Making the Grade
This week’s news has been filled with journalists, news personalities, politicos and average Joes, alike, grading President Obama and his first 100 days in office. My personal opinion is it’s too darn early to tell. This is a session with a midterm and a final only. However, proof that this makes for interesting news stories, blogs and those popular live political roundtables, I listened, watched and read. As the grades poured in from all corners of the nation I thought, why aren’t we grading ourselves? Surely all the editorialized As, Bs, Cs Ds and Fs being so nonchalantly tossed about, shouldn’t we be applying this to our own performances.
If each one of us took the time to judge our own contributions to a challenging era, it would give us all personal goals to work towards and as an offshoot, improvements to society as a whole would be forthcoming. So I decided to grade myself on my last 100 days. I had to tally which parts of my life should be graded, in business, as a mother, spouse, daughter, friend and as a citizen of my community, country and on this earth. As far as work and family are concerned, I have fared well, however, I am so focused on these two areas that my community efforts and earth-focused efforts have fallen a bit short. Now that I recognize this clearly, perhaps there are ways I can include community and earth-friendly efforts in my day-to-day life within my work and my family.
So, when I go through my own personal score card I can see areas where I have excelled and a few where more efforts toward improvement are in order, and I have begun to look into opportunities to enrich the areas which are lagging behind. I, like president Obama, can say: “I am proud, but not content.”
It’s your turn now. How would you grade yourself?
Nichole Stella
Editorial Director
nstella@napco.com