End of year musings

Well, it’s that time of year again.  Time to reflect somewhat on the events and achievements of 2008, and start setting some concrete goals for 2009.  These posts can often be a little depressing, but that’s not at all my aim.  Rather, I’d like to objectively analyse what has occurred in my life over the last year, and genuinely set out some aims for the coming year that would improve my life (I had already been mulling this over for the last couple of days, but Mulley gave me the kick I needed today).  Firstly though, I’d like to tip my hat to several friends of mine who made achievements this year that I think are particularly worthy of recognition:

• Keith Martin – has just rounded off his year by ditching his PR job and going to work for the Labour Party as Campaign Manager in Ireland East to help get Nessa Childers elected.
• David Cochrane – single-handedly broke Europe!
• Paul Daly – published the excellent Creating Ireland, despite what that silly bint wrote in the Times.
• Adrianne Wyse, Rebecca Moynihan, Cian O’Callaghan, Dermot Looney and Mick McLoughlin – all of whom have been selected as Local Election candidates for 2009 (Adrianne for the Greens, and the other four for Labour)
• Alan Kennedy – got a job that he doesn’t despise as much as the old one.  And which involves messing with kiddies….
• Suzy Byrne – got a post picked up by the Huffington Post, and continued her rather excellent blogging work.
• RedMum – accidentally got me addicted to Twitter!
• Éibhear Walshe – published a book on Elizabeth Bowen, and got another two completed works in the can.  Which is just showing off really….
• Damien Mulley – struck out on his own, getting away from ‘the man’.  And got the Irish Web Awards up and running very successfully indeed.
• Niamh Hayes – got a new job she loves, and entered the blogosphere.
• Conor Prenderville – properly shagged off to travel through Asia by land.  And made me extremely envious in the process.
• Ross Higgins – to our collective amazement, transferred from the M.Phil. programme in TCD to the Ph.D. programme.  Oh, and got a big fuck-off house along the way.

Obviously, they’re just a few of the impressive achievements I can think of off the top of my head.  There are many others that I’m overlooking or may not be aware of.  I love all of my friends dearly, and they never cease impressing me.

What was good in 2008?

• 2.1 achieved in my first module back at college.  Yes, having been very wary of my own ability to be a successful third-level student, I got notice a couple of weeks back that I got a 2.1 in my first module.  One more module, and I’ll have a Diploma in Politics and Government.
• Improved focus on charity work.  This year, I joined the boards of NLGF and One in Four, while becoming Chairperson of the board of Dublin LGBTQ Pride.  The experience I’m gaining from these experiences is very valuable to me, while I also think I’m making a worthy contribution with this activity.
• Increased responsibility in non-profit work.  As well as the board positions above, I became a trainer on LGBT issues at the Queer Easter seminar (which I’ll be repeating in April this year), a volunteer manager at the Leeds and Oxegen festivals for Workers Beer Company, the Co-chairperson of Labour LGBT.  I’ve spent a number of years as a student/volunteer/activist with these organisations, so it’s nice to see them place their trust in me by increasing my levels of responsibility.
• Labour national executive.  I was elected to the NEC in 2007, but I’m happy with my performance on the executive this year, and I genuinely think I’ve made an impact at this level, which is pleasing.
• Personal life.  I entered a stable, mature relationship this year.  I also considerably strengthened a number of friendships that are extremely rewarding to me.  Many people don’t consider such things to be of importance when doing lists like this, but I disagree.
• Fitness.  Well, this probably goes in as both an achievement and an area for improvement!  I’ve been cycling to work for most of 2008, which is great, and I’ll certainly continue it.  I’d like to increase my physical fitness further though (to make me feel good, not to lose weight, look buff or any other stupid reason…)

Areas that could have been better in 2008:

• Work.  Yeah, this is an area I need to focus on a little better, to be totally honest.  Distractions were aplenty in 2008.
• Family.  I’m really not spending enough time with my family, though this was an area that saw some improvement between 2007 and 2008.
• College work.  While I did really well in my first module, I’ve slipped a little at the start of my second module.  Need to pull up my socks in 2009 to ensure I get a good diploma.
• Professional development.  I didn;t undergo any training or development work relevant to my career in 2008.  Not my fault, but still not something I’m satisfied with.
• Organisation.  Probably my biggest flaw – I have a tendency to be somewhat scatty and disorganised, running from one panic to another.  I’m slowly improving on this over the years, but I’d like to see major improvements in the coming year.

What I’m going to do in 2009:

• Graduate with a Diploma in Politics and Government.  This should be done my June, and I’ll be really pleased with myself when it happens.
• Attend yoga class a minimum of twice a week.  I went to my first ever Bikram yoga class on Monday, and absolutely loved it.  I’d really like to keep this up for the coming year to help bring my fitness levels up (I also love the idea of being able to touch my toes for the first time since I was about 8!).
• Continue study.  I have two options opening up in front of me once I get the diploma out of the way.  One is to continue studying with the Open University for another couple of years to get a BA.  The other might allow me to directly enter a taught MA course.  Either way, I want to ensure I keep studying once the Diploma is done.
• Professional upskilling.  As mentioned above, I underwent effectively no training in 2008, and I want to change that in the coming year.  Whether it’s examining Prince2/PMP qualification, or something a little less formal (management training, specific software training etc.), I’m not that fussy as long as I feel I’m continuing to upskill myself over the course of this year.
• Work.  I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now, and I have a couple of different strategies on how I might get some focus and direction by into my worklife.  I’d rather not expand on these on the blog to be honest, so I’ll leave this one a little vague.  However, by the end of the year, I’d like to have been promoted, and to be moving in a very definitive direction.
• Personal.  At the end of 2009, I’d like to still be in the same relationship, having deepened and developed it in the intervening period.  I’d also like to continue all of my friendships, and hopefully pick up another couple of friends along the way!  I’m genuinely hoping to spend more time with my family in 2009.
• Sleep.  I’ve been a horrific sleeper for the last few months, often surviving weeks at a time with an average of 4/5 hours sleep a night.  I’ve had enough of that, and I’m really going to focus on getting to bed by midnight at all times, and getting a decent 7/8 hours sleep every night.
• Reduce debt.  A few years ago I was a little silly, and built up a moderate amount of unsecured debt (or silly debt as I often call it).  Now, I consolidated it all during 2008 into one loan, and started chipping away at it at a reasonable pace.  My intention for the coming year is to really lay into this, and start moving towards being totally debt-free (a good idea in a recession, but also leaving me with more options if I want to look at travelling etc.)
• Have a holiday.  I always get a few days in Berlin in advance of Queer Easter, and I go to several music festivals etc. a year.  However, almost all of this is usually time spent working or preparing in some way to work.  For at least one week late in 2009, I want to travel alone to somewhere I’ve never been before, and truly take a holiday for a week.
• Organisation.  I’m going to be much more strict with my time in 2009.  I want to stop spending hours on tasks that I could really delegate to other people.  I want to stop taking on too much work at busy times.  I want to be in a position to better plan each coming week or month.  And so, I’m just going to do it.  I got a lot of filing of stuff etc. done over Christmas, and cleared almost all of my outstanding items, so I’ve got a virtually clean slate for the coming year.  Here’s hoping I can keep it that way for most of the year!

I think that list is probably enough to keep me going, and if I can achieve all of those things, I’ll be a very happy boy indeed!