Sorry for being incommunicado for so long. It was a whirlwind winter break and I’ve been maintaining an absolutely frantic pace since getting back to Oxford on January 1st. But my new year’s goal is to have at least two blog posts per week, possibly more as time and blog-worthy circumstances occur.
While we are on the subject, I should note that I use the world goal deliberately. A friend of mine had the idea to hold a new year’s goal setting party in the last week of December and I was really impressed with how much can be gained from serious critical reflection on our lives and deliberative though about the future. Resolutions are nice, but they are usually these fleeting desires to lose weight, stop smoking, swear less, laugh more, etc. Their whimsical and idealized nature makes them inherently transient. But goals are more concrete. Or at least they should be. SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely) are tangible and action oriented. By the end of the night we all had a poster board reflecting our plans for personal, interpersonal, professional, athletic development, etc. I won’t bore you with all of mine. Admittedly, initially they were long on athletic and adventure aspirations.
Some of the key ones include:
Run the Athens Marathon in November
Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro
Travel to South Africa over Spring Break
Establish five sustainable professional contacts at Oxford
Skype with at least one US friend and family member a week
As for the blog, I have a backlog of interesting stories to relay so some things to look forward to include:
A recap of triathlon training camp in Portugal
A reflection on a highly engaging dinner with some fellow Rhodes scholars where we discussed the question, “Does science make belief in God obsolete?”
A postmortem analysis of a disappointing showing for Oxford water polo at the British University conference tournament
In the meantime, I need to get back to reading about security as “an essentially contested concept.”
Like your idea of SMART goals, Meg! I've been thinking about that a bit too. Resolutions are often too big or out of our reach to complete immediately, and I find myself often losing interest. It definitely helps to have some means of measurable progress. Some of my goals? Things as small as flossing my teeth every night. :)
ReplyDeleteMeg, Everyday someone asks me if you are writing your blog again. I will be delighted to tell them that you are back in the saddle, so to speak. I feel like we have barely communicated since you returned to England. It seems appropriate. I imagine you to be fully engaged on all levels of the Oxford experience. A once in the lifetime experience. You lucky girl! Luck being defined as opportunity meeting preparation.
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