Today I am officially back to work after spending the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 in Italy with my family and I am kicking off 2024 on the blog with my annual 2 part Reading Resolutions posts by beginning with an assessment of my 2023 Goals. In other words, IO kick off my new working year by looking back at the year I just completed.
I like to lead by example. As the author of this blog, one that I know is used by thousands of library workers all over the country as a trusted resource, I also understand that I must not only hold myself to a very high standard, but also, I need to model the behaviors I think all of you should also try.
This is why every single year, before I set out my own reading resolutions, I publicly assess my resolutions from the previous year. Here is last year's post where I kicked off my 2023 goals by assessing my 2022 resolutions.
Before you run headlong into a new year, any year, I want to advocate for taking a step back to assess not only the goals you set for 2023, but also how you actually did read in 2023. This is NOT about feeling bad that you didn't keep resolutions or complete goals. No one ever gets everything done.
Rather the exercise of setting goals is about learning from the past and making adjustments moving forward. I know for myself. This process has saved me from burn out by forcing me to look at long held practices and make real changes, changes that have improved this blog and my professional life in general. In fact, if you have not done an assessment before, I highly recommend going back and looking at them all. I just went through the past 4 years of assessments before writing this post and it made me appreciate how much this process has helped me. I can literally see my growth and improvement. It is clarifying and quite honestly, inspiring.
But even if you have never done this before, please considering starting now. It is extremely important to look back at the year that was BEFORE you plan for the year to come, otherwise you are simply making plans in a vacuum, which helps no one. I will demonstrate why this is necessary for you today by using myself as your example. You cannot learn from the past without taking a moment to reflect.
But, before I get to myself, I want to make my annual plea to NOT make resolutions about the number of books you will read in a year. Many people set goals based on a number and in my experience this is never a good idea. It makes many anxious and leads to choosing books based on how quickly you can finish them. It is quality not quantity. Sometimes a book that takes you a month to finish will help you more [whether professionally or personally because it nourished your soul] than 5 that you could have rushed through in that same time frame. I have more to say on this topic here.
Do what you want, of course, but that is my opinion on this issue.
Now on to the leading by example part. Here is the full post where I laid out my 2023 Reading Resolutions with details. As a reminder those resolutions were:
- 2023 Resolution: Shift My Reading Life Focus From Transactional to Conversational.
- 2023 Resolution: Explore More Ways To Share My Knowledge.
- 2023 Resolution: Use My Place As A Library Leader To Effect Change In IL Libraries.
- 2023 Resolution: Be Open Minded in the Face of Huge Life Changes.
What I Did Well:
- Unequivocally, the best thing I did to improve my training programs was making the first resolution. This is an example where making a resolution allowed me to articulate what my overall goal for myself was, and it focused me early to make even more change that reverberated throughout everything I do, ultimately making all of my programs better. I doubled down on conversation starters as a way to think about how I read and shared books. This led to me revamp my "Booktalking" program creating an entirely new exercise which you can find here. It comes with an explanatory post. This exercise and the post have worked in tandem to make my overall thesis--that RA Service is about relationships, not transactions-- more clear in practice. This has been one of the biggest successes of my career as a full time trainer, but it has been a few years in the making. I can clearly see that as I did the assessment I discussed above and looked back at the last few years. Please click here for more information.
- In my effort to share my knowledge in more places I made a document with all of my programs in one place and posted it clearly at the top of my Recent and Upcoming Presentations page. This has allowed more people to find as much about me, my program offerings, and pricing, as possible with very little effort. I can't believe it took me so long to make this simple document, but again, as I worked to nee more proactive in sharing as a goal, this was one of the steps I took to reach it. Because of that extra level of information on the top of my page with prices and recent and upcoming programs, more people have found the information they need about me more easily. I have also been more regular about reminding people through the blog and social media that all of the information they need to hire me is available with one click. I have noticed an uptick in new clients who have told me they appreciate having so much detail available before they make their initial contact. And, I am spending less time cutting and pasting all of the information about each of my programs over and over again, for every inquiry. Instead, I send the link or they have already seen it and can articulate exactly what they want from our first interaction.
- Also tied to this second resolution, I have doubled down on doing trainings that span multiple months-- either 3 or 4. I was getting frustrated with giving one-off programs to people because there was so much more they could learn. I know they don't know that, and yes, one-offs are cheaper, but the training people get if they stick with me for at least 2 months is so much better. Not only does each program build off the next, but also, because I am not trying to shoehorn as much as possible into a single program , each individual program is stronger. I am very clear with clients that they can get a one-off but having learning spread out and built upon over 3 months is a much better option. As a result, I have also increased the interactivity in each program, and have created examples of how to make RA more conversational and less transactional in each program (see 1). Everyone now leaves every program I do with tangible things they have worked on together and can use in practice, at their libraries, the next day. It is a combination of resolutions 1 and 2 in action. And again, without being intentional and writing down my overarching goals, I do not think I would have gotten there.
- Finally on the positive front, I made huge strides in the larger projects I was working on for all IL libraries including my multiple years work fighting for IL to fund statewide databases for all citizens regardless of whether or not they are served by a library. $5 million has been allocated and the details of which databases will be purchased for statewide use are being discussed. Final decisions will be made before July 1, 2024. Being on the ILA Board and serving as the Chair of the RAILS Resource Sharing Committee has led to a lot of other important, if not as flashy, improvements. One of my projects, helping to convince more libraries to join Find More Illinois ended the year with the addition of a very large stand alone library and news that a larger group is in the process of joining. And there is so much I have been able to be a part of with ILA, although I am particularly proud of our ILA Reporter committee, which is really doing great. I realize a lot of this is in the weeds for IL libraries, but that is why I am not going into great details here. Overall though, owning my place as a library leader here in IL and really focusing on where I can help effect real, tangible change, has been an excellent use of my volunteer time.
What I Need To Work On:
- I still need to give myself space to figure out how I want to move my career forward. I made great strides last year in consolidating how I present and beginning to work with partners more, but I am not there yet. One of the goals within this goal was to assess opportunities and realize I don't have to say yes to everything. I am still figuring out which new things are worth pursing. One of the biggest things I did decide by being open minded and having a few months without being a mom first was to take the plunge and turn the kids' old playroom into a sophisticated office, with a door, for me and just me. I started using it at the end of 2023 although there are still a few things that need to be finished. Already I can see how much better it is for me to separate my work and personal life and I know it will allow me to keep thinking about my future.
- This year I was open minded about huge life changes, but as the reality of my situation kicked in (truly being an empty nester), I needed a little more direction. I am definitely going to strengthen this resolution from 2023 in 2024, to make some more concrete future goals. Thankfully, during my vacation, I did have some reflection time, but without this 2023 goal and starting this post you are reading before I left for Italy, I would not have even thought to spend time thinking about what's next for me. I think at the start of 2023, I could not have said more than "be open minded" to myself, but again, that was not enough as the year came to an end. This one is getting a tweak and a continuation into 2024.
- I overcorrected a bit in terms of my reading in 2023. As I mentioned in my final post of 2023, not reading for the ACM was liberating, but I think I was too liberated. I need to get back to enjoying more nonfiction. I missed it in my reading life.
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