What are my professional goals... for the next year, the next five? Hmmm...

PEACE

Find peace...

Honestly, I just don't have any corporate ladder or promotion aspirations. I just want to regain some peace in my career.

I got a promotion about 6 months ago and that's been kind of... sucky. It wouldn't have been bad if I had stayed in the same department (it would have been awesome), but the only reason I got it was due to a re-shuffling and I am now part of a different department. And the web unit feels like the "bastard step-child" of our new department. So much so, that in a recent article profiling my boss, he neglected to even recognize us as part of his department! (He talked about facing the challenges of his small department of 5... but with my employee and me it is actually a department of 7 people!)

So my professional goal for the next year is to regain some sense of peace and belonging in my job.

And if I can't find that, have the courage to figure out where I can find peace.

The title reference comes from a song in the musical Oklahoma!, a song that in particular references how "kissin's my favorite food"... and while that kind of extracurricular activity isn't necessarily what I'm referring to, the title and tune always come to my head when I am reminded of this side of my personality.

Nancy Reagan would not be very proud of me, as I have a lot of trouble with that whole "Just Say No" concept. (Although, I did do well with that program in elementary school. Just sayin...) I am a people-pleaser to a fault and that has caused me to put myself through a lot of mental and emotional anguish.

Web work is the biggest area that I have trouble uttering those two little letters. And I have been known to call myself a "web whore" because it's not like I'm even getting paid for my skills, I do a lot for absolutely nothing in return. Somebody will mention to me the possibility of doing a web project on the side and I immediately agree, yes... I can do that.

The trouble is that doing a bunch of piddly little web jobs doesn't exactly encourage a happy or productive life. And while it is good to keep myself occupied, especially since my husband is so busy that I'm left to my own devices a lot, sitting at a computer isn't the way to do that. When the full-time job is sitting at a computer all day and the hobbies include blogging, I need to find ways to drag myself AWAY from the computer.

I'm slowly getting a little better at saying no. Small victories, baby steps... but I need to be more assertive.