Saturday, January 9th, 2010 was the first GTY meeting of the year.  What a great and exciting meeting it was. Our GTY project is really starting to take shape.  Patti helped me decide on the photography project – a photo blog. I have always wanted to do one of these, but for some reason never have.

After our meeting I had a photography class at SAIT from 1-4 (working towards my goal for my photography certificate). It was a great class and left me itching for more.  I went home and started right away on my photography blog. I  bought my first domain, created the first entry for my blog and then proceed to email it to everyone I know.  I have been so excited and happy since Saturday, all I want to do is run around, take pictures and post them on my blog.  It just makes me feel giddy like a little kid.

Then today, I get an email that Steve Farber has posted a pingback on my blog!! I was like what?!?!? Then yep, there it was, Steve Farber wrote about Patti and I in his blog. I was so excited, I called Patti right away to see if she knew about it. Then every time some one stopped by my office, they got to hear about it too, lol.  Although this lead to them seeing my blog and the muffins and wondered if they could have one, too funny.

I can’t explain how happy I am to be focusing on my passions. It makes all the difference in my attitude and confidence in my abilities. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I am not thinking about it that way. I am thinking about all the great photos that are waiting for me and all the things I will learn and hopefully everyone will enjoy my blog along the way too .

Thank you so much Patti!! You have already helped me move leaps and bounds forward and I am very excited to see what 2010 holds.

I spent the last two weeks of 2009 on holidays. The first week was quite busy going from family to family, but great company, food and fun was had.  The second week was spent going to the gym, napping and reading.  Oh and most importantly making new goals.  I have always been goal oriented, but 2009 I met my goals very quickly and was just in the “mean time”. I was worried that I would have trouble with my goals because of where I am in with my career I will need to make some decisions on specializing or management or an entire new industry.  I started to think about my goals everyday and every time I was be able to add something else to the list. I found that a lot of my goals were personal rather than career-oriented.  I generally keep a very full schedule, but 2009’s schedule was full of items that did not satisfy my personal life or passions.  This is what I came up with for 2010;

Personal

• Take care of myself
  • Maintain a healthy diet, I like the everything in moderation rule
  • Floss everyday
  • Encourage active living everyday
• Finances
  • Maintain a $0 balance on my credit card
  • Build up emergency fund / cash savings above and beyond RRSPs
  • Be financially responsible to myself
• Cooking
  • Experiment more with my cooking, try new recipes
  • Learn to make soup
  • Learn to make preserves and can
• Photography
  • Continuing working towards my photography certificate from SAIT
  • Pick 1 major project for the year – photo blog – www.angelasimms.com
• Start and use a gratitude journal

Career

• be a better / active listener – no interrupting
• focus on my networking skills – CCNA certification completed by June
• complete technical paper to achieve C.E.T. certification from ASET

I am very excited to be focused and have fun pursuing my passions in 2010.

Angela and I met the other day and it was a great meeting.  Angela has been working on her goals and has pinned down a few more, I have challenged her to define one or two a little more clearly, but it is neat to see her progression with them.

Ange was a little concerned that they were mostly personal goals and I mentioned a quote I’d heard;

“One cannot effectively lead others until they have mastered leading themselves”

Working on one’s personal goals is definitely the way to begin.  One of the strongest passions Angela displays is with her photography and she works hard on it.  As a result she has been challenged to put together a blog where she posts a photo a day, and you will be happy to know, she has done so!  Head on over to Angela’s Photography Blog and check out her beginning!

I have also asked permission to use her photography in some of my business work, you can see her photos in this video called The New Leadership completed this week for the business.

Do you have a special person in your life who really shines, has a contagious and enthusiastic energy where when you leave their company you are charged and lit-up for hours, and inspired for days – then you need to meet Angela. She has just that spark!  With each and every meeting, this is becoming loads of fun!  Keep up the fantastic work, Ange – you are truly a star!