March

It's time to take a look at The Happiness Project focus for this month.  The month of March's focus is work, or "Aim Higher."  I've decided to share some of the goals that I have set for myself this month.  I have to admit, I have not had as must gusto as I had in January with this project, so I am hoping that posting my goals will be that quick kick in the butt that I need to keep me going strong.

So, Gretchen lays out this month with five topics and they are...

1.  Launch a Blog - We'll on one up on you there Gretchen.  I have this one going, but I also started a book club blog that just launched our first book of the month this March.  I have to admit, there have been some kinks and it is not going as smoothly as I imagined, but it is the first month, it is made up of friends, so I am hopeful that once we really get going, it will all work out.  So, my goal for this blog is to continue to post and to do so with great thought.  My goal for the book club blog is to have fun, share ideas, and read good books with my fellow bloggers and to smooth everything out for next month.

2.  Enjoy the Fun of Failure - Well, I don't want to fail at anything.  But I do know that you do learn from failures.  So should I happen to have to fail at something, actually, I prefer to say if something doesn't work out instead of fail, then I will try to take from that particular experience what I can so that I can learn from it and move on.  So that is my goal, to learn from my failures or mistakes.

3.  Ask for Help - Sometimes I find this hard to do at work.  I am the technology teacher and I am the only one at my school.  If I worked in an environment with other techies, this would be something that I would probably do on a daily to weekly basis since technology changes so much and because there is just an overwhelming amount of resources out there.  But I will be more open and aware of situations that I can seek out the help from others at work so that I can improve myself.

4.  Work Smart - This is something that I can do something about.  There are times when I can get easily distracted.  This is the time of year at school where I find that it takes me longer to plan, it takes me longer to accomplish other work related tasks as well.  I get them done, but I have to refocus myself.  I always thought that it was just this time of year, that time just before spring, when we have just gotten through the thickest part of the winter season.  Now that spring is just around the corner (yay and now the days are officially longer) I always seem to get out of this work funk.  But for now, I need to work hard to refocus so that I can work smarter and accomplish more.  

5.  Enjoy Now - I am proud to say that I am still taking each day one at a time and appreciating them one at a time.  Since work is part of my everyday, it is included.  This is a busy time of year for me, I have some big project at work that will be due soon and I am always relieved when I complete them.  I am going to focus this year of not just enjoying the accomplishment of finishing these projects, but the process of creating the projects.

I have a couple of my own personal work related goals that I would like to add one.  The first one is to take the teacher certification test for my field.  I am teaching under another license, which is completely fine.  However, I want to get my technology license.  It will allow me to have more options in case I ever decided to look for more options.  And that leads to the second...

I do want to look into other options.  I do not want to leave the field of education, but I do want to explore other options outside of the classroom where I can use my teaching skills, my technology skills,  and my love for writing.  I think my first step is to explore jobs.  Then decide if I am qualified, and if not, what I will need to do to become qualified.  

So, that's it for March.  It doesn't sound like much, but it's enough to keep me quite busy!