Moving forward | Goals for 2015

The end of the year is always a reflective time of year. Last week I put together a post of my "greatest hits" of 2014. It was so much fun to go back through my blog posts to see which posts readers were most interested in. It also got me thinking about where I want to go this next year in terms of blog posts, as well as other OT-related goals. 

Blog Goals for 2015:

• Focus on quality over quantity. I tend to be a bit inconsistent with my blog posts. I'll be on consistent for a month or two, and then I completely disappear for a month (or more!). I hope by focusing on quality over quantity, I can produce consistently (although maybe not as frequently as I sometimes do).
• Revive my OT Student Corner series. I receive a lot of questions from OT students, but I rarely get around to answering individual emails. I really want to revive this series of answering student questions, since it seems like students and prospective students seem to have similar questions that could be easily answered in a series of posts.
• Do more Behind the Scenes interviews. I personally love putting this series together. Seriously, it's my favorite. I love collaborating with other occupational therapists and I love to learn more about the process other OTs have gone through to do really cool and inspiring things in their careers.
• Share more of my thoughts on the OT profession in Workplace Wednesday posts. There are other bloggers out there who do a fantastic job of sharing activities for children, so I tend to leave those types of posts to them. I prefer to blog about occupational therapy and issues affecting the profession, even if these aren't the most popular posts on pinterest. Look for more Workplace Wednesday posts in this upcoming year! If there's a topic you'd like to hear about, feel free to let me know.

Social Media Goals for 2015:

I know, blogging is a form of social media, but I'm creating a second category of goals for "other" social media. I started using Twitter and Instagram a bit more this year, and I would like to continue to grow these avenues of sharing information.

• Use Twitter to share articles and blog posts that grab my attention. I have a tendency to save articles that I read and want to share, and then never get around to sharing them. To solve this problem, I've been trying to share these articles on Twitter as soon as I read them.
• Engage in more "conversations" on Twitter. I'm not going to lie, Twitter moves a bit too quickly for me, but I do like how it can be used to engage in quick "conversations" with therapists all over the country and world. This year I'd like to use Twitter to engage in more of these "conversations."
• Post one photo per week on Instagram. I love Instagram! I've been using Instagram for years, and just started a blog account this year. I think a quick photo now and then can provide such an insight into what life as a pediatric occupational therapist looks like, and hope to share more of my day to day through Instagram this year. With my upcoming move, my Instagram account will probably be a bit quiet, but I hope to be more active once I get settled in.

Career Goals for 2015:

With a cross country move coming up in just a few weeks, I'm keeping it simple with the career goals this year. This will be my third cross country move in just three years, and if I've learned anything throughout all of this (other than I'm so grateful OTs are in demand everywhere), it's that moving is a major life stressor and so is starting a new job.

• Find a new job. Fairly self explanatory. Moving across the country means I need to find a new job when I get there. I love my current job and am sad to say goodbye to my co-workers and the families I work with, but the prospect of a brand new job is always exciting, too.
• Be kind to myself. As I embark on my third cross country move in less than three years, I've learned that I need to be kind to myself during the transition. Starting a new job is always a challenge, even if it's in a familiar practice setting. It still entails learning a new system of paperwork, meeting new co-workers and learning the office politics, and of course, learning the needs of a whole new set of kiddos. As I navigate that transition this year, I'm going to be kind to myself as I settle in. I tend to have very high expectations for myself, but the first 6-12 months of a new job is always just about settling in.
• Attend AOTA Annual Conference in Nashville. I attended the AOTA conference for the first time in 2014 and I loved the experience. I'm really hoping to go back this year, but I'll have to see how everything shakes out with the upcoming move and new job.
• Read more journal articles. I'll admit it, I always read my OT Practice magazine from AOTA, but my AJOT journals tend to get pushed to the side. This year, I'd like to read at least one article per month. Maybe to hold myself accountable I'll share my progress here on the blog!

P.S. Did you know that I'm the Forum Moderator for the AOTA Feeding, Eating and Swallowing SIS forum on OT Connections? This month we're chatting about our feeding therapy related goals for 2015. Stop by and join the conversation (AOTA member log-in required)!