TO BE HAPPY

When I sat down to write my performance self-appraisal for work, I realised that I don't have long-term goals for both my professional and personal lives - how scary is that? So far, my best attempt at setting a long-term goal has been: To be happy.

As I began to fragment 2006 into months and consolidate data about my achievements at work, I realised the importance of setting goals and writing objectives to achieve them. I realise how I'm fuelling the car and driving relentlessly, improving manoeuvring skills, and getting better at road sense, but not really bothering about the route I'm taking. How much of this is because I don't really know myself?

As step one, I have created an account on 43 Things (try it, folks), and am rapidly building a list of goals for 2007. I don't like the word "resolution" because it has become synonymous with the word "broken". And just like I do on the job as instructional designer while creating courses, I am trying to define SMART goals. So instead of, "I will lose my bad habits", a goal would be, "On December 31, the nails on each of my ten fingers will be found unbitten" (which, by the way, has been one of my biggest personal achievements of 2006).

Wish you a fun, productive 2007, friends!