Goal Reviews: Q2 ’12

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It’s the end of another quarter. This was where I was 3 months ago. Time for an update on how I’m stacking up against my goals for the year:

Professional:

  • Get into graduate school. Mission Completed in Q1. This time three months ago, I had already received offers of admission, but struggled on deciding where to attend and whether this Fall was the right time to go back to school. After a lot of thought, I decided to defer my admission to the Elliott School until Fall 2013. Given my new circumstances however, I’m now considering postponing returning to school for another year or two.
  • Get published in an academic journal. Mission Aborted. As this relates to grad school, this goal is now firmly on the backburner for the year.
  • Pass the TOCFL Master or HSK Level 5. Mission Incomplete. I was supposed to take the HSK Level 4 in April in NYC, but in a rush to catch my bus from DC, I forgot to bring along a required form of identification in order to take the test: my passport. I was a little annoyed by my mistake, but was passed has passed. The next available test date is in late October. However, despite my initial desires to get certified for my proficiency in Mandarin, this goal is also now on the backburner, mainly because of again, changed circumstances.
  • Get a policy or IR-related job or internship, preferably in DC. Mission Accomplished! During the past quarter this goal was priority #1. I poured all my efforts in finding a job that resonated with my interests in policy. Last month I succeeded in achieving this goal, and now work as a Research Assistant at APCO. Although the firm isn’t a think tank or institute, many of the issues – reputation management, issues management, brand management – our clients face are heavily influenced by policy. The position nicely blends my interests in policy, my background in economics, and my prior experience as a researcher.

Personal:

  • Learn to code. Mission In Progress. I made significant headway on this goal during the past quarter. I completed most of the HTML/CSS track on CodeAcademy, and am halfway through the Javascript track. I think my success on this front stems in part due to creating a plan of action. I’ll share more on this in another post.
  • Run a half-marathon. Mission In Progress. I haven’t registered for anything yet, but it looks like I’ll be doing the Philadelphia Half-Marathon. Several friends and my cube-mate are already registered for the run, and I’ve begun training with others for another run (which I’ve yet to register for) in September. In order for me to stay the course, I plan on creating a plan of action to ensure I follow through on this goal.
  • Blog at least once a week. Mission Failed. Since heading back to work, my blog posts have been less frequent. I’ll need to figure out how to carve out more time for this.
  • Go to mass at least once a month. Mission Accomplished. Still chugging along on this one!

Closing Thoughts:
It’s really hard to focus on multiple goals. I’ve worked on specifically adding more time to my day by getting up at 630am on weekdays to work on programming before work. Beyond that, I’m struggling with other ways to add more time to work towards my goals. As I look to Q3, I’ll need to start proactively eliminating some goals while relentlessly driving harder on the ones I find worthwhile.

The Power of Choice

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Every day we all face an endless stream of choices. From the moment we wake up, to when we turn out the lights, our mind is forced into a constant state of decision-making.  Some choices are done without much thought, while others – the big choices – may take weeks before any action is made.

For these bigger choices, what’s the reasoning behind contemplation rather than action? I think there are two big reasons:

  • Doubt – That our current circumstances (money, ability, timing, etc.) preempt us from having the opportunities others might have available.
  • Fear – That our actions today impact the opportunities and choices we have available tomorrow.

There is some truth in this. If we don’t have the money, how can we afford something we desire? If we don’t have the ability, how can we accomplish something we hope to achieve? If we don’t have the time, how can we complete everything that we want to get done?

While these thoughts might be valid, we should not let these perspectives limit our actions. Though there are few exceptions, every individual has the ability to change their circumstances. If money is an issue – save. If ability is an issue – learn. If time is an issue – make time. Acknowledging our fears and doubts, and then moving forward rather than giving up, is the first step towards accomplishing anything worth doing.

Different Dreams, Recurring Themes

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I recently heard about a really interesting blog link-up on sharing our dreams by my friend, Akhila. Inspired by her post, I would like to now share mine.

Childhood Dreams
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Growing up, the possibility to do whatever we want with our lives seems limitless. We’re taught to dream big as children, and my childhood dreams were certainly grand. While others dreamt of becoming singers, actors, or pro-sports players, my dreams were a little different. At first, I dreamed about becoming a pilot. Later, inspired by Li Ka Shing, the Zobel de Ayala Family, and Donald Trump, I dreamed about becoming a property tycoon. After 9/11, I dreamed about becoming a diplomat, or fascinated by the Jason Bourne Series, becoming a spy. During the market boom of the mid-2000s, I dreamed about becoming a professional day-trader.

Living the Dream?
At the heart of these dreams are some recurring themes: freedom, to live a life on my own terms; adventure, to grow through exploration of the unknown; passion, to work on fun and meaningful projects. Living the dream to me means living my life according to these principles. I may not be carrying out my childhood dreams at this moment, but I can say with certainty that the experiences and decisions I’ve made throughout my life have each led me towards living a life based on these values.

My Dream Today
Before, I equated living a dream to a specific profession. My dream today transcends professions. In addition to freedom, adventure, and passion, my dream is to live a life of happiness while making a difference. These are certainly generalities, and at times I find the lack of focus on doing (re: career) to be foolish. That’s not to say I don’t have specific professions in mind: I still want to live out my childhood dreams of becoming a pilot-tycoon-diplomat-spy-trader.

Reducing Hopelessness

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Here’s an idea that I’ve been chewing on lately: reducing hopelessness. What do I mean by this crazy, seemingly idealistic concept? Before I go into the details, a little detour into the topic of poverty reduction is in order.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve thought a lot about the thesis of Jeff Sach’s, The End of Poverty. He argues that although poverty still exists, through further effort, extreme poverty can be eliminated within our lifetime. Since reading his book, I’ve also read other aid-related books: Bill Easterly’s, The White Man’s Burden, and Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo’s, Poor Economics.

Although I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface of development economics, one emerging theme that I’m realizing is this: a lot has already been done to eliminate poverty. Until the Marshall Plan, the concept of aid did not exist. Today, thousands of professionals at a variety of institutions (IGOs, NGOs, nonprofits, agencies, etc.) are working daily towards ending poverty. Not to mention the academics who’ve studied and have raised countless perspectives on how to correctly end poverty.

Now, reducing hopelessness.

First, what do I mean by reducing hopelessness? By hopelessness, I’m referring specifically to two related things: depression and suicide. My concern is on how to address these two issues.

Second, where did this idea come from? Reading Kay Redfield Jameson’s Night Falls Fast made me realize that, in comparison to poverty reduction, there’s been much less discussion and action taken towards addressing mental illness and suicide prevention. Sure, the topic might be taboo, but why? Depression and suicide should not be simply swept under the rug.

Third, why does it matter? Though the magnitude might not be as huge as compared to extreme poverty, the facts concerning mental illness and suicide prevention are just as grave: every 17 minutes someone commits suicide. 1 in 10 Americans have experienced some form of mental illness. At the turn of the last century, poverty was a fact of life. Poverty was a huge problem, but given the global scope of the issue, addressing it seemed virtually impossible. Through advocacy and action, the world has taken significant steps to eliminating poverty.

If the world has done so much towards reducing poverty, why can’t the same be done with reducing hopelessness? It’s just as important of a problem, and affects many people, both in the developed and developing world.