Monday Moment for Health - A Fully Alive Career

If it's still January, I'm still working on my goals. It really does help me to contemplate them fully before I firmly set them.

I've delayed in setting my career goals this year because I've had some potential new projects lurking in the wings, but not yet ready to take the stage. Even if I haven't set my goals to paper, though, these new opportunities have been percolating in my mind - and just came together last week.

One is a done deal - signed and delivered. I'll teach one more School-Age Care Credential Prep Course in addition to the two distance learning courses I'm teaching on the same topic. This one will be in person - and will push me to learn different ways to present similar information. Good career learning. The second opportunity is not quite a done deal, but after nearly a year of incubating, it's starting to come into focus. It too will require a lot of new professional learning.

And it's that cusp of career learning that I feel inspired to write about today. As I look back on my checkered and varied career, I realize that I have almost always felt most alive in my work as I was beginning a new job, taking on a new project, and having to learn a lot in just a little time. I doubt that I've always been fully appreciative of those steep learning curves that new work required of me - and so one of my career goals for 2007 is to really savor and appreciate the excitement of learning new skills.

I think of myself as being a bit less averse to change than many people, but I have my own ways of digging into my comfort zone and dragging myself toward growth only with much kicking and screaming. This year I here I highly resolve to scream a little less and appreciate feeling so alive a lot more!

What do you need to do to feel more fully alive in your work?