Get involved
posted in Achieving Goals |
Image from Word Sell Inc
One of the ways to move ahead in the world is to get involved in situations that are of interest to you. You can’t always tell where one situation will lead you to, but being involved in something bigger than yourself can help you in unexpected ways. For example, I went to a professional development seminar to continue to be certified as a history teacher in my state and ended up being asked to be on a panel of people developing curriculum for a documentary on Helen Keller. Although, history is not my biggest interest, I always like attending free workshops where I can learn more. This was an added bonus and is much more in line with my interests. I am learning far more about Helen Keller than I ever knew and feel like I’m involved with other people with similar interests.
Recently, I’ve been trying not to overextend. I used to be the type of person who wanted to get involved and work on every activity that anyone mentioned. Then I burned out. I couldn’t get everything done and felt like I was disappointing people. I withdrew quite a bit, especially to focus on my children. Now, I see that choosing places to get involved in is important to my career growth and my growth as a person. I am trying to keep my involvements to activities that really interest me and that I can find enough time for.
The interesting things about this concept of getting involved is that I can’t necessarily see the end goal when I start. There is nothing I’m really trying to get out of my involvement when I volunteer, but I can see how the group connections make my life richer and make me aware of more things in the world that I may be interested in.
Getting involved, in the best way, is relatively un-goal related. You join a group to accomplish a specific goal, generally not something that is specifically personal. What it does, though, is keep you aware of other goals in the world and how to get them. Often, working in groups can help you learn more about how other active people achieve things and get what they want. In the meantime you work with other interesting people and get things done.
