As some of my friends and family members know, I can be something of a chronic goal setter. Obviously this tendency can be good for my professional ambitions and general productivity. However, it can also lead me to feel overwhelmed at times and to feelings of failure at others. It sometimes also creates situations in which it's hard for me to be still or to feel gratitude for a recent accomplishment before feeling like I have been slacking. It can make a person feel like she always needs to be moving on toward the next milepost. Knowing all of this about myself, I would like to set fewer major goals this year than I have in some (I'm looking at you, 2011 and 2012).
The truth is I know that I will continue to work hard to advance in my career, that I will continue to set goals for myself as a (pretty slow) runner, and that I will continue to challenge myself to grow in other ways, as well. I'd like to think that I would do this even without putting pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard in this case), and I probably would. Just in case, though, here are the big things I would like to do/accomplish in 2016.
1. Run my third marathon and PR while doing it. I'm registered to run the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon in June, and I will be doing it as a fundraiser for Team in Training! I ran my first marathon with them back in 2009, and I'm excited to be doing this again. If you would like to support my fundraising efforts, you can do so here. I'll be posting more about my training plans and workouts, as well as my fundraising endeavors and running musings, in the weeks to come. My intention is to do a lot more of the team workouts this time around than I did the last. Hopefully, that will connect me with some new running buddies. While it's really only an ancillary goal, I hope to hit at least 800 running miles over the course of this year. Time to remember my dailymile password. :)
2. Make significant progress on other research projects. In the spring semester I will be leading a faculty writing group at my institution, and my goal is to submit at an article to an academic journal by the end of the term. I'm also starting to dive into research for my next book project. There are a few contingent factors that make it harder to set more concrete goals at this point, but ideally I would like to transcribe and take notes on at least 5 documents a month during the spring semester. At the end of the term I'll be able to evaluate my progress (and I should also know about the status of some grants and fellowships) and can make further plans for the summer and fall. One of the things I did this past year, which I really got a lot out of on a number of levels, was making a writing pact with my seminar students, so that I had to produce the same number of pages that they had to for their final paper. I would definitely consider doing something like that again in the autumn semester.
3. Establish a mindful practice of gratitude and optimism. There are two key areas/development of habits that I want to focus on in this regard. One is keeping a gratitude journal by using the Gratitude app on my phone on a daily basis. The other is working to retrain my emotional responses to food and my body so that I don't associate so much value and judgment with food.
4. Write some non-academic things. One avenue for this will be this blog. Although it's debatable whether or not it's a good idea to do so pre-tenure, I'd like to write a couple more journalistic pieces even if it turns out that I can't find a home for them. I'd also like to try to return to writing some fiction in 2016. It's been a long time, so I plan to start with a couple of short stories. If it's possible without making work and life overly stressful, toward the end of the year I hope to participate in NaNoWriMo in November. November tends to be a rough month for academics, so if it doesn't work out I'm not going to sweat it.
What are your goals for 2016? If you posted about them, please feel free to share a link in the comments!
I am completely on the same page with you about being a goal setter and needing to have goals but also having a hard time not setting too many goals and then feeling like a failure when I don't accomplish them. It's really hard to set a realistic number of goals without shortchanging yourself of going overboard!
ReplyDeleteI have set a few goals which are scheduled to go out in a blog post next week. However, I still have a few private ones that I will work on but not announce to the world! Some of the posted ones are reading related and running related and the private ones are more finance/work/life related. As I told a friend yesterday, if you don't set goals, then what are you trying to achieve!? Even if some of them fall short, at least striving for them is worth it, in my mind.
I think you, Kyria and I are all cut from the same cloth as I think that your intro paragraph applies to all of us! I really struggle to just 'be' and not be pushing for the next goal/accomplishment. Which is why one of my goals for 2016 is to have one shouldless day a month. I should be able to have more than that, but I need to start somewhere! I'll be sharing my other goals on Monday but like you, I set a small number of goals that are challenging yet achievable.
ReplyDeleteThat is exciting that you are running another marathon! I'm running one in June as well so we can virtually high five each other as we move through the training plan. :) I think running with others is the best idea because it allows you to combine being active with being social and it's just way more fun to train for something when you've got company.