Elese Morris: My New Year’s Resolutions

In a few days I will officially be in my mid-thirties. I have had a job for twenty of those years and have worked full-time for fifteen of them, but it has taken me this long to land the job I've been chasing for close to a decade. I am two months in to my new position in Training and Development, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I have a career and not just a job. Actually, I feel like I have two careers. I am also only three months in to my new role as a mother and I am coming up on my second wedding anniversary.

My goals for the year revolve around taking my new position and the program I run and building a department out of what is currently a one-woman operation, learning to balance work with family, and squeezing in a social life. (I know. I am insanely optimistic. What's a social life?) Specifically, my New Year's Resolutions are to increase awareness about my program within my company, to communicate more effectively with program participants, and to shift into a higher gear as an employee. That last one is the most important.

I have come a long way from the college freshman, who started her degree in English as a first step toward a career as the nation's foremost expert on Constitutional Law, and who ended up doing her graduate work in religion, planning a career in that field instead. I have worked in banking, sales, marketing and communication, retail operations, human resources and am now in training. I have filled every position from file clerk to supervisor, starting at the bottom and working my way up more times than I care to remember. I am in the middle of a climb right now.

That's me in a nutshell. New job. New career track. New baby. New marriage. New year. We'll find out how good I am at juggling.

Oh, and I am also on a diet.

~Elese Morris