Don't let a pause become a stop

We're a month into 2016 already - can you believe it?! Those resolutions we all set seem so long ago, so this post is about refocusing youself - making sure if you have paused in your grand plans for 2016, that you don't stop completely. My 'resolutions' for 2016 were more like goals than actual resolutions, so I thought I'd share them here. Apparently when you share your goals with others, it motivates you more to work towards them, so here goes: Goals for 2016: Goal: Code my own website

Progress: Booked on to Django Girls workshop - next weekend! Yay! Goal: Start attending meet ups/networking events Progress: Does Django Girls count as networking? I'm also meeting the talented Shayne Wilson from We Are Adam soon for coffee and to swap headhunting ideas, and no doubt he'll pick my brains on how Django Girls went! (Incidentally, We Are Adam are hiring for an IT recruiter and they are a lovely business - so if you're interested, talk to Shayne!) Goal: Read 5 professional or work related books Progress: I have started reading "How to win friends and influence people". It's actually really interesting in that it encourages you to read, then re-read the chapters, so the pointers sink in. This is one of those things that is really obvious, but until someone points it out to you, you don't realise it. It also says to revisit it all the time so you don't forget about the core concepts - so I'm going to keep it in my handbag for those long bus journeys I take (e.g. my commute). Goal: Complete social talent training Progress: Well it's not completed yet, but I'm getting there! I actually did some training yesterday, and was learning about how to form better Boulean searches. Really useful stuff - I thought I knew how to write Boolean search strings but I really didn't! It's great to keep improving Goal: Train team on social recruiting Progress: My colleagues have christened me Whizz Kid and seem to come to me for when they need to use social recruiting tools. I think I need to push back and encourage them to use these tools themselves. After all, as Herbert Spencer said "the great aim of education is not knowledge but action" (I definately stole that quote from HTWFAIP)

Goal: Set up my own Etsy store Progress: This isn't going so well. However I have been busy with everything else... so I'll let myself off with that one.