Hola Todos!
A little more than a year ago, I created 5 professional goals to which I shared on the blog and 5 personal goals to which I did not, to accomplish for the 2012 year. To summarize, goal setting is the easy part. Goal maintenance and goal achievement is the hard part. Goals are important because they serve as those big rocks to set your sights on. Actually achieving each an every goal may or may not be as important as actually having a goal, attempting to achieve that goal, perhaps failing and learning something just as important along the way. One of my favorite expressions is “The journey is the reward” – a Chinese proverb but also recently used in the Steve Jobs biography.
As for the Big 5 Goals – Here’s a Review
#1 – Focus & Simplify – I said to myself many times last year this was and will continue be the hardest of them all. As the year progressed, many, many, MANY things get dropped in your lap – and almost all of these are unexpected things that are usually a fire you need to put out. Needless to say, I struggled with this goal.
The lessoned learned was to leave “buffer time” to deal with the unexpected. I DID NOT nor am I used to leaving “buffer time.” In other words, I’d plan my day/week with a jam-packed list of activities with little to no margin for error for the unexpected. That will change in 2013. Perhaps the goal should have been titled “Focus & Simplify & Hedge”
#2 – I need 2 academic research articles published this year – As an untenured Seton Hall professor, I need a minimum of three academic articles to be reviewed for tenure. Article #2 was wrapped up in 2012 and article 3 is very very close – end of January at the latest for submission. In addition, I have other research projects which are far along and this will be task #1 for 2013.
#3 – Run the Broad Street Run – I did run the 10 Mile Broad Street Run in May. It wasn’t pretty but I finished. More importantly, I’ve stayed in shape playing in a men’s soccer pick up league, which is a lot of fun. I’m probably going to pick a different exercise goal for 2013
#4 – Take a Deep Dive into Twitter – I’m glad I spent the time and effort on Twitter last year. I am substantially more comfortable with Twitter in January 2013 than January 2012. I have found a comfortable medium, I did have some meaningful connections, and I do not feel the need to be on it 24/7 as its not email.
#5 – Double my DigNuggetville Traffic – Thanks to healthy doses of Google-Juice, the DigNuggetville traffic was up substantially compared to 2011. Month-to-month comparisons, both in year and year-to-year, all showed a minimum of 2X traffic increases. Now before I pat myself on the back, the numbers for the four months in 2011 and the first six months of 2012 were relatively low. The question is – will 2013 be 2X 2012?
Thank you all for listening. In Tuesday’s post, I will outline my goals for 2013.
Best regards,
Dr. Dan-o
Associate Professor of Marketing
Stillman School of Business
Seton Hall University
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