Goal setting and success

What? I started a blog? When did that happen?

It’s been a few weeks since I posted... let’s not count how many. When I started this blog I committed (to myself) to post weekly. Then the end of semester arrived with final assignments and exams. Then we moved. Then we started renovations.

It’s safe to say, I’ve been busy and sadly too busy to sit down and write. So today, with a little bit of calm in my life, I will sit and write. At least until my little boy wakes up from his nap.

So how am I? How is life as a mom in the midst of a career change? Good. Ok. Difficult. Confusing. Fun.

More than anything, I am struggling to prioritize. I still feel unsure of how to get from point A (an unhappy youth counsellor) to point B (an excited, creative and successful communication strategist). My goal this week is to make some goals. Hahaha! In the busy busy life of me, I need to set a goal to make goals.

I will sit down, in a quiet place, without the imminent threat of a child waking from his nap and I will decide what I want my career to look like in 6 months, a year and 5 years. I will then work backwards and make SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely) goals that will get me from here to there.

With past goals I have had the habit of making goals that are SMRT. I tend to underestimate the time and energy I have to be successful. Especially with a little one now, I will be very careful about what I expect of myself. I will definitely focus on the “attainable” qualities of the goals I set.

I find, as many people do that when I expect too much and then fail to meet my goals, I get discouraged and give up. It is really important to me that I don’t take that road this time. It is OK to fail, a lot can be learned from it but some degree of success needs to be mixed in to keep your head up and encourage tenacity.

I was part of a perfect example of this on the weekend. For the past month I have been working with the IBO Home Living Show as a marketing/pr intern. On Saturday we had our event. In many ways it was a great success: the logistics of the show ran smooth, the quality of the speakers and seminars was superb and the location was beautiful. Where we didn’t succeed was attendance.

Perhaps the founder, Irene Strong would just give up and not pursue another show next year but because the response from the exhibitors and speakers was so positive, Irene will go forward and continue to pursue her goal: creating an informative and inspiring event for home owners and buyers. Both her successes and failures this year will contribute to executing a better show next year. I know I learned a lot as her intern and will incorporate those lessons in my future pursuits.

With that, I will sign off for the day. I can’t believe I got through writing this entire post without interruption – a true novelty for which I am grateful.

Also, I’ll let you know the goals I set. I know that many of you will be able to support me, guide me and learn from me. It’s impossible to succeed alone.

Changing my ways

I felt a change the last few days. Perhaps I am getting wiser and more mature. I have decided I want more balance in my life. I plan to be successful and I need to say "no" more often to do that. I need to set limits and I need to have priorities.
This past fall I was listening to a podcast by Lara Galloway of http://mombizcoach.com/ and she said that we all need to set priorities and stick to them. I thought "well, that's easy!" Then she said we could only have 3 priorities. I thought "Only 3?! Impossible!"
I have always had more than 3 focuses in my life and I drive myself crazy trying to get them all done. Usually I do complete everything and most of the time I do them all well but I feel stressed, distracted and anxious in the process.
But I don't want to feel that way anymore. Especially now that my son is in daycare 3 days a week, I want the days that I am with him to be special. I want to present and focused on him, not thinking about the hundred things on my to-do list.
So here are my 3 priorities:

1. Family - spending quality time loving each other and getting settled in our new home
2. Health - continuing to care of my body through good food, self care and active living
3. Career - taking advantage of the exciting opportunities that come my way

And in that order! Which means I may have to say no to a career opportunity if it jeopardizes too much of the time I spend with my family. I value my family more than anything but I think they may doubt that some days. I have spent too many weekends in my home office with the door shut this winter.
This week I said no to a couple things: I withdrew from one of my courses for next semester (leaving me with only one) and I delayed a guest blogging opportunity until next month. It feels good to set priorities and stick to them. I know I will be a better me (and mom and partner and friend) with less on my plate.

And this is just the beginning...

Before babe I loved being able to focus on my career. It may not have been the right career for me, but what a pleasure it was to throw myself at it and enjoy the freedom of complete commitment. These days, building a brand new career from nothing but a few courses and a great personality, I find myself wishing I had all the time in the world to devote myself to internships, volunteer roles and paid positions. I would work 80 hour weeks if I could. I know I could rocket myself from marketing intern to guru in a year. If....

But that's not the way it goes as a mom. Instead, I spent half my day worrying about my sweet son after receiving a phone call from my childcare provider telling me my son had been miserable all morning. I then spent the next couple hours calling my partner, calling my mom, calling different possible childcare providers - trying to figure out if this was normal and what was my best course of action. In the end, my son had a great nap and was a super star for the rest of the day.

The truth is, I don't want to be away from my son for a single moment. At the same time, I really want to be away from my son for many moments. I am one those moms - the ones that wish they had the patience, the interest & the creativity to mother full time. I just don't. I know I will be a better mom if I also have a career. I know I will be able to give him more if I also give to myself.

Our goal is to have our son attend some type of childcare for 3 days a week. This means I have 3 days + nights + weekends to create a new career. Creating a new career includes studying, interning, volunteering, branding myself and looking for work. It's a tough gig!

Maybe, if I didn't love the field of marketing communications, I would feel like it was too tough. Thankfully, I don't actually care that I am up past midnight, writing a blog post to promote myself while my babe and partner sleep sweetly. Thankfully, I have an awesome partner who will let me sleep in tomorrow. Maybe my son will also get that memo.