Goals? or Not?

I have to say that I tend to resist setting goals. This is gotten me into some frustrating circumstances at work in the past when I some years I just refused to do it at all. My real goal for work was probably something like "just keep doing what I am doing as well as I have been doing it (or some better on occasion) and stay employed here for another year" but that wasn't what was needed. I needed to find something that I could try to improve. My supervisor once said in a bit of despair "But how will I evaluate you next year if you have no goals that I can evaluate you against?" Good question. That's the problem with setting up the evaluation system that way in the first place.


I have to say that my present workplace has recognized that this evaluation against goals thing is pretty bogus and has eliminated the whole thing. I am pleased. Now we just have to show that we are doing what we have been assigned to do and we are contributing to the overall mission of the organization. So much more sensible.

Right now I am in wind down mode for work. I have only four more years to do for my career work. Then my career will be over. I have to say to any students who might possibly read this, that it is my intention to do very, very well as far as teaching goes. I intend to be the very best teacher I can be for all of you. I am NOT winding down as a good teacher.

Teaching, however, is pretty much "in the moment" most of the time. The course needs to be organized and set up in advance, which I intend to do well, but most of what happens with students happens from minute to minute as the semester goes on. My students will get my full attention, I assure you all. I intend to be as wise a guide as I can for everyone. I intend to help everyone to become the best kind of nurse. I intend to give the help that students need and want. I intend to continue to be a good midwife for all the future nurses entrusted to my care.

What I also intend to do is to not fret very much about how the organization works. If I don't contribute all that much to the organization over the next four years, that's OK by me. I'll do what I need to do and certainly will not work against the place in any way. But the future of the organization does not belong to me. I intend to support  my younger colleagues and to stay out of their way a lot.

But what about goals for my personal life? It might be a good idea to think some about that. I did like this blog post that I read about this and decided that maybe some large scope, not oto specific goals might help me to accomplish a few things that I think need accomplishing.

So I'm starting to work on this. I think that a few goals for the next year might be in order. (The way I think has the year starting when school starts and ending with summer the following year. So right now I am at the end of a year, getting ready for the start of a new one.)

1. Save more money. I'm going to begin with having more money taken out of my paycheck. That's specific. Then I will be on the lookout for ways that I can avoid spending money along with ways not to waste it. Those are not that specific, but they boil down to living with the money that is left...or less.

2. Learn things that I will need in the future. For now this means mostly reading about things like RVs and other such things. But who knows? An adult ed class may pop up or there may be a show or meeting I can attend too. I don't need a focused curriculum right now, so I can just explore over the next few years. I'll learn what I learn along the way. Later I can get more focused by seeking out specific classes or courses about whatever.

3. Learn a couple more taiko songs. My intention is that I will know at least parts of all of Kenshin's repertoire within four years. I can see there are some songs I probably will never be able to do except on shime (little drum that keeps the beat) , but that's OK. Shime is very important.

4. Dance. I hate the idea of "exercise" but I want to move as much as I can. I wish I were better at dancing. I know of a couple places in town where I can go to learn more as well as some places I can go no matter how good / bad I am at it. I intend to find ways to dance this year.

5. Work on minimizing the content of the SLC apartment. My long term goal is that the apartment will end up containing 2 classes of things: things to store for when I decide to settle down again & things to take on the road with me while I travel. Right now it has 3 classes of things: the two classes above plus things that I use now but that I intend to get rid of  or move to the permanent home in SD sooner or later. An example for the storage container is some of the furniture. An example to take with is some of the clothes. An example to take to SD eventually is some of the books. An example to get rid of is some of the furniture, some of the clothes, some of the books. I can do this sorting all at once at the end, but I think it will be easier if I do as much as I can slowly over time.

6. Knit from the stash. I have a pretty large yarn stash like most knitters. I need to make the stash much smaller.

So, that's a start. Enough but not too much. Some focus but not too limiting. Still open to the possibility of change if needed. let's see how it all goes.