Better late than never: My goals for 2011

Yes, this blog post is over three weeks late, but I've been busy dealing with snow, work, kids, school, life and yada, yada, yada. Of course, as a sports information director, life is always busy.

But I wanted to get my goals for the new year written down and posted here to help me 'keep my on the prize' as the old saying goes.

I've got two different sets of goals: a list for my personal/family life and another for my professional world. This is in large part thanks to a question poised to SIDs by Chris Syme on LinkedIn.

And I prefer to call them goals rather than the traditional 'resolutions.' Resolutions are too easily broken and rarely followed through with. Viewing them as goals gives me something to strive for or something to obtain. If If I see it as a goal, then I am more likely to work harder to achieve it. Do I always reach it? No, not always, but the effort was put in and I took the journey.

To put it another way: I rather try and fail than to never have tried at all.

So, without any further ado ... or delay ... here are my goals.

Personal Goals
1. More time with my family. Yes, this is a common and regular goal for many, especially SIDs who are married and have kids. It can be hard to juggle the SID lifestyle and family life because collegiate sports waits for no one. Yet, I want to make sure I carve out time for my family for three reasons. First, for my bride because she carries the load on the home front especially from August to mid-May with little to no help from me. Secondly, for my son because every boy needs their father, and I want to teach him there's more to life than work and sports. Last and most definitely not least, for my daughter because she is my baby girl. I really want to spend more time this year getting to know my daughter. She's seven going on 27. It's easy for me to connect with my son since he is a mini version of me. But it's not always easy for me to relate to tastes of my daughter. I mean, she thinks football and baseball are boring, and yet soccer and volleyball are her favorite sports. That's so not her daddy, but at least she likes some sports, right?

2. Maintain a healthy lifestyle. On January 1, 2002, my bride and I began our journey to lose weight and to be healthy. I had been diagnosed with high blood pressure and my weight was fast approaching 300. Something had to be done. And by the end of 2002, I had dropped 80 or so pounds. Since then, I've been able to maintain my weight with it bouncing anywhere from 205 to 230. I'm tired of the weight swings and I want off my blood pressure medicine for good. Therefore, I want to live a healthy lifestyle. One step I've taken is no more pop (or soda, depending where you are from) and lots more water. I actually dumped pop back in October basically to see if I could do it. After the first week or so, it's been easy to do. I've also upped to my water intake to where I usually drink at least 100 ounces per day. There are other things I need to change, alter and look at, but that's a start. The main thing is I want to be a good example for my kids because I don't want to them have the same weight issues I did and I want to be around to see my great-grandkids.

3. Technically, I have four more personal goals, but since they all involve running, I'm going to lump them all into one. First, I want to run at least 750 miles this year. Currently, I'm on pace to hit the 900-mile mark. If that keeps up, I might push for 1,000 miles. Next, I originally set out to run a mile in under 10 minutes. Well, I have done that, several times already. So, I've adjusted this goal. I now want to run a mile in 9:06. Why that specific time? When I was 9 or 10, I ran in a fun run and that was my time for the mile race. I don't recall ever running a faster time, but of course, running was not my thing until last year. Thus far, I've posted a 9:41 time, meaning there's plenty of work to do. Third, I want to finish another half marathon. And since I've signed up for the Go St. Louis half, I will hopefully check this off the list on April 10. Lastly, I want to run a full marathon. Ideally, I want to do this in the fall, but it will all depend on scheduling. My dream would be running in the New York Marathon since it's scheduled to take place on my birthday. Can't think of a better way to celebrate my 40th. Lots of hurdles to cross to make that happen, but if you like to donate to "Jay Stancil Birthday Run Fund," all gifts would be greatly appreciated.

Professional Goals
1. Leave as much work as possible at the office. This is not always easy to do, especially in this day and age of laptops, wifi and all. Also, I'm a realist and realize there will be days that I must take work home. But if I am going to have a shot at accomplishing "Personal Goal No. 1" of spending more time with my family, then I will need to leave some work at work.

2. Learn to say "NO" better and more often. I'm a helper. I like to help others and see them succeed. Yet, this at times gets me in trouble as I am bad for signing up to do too much. There are some things, though worthwhile they may be, that I need to just say "no" to.

3. Complete my masters. I am this (imagine me holding my thumb and index finger mere millimeters apart) close to finishing my course work for my masters degree. Working and going to school is tough for anyone to manage. Being a SID and going to school is a whole other level. If I had a dollar for every time I said to myself, "What have I gotten myself into?" or "What in the world was I thinking?", my bride would have the new vehicle she's been wanting.

4. Develop a sports management/journalism curriculum. Part of the reason I went back to school for my masters is so I can teach adjunct here at Union. Well, the chair for the English/Communication department has been looking to add a sports management track and would like for me to head it up once I get my masters. Not going to lie, I'm pretty excited about this. It's been my dream to help develop tomorrow's journalists. What better way than to begin in the classroom.

5. Learn to better utilize my resources. There are numerous tools at our disposal designed to help enhance our job and make life better. Yet, I'm guilty at times of being too busy or caught up in things to learn some of the new 'tricks.' If you take time to learn something new which will in the long run improve your productivity and/or performance, that is time well spent.

6. Clean my office. I would like to clean my office at point in the year 2011. But I'm not, and I know my bride nor my AD, holding my breath.

Those are my goals for the new year - that is almost a month done. (Where does the time go?)

So, what do you hope to accomplish this year? Please feel free to share in the comments section, and let's report back in December to see how we did. Deal?