Monday and Tuesday of this week my school had two days of meetings for faculty. My colleagues were commenting about how much they dread stand meetings. Not me, I love meetings because I'm a meeting geek. My colleagues got a good laugh from that title. To me, meetings are a time to build rapport, connect on a vision and mission and to share best practices. Plus, the one-to-one conversations that occur as we move from one meeting to the next are the ones that help me feel like part of a team.
Between meetings a colleague and I were talking about how we build a theme for each year - clearly, we are business management instructors. Ironically, she too made this the Year of Balance and now we are balance buddies. Listening to her and how she is actually not making room for pursuing her own art, I realized that I have to make time for being creative and social this year.
Talking to my career coach, Bob, in Houston, he suggested that I build an Amy Portfolio composed of three buckets: Personal, Professional, Educational. From there I need to figure out the definition of each bucket and the percentage that I want to invest in each one - with the understanding that they are flexible. As Bob says, "you don't want to cheat on yourself." My inclination is to make these buckets Love, Learn and Create as opposed to the other designations, but there is so much overlap with these categories that I can put anything I do in any of the buckets.
The first step I've taken is to eliminate anything from my life that was only draining and not uplifting. As of December 31, I took big strides in that direction. Next, I've scheduled out my weekly calendar with the classes I'm teaching and designated class prep/grading time. From there I've blocked out Tuesday evenings for taking a ceramics course at Studio One in Oakland - plus I registered! Thursdays are designated group fun activity nights for salsa dancing, hanging out with my cousins at Blush in the Castro, and any other activity that may be of interest.
My schedule is quite fantastic because I have two full days during the week when I am not teaching - allowing me to take on consultancies and coaching clients. Now to make sure I incorporate my EdD Doctoral homework. Mantra: Value my worth. Have to keep reminding myself that if I take something on, something has to go - even if I love meetings.
