2022 is almost at an end and the New Year will soon be here. After being ill for most of the Christmas period, I am slowly getting back to work and catching up on university work. December has been such a busy month, I have been meeting myself coming back!
Over the last 12 months I have attended lots of online training and CPD (continuous professional development) sessions. I hope to focus on my forthcoming literature review on the women in the Temperance Movement and will be putting blog posts on the campaigns and causes these women fought for.
Goal setting:
I have selected my 3 words for 2023. I do this each year, and for 2022 my 3 words were:
* Progress * Growth * Focus *
Over the last 12 months, I can see that I have progressed through my Master’s degree, increased networking opportunities and enhanced my professional development. I am continuing to learn and develop myself as a professional genealogist. I have taken on a few clients and hope that by the time I have completed my MSc, Genealogical, Palaeographical and Heraldic Studies with the University of Strathclyde, I will be in a position to offer more services.
I have set my 12 month and 90-day goals – some people don’t set goals but I feel that it helps me to focus on the tasks I have set myself and gives me something to aim for. My goal setting technique is a mixture of the ‘Mountain of Goals‘ theory – setting a goal at the top of a mountain and breaking down the tasks as you need to start at the bottom of the mountain and work your way up. I also then look at the ‘good-better-best‘ goals – if my top goal is good, then what would make it a better goal and what would be the absolute best. Here is a template of the Mountain of Goals technique, but feel free to alter it to suit your needs – you may not feel that you can fill in every box, but it may help in sub-dividing the mountain into months/3-months/quarterly. I print it off and keep under my keyboard so I can refer to it every day, or if you want to keep it digital save and complete it on the PC. There are lots of methods for setting goals, including SMART goals. Whatever the method, it feels good to tick off the tasks as they are completed, set yourself a new goal and reward yourself for doing a good job! Even if it just to go out for a coffee, a walk, or have a relaxing day off!
Looking forward to 2023
One thing that I would like to do is to blog more and I have set myself a challenge to blog at least once per month. I started strong last year but as I got busier, this dropped after the summer holidays. I’ve included this as one of my goals (and it’s on my Mountain of Goals! So I am accountable to myself to get this up and running!)
I’ve also set myself a goal to visit another archive. I’d like to visit Wolverhampton archives and Birmingham Library.
Finally, I’d like to thank you for your support in reading my blogs and social media posts.
Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year.
#RQGmember #Genealogist #Researcher #Business #CPD #Goalsetting #Mentor