Professor Drake

Helping companies succeed online since 1999

Reflections on 2023

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I’m all about setting goals. And as the new year loams, revisiting my goals are important.  

Equally important, however, is reflecting the past year’s accomplishments. It provides me with perspective of what I can do, feedback on where things went right and wrong, and motivation for continuing my goals.  

Reflections on the good

Things I accomplished in no particular order: 

  • Stopped using Facebook during work hours
  • Applied for promotion to full professor
  • Published an article on virtual teams
  • Had another article accepted for publication on debiasing projects
  • Won the Scholar-Teacher award for the College of Business
  • Nominated for the Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching
  • Went skiing for the first time 
  • Launched a new course on IS Governance and Management
  • Redesigned the same course with leadership components for the upcoming semester 
  • Proposed a new course on AI in business
  • Completed a family will and estate plan
  • Helped my son transition to college
  • Hiked to the top of Grandfather mountain, NC Grandfather mountain
  • Repelled down the side of a waterfall
  • Refinished the kitchen chairs
  • Earned a Gold Belt in Karate
  • Built a whiskey cabinet
  • Presented at the ECU Technology Tailgate on using AI in course development
  • Worked with REDE on their data analysis needs
  • Mentored an Honor’s student with their Honors Thesis and research project
  • Worked on developing an Master’s in IS program and revising the graduate MIS certificate, MIS undergrad concentration, and the MBA core classes
  • Chaired the Graduate Committee
  • Interviewed for the Assistant Dean position in the Thomas Arthur Graduate School
  • Served on the Faculty Advisory Council and Personnel committee
  • Earned the Silver Reviewer award at JITE for reviewing 5 articles over the year

Wow!  That’s a lot.  No wonder I feel drained.  This Holiday season I rightly took time off to do nothing work related. I needed the break. 

Reflections on the not so good

But not everything went well.  Here are list of just a few things that didn’t go according to plan:

  • Wasn’t offered the Assistant Dean position I interviewed for
  • Screwed up when building the whiskey cabinet, requiring a 3 hour trip to Raleigh to purchase another $170 of lumber
  • Tore my meniscus when skiing
  • Let myself get overly frustrated with other faculty
  • Strained my calf, and later my hamstring, while running

And then there are the things I didn’t do:

  • Didn’t submit an article to a top journal as I originally wanted to do before submitting my promotion package
  • Unable to work on Master’s in IS because ECU isn’t considering new programs right now
  • Stalled progress on building a shed
  • Stalled progress on my model boat
  • No progress on framing the flower beds in front yard
  • No RV trip my wife and I planned last winter
  • No work on a new textbook

When I look back on it all, I can see where I made mistakes.  Mistakes in motivation, mistakes in workload, mistakes in time management. As the year progressed, I modified my plans and goals.  I recognized these mistakes and corrected them.  Sometimes that merely meant modifying my expectations.  Sometimes that meant replacing one activity for another.  Sometimes it meant completely rejecting that goal because it didn’t fit with long-term happiness. 

All-in-all, it was a great year!

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