Goals for 2006

I have been struggling to create goals for the coming year. This past year has been a whirlwind and the coming months look similar. The next 10 weeks will be especially daunting as I teach an undergraduate class 3 days a week in addition to my normal work and night school schedule. We are actively recruiting new faculty members to my research institute and have several candidates coming to interview and give seminars over the next month. Typically when I think of goal setting I think about developing new habits or adding new things to accomplish. I suspect this is why creating goals this year is so difficult. I already have more works in progress than are comfortable or sustainable. So as I think about 2006, I need to focus on the commitments that I have already made and finish the projects that have already been initiated.

Professional Goals

-Work to better balance directorship duties and laboratory duties. Currently my time is allocated at about 80:20 when they are budgeted at 20:80. I’d like to get this to at least a 50:50 split in the coming months.

-Improve teaching. My curriculum is excellent. My ability to connect with and inspire the students is not. My goal for this quarter is to focus on friendliness (see more in personal goals).

-Submit at least two publications. I have been quite delinquent in this area and research is a profession where “publish or perish” rules.

Personal Goals

-Finish MBA. Just have two more classes. I should finish in May 2006.

-Focus on friendliness. It’s not that I’m mean or anything it’s just that friendly wouldn’t be one of the first 10 adjectives used to describe me. I’m much more comfortable with honest, responsible, reliable, perseverant, hard working, quirky, independent, introverted, logical and intelligent. It has always been much more important for me to have someone respect me or my abilities rather than like me. Friendliness has never been a priority for me in the past and I suspect that this lack is a major liability in my teaching effectiveness and in life in general. I have been observing my favorite teachers trying to determine why some are so much more effective than others and I think that friendliness is a major component. Success comes from being liked and not necessarily from being smart or capable.

Fitness Goals

For most of a year I’ve been maintaining an 18-20 pound loss. During the last few hectic months my nutrition has been terrific but my workouts have essentially disappeared from my schedule. It’s time to put it all together again. It is time to commit at least 30 to 60 minutes a day to my body doing basic Body for Life workouts for the next 12 weeks: alternating HIIT cardio with weights 6 days a week. I’ll look at my diet again after the first two weeks. I’ve been averaging 1800 to 1900 calories a day (40:40:20) without gaining and without workouts. Ideally the activity will create the deficit. I’ve put together a table summarizing my current statistics and my overall body change goals. While hitting these numbers would be terrific, from an overall health standpoint, getting the fitness back in my schedule with a clean diet will be a success. I will revisit my fitness goals at the end of the school quarter (mid-March).