My 2011 Wishes for You

2011 arrives this weekend and with it comes the aspirations for the New Year. While you may not be able to acquire or accomplish everything on my list of wishes for you, these are the ideals I hope you will claim as your own as we enter into the second decade of the 21st century.


In the New Year may you…

• Let go of something that needs to be gone – you probably already know who or what it is. Promise yourself to cut loose and don’t look back. Feel the weight lifted from you and put that energy into new pursuits!
  
  
  
• Choose to make a difference in a struggling child’s life – you decide the child and the commitment you can make. Your time, talents, hobbies, resources – whatever you can offer – will pass on a legacy of caring.
  
  
  
• Learn a completely new skill or body of knowledge – make it outside of your typical interests….even outside of your comfort zone if you’re up for it. Remind yourself how exhilarating learning can be!
  
  
  
• Awaken your inner-activist – learn everything you can about issues important to you and speak up online and face-to-face to make others aware, impassioned and involved. Be your own best advocate!
  
  
  
• Turn a challenge into an opportunity – pick one obstacle with which you have struggled, find the allies and resources you need to help you overcome it, and find a door where you never saw one before!
  
  
  
• Discover a new purpose in your work – get excited about an aspect of your job you have yet to tap into. Build on the good work you already do and be energized by your newfound perspective!
  
  
  
• Choose to work for someone you respect – putting in time for someone who doesn’t deserve you? There are plenty of good jobs out there, even in this economy. Start looking and plan to make the move!
  
  
  
• Schedule in daily me time – protect it selfishly by placing it right in your calendar. Make it time for you alone, be it quiet reflection, reading, going for a walk….whatever allows you to quietly restore balance!
  
  
  
• Reconnect with an old acquaintance – someone you remember fondly but haven’t been in touch with for years. And may it rekindle memories and relationships that you had lost track of over time!
  
  
  
• Attend at least one online professional development opportunity a month – it can be an hour chat, a webinar, a workshop, a meeting of your PLN, even a conference. They’re free and they’re everywhere!
  
  
  
• Become platform independent – make your use of instructional technology open source; free of any specific product or platform. You’re not a NASCAR driver - refuse to be a walking advertisement for any vendor!
  
  
  
• Go portable – bypass the desktop and the laptop and go directly to your very own smart phone. Do not stop for toys and trends. Do not settle for bells and whistles. Make that smart phone your communications central: phone, mail, text, web, even files!
  
  
  
• Break away from email – condition yourself and your contacts to use text, instant messaging, social media, hashtags, voice - whatever works to keep you connected without adding to your Inbox!
  
  
  
• Spend a minimum of 30 minutes a day social networking – it may not pay off in the first week or the first month, but it will pay off. Break out of thinking and working in isolation. Read, respond and connect!
  
  
  
• Add a ripple in the transformation of education – and may our ripples come together to help turn the tide. Visit http://crste.org/det.html and get a copy of the decade of educational transformation logo to post on your site to spread the word and create awareness!
  
  
  
• Pay yourself moving forward – make it as little as you have or as much as you can afford, but put away something into savings every paycheck. Make it a direct deposit up front. No excuses….you’ll be glad you did!
  
  
  
• Visit somewhere you've never been before – sure it can be a planned vacation to somewhere far away, but it can also be a state park, a new community facility or your local historical society. Expand your perspective!
  
  
  
• Recommit to personal integrity – stop taking those shortcuts that chip away at your sense of honor. Choose a new way to conduct yourself and practice sticking to it until it is habit. You’ll be glad you did!
  
  
  
• Love and accept yourself – be good to yourself and know that at your core you’re exactly who you’re supposed to be. No shame, nor the fear that comes with it. The same courage that you find to love and accept yourself will be an incredibly powerful gift to share with someone else in your life. Pass it on!

Happy New year to you, your friends and your family! Together let's make 2011 a year not of just hope and promise, but of growth and transformation.