My 2010: Focus on my personal growth

photo credit: milena mihaylova

A number of people have asked me why I blog and why I continue doing it despite the fact that I don’t make money off of this blog. Truth be told, my blog not only serves the purpose of entertaining myself, sharing my thoughts with the world, but it also gives me a platform to test my thoughts and ideas. Furthermore, blogging has given me access to numerous opportunities.

I probably wouldn’t have had some of the successes I’ve had this 2009 if it weren’t for the popularity of my blog. It has allowed me to test social media tools (which has led to even more consulting gigs) and given me access to a broad array of events, gatherings and happenings. It has also brought a great many new friends into my life, for which I’m grateful.

Here is the thing. I think I have focused too much on building a community (both within the Vancouver Bloggers Meetup, of which I am the Organizer and within my blog and my Twitter folks) and too little on myself. Despite the fact that I have been blessed with many talents (which I would hope I’m putting at the service of mankind), I definitely see a lot of room for growth.

photo credit: lepiaf.geo

This reflective process has led me to rethink my approach to my own personal, professional and social life. Folks may have noticed that I have increased the number of RSVPs that I provide to “Maybe” or “No”. This doesn’t mean that I like you any less. This doesn’t mean that your event isn’t important to me. This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to hang out. What it means is that I need more time for myself, and more time to grow in the areas that I foresee I need to grow. I think it’s about time I focus on myself. That’s my goal for 2010.

This series of posts on what my 2010 is going to look like will be a series of personal reflections on the areas where I plan to be improving and the things I plan to do for 2010. I know I’ll be teaching at the university level, I know I’ll be teaching at the college level, I know I’ll be doing research and so on, and I know that consulting will probably continue to be my primary professional activity. I also know I’ll continue to be active in the Vancouver social media/PR/tech communities and in the environmental realm. But, for example, in 2010 I do plan to be more active in the conference and speaking circuit. This will have an impact on the number of events I’ll be able to attend and the things I’ll be able to do.

I’ll keep you posted on my plans through this series, what I’ve called “My 2010″. Sometimes, it’s good to crowdsource and share with the world what your plans are.

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1. Doing things for my personal growth for the fall 2011
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3. The future of my personal blog
4. Focus… focus!
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