Following through on my resolution to give fewer talks, I’m thinking about what kinds of talks I do want to give.

I want to help people work together better. I want to talk about the whys and hows of collaboration, helping organizations, communities, teams, and individuals learn how to use these tools and practices. Part of this will include basic step-by-step tutorials on how, perhaps, but I’m much more interested in documenting and shaping collaboration patterns.

I want to help people play to their strengths. As I learn more about being introverted and about having a beginner’s mind, I’m looking forward to sharing what I discover with other people.

I want to help people map and share their lives, insights, and questions. I want to map everything I know, and I want to help interested people do the same.

I want to help people become more at home and discover themselves. I think I’m getting the hang of it, and I want to share that with others, too!

So: collaboration, strengths (particularly learning and introversion), mapping/knowledge-sharing, and self-discovery. Now that I’ve sketched that out, I can think about what questions I want to explore and how I can share what I’m learning along the way.

I’m not quite used to this. I created most of my presentations in response to requests, invitations and calls for submissions. Lately, though, I’ve been creating more and more presentations just because I wanted to. Switching to being more proactive about my topics might be an interesting experiment. =)

In 2010, I want to improve my facilitation skills. Facilitation is a large part of the consulting that I do at work, and I can see how good facilitation creates value. I’m frustrated by the limits of what I know and can do, and I’m looking forward to learning more. I’m particularly interested in three areas:

• facilitating better online discussions (especially asynchronous ones)
• doing visual facilitation and visual recording
• helping people brainstorm wild success stories and worst-case scenarios

My work focuses on brainstorming rather than conflict resolution or other applications of facilitation techniques, although I’m also interested in facilitation of group processes in order to improve collaboration.

If I improve my skills, I can use that foundation to help figure out more effective patterns for virtual facilitation and collaboration.

In order to learn more about facilitation, I plan to:

• proactively take on more responsibility for facilitating discussions at work, including doing the background research and helping prepare the deliverables
• read and reflect on lots of resources about in-person and remote facilitation
• collect templates and processes
• practice visual notetaking and facilitation during meetings, conference calls, and talks
• reflect on and share lessons learned from the workshops and idea labs we do
• shift more of my talks to interactive formats
• build mentoring relationships with people who can help me plan my learning

I plan to share what I’m learning with you through blog posts, sketches, lessons learned, and talks.

Looking forward to the adventure!

When Florina Xhabija mentioned how much
she liked the way I shared my goals on my website and how each goal
was associated with a next action, I was reminded of the
101-goals-in-1001-days project I’d started soon after I revamped my site.

My target date is 2010.07.02, which is in 972 days. =) Here’s the list:
101 goals in 1001 days.

Random Emacs symbol: toggle-uniquify-buffer-names – Command: Toggle whether to uniquify buffer names by adding parent directory names.

Someone asked me last night: If I got a check for $15,000,000, what
would I do? I think he expected a change of lifestyle, splurging on
luxuries, full-time volunteer work for a favorite cause, or even any
of the things that people fantasize about when they buy lottery
tickets or speculate on stocks or gamble in casinos. What would I do
if lots of money showed up on my doorstep?

I wouldn’t do anything with the money. Not yet. I’d lock it up in some
(insured?) somewhat liquid form and let it wait while I learned more
about myself and about life.

The things I want can’t be bought or rushed. I want to learn how to be
me. I want to deepen relationships, and I want the laughs and tears
and fights and reconciliations that go with that. I want to be part of
a community, both at work and at home. I want to discover the joy of
work and the satisfaction of a job well done. I want to step out of my
comfort zone occasionally, but have a good foundation to build on and
draw strength from. I want to grow into myself.

And someday, when character has been built up brick by brick from the
everyday decisions, then I’ll naturally share more and more of my
gifts with the world. I don’t know exactly how that will go, but I’m
confident that life will be wonderful.

Some people may think that my dreams are smaller than they were
before. I think my dreams are just different. People like hearing
grand visions of the future. I want to learn how to discern the right
step in the current moment.

Will it really matter if I won’t be as famous as I could be, or as
rich as I could be, or as accomplished as I could be? Maybe what
will matter is that I’ll be as me as I could be.

Random Emacs symbol: isearch – Group: Incremental search minor mode. – Face: Face for highlighting Isearch matches.

So I’m looking at a month’s long “vacation” this September. Most people
in the working world would probably kill for one of those. ;)

I don’t feel comfortable travelling because I have some paperwork that
still needs to be done. If the Canadian government says that they need
more information or an interview, I want to be in Toronto and ready to
deal with it. So a month-long trip to the Philippines is probably out
of the question. (It’d be my third trip this year, too, and someday
I’ll need to either earn bucketloads of money or wean myself off
expensive travels…) Hmm. Maybe short trips.

I’ve also asked Jane Zhang about volunteer
opportunities. I might be able to help with some workshops, and
Software Freedom Day is coming up as well.

You know what I want to do? I want to write a book, or at least get
significantly along one. Maybe about Emacs. Maybe about social
computing. Maybe about my life so far. ;) BUT I want to write a book,
and I want to see it printed and bound. Who knows? If it’s a book
about Emacs, someone might even buy it.

I’ll sit down and make a list of the gazillion things I want to do,
and see if something emerges…

Random Emacs symbol: remove-list-of-text-properties – Function: Remove some properties from text from START to END.

I have decided to do extraordinarily well, and to live the fullest
life I can. That means a rich and fulfilling full-time career, great
friendships, probably marriage and kids, and the time and energy and
finances to develop my self the way I want to.

I am going to have it all. I believe that it’s possible.

Random Emacs symbol: set-window-hscroll – Function: Set number of columns WINDOW is scrolled from left margin to NCOL.

1. Find boxes.
2. Pack one backpack of clothes to take to NY.
3. Pack one suitcase of clothes that I need if treating GH as a hostel.
4. Pack everything else into boxes.
5. Move boxes into Graduate House temporary storage (ideal), the other room (2nd option), or someone’s basement (may require huge favor)
6. Shop around for condo rentals. Don’t panic; we have good backup plans.
7. Move. Will definitely require huge favor.
8. Throw house-warming party. Get new plates.

Random Emacs symbol: gnus-topic-sort-topics – Command: Sort topics in TOPIC alphabetically by topic name.