Status Report – August 12, 2013

As you can see, it’s been almost two months since my last status report (and my last post, for that matter).  It has not been for lack of things to say (I’ve got lists all over my house of books I’d like to mention, sites I’d like to recommend, and topics I’d like to discuss), but rather because I have not devoted specific time to sit down and write.  So when one of my friends and fellow blogger suggested that we make a regular habit of sitting down together and carving out time to write, I jumped at the chance.  It’s a little funny for me (a seriously social being) to sit across from someone in silence, but at least it’s got us writing.

And with that, on to this month’s Status Report.

Physical/Mental Health
I’m giving myself a green light on this one.  I’ve been pretty good about getting in my daily 10k steps (or close to it), but that’s not the real determining factor.  I’ve started playing squash again, and that’s got me really active a few times a week.  Back in high school, I was nationally ranked (#11 in the under-17 division), and I played on the varsity team at Williams College.  But since college, I haven’t really stuck with it.  I go in spurts of loving it and then getting frustrated with myself that I’m not playing as well as I think I should be.  This time around, however, I seem to be coming at it with a different mindset.  My coaches would be proud – I’m typically focusing on the long points and trying to win through good consistent play, not by taking risky winning shots.  I still get frustrated with myself from time to time, but overall, I think I’m really just enjoying it.

Outside of playing squash 2-3 times every week, I continue to do other workouts (cardio, weight-lifting, etc.).  As part of this 90-day challenge I joined at my gym, I’ve got four personal training sessions coming up (purchased at a discount), and I’ll be given another assessment on my heart rates to see if I’ve improved my cardio vascular stamina since the last assessment a few months ago.  I got a new toy (yes, I like gadgets), a Garmin heart-rate watch, into which I can program all 5 heart rates and really be targeted about when I want to burn fat or when I just want to really go anaerobic.   I’m quite excited about using it.  And I wear it when during squash, I see that I burn 800-1200 calories when I play a couple hours of squash.

Community Involvement

This one gets a greenish-yellow light.  Throughout the month of July, I served as the registrar at AGE Computer Lab while the regular registrar was out of town.  I spent about 30-40 hours in July working on creating attendance sheets, registering students in our database, and tracking and processing payments for classes.  I made a run toCostCo at one point and bought a massive supply of creamers and sweeteners for their coffee (they have a coffee break in all their classes) as another donation to their efforts.   still volunteer with AGE a couple hours each week, but it’s not much.  But aside from that, I really haven’t done much volunteering.  I plan on getting back to that in the fall.

Love of Learning
I’m giving myself a greenish-yellow light on this one as well.  I am still reading Mindset by Carol Dweck, and because there were so many passages that I wanted to take note of, I finally just went ahead and bought my own copy so I could highlight it as needed.  I’ve also recently learned about Simon Sinek and his “Start with Why” book and talks.  His Start with Why website shows how you progress from defining your “why,” devising the “how” and “what” that follow, how that model works inside of an organization, and then what to do when you’re struggling to make a decision (hint: go back to your why and determine which action supports that).  It’s an interesting model and reminds me a lot of the Human Performance Institute’s Corporate Athlete program that I participated in a couple times.  I loved the notion of determining your ultimate purpose is and then ensuring that everything you do drives to your purpose.  Not surprisingly, it’s easier said than done, but it’s good to take that time to reflect on what it is you really want out of your life.  The Corporate Athlete also addresses things in a very holistic manner through body, heart, mind, and spirit.  I would love to be a certified instructor of that one day and travel around taking people through that meaningful and potentially life-changing process.  I think it’s really expensive to become certified, but that might just be something that leads me to my ultimate purpose.

Job Search
Good news – I’m employed!  Green light!  Since this last post, I received two job offers.  They were both contract roles, which meant no health insurance and in some cases limited access to some systems, but they were job offers.  And interesting ones at that.  One job, in Houston, sounded like work in line with my passion for Learning and Development.  I’d be working on this companies very well-developed (compared to what I’ve known) catalog of development programs helping to conduct quantifiable assessments of their programs in addition to potentially helping redesign some programs.  And it paid more ($6/hr more), but the problem was, it was in Houston.  They would require me to be in Houston three days per week for the first couple months and then re-evaluate the situation at that point.  They were extremely generous (offering housing, gas reimbursement, etc.) and the work sounded interesting, but I just couldn’t really wrap my head around driving to Houston and back every week and, more importantly, being away from my husband that much.  We are, after all, newlyweds.

The job I accepted really focuses on my project management experience and does make a nod to my training background, but more in a development of training frameworks rather than my actually delivering the training.  The team is hilarious, hard-working, and welcoming, and most of us are dispersed throughout the country, so all of our work is done either over the phone or through an online meeting platform.  My commute is walking from the bedroom to the dining room (where I’ve set up shop temporarily as we clean out our Office, which has become a glorified storage room).  It took a couple weeks for me to get my computer, but I’m getting into the swing of things now.  That said, it is a contract position, and while I would love to be converted to a full-time employee, I realize that the ebbs and flows of business often dictate a change of course, so conversion might not be possible in the near term.  So I’m keeping my eyes peeled, while giving this job all that I have.

Status Report – June 18, 2013

One of the reasons I chose to do status reports is that I believe in transparency.  Having worked in HR, I realize that not all things can be transparent (there is the need for confidentiality at times), but I believe that we can…we should be more transparent.  So many confusing moments can be clarified if all parties had just communicated what they meant, needed, disliked, etc. in the first place.  I believe that people are too guarded and end up hurting themselves in the long run; I’ve seen this on numerous occasions in my professional life.  I certainly strive to be a truth-teller, and will work to help others become more comfortable with the truth, even when it seems like the riskier option.

And with that, some truth telling in my Status Report for June 18.

Physical/Mental Health
I’m giving myself a yellow light on this one.  While the FitBit has certainly been motivating me to take more steps during the day, and despite my initial over-achieving nature, I haven’t reached 10k steps on each of the past few days.  There are caveats (like, I parked my car far away from the gym entrance to get in the extra steps, only to realize that I forgot to put my FitBit on my workout clothing), but overall, the lesson is that I need to be more active.

Progress is being made in other parts of the physical health arena.  I have put together various weight-lifting routines to rotate throughout the week in addition to my cardio workouts.  The balance of creating more lean mass and reducing body fat through cardio routines targeting specific heart rates is the best way to make some headway in the ever-present weight loss challenge.  That said, these workouts aren’t perfect, and I’ll need to tweak them (adjust a weight here, switch out a machine there, and so on).  Of course, as luck would have it, I’ll probably finish tweaking them just when it’s time to rotate them out and do a whole new set of routines (don’t want my muscles to get too comfy).

Community Involvement
This one definitely gets a green light.  I continue to spend a lot of time at AGE Computer Lab and have taken on their social media presence (which only consists of Facebook, right now).  I’ve already seen some action on those posts, but haven’t seen an increase in class registration just yet.  I’m working on it, though.

I have also registered through United Way’s Hands On Central Texas volunteering database.  This service allows me to search through volunteering opportunities in addition to allowing prospective organizations search me out based on the skills/interests I listed in my profile.  I’m excited go through the listings of opportunities…but I’m going to have to balance my time spent volunteering with my job search.  (See Job Search below.)

Love of Learning
I better always get green on this one…it’s my true passion.  And, I’m giving myself a green light this month. Today I signed up for a certification from the American Red Cross on CPR and First Aid for adults and children.  The only thing it doesn’t cover is Pet CPR (which I intend to learn the next time it is offered).  The class is this Monday and is pretty much the full day.  I remember loving Standard First Aid, CPR, and Emergency Water Safety when I took them at summer camp, but that was ::covers mouth with hand mumbling unintelligibly:: years ago.  Let’s just leave it at that.

I also just picked up a book (from my beloved local Austin library) recommended to me called Mindset by Carol Dweck.  Essentially, it discusses her belief that people are either of a “fixed mindset” or a “growth mindset.”  As she describes it, the former is where people believe that their intelligence or talent are fixed traits.  They don’t spend the time developing them.  They believe that those fixed traits alone create their success.  A growth mindset, on the other hand, people believe “brains and talent are just the starting point.”  You can learn and develop and accomplish great things if you have this attitude, and it’s available to everyone.  It sounds fascinating, and I can’t wait to read it.

Job Search
In the spirit of transparency, this one gets a yellow light as well.  I have not been doing all that I should be doing to find a new job.   I do review job search sites on a regular basis, but as anyone who is looking for a job will tell you, that’s only going to get you so far.   I have not done the full-court press on my target companies and have not requested time from all of professional mentors with whom I’d like to chat. That said, I continue to apply to my fair share of jobs (a couple each week), and have some other potential projects in the works.  So all is not lost.

Quick Post: Today’s Endeavors and Status Reports

Periodically, I will post “Today’s Endeavors.”  Those activities will move the needle in one or more of the following 4 focus areas:

1. Physical/Mental Health
2. Community Involvement
3. Love of Learning
4. Job Search

I will also be posting “Status Reports” as to how I’m doing on each of these four areas.  I’ll use the RYG model:

Red Light means problems have already arisen or are imminent.

Yellow Light means problems are on the horizon, but so far everything is on its way.

Green Light means everything is hunky dory.

 

So with that introduction, I’m going to get back to my To Do List for the day.

So what do you do with all that “down” time?

In my “down” time, I am making a point to keep a connection with my community.  I’ll keep a running list of all the places I’ve volunteered while out of work, which can be found via the Where I’m Volunteering link on the right.

Below are the three places where I’ve given my time and efforts in the past couple of months.

• Capital Area Food Bank
  There’s nothing quite like sorting food items.  I think it feeds my love of process.  But the best part of volunteering at CAFB is the immediate gratification of knowing exactly how many pounds of food your shift has sorted and how many lives that will help.
• AGE Computer Lab
  Previously known as the Austin Computer Learning Center, AGE (Austin Groups for the Elderly) Computer Lab is a place where older adults are exposed to technology.  Classes cover everything from basic computer skills (literally…this is a mouse…this is a keyboard) to photojournalism and iPhone apps.  I love serving as a coach there, helping the students to conduct the hands-on portion of the lesson.  Their class structure with one coach to 2-3 learners (in addition to the instructor at the front of the room), really allows for complete understanding by all students.
• Emancipet
  As the proud mother of two furry sons (I met my husband at the dog park), I love having the opportunity to help out our furry community members.  Empancipet, which provides low-cost veterinary services (primarily spaying and neutering), needed and office facelift.  As a part of the group Karma Badgers, started by my friend Narissa Johnson, we removed the furniture, repainted the office, and generally spruced up the place.  From what I understand, it was a wonderful surprise to the employees when they got in on Monday.