Adieu 2010 and Hello 2011!

2010 is officially behind us. This I know because I spent my New Years Eve in the freezing cold with hundreds of thousands of other folks out on the strip in Las Vegas (I thought it was supposed to be a desert!). I couldn't possibly have missed all of the fireworks at midnight.

So I'm officially back from vacay and while I'm a bit late ringing in the new year on this site, I'm still beyond excited about 2011 and all of the opportunities that await! I have been doing lots of reflecting and planning over the last few weeks and a lot less writing as a result, as I'm sure you've noticed. I'm pumped about some of the things I've got going on right now, some of which you'll be getting word of very soon!

Overall, 2010 was a great year for me. It was full of lots of challenges, but most importantly it was full of tremendous growth. About a year ago I decided that I wanted to do more than just randomly write thoughts on my personal blog. After a few months of thinking it through, I kicked off this blog and dove right into a blogging challenge in August.

When I look back to the progress I've made since then I'm proud of myself. I've started taking my love for writing seriously by challenging myself to write more regularly than I ever have before - with this blog being the most significant outlet for my passion.

To start the new year off right I find it fitting to share the top 10 posts of 2010... a combination of those with the most views and my personal favorites:

• You work in Corporate America. How could you possibly change the world?
• Creating My Story Bird by Bird
• Stop Acting Like Personal Branding Is Pointless
• 5 Things I Wish I Knew About the Real World Before I Started Working
• Hiring Me is Like Picking the Right Pink Nail Polish
• My Story: Living With FOMO
• Lighting the Flame: The Black Girl Project
• Volunteering Not Only Rocks Socks, It Helps Your Corporate Career Too
• Reflections: My Climb Up the Career Ladder
• Why I Started This Blog

Over the next year I look forward to maintaining the commitment I made to myself when I started this blog. I hope that you will continue to support by reading, commenting and sharing!

Creating My Story Bird by Bird

I’ve been spending a lot of time over the last month reflecting on my personal and professional goals for the next year. It started off as a really trying exercise because I have absolutely no idea where I want to be in five to ten years, therefore making it difficult to figure out what I’m working toward.

After a bit of struggling, I’m proud to say that I’ve made some progress. I can now articulate the type of work I’d like to be doing and the skills I would love to be using. However, I still find it pretty frustrating to essentially be working on a map that guides me to nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

Last week I picked up Bird by Bird, a surprisingly captivating book about writing and life. The author, Anne Lamott, is a professor and in the book she shares everything she knows about being a writer while tying in life lessons along the way.

In one of my favorite chapters, she talks about the common myth that every successful writer is able to sit down and immediately write the most beautiful, engaging pieces of work without any effort. Much like selfish and naive teenagers, so many of us budding and aspiring writers believe that we’re the only ones who become distracted and grow frustrated with the crappy words, thoughts and phrases that will flow from our brains to our fingertips when we sit down to write.

Lamott tells us to stop fooling ourselves, explaining that the process is no different from one writer to the next. She then proceeds to share the following story:

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.

That’s when I realized that life is no different.

The pressure of thinking I should know where I want to be professionally in the next five to ten years is beyond overwhelming. And that’s perfectly okay.

In life, we will hardly ever have a solid sense of what our destination will be. Each of us has a unique story to tell that can only be written one day at a time. The only way for it to get told, though, is for us to start somewhere. Even the best authors had to start by sitting down to write.

So that’s what I’ll be doing doing. I’m starting right where I am, with what I know. Taking it day by day, word by word, and bird by bird until my story has been told.

Why I Started This Blog

I'm taking part in Rosetta Thurman's 31 Days to a Brand New Blog challenge. Being that I recently decided that I wanted to start a new blog, there couldn't be a more perfect time to get it off the ground. This post is Day 2's assignment: Write a Purpose Statement for Your Blog.

I first started blogging in 2007 out of boredom and a desire to procrastinate from my studies when I was abroad. I had started a travel blog for my family to follow my adventures but I soon realized that I had lots of other random ideas and topics that I wanted to talk about. And just as my personal blog came about, this one too has been created out of a desire to share new thoughts and perspectives with the world that don't quite fit the theme of my other site.

I follow and read many different blogs, but my faves are non-profit and career related blogs written by Gen Y-ers. I love reading about what millennials are doing and hearing their advice and perspectives. However, lately I’ve started feeling like there is a perspective missing – that of a do-gooder with one foot in Corporate America and one in the non-profit sector.

I studied business in college and while being very aware of opportunities in the non-profit sector I decided to pursue an entry-level position elsewhere. Though I’m still lost about what I want my career path to look like and I’m open to entering the non-profit sector in the future, I don’t think I could’ve made a better decision about how to spend the first few years of my career after college. I aim to share the perspective of a young professional striking a balance between her work in the for-profit world and her work in the local community.

I have several goals for myself with this blog. The first and most important is to further develop my writing skills and my ability to form and articulate my opinions. I look forward to the challenge of keeping myself committed to writing regularly as well as sharing insights and lessons learned along the way. Lastly, as I’ve become a staunch believer in the power of branding through blogging, I hope to develop my personal brand along the way.

This should be an interesting ride - one that I hope you enjoy.

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