This is something I have been struggling with for many years - what do you want to be when you grow up? True some would say I am already grown, but I don't feel like it.
I was reading Steve Harvey's book "Act Like A Lady - Think Like A Man" and in the book he says there are 5 questions a woman should ask a man to know if he's a keeper or if she should grab her purse and run. The first question is where do you see yourself in 5 years (i.e. what are your short term goals)? True I was reading the book to understand how to interact with males and get one to be mine - mwhahaha!! But the book made me question myself as well. I mean how terrible would it be for me to sit grilling a guy about where he wants to be in 5 or 10 years time and I have no idea where I want to be?! He'll get the red flag and head straight for the door.
Another minor event happened to encourage the thought process on what my short and long term goals are. My friend Bee and I were having a conversation about work and we discussed where I currently work and how much I make. I don't make minimum wage - and that is a blessing. Anything about $11 is wonderful in my mind, if you get enough hours. Anyway, in the conversation Bee says she can't wait to be making $30/hr or more. The gong went off in my mind. I had never thought about making so much money despite what job I thought I would be doing. Another part of Steve's book came to mind. I'm not going to quote what part, go read it for yourself and figure it out. But on a serious note, it was another part of the book that could have been applied to myself. What am I worth? How much do I think I should be making in my desired job? This I think helps to hone in on exactly what you want to do, how you want to do it and how much you want to get for your hard work.
So of course, I sat with my pen and paper (diary in this case) and thought long, deep and hard about what I want to do, where I see myself and how long it's going to take me. Two weeks ago, if you asked me what is my dream job I would tell you I want to be an Environmental Educator and that's it. Today I am able to sift through that fluff of a title and break it down further, pin pointing exactly what I want to do.
I want to be something similar to a curriculum officer but not on the Ministry of Education side. I want to work with businesses and organisations such as a water company, energy company, landfill, etc. in connection with schools, youth groups, churches, community organisations to develop programming/activities/curriculum for the businesses and organisations that I work with to get their environmentally friendly message out there and into the community. For example, let's say I work with a water company and the country, city, whatever (depending on where I am in the world) celebrates October as the month of Water, I would create a month long programme of activities that would help persons know more about the water in the community, how to use water efficiently, how the water gets from the source to the user. The same would apply if I worked for a recycling plant and the month of June was recycling month. A month long series of activities would be created not only for students (although focusing more on the youth) to get persons involved and aware of what really happens when we recycle, don't recycle properly, what to look for in materials before buying them, etc. The title I want is Community Environmental Outreach Manager.
So that is my long term goal. I'm still working on fine tuning the short term goals to help me get that direction. That will be another post possibly.
What are some of your short and long term goals? Feel free to share with me in the comments below!
Thanks for reading!
-V
