I have been failing at my goal lately. But then again, what is defined as fail, and what exactly was my goal? I think I kept those terms ambiguous on purpose.
What I'm about to write may seem like it has nothing to do with hiking, but bear with me. Or just go back to Facebook, or whatever you like to do when you are not reading boring blogs.
I am currently teaching an academic writing class for adult English language learners (I know, hard to believe with the ineloquent and not-so-academic English I use when I write blog posts). Anyway, I had this idea to have them create writing goals that they will work toward this semester. We had two lessons on goals, and one of these lessons (which was conveniently provided to me by the institution where I teach) was very effective. It used the acronym SMART to describe how goals need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (some of you may have heard of this acronym before). As my students have been working to make their goals "smart" these past few weeks, I realized that my goal was not "smart." I am failing as a teacher! How can I teach without exemplifying what I expect from my students? I am now working on making my goal "smart." I feel like I barely have time to eat anymore (I am totally procrastinating on so many things right now by writing this), so I need to find time and room in my brain to think about how I am going to make my hiking goal "smart" – I will get back to you on this.
Going back to why I have been failing: I went three weeks in a row without hiking! Even though, like I mentioned previously, I never made my goal "smart," which makes it difficult to define success and failure, I feel like going three weeks without hiking is a failure. BUT, I have excuses!
Natalie's List of Excuses to Initiate Pity by the People
So, there you go. Have pity on me.
Good news for all the people who, realistically, could probably not care less (take a minute to think about that...horrible English, I know): I DID go hiking last weekend. Kind of. Maybe? What does one define as hiking? That is a whole other post, which will be coming shortly (if I ever find the time to write it).
What I'm about to write may seem like it has nothing to do with hiking, but bear with me. Or just go back to Facebook, or whatever you like to do when you are not reading boring blogs.
I am currently teaching an academic writing class for adult English language learners (I know, hard to believe with the ineloquent and not-so-academic English I use when I write blog posts). Anyway, I had this idea to have them create writing goals that they will work toward this semester. We had two lessons on goals, and one of these lessons (which was conveniently provided to me by the institution where I teach) was very effective. It used the acronym SMART to describe how goals need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (some of you may have heard of this acronym before). As my students have been working to make their goals "smart" these past few weeks, I realized that my goal was not "smart." I am failing as a teacher! How can I teach without exemplifying what I expect from my students? I am now working on making my goal "smart." I feel like I barely have time to eat anymore (I am totally procrastinating on so many things right now by writing this), so I need to find time and room in my brain to think about how I am going to make my hiking goal "smart" – I will get back to you on this.
Going back to why I have been failing: I went three weeks in a row without hiking! Even though, like I mentioned previously, I never made my goal "smart," which makes it difficult to define success and failure, I feel like going three weeks without hiking is a failure. BUT, I have excuses!
Natalie's List of Excuses to Initiate Pity by the People
- · The weekend after I hiked Grandeur Peak, I went to Florida. We all know Florida has no mountains – thus, no hiking.
- · The weekend after I went to Florida, I had mouth surgery and was not allowed to do any extraneous physical activity. Plus, the pain killers made me very sick.
- · The weekend after I had mouth surgery, it rained. A lot. (Oh, and IT HASN'T STOPPED.)
So, there you go. Have pity on me.
Good news for all the people who, realistically, could probably not care less (take a minute to think about that...horrible English, I know): I DID go hiking last weekend. Kind of. Maybe? What does one define as hiking? That is a whole other post, which will be coming shortly (if I ever find the time to write it).
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