Numbers from 11/06, Notes from 11/09, Cross-posted at labangel's corner
I'm back from vacationing in China and it was amazing!!! Not just the country itself, the trip gave me faith in my boyfriend too. I'd gotten a Chinese visa and booked flights a week before I took off so I landed in Beijing with zero preparation. My boyfriend met me at the airport and took care of almost everything for the week we were there. It really helped that I could forget about everything stateside, and focus only on him and what was around us. He noticed how carefree I was too.
I went full speed at work as soon as I got back. I have three goals to finish by the end of this year and I finished the easiest one in October. I unblocked one goal remaining from last quarter in October as well. I'm working on the second goal right now and am making progress, but I've been slacking this week so I might buckle down this weekend to make up for it. I paid to do traffic school and plan to take the course online this weekend as well.
My manager is being very frank with me during our 1-1's and she's making me realize that as hard as I'm working right now, I still need to get a lot better at work. I asked her openly what was missing between how I perform and how someone at the next level would perform and she answered that there's 3 things I need to do in order to get promoted:
1. Execute consistently on my tasks and deliver them on time. My manager also added that I should do this independently, not wait for others to hand me solutions. I've struggled with this in the past because I would distract myself with one-off things that ultimately were not important.
2. Lead others to complete a project. I'm not to enthused about this one.
3. Take initiative outside of my team by mentoring others, teaching at the company's new hire bootcamp, etc. I wonder if this is really necessary…
Honestly, I'm thankful that I can even have such open discussions with her. And knowing what's needed helps me see where I am in my journey more clearly.
I worked out 11 times in October and worked out for 7 days in a row last week, but I've been sneezing and having a stuffed nose since late October. I tried taking allergy pills, changing my bedding, upping the heat in my apartment, and getting a couple of massages but nothing's worked. It's more annoying than debilitating so I'll deal.
Financially-speaking, the market tanked and my net worth decreased month-over-month. But more importantly I read the White Coat Investor's articles on contributing to a backdoor Roth IRA. The article 17 Ways To Screw Up A Backdoor Roth IRA really laid out the details and gave me confidence to get started. I finally cashed in my Rollover IRA and will roll it into my 401K this year so I can start making backdoor Roth IRA contributions next year. I'm excited!
<3, Labangel |