It’s that time of year when year-end performance evaluations begin. Thank the Muses, the Fates, the Universe, God and all my lucky stars that I don’t have to do a year-end performance evaluation!
And yet, as my colleagues wade through their emails looking for appreciation to document achievements and struggle with ranking themselves on a numeric scale that seems to always be counter-intuitive, I too find myself wondering what I’ve done over the past year…The Year of Action.
According to my journal and the handwritten thank you notes I have carefully tucked inside, I…
- Switched my main client and picked up three additional ones
- Learned about fire safety in factories, retail, office and residential
- Learned about fire regulations in commercial kitchens
- Toured a commercial kitchen and fell in love with the logistics of how they work
- Helped a client merge two companies peacefully and with minimal disruption to their work force
- Created strategies for and helped launch four products (two internationally), three new businesses and three new lines of business for clients
- Learned Data Privacy, Health Care Compliance and Medical Device Software laws in the European Union, Australia, the US, Canada and seven countries in South America
- Negotiated with foreign governments about data privacy, health care compliance and medical device regulations
- Learned about the global Bariatrics market and obesity from the world’s leading experts on weight loss
- Presented at the largest obesity conference in the world
- Began studying Natural Health at the suggestion of new friends I made at the obesity conference and revolutionized my daily routine
- Became a morning person
- Committed to shopping at the Farmers Market solely
- And cooking more of my meals
- Started packing my lunch
- Learned to bake bread
- And Eric’s famous pretzels
- Made my first batch of homemade wine
- Bought a knife that revolutionized my kitchen
- Discovered shredded zucchini could be put into almost anything
- Began hiding other vegetables in our other meals too
- Started making a weekly meal plan and learned to use what I had on hand rather than overstocking my cabinets and fridge
- Wiped off the black from my thumb and made it green
- Helped my family organize our first family vacation
- And kayaked Chesapeake bay
- I ran a 5k with my daughters
- And dedicated myself to a cause
- I finally made it to Germany
- Learned German, Albanian and a little French
- And discovered that having conversations in foreign languages gets easier the more you do it
- Visited Paris, Hamburg, Rome, Tirana and so many more places I’ve wanted to see
- Marched in a parade…or two…
- Took on our local media and won
- Stepped in a big pile of poop with a national media reporter
- Joined an initiative to help my city thrive
- Led the entrepreneurship arm of that initiative
- Walked parts of my city I had long forgotten and discovered gems
- Developed a whole-hearted crush on a Muslim man and subsequently learned that my heart had great capacity for tenderness and strength
- I taught my oldest daughter how to drive
- Dealt with mice in my house
- And thugs in my neighborhood
- Started a neighborhood watch
- Met many of my neighbors
- Got a new perspective on time and distance
- And cycles of the seasons
- Went back to church
- and ballroom dancing
- Attended the Ohio Star Ball
- Pulled an all-nighter with a friend and got drunker than I’ve been in years and years
- And remembered why I don’t pull all-nighters nor get drunk
- I sang on 5 different stages…three of them new to me…(all of them sober)
- Taught etiquette to nearly 300 people of various ages
- Found my peace
- Made peace with my ex-husband
- And all the other people I needed to make peace with…all but one
- Wished I could stop hating that one
- Re-engaged with the client I started off with at the beginning of the year bringing my client list to 7 for 2011
- Pitched my writing to the NYTimes…and had it accepted (publication date TBD)
- Met my idol (Dr. PM Forni)
- And Ken Burns
- Got an iPhone
- And adopted Theo, a dog with whom I now spend at least an hour total outside—rain or shine—and with whom I graduated obedience school with flying colors
In fact, Theo’s curled up on my feet at the end of my bed as I write, snorking from exhaustion. I feel like I should join him. Afterall, the year’s not over yet…
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