Happy New Year! With each year we of course set resolutions that are mostly forgotten. But I’ve heard if you tell others, you are more likely to follow through, so I’ll post them.
1. Keep learning from my mistakes. I took our 2 kids (11 and 12) to New York City the past few days and took them on their first subway ride. We had no trouble taking the subway from 79th St. to South Ferry to go to the Statue of Liberty. But coming back, after walking around Ground Zero, I saw on my MTA app that the E train would work. Oops. The E took us the right direction at first, then took a turn east under the East River. Quickly we had to get off and take another subway back the other way. I saw the B or D would work, and we got the next one – and it seemed to be going awfully long between stops. It was an express. We got off on 125th St. and took a local in the other direction, finally getting to our destination of 72nd St.! I told the kids we got more ride for our money. But I learned a couple of lessons – look far down the line on the map to see where that train is really going; and pay attention to the Express vs. the Local! These are life lessons that can be applied as well! I bet the kids learned from these and won’t make my mistakes again!
2. Keep growing. In 2013 we established our Hemophilia/Bleeding Disorders panel, grew it to 290 panelists, and did 6 studies in the past 3 months. We’ll double the size of that in 2014, by constantly reaching out to patients (we’ll be at more patient events throughout the year) and rewarding patients and caregivers for referrals. We’ll also add panels: Multiple Sclerosis, Cystic Fibrosis, Acromegaly, Sickle Cell are all on our list.
3. Clean my desk! This is a short term goal, and I’ve accomplished a lot of it already. But it is one that needs to be repeated. I can’t seem to keep it clean, so every once in a while I need to go through everything and put it in its place. And when I do I find a few things – reminders of things I need to do, people I should re-connect, with, etc.
Wish me luck with my resolutions, and good luck with yours!