I don’t usually do this. Back in the day when someone would ask me, “Where do you see yourself in the next five years,” that sounded so pretentious to me. How the hell should I know where I’ll be in five-years? I’d grown up in a world of hand-to-mouth fragility that was mostly focused on getting through the week and maybe the month. Just keep plugging away, stay focused, eyes down away from distractions. All of that worked for my folks. But now that I’m at the latter chapters of my life, I realize that this head-down existence only works while fully engages (or overwhelmed) by the day-to-day labors and is pitifully deficient when it comes to large transitions (like retirement!). 

What does future planning have to do with reflecting on accomplishments from the past five weeks? It’s the other side of the same future planning coin. Assessing past accomplishments requires some sense of future destinations. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I don’t usually do this. Reflecting on the accomplishments of the past five weeks requires, for me, some sense of acknowledging where I’m intending to go… And maybe you can tell from all of this “thinking out loud,” my intended destination is quite unclear at the moment. 

Looking at the question in head-down mode, I’m quite happy with the realization that I’ve been consistent with these daily reflections going all the way back to mid-October. I’m pretty happy that I’ve stayed alert in my efforts to get work things done in a timely manner while minimizing the need for all-nighters and in view of my intentions that this is my last semester managing these courses and students. 

In a word, I’m trying to lean forward into my future work transition rather than wait until it has “happened” and do post-transition damage mitigation. Yeah, none of this would be understandable to my middle school students… as it should be. What are the accomplishments that you want to take note of from the past five weeks?