Goals Update

In the spirit of accountability, here are a couple of updates on my stated goals:

 

1) Assist in developing the careers of my co-workers – I never feel terribly confident about meeting this goal. I did recently complete a set of ‘checkpoint’ meetings with my team to get an update on all active projects. That’s a new wrinkle for me; I am generally much more hands-off with my team. I believe this was well-received by the team. I am also attending Cisco Live 2013 with two of my colleagues, as well as guiding the 2013 training choices of my other teammates.

2) Continue offering industry-leading training for the Cisco Certified Design Expert program – I am proud to announce that fifteen active CCDEs took part in my training since I began in 2010. That’s approximately 20% of all certified engineers. I have also completed practice exam review sessions in January and April. I have also opened registration for the July review sessions.

My CCDE Bootcamp in Cairo, originally scheduled for May 2013, has been postponed due to the difficulty in convincing candidates to travel to Egypt. I am hopeful that we will be able to reboot this training in 2014. Lastly, my CCDE Practical Bootcamp scheduled for July 29 – Aug 2 in Orlando, Florida is now guaranteed to run.

3) Spend at least 40% of my professional time creating – This goal has been difficult to meet, and was probably a bit too much of a stretch. I am considering relaxing this goal to 25% moving forward, although no specific decision has been made. I’ve spent quite a bit of time on content creation, especially as it relates to the CCDE program. My current plan is to add additional practice exam questions for my CCDE Practical Bootcamp training, as well as supplement some of my other bootcamp content with more technical details.

4) Get healthier – This is the goal I’ve been most successful in achieving. I successfully completed a 5K run in March. My goal was 30:00 and I completed it in 28:33, without walking. I’ve also lost a significant (for me) amount of body weight. I am extending this goal to lose more body weight and to complete a 5K in 25:00. I may add an endurance-type goal for the fall (10K?), depending on how things go over the next few months.