New Year, New Beginning, New Nurse

While 2014 is still in its infancy, the year has certainly begun in earnest. And for many of us, plans are afoot for what this year could actually look like in the bigger picture. Are you making plans and dreaming dreams?

On New Year's Eve, I published a post entitled, "Your Wild and Precious Nursing Career", borrowing and paraphrasing a quote from a famous poem by Mary Oliver. I wrote: 

The poet Mary Oliver once wrote in her poem, "The Summer Day":

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?” 

Taking Oliver's poem fragment as a place to begin, I'll ask this question:

"Tell me, nurse
What is it that you plan to do
with your wild and precious nursing career?"

Responses to this post were wholly positive, with comments focusing on the distinction that I drew between making resolutions and intentions (I personally favor intentions), as well as readers gushing over how much they love Mary Oliver. (I guess good ol' Ms. Oliver has some nice traction among nurse types.)

In terms of resolutions and intentions, I shared the following:

I'm never one to make resolutions (since they're so easily broken). Instead, I set intentions, because intentions are simply the verbalization of one's desires, not a sacrosanct promise. This may seem like the splitting of hairs, but the distinction helps me to feel empowered by my goals and desires, rather than weighed down by their apparent impossibility.  

I followed this with:

Taking into consideration various aspects of your career, how would you intend to do things differently in 2014? What intentions can you set for yourself in terms of reduced stress, improved satisfaction, stronger skills or better relationships with colleagues and patients? What other areas are crying out for your attention (and intention)?

So, where would you like to make a change or increase your activity or focus with intention?

Expansiveness is Key

For myself, I'm intentionally increasing the depth and breadth of my coaching practice, reaching out to nurses and healthcare professionals with new ideas for increasing personal and professional satisfaction.

In terms of my own network, I'm consciously choosing to expand some of my professional relationships from the online world (Linked In, Facebook, etc) to include phone calls and video chats, and even meeting in person when possible.

My nursing career (both clinical and entrepreneurial) is all about relationships and authentic networking these days, and some of my coaching clients are even jumping on the bandwagon and asking for help in that worthwhile arena.

Meanwhile, RNFM Radio is growing by leaps and bounds, and we'll continue to take it to new levels of professionalism and quality as we consistently and determinedly expand the definition of what it means to be a nurse in the 21st century (while having a great time along the way).

There's a feeling of expansiveness that permeates my career right now, and I hope you may be feeling the same way. 

Nursing Front and Center

Professionally speaking, nursing is front and center in my life, whether it's through radio, coaching, blogging, my current position as the CNO of a small home care agency, writing, speaking publicly or expanding my network with authenticity.

If I have anything to say about it, this will be a great year for nurses and nursing, and I encourage you, dear Reader, to see how you'd like to make it a great year for yourself, your career, your loved ones and colleagues, and your profession.

Let me know what you're thinking and doing, and let's all put our heads together as we move this profession forward with grace and thoughtful action.

Happy New Year!