Category: goals

goals

Step 177: June Accomplishments and July Goals

Christa Avampato

Another month has come and gone. I’m tempted to say, “how did that happen so fast?” though these monthly accomplishment / goal posts keep me from thinking time is just slipping by. It’s flying but we’re all flying with it. Because I’m leaving for Greece tomorrow, I’m posting this monthly ritual post a bit early.

June goals turned accomplishments:

1.) Complete my e-book based upon my Examiner.com column on entrepreneurship. The book will feature the most inspiring entrepreneurs I interviewed during my 15 months writing for Examiner.

There was much rejoicing in my tiny apartment on Sunday, June 20th, when I dotted the last “i” and crossed the last “t” on my first e-book, Hope in Progress: 27 Entrepreneurs Who Inspired Me During the Great Recession. I organized their stories by categories: Foodies, Artists, Healers, Advisors, and Jumpers. The book is available as a free PDF download (which you can also access by clicking the book’s cover in the right hand column of this blog) or for $5 in the Kindle store (which can be viewed on your Kindle, or iPad / iPhone when you download the free Kindle app. You can leave a review of the book on Amazon.com if you’re so inclined, even if you don’t buy the book there.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting me and cheering me on through the process. I’m ridiculously grateful!

2.) Enjoy every moment in Greece without thinking about any stresses from home. I will be entirely off the grid during that week. I will write ahead for this blog and schedule posts – with modern technology, no need to let the blog waves grind to a halt while I’m soaking in the sun! Rest assured, I will be writing every day from the mountains of Santorini and share all of my adventures here on this blog once I return in early July!

This one’s interesting. I’m leaving for Greece tomorrow and I had planned to write ahead. I’ve decided to change that and not write ahead. The whole idea of this year of writing is to take one step every day toward living an extraordinary life. I don’t know what that step will be until I get to that day. So rather than write ahead, I promise you all of the fabulous steps and details once I return. I will be writing every day, with a pen in a notebook – something I have not done in a very long time.

3.) Plan another trip to Florida to welcome my new little niece into the world. She is due June 22nd.

Done! I worried about taking the time off from work almost right after I return from Greece. Silly. 5 years from now, I’m not going to care who at work thought my vacation pattern was weird in the summer of 2010. I will care that I got to spend time with my new niece, Aubree, when she was only a month old. She was born on June 22nd and she’s gorgeous and perfect and we love her to pieces!

4.) Apply for my International Yoga Alliance certification once I have my teacher-training certificate from Sonic in-hand.

I got all of my exams and papers in, and my hours logged. The membership card should be happily nestled in my mailbox when I return from Greece. And then I’ll hopping on the Shakti Express, looking for teaching gigs!

5.) Kick-off my Owning Pink column on relationships, and spend more time on my personal life (which fell a bit to the wayside because of my crazy May schedule.)

I rarely write about relationships here on this blog. I don’t avoid the topic; I just never really know what to say about it in the context of this blog. The fine and gifted team over at Owning Pink asked me to specifically write on this topic for their site and I’m thrilled about it. I write about 2X a month and post the links to this blog. Check it out here. You can also click the Owning Pink icon in the right hand column of this blog. And I picked up the dating baton again this month. I’m enjoying the search!

July Goals:
1.) Soak up the sun in Greece and enjoy every second of my teacher training time with Shiva Rea.

2.) Meet my little niece, Aubree, and hang with my sis and older niece, Lorelei.

3.) Begin actively looking for a weekly yoga class to teach in NYC at an established gym or studio.

4.) Begin thinking about my next e-book. (I’m taking suggestions!)

5.) Continue prep work for my LIM College class that I will start teaching in the Fall: Viral, Guerilla, and Social Media Marketing.

6.) Do some marketing of my e-book.

I’d love to hear how June went for you and what you’re looking forward to in July!

goals

Step 152: May Accomplishments and June Goals

Christa Avampato

On May 1st, May Day, I wrote a post inspired by Kimberly Wilson, the Tranquilista. (Again, thanks to my pal, Amanda, for introducing me to Kimberly’s blog!) I laid out my May goals, a monthly ritual that I am going to take up. The days move by too quickly, and this ritual provides me with some structured reflection time every month. I don’t want to get to January 1, 2011 and think, “where did the year go and what did I do in 2010?”

May goals turned accomplishments:
1.) Complete my 200-hour yoga teacher training and testing, and celebrate it.

I completed the training and got all of my required hours and materials in. I celebrated the event with my teacher training pals at a delicious Indian dinner at Balucci’s in midtown. I also celebrated this accomplishment by starting my own business, Compass Yoga.

2.) May is a stressful month for me with visitors, a heavy workload, travel, and the general feeling that I need a serious vacation. I’m going to make the effort to build in some much-needed downtime, letting myself rest and relax between the burst of energy needed. This is interval training to the max.

The stress mounted in May, and then a funny thing happened: by writing out this goal of building in rest and relaxation, I did relax. I focused on the task at hand, and enjoyed the people I was with at every moment rather than always looking ahead to the next activity. And then over Memorial Day weekend, I took off for Florida for some fun with the fam.

3.) Complete my travel plans for my Radical Relaxation yoga retreat.

At the end of this month, I will take off for Greece on a radical relaxation yoga retreat and teacher training with Shiva Rea. Plane tickets to Greece were more expensive than I imagined. I got a decent deal, and luckily the retreat costs less than I planned so in the end I’m on budget with my total vacation costs.

4.) Maintain my meditation practice.

18 minutes a day of quiet lets me tap into my intuition in a more profound way than I could before my meditation practice began. On vacation over Memorial Day, I cut back the time I meditated everyday in exchange for more time with my niece, Lorelei. Every minute of my time counts with her since she lives so far away from me!

5.) Continue building my plans for my own business.

A huge, beautiful milestone. I exceeded my mark on this goal: launched my website for Compass Yoga, drafted a full business and marketing plan, and recognized that I didn’t need every question answered to get going. I also didn’t need to spend a lot of money to get up and running – a wonderful realization. A business is a dynamic, living, breathing being. I know I will make changes and adjustments along the way. I am scared to death and thrilled all at once. I also created the goal of making at least half of my personal income from my own business by my 35th birthday next March.

6.) Setting up some new writing goals for the second half of 2010.

I made one big writing goal: to only write pieces that serve my greater life goals. I synced up with a new social media company via a review I wrote on Yelp, a pleasant surprise that I will talk about in detail in a not-so-distant post later this week. I also made the tough decision to let go of my column on Examiner.com, a column I started writing in February 2009. I wanted to consistently write for Examiner for 1 year, and I exceeded that goal. Time to move onward and upward! Going forward, I will feature inspiring entrepreneurs on this blog instead of on Examiner. I will compile the best of the interviews I wrote for Examiner in an e-book this month. This month I will also begin writing a regular column on relationships, a new writing topic for me, on the re-launched Owning Pink. The Compass Yoga website also has a blog where I will post pieces on health and wellness.

7.) Stay present and in the moment during each task at-hand.

Being a recovering multi-tasker, I created this one as a stretch goal and am really pleased with my progress toward remaining present. I enjoyed the people I was with, the activities I was doing, and the places I went. The more present I stayed, the happier I became.

June goals:
1.) Complete my e-book based upon my Examiner.com column. The book will feature the most inspiring entrepreneurs I interviewed during my 15 months writing for Examiner.

2.) Enjoy every moment in Greece without thinking about any stresses from home. I will be entirely off the grid during that week. I will write ahead for this blog and schedule posts – with modern technology, no need to let the blog waves grind to a halt while I’m soaking in the sun! Rest assured, I will be writing every day from the mountains of Santorini and share all of my adventures here on this blog once I return in early July!

3.) Plan another trip to Florida to welcome my new little niece into the world. She is due June 22nd.

4.) Apply for my International Yoga Alliance certification once I have my teacher-training certificate from Sonic in-hand.

5.) Kick-off my Owning Pink column on relationships, and spend more time on my personal life (which fell a bit to the wayside because of my crazy May schedule.)

I’d love to hear how May went for you and what goals you’re working on in June!

dreams, education, goals

Step 5: Your Sentence

Christa Avampato

My friend, Richard, just sent me this clip with Dan Pink’s advice on how to transform our lives in 2010 with two simple questions: “What’s your sentence?” and “Were you better today than you were yesterday?” The people I admire most can sum up their contributions to humanity in one succinct sentence stating a very specific contribution. This is also true of my favorite books, blogs, artists, writers, activists, and cause-based organizations. They all have a singular focus and purpose. Is a succinct reason for being the secret ingredient to every extraordinary life?

It’s amazing that this paradigm of a single sentence describing an extraordinary life holds true no matter what great personality I consider. Thomas Jefferson penned his own epitaph with a single sentence. No copywriter, no editor. “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, of The Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.” This is the summation of his life in his terms. These are the things that mattered most to him. Nelson Mandela’s book, Long Walk to Freedom, remains one of the greatest influence on my life. I could only read a few pages of his story at a time because each word is packed with such emotion and power. His unwavering confidence in and passion for his beliefs is overwhelming. Very simply, his sentence is “I am the Father of a free South Africa.”

So maybe that’s it. Maybe we can all get to extraordinary if we can find our sentence and manage our lives in support of it. By the end of 2010, I want to write my one sentence. I’ve written some blog posts about how I want to be remembered when my time has come and gone, what lasting impact I’d like to have on the world. After 364 days of living a life trying to make each day better than the day before, I think I can get it down to one brief sentence. This is the initial sentence that comes to mind, in rough long form:

“Christa was someone who created a global education system that used creativity as the backbone for all learning, gave 1 million children a second chance at a better life, and offered an entire generation the opportunity to be job creators instead of job seekers.”

It needs some polish, but it’s a start.

The image above is not my own. It can be found here.

decision-making, Examiner, goals, New Years Eve

Examiner.com: 5 Tips to Help You Create and Achieve New Year’s Resolutions

Christa Avampato

So here it is: time to crank out a list of lofty resolutions that you know will never last past January 31st, right? Don’t do this to yourself. Please. You’ll feel like a failure, and that’s just not fair to do that to yourself. Examiner.com knows this, and they’ve asked all of their writers to share tips on how to make readers wildly successful with their New Year’s Resolutions in 2010.

I just posted 5 tips, followed by a personal story of my 2009 resolution, that I hope will be helpful to you as you begin to turn your attention toward a bright new year teeming with possibility. For the article, please click here.
The image above is not my own. It can be found here.
education, future, goals, happiness, passion, success

My Year of Hopefulness – Choosing the way

Christa Avampato

“To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.” ~ John Dewey

October has shaped up to be a fantastic month for me. A few dips here and there, though for the most part it’s been about exploring new opportunities, meeting new people, and getting a better handle on how my life is moving forward. In other words, I am deep into the first piece of John Dewey’s statement: “finding what one is fitted to do”.

Tonight I had dinner with my friend, Richard, and we were talking about this exploration. I suppose one of the reasons we’ve become such good friends is that we are natural explorers. This is true of so many of my friends, nearly all of them have gone down many different paths, learning a lot along the way, and eventually finding their groove. I’m the late bloomer in the bunch. It took me a long time before I realized how that I could build a life around the idea of a securing a quality education for every child, how adamantly I believe in Frederick Douglass’s idea that “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” I am a product of this idea and I am now at a point where I’ve been in the world enough to be able to fight for this principle in a thoughtful, compelling way.

So now the trick is the how, John Dewey’s second piece of the puzzle: how (and where) to secure an opportunity to do what I am fitted to do. On the one hand, I am fortunate that my passion has many different avenues for me to pursue. I could go back to a nonprofit that has a mission to help children. I could teach. I could do research in this area. I could pursue an advanced degree (and there are several types of degrees that would be suitable). I could go into government work. I could simply volunteer as I have been doing for many years. I could write. In actuality, I could do all of these things, and likely will. On the other hand, how will I make a choice among all of these options? What is the right way forward for me?

One thing that has amazed me is that it’s the first part, figuring out what we’re fitted to do, what we’re passionate about, that takes the most time and effort. Once that piece is firmly planted in our minds and hearts, and we begin to share it with others, opportunities to do what we love abound. People rally around us, support our dreams and efforts. Somehow, the way opens once we know what way we want to take.

This abundance didn’t hit me until I was speaking to Richard tonight. I was telling him what I was interested in and why. I am in the midst of researching doctoral programs in public policy and there is one in particular that just feels right, that lights a fire in my eyes and heart, the same way that the Darden School was the absolute right fit for my MBA. There are others that seem fine as well, though I just can’t seem to feel as excited about them as I am about this other program. And then a little panic set in. What if they don’t take me? Then how will I ever get this work done that I now know I am fitted to do?

I thought about this on the subway ride home, actually I worried about it. And I played it through in my mind. What if this program didn’t want me? What if the other programs didn’t fit quite right? What if this degree just wouldn’t be possible for me to get? I felt this way when applying to Darden, too. The only other program I applied to was Tuck, and after visiting Tuck, I knew that wasn’t the right fit, so Darden quickly became the only place I could or would or wanted to go. On my drive back to DC from Charlottesville, after my interview and visit to grounds, after I had fallen deeply in love with Darden and the prospect of being a student there, I wondered what I would do if I didn’t get in. I decided to do one of two things: I’d join the Peace Corps, also a lifelong dream of mine, or I’d move right back to New York where I knew I eventually wanted to make my home. That’s it. Very simple.

As luck would have it, I was accepted at Darden on December 1st. I distinctly remember jumping for joy, accepting over the phone, and breathing a great big sigh of relief. I got exactly what I wanted. So now, I’m at that same point again. What will I do if this one program that seems perfect for me doesn’t take me? Now there are many more options for this new road – maybe I’ll teach full-time, go back into nonprofit work, start my own business, write, and continue to be an active volunteer. Maybe New York City government will prove to be the way for me. Yes, I confirmed, I have lots of options.

I emerged from the subway a few hours ago with a lighter heart. John Dewey would smile knowing that there are so many opportunities I could secure to go about doing my life’s work. After all, he is the one who said we climb mountains so that we can see other mountains. From where I now stand, there are so many peaks in my landscape that a valley is scarcely able to be seen. With so many routes to happiness, the work for me now lies not in the finding but in the choosing. And that in itself is reason to smile.

The photo above is not my own. It can be found here.

education, goals, success

My Year of Hopefulness – Mountains

Christa Avampato

The dots continue to connect in my life. I’ve been working on a children’s story for the past month and that’s led me to renew my interest in children’s literature. I’ve gone through a set of books by Blue Balliet that are set in the Laboratory Schools in Chicago. That school was founded by John Dewey, one of the greatest influences in public education to date. He also happened to found The New School where I am considering the PhD program in Public and Urban Policy. His approach to education resonates so deeply with me and I’ve been doing a lot of independent research on him.

Today I came across a book entitled John Dewey and the Philosophy and Practice of Hope. In it there is a curriculum for teaching a class on hope which would make an excellent addition to my curriculum for Citizen Schools. It is taught at UNC Charlotte by Stephen Fishman, one of the book’s authors along with Lucille McCarthy. John Dewey has a lot to say about the subject of hope and many students took Professor Fishman’s class for the same reason I’m writing a year-long series about hope on this blog – to feel more hopeful.

As it turns out, Dewey’s whole philosophy about life was based on hope. Max Otto, philosopher and close friend of Dewey, recounted John Dewey’s philosophy of hope as illustrated in a dialogue he had with a student:

Student: What’s the good of [philosophy]?

Dewey: The good of it is that you climb mountains.

Student: And what’s the use of doing that?

Dewey: You see other mountains to climb.

Today, someone said to me that if she could just accomplish this one thing she wanted to do that would be a victory. She could check that off her list; with that victory she would “win”. This sounded so odd to me. Isn’t the point of a victory to let you do even greater things down the line, similar to the mountains that Dewey talked about with his students.

At a Darden alumni reception tonight, I was reminded that this is the ultimate goal of education, too. We get an education not for the accomplishment we get with the degree, but rather because of the doors that it opens, because climbing that mountain of books and papers and exams allows us to see and climb other mountains. Mountains we never knew existed. And it gives us the confidence to make our way in the world.

A victory, a diploma, a “win” isn’t an ending at all – it’s always a gateway to something bigger. This is reason enough to always keep going, to always keep moving forward. Obstacles become just challenges. Hard times become opportunities for learning and strength and growth. Disappointments and loss help us realize what’s really important in our lives. Those mountains are more than just things to climb and accomplish. They are our very reason for living.

books, future, goals, Marcus Buckingham, personality, psychology

My Year of Hopefulness – Your Strongest Life

Christa Avampato

“We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are.” ~ Anais Nin, French writer and diarist

I’m a huge fan of Marcus Buckingham. If I had to make a short-list of the top 5 people I’m most interested in meeting, he’d be one of them because of his keen insight into human behavior. He knows what makes us tick, all of us, just upon meeting us. He looks at his role in life as a guide on the side who wants to help people reach their full potential happiness and satisfaction. That’s it. Simple, straight-forward, no nonsense, no voodoo, no magic. It takes dedication and hard work to reach our potential. He’s giving us tools to get there. He’s not here to make us feel better about the very bad choices we may have made in the past and our unfortunate habits (and we all have them). He’s here to help us realize and maximize our ability to effect positive change, in ourselves first and then in the world around us.

My friend, Lon, is also a fan and recently sent me a series of articles that Marcus Buckingham has been writing for the Huffington Post on the subject of women’s happiness. We’re in a tough spot: as a gender, half the world’s population, our happiness has been on a steady decline for 40 years. 40 years. That is a very long time to be unhappy. Marcus Buckingham offers up surprising observations and remedies for this trend. It’s important reading for all – men and women alike.

I clicked through the articles and eventually landed on a link to an on-line game that serves as life’s central casting office. Through a short list of questions, Marcus Buckingham shows us the lead role and supporting role that we were born to play, just as we are right now, and that also stretches us by revealing where we should focus our time and energy. It’s fun, insightful, and accurate. I hope you’ll take a couple of minutes to give it a whirl. While it’s geared toward women on the website, it’s equally applicable to men: http://www.wowowow.com/relationships/marcus-buckingham-find-your-strong-life-test-376609

Here’s what mine revealed: best lead role for me – Creator; best supporting role for me – Weaver. Hmmm….what does all of this mean?

Creators:
1.) “Begin by asking: ‘What do I understand?’ You aren’t immune to the feelings and perspectives of others, but your starting point is your own insight, your own understanding.”

Great – now I can stop feeling bad about my natural instinct to look internally first and then externally second!

2.) “Your best quality: Your ability to find patterns invisible to others.”

As a kid, hide-and-seek was my favorite game. I considered being an anthropologist, a paleontologist, an astronaut, and a psychiatrist. All searching professions. At heart, I am a Seeker, Explorer, Finder. I sometimes wonder if I missed my calling as a detective of some sort. I do like to find what’s special and unique in things, places, and people who do not immediately look special upon first glance. My favorite game as a kid was hide-and-seek. I love the idea of underground places, secret passageways, and buried treasure. I love the search. I want to get at what’s underneath the exterior, of people and situations.

3.) “Always: Find time to be by yourself.”

So true – and a goal of mine as of late. I do need some time on my own every day to re-group. I love people, and to make sure I always enjoy their company, I also need my time for me, too.

4.) “Be careful you: Don’t think so long that you never do anything.”

I am the quintessential list maker. I weigh pros and cons and consequences and upsides and downsides and comparison shop. These are important things, and I need to make sure to balance them with enough action. Sometimes, we just have to go for it, even if it seems that the odds are not stacked in our favor!

5.) Your smartest career move: Any job where you’re paid to produce new content.

What my life and writing is all about, and what I think I am just about ready to jump off the cliff and do full-time!

And my ideal supporting role – Weaver. Creator I understand inherently. Weaver? Does this mean I need to get myself a loom? As it turns out, no. Weaver is a synonym for connector. Of course!

Weavers:
1.) “You begin by asking: ‘Who can I connect?’ You see the world as a web of relationships, and you are always excited by the prospect of connecting two new people within your web.”

I love nothing better than linking two people whom I adore to one another when there can be a mutually-beneficial relationship. It’s a puzzle, and I love puzzles.

2.) “Your best quality: Your genuine curiosity.”

My favorite question has always been ‘Why?’ and I’m not shy so I asked it (and still ask it) A LOT. My poor mother. I was the ‘Why’ child in every class, at every moment. Now I’m the ‘Why’ adult. You can’t take the kid out of the classroom…

3.) “Always: Trust in your web of relationships.”

Done – they get me through the tough times and help me celebrate the great abundance in my life. My most valuable asset is my network, and I covet it.

4.) “Be careful you: Don’t push people together who shouldn’t be.”

I’ve had some failures on this front for sure. It’s not just about the experience and interests of people, but their personalities, too, that dictate if a connection is really worth making. I need to be more mindful of that

5.) “Your smartest career move: Any job where you’re paid to speed up the connection between people.”

That would be my obsession with on-line community-building. I love it. If I could, I’d spend every moment of my life working toward this end. Connect, connect, connect. As a kid, my favorite art activity was connect-the-dots. I loved to see what would emerge, how something would develop. It’s still true – my life and relationships are in a constant state of emergence and development.

I’ve printed out my lead role and supporting role descriptions and hung them up at my desk and on my fridge to remind me what’s important, and where and on whom I should spend my time, energy, and talents. Strongest life, here I come!

books, children, dreams, goals, literature

My Year of Hopefulness – Motivation and The Little Prince

Christa Avampato

“If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I love The Little Prince. It was one of my favorite books as a child. I love his wide-eyed questioning of life, and his desire to explore things that are strange and unexplained. As children often do, he was able to make connections between seemingly disparate activities and relationships, and in the process showed us how to think about our lives in a larger context than just our day-to-day collection of tasks. He asks us to consider our role in and contribution to humanity as a whole.

I was thinking about The Little Prince this morning, eating my Cheerios and looking at the water towers that dot my view from my apartment. The water towers look like brave guards, standing watch; they almost seem to breathe. They make me feel safe. The city looks so different from 17 floors up. I’m always struck by that – as I get down to the street-level, my neighborhood transforms. Up above, I have the ability to be more idealistic. The height helps me dream and consider my larger motivations in life, apart from the actual tasks I’m engaged in; it helps me think like the Little Prince.

This quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery is helping me frame up my own desired contribution to humanity. I want to help as many people as I can to use their creativity to improve our world. That’s not going to happen in a business plan; it’s not going to happen through mandates and time lines and a to-do list. It can happen if I follow Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s advice in every area of my life, with every interaction I have with every person I know and meet. It’s that desire to play a part in building a better world that I must foster in all of my relationships. Individuals will find their own way to make a contribution. They all have their own talents and interests that can be used toward this common goal; my role is to be their biggest cheerleader, their champion, their advocate, and where applicable, their guide.
art, career, choices, dreams, friendship, goals

My Year of Hopefulness – Finishing what you’ve started

Christa Avampato

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” ~ William James

I have a hard time letting things go. I have to watch movies straight through to the end, no matter how bad they are. I have to finish every book I start. Nothing causes me to lose sleep more than tasks hanging around for me to finish tomorrow; hence my tremendous lack of sleep in a partially packed apartment. Why is it so troublesome to let things lie around undone?

It could be that I’ve read too many stories about people who didn’t quite get to see their dreams realized. It could be that I’ve read that quote from John Lennon “Most people die with the music still in them” once too often. I don’t want to look back and be so far away from something I started that it’s too difficult to pick it up again.

We get to these points in our lives where we must go left or right and it’s very hard to double back once we’ve made a choice. Not impossible, but certainly difficult. I’m there now. A lot of my friends are there now. Maybe this is the dilemma we find in our 30’s. We are making choices now that impact every other choice down the line. We’re deciding who we’re going to become, how we’re going to make use of our talents, how the world around us is going to be different because we passed this way instead of that way.

And while I have a natural instinct of which way to go at this fork in the road, the choice in my heart is a tough one. It’s got some risks baked into it. It’s not the safe route. Some times I think the choice in my heart isn’t even the sane route to take. Then again, when has making the sane, safe choice ever lead me to complete fulfillment?

Today I went to a baby shower for my friend, Alex. One of her college friends made a critical choice to leave behind the business world and pursue her PhD in art history, thanks to Alex’s encouragement. She loved art history early on in college and had given up her dream to work in that field to take the safe business route. Before it was too late, she went back to what she loved.

Every one of her professors told her this choice was ridiculous, that she was truly wasting her life in art history, that she’d never get a job. One of them actually told her that a degree in art history and a quarter wouldn’t even get her a cup of coffee. Now she works in New York and helps corporations and nonprofits build their private art collections. Turns out that a degree in art history has earned her much more than a cup of coffee. It helped her earn a happy life. The rewards of finishing what she started and following her heart.

goals, time

My Year of Hopefulness – Time Remaining

Christa Avampato

I had to take a training class today online and in the lower right-hand corner was the familiar progress bar telling me how much time there was remaining for the session. The training was a little dull so I had plenty of time to think about that progress bar, and how much I’d like to have a progress bar for other areas of my life. While in DC this weekend, I was reminded how calming it is to have those electronic boards that tell passengers many minutes until their trains arrive. Knowing how much longer we have to go through something helps us to manage the process of getting through it.

Trouble is that progress bars in most areas of our life are nonexistent. We don’t know how much longer a job or relationship or our health will last. We usually aren’t able to gauge how much longer it will before we reach a certain goal. There are bumps and twists and turns on every road. Some set us back, some help us leap forward, and some set us on a new course entirely. There’s no electronic board to calm us down.

We could consider that every day is its only small progress bar, and our only goal is to get to the end of the day having given all our activities everything we’ve got. That way no matter how much time we have left, we can be assured that we gave as much as we had, worked as hard as we could, laughed and smiled and enjoyed every minute like it was our last. The best case scenario is that we’ll get to do it all over again tomorrow, making a little more progress in our lives, and the worst case scenario is that we put our best foot forward right up until the end.