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.