, ahoy! Enjoy but keep track of how much dressing and pumpkin pie I eat over the Thanksgiving holiday this year.
3. Run 50 miles in November. This seems like a reasonable number to me, as I start to rebuild my base. If I run 50 miles this month, I'll be in good shape to meet my 2011 mileage goal even with the low mileage of September and October due to injury. I really am relieved and happy that I can include this on my list of goals for the month.

If I can make it through everything I have to do today, I will get through this week and probably though this month. Do you have any goals for November? I'd love to hear about them! Any readers participating in NaNoWriMo? Anyone want to join me in a subversion of this month's goals and work on some other kind of writing project?