I am about to embark on a journey back into drug and alcohol counseling. I did well in that before, but that is not where I want to remain for long. It will, however, get me the required hours to fulfill my master's practicum and internship.

I would like to finish out my current degree and move on for the doctorate in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling at the University of Pittsburgh.

After that degree, I would like to eventually teach and receive tenure and become a contractor performing assessments for either workman's compensation or a state vocational rehabilitation agency.

My professional goals
 

1. Decide on a thesis topic and STICK TO IT!
2. Help our little homeless outreach become a fully functioning 501(c)3.
3. Finish my MPA in May 2013.
4. Qualify for a Foreign Service job through the State Department and live all over the world furthering our diplomatic initiatives.

(in that order)

For now, this is it. Things always change, but I've been accomplishing a lot over the last year (suddenly becoming single will do that to you), and I'm going to keep that momentum going!

Funny, I was thinking of starting a thread titled exactly this, and then I realized I posted here several months ago...

My life has changed a lot in the last 5 months since I posted the above.

Still working on my MPA, though many days I wonder why. Just to finish, I suppose.

But I got hired on by an organization that is a dynamic and amazing little group of people. My boss has amassed a small empire just by knowing what she wants and going after it. So, I was tasked to think of some personal and professional goals. BIG ones. And they will help me craft a way to get there.

So, first, I want to be amazing at what I do. There's a big learning curve, but I am kicking ass and taking names so far, so I believe this is possible.

Next, I want to make enough money to afford limitless travel. This means not buying that amazing house that JAGG rebuilt that I want SO badly (there are two closets in every room!!), but staying in my tiny house with my tiny mortgage payment and bumping up my savings. And banking TONS of skymiles. Doing well on the skymiles so far.

Third, figure out a way to have multiple income streams. Everyone I know who is doing well is doing well because they have more than one source of revenue. I can't just bank on my salary and my commission. I have to figure out other ways to make my money work for me.

Fourth, I must, MUST, prioritize my time, particularly with finishing school this year. I've got to outsource the things I can. Cleaning, for instance, is not good use of my time. My time is valuable, and I can make more money working in those hours than it would cost to have someone clean. I'm starting to realize the value of those things that I always thought were frivolous. The added benefit of reducing my stress level and environmental allergens will only add to my overall productivity.

So, basically, I'm changing my way of thinking. I'm re-evaluating what I thought possible, and I finally have people who see my potential and are determined to help me realize it. I'm lucky, but I also worked my ass off to get here, so I'm proud. I'm building my empire one brick at a time.

Retire....Ive accomplished mine..... or all ive been able to!

My career has had a emphasis on addressing the glass ceiling and road blocks facing women in the fire service.

The fire service is better but has STILL alot of room for improvement.But it is ALMOST time for me to step aside and hand the reins to a less seasoned person with fresh ideas!

It doesnt feel right to list what i achieved... but some things were breached that had never had the female experience.

So now my goal is to someday work part time at home depot...tools...wood...paint...I,ll be in heaven!

my goals have changed somewhat :) i'm hoping to get an apprenticeship at the acupuncture clinic where i volunteer, and eventually work there. if i'm able to finish an apprenticeship there and get a job i would have a pretty stable working class income plus the potential for retirement...and it would be more money than i've ever made per year in my life, in an environment i love, helping people who need access to low cost health care, with a schedule that works pretty well with my access needs/disabilities.

i'm also working with some friends to potentially open up a youth center here, and i would continue doing community organizing and consulting and speaking and stuff on the side (and possibly continue doing sex work on the side too). but i love the community i am with at the acupuncture clinic and that's much more stable, plus i really enjoy it.

I probably won't be able to retire before I keel over, but I want to finish some stuff. I want to be "highly qualified" in English, Math, Social Studies, and Science. It's possible. I just got my Autism Add-on credential this year, so that is done. Otherwise, professionally, that's it. I want to get better at my job, have a bigger and better tool box, learn more about more kinds of disabilities and how to work with the kids who have them.

Most of my ambitions are not work related. Health, spirituality, recreation -- that stuff.

Not much has changed in the last few years.. Closer and closer and closer..

**Finish nursing school, a masters in pub. health, bioethics and be an NP.
**Use every resource I have made over the years to support and participate in fighting for an AIDS free generation.

I'm very lucky that my 2nd career is a passion, just like my first.

One post here reminded me of an acquaintance who retired from the police force. She had been one of the few women cops in that town for years, had the respect of the entire community, first woman detective yadda yadda.

BIG ole dyke. Anyway, she retired and went to work in a china shop. No kidding. That had been her dream. She consults with brides and grooms re their china patterns and sells porcelain tea sets to old ladies like me.

to change career fields and get out of a thankless, brain numbing, trapped -in, narrow area of health care management/policy and entitlement programs...there's got to be something that isn't filled with such burnout

I'm at a cross roads as far as what to do for school and a career. I've been wanting to be a nurse for so long, and yet now Ive found myself disillusioned with the medical field and their protocols. I also find it difficult to work in a female dominated field. Ive considered finishing my B.S in Psychology and then going to law school, or working as a probation officer or social worker. I've thought about getting my RN and working in hospice or home care. One thing I DO know that I want: I want to have a small farm (20acres or less) in NC and raise alpacas for fiber and breeding....and have chickens and pigs and ducks and all that too...that would be blissful to me :)

At last I have a plan....
1. Retire in four years
2. Teach full-time at the university
3. Travel

1. Begin taking some higher math courses as refreshers (from 35+ years ago)
2. Consider working on Masters in Math Education
3. Try to get an adjunct position teaching math
all so that I can
4. Shift as soon as possible from teaching computer science to teaching math because math doesn't change every semester!!

1. Retire in 5 years

2. Travel

You know, I feel like this is my focus more and more, even though I am only 42. I think it is mainly because I met my initial professional goal(s) early in my career and nothing else is exciting me. The goal(s) haven't really shifted. I like what I am doing, but I admit that I feel sort of stuck. I had some recent plans to add to my education, but this path is not really an option for me at this time and the passion required is not really there, either.

At least I am doing what I can in terms of stretching myself in order to retire on time. TF and I will be purchasing a house in the next year and will be combining our households. We will be purchasing a house that is below our means. We will continue to save and hopefully increase our savings even though it will stretch us. We are fortunate that her son is getting his first two years of his Bachelor's degree on the cheap, so the rest of his Bachelor's degree will be more financially manageable.

Ok, so I got off of professional goals...how about life goals? Here's to doing everything you can to retire at 67 (ish?)!

when i can work per diem as a nurse and do mostly free lance photography...

When I first became an RN, my goal was simply to help people. From bedside nursing, I worked my way up the ladder to charge nurse, to nurse manager, to Director of QI/Risk Management and Utilization Management. Finally, a DON.

I got sick of the politics and bullshit one has to wade through in the upper levels of management, left and went back to seeing patients again in home health and finally, case management.

I remained in case management, working with clients, for the last 12 years. It was easy, low stress, productive, satisfying and rewarding to help those with chronic physical and mental illnesses.

Out of the blue, I was offered a position back in management and I was seduced by the money. I think about retiring in 5 years and know the increase will help a lot toward that end. It is a heck of a lot of work and the company is very disorganized compared to where I came from. I feel a little like a fish out of water.

I had already felt like I had achieved success and accomplishment in my career. I am beginning to worry that at this point in my life, with the hellish year I have had-physically and mentally-I may have finally bitten off more than I can or want to chew.

The jury is still out for me as to the soundness of my decision.

In the short term, I'm going to be tutoring ESL adults through a literacy program, but ultimately I'm getting my ESL teaching certification. Not sure how to mesh that with the sciences, but I thougt it would be valuable if/when I choose to teach overseas.

In the (very) long term, I think I've lost my collective marbles. I'm going to take the GRE and go back for my M.S./Ph.D in geology or maybe even something like planetary science :|

I think that's so cool, Guihong—both parts!

I worked in literacy for about 15 years, and I have so much respect for ESOL teachers.

In NYC, most programs prefer ESOL teachers to have a master's degree in TESOL, but there are also a lot of people with have certificates that are respected, like the Princeton one, and others.

I went to the TESOL conference when it was in New York a few years ago, and was high off the energy! One researcher claimed that most English-language textbooks promote a "feminized" version of English; for example, in which the speaker asks questions to elicit more from the speaker, not to insert his or her own point of view—it's so culturally loaded!!! I love it.

This is an exciting time to go into that field, and with what's happening with immigration politics, it's almost a political statement just to do that kind of work ...

The geology part is interesting too. Would you teach? Or do research? I don't even know what people do with a geology degree. I bet the MTA (transit authority in NYC), hired geologists as consultants when they dig tunnels... someone's gotta understand what this earth is made of!!!!

Moving forward
 

So I have done all my previous goals, well almost all. I did get a job making more money but not quite the beaucoup money one yet. Which brings me to my next set...
1. Master RAC audit appeals and RAC management
2. Master Inpatient coding and DRG auditing
3. Get a job making beaucoup money with my new and improved very in demand skills.
4. Continue teaching and speaking about ICD-10 (thank you CMS for giving me another year to work that training)
5. Get my Master's without student loans