Have you thought about your New Year’s resolution yet? Hopefully you haven’t thought about when you’re going to break it. In addition to personal goals, we should all think about resolutions that we can make professionally. Whether it is stick to productivity numbers or finally finish that last credit to get another certification, this is the time of year to think about how you can grow in 2014. Our personal lives can affect our professional life and it is the balance between these two that keeps us sane and able to go back to work day after day. When one takes a little too much of your time you must step back and figure out where that fulcrum needs to be placed.
Growth in any career can be small steps or can be a leap such as another degree or promotion. Every person’s career is on a different trajectory and it really is up to the individual on how far they want to go. It is the decisions we make that shape our careers. Some people will tell you to be aggressive and take what you think you deserve, and others will say be patient, put in the work, and good things will come your way. (I wrestled in high school so you can take a guess at which philosophy I follow!) Whichever one you follow the big decisions and hard work you put in will only take you as far as you want it to. I have met many people my age that are happy working on the bench and have no aspirations of being a supervisor. Whatever you choose to do you should be happy and feel engaged that the work you’re doing is helping people. We are in healthcare and even though a lot of us don’t directly see patients the work we do helps nurses and physicians help the patient.
With only a couple weeks left in 2013 this is a great time to reflect on personal and professional accomplishments while also getting ready to start a new year that is full of new challenges and also new opportunities. As I usually say, no challenge is too large to take on and no opportunity is too small to overlook. For example I wrote an article for Lab Medicine and gave a 5 year progress report on my career and it turned into an opportunity to blog for one of the most important organizations for the laboratory profession. I always wanted to take the ideas I had in my own lab and throw them out there and see what other people thought of them and how they do certain things. When we write these blogs we love to hear comments and discussions of how you the reader interact and “live” in your own laboratory. Reflecting on 2013 I’m thankful for Lab Medicine for this great opportunity and my resolution for 2014; I’m going to be moving up that ladder, one rung at a time.
–Matthew Herasuta, MBA, MLS(ASCP)CM is a medical laboratory scientist who works as a generalist and serves as the Blood Bank and General Supervisor for the regional Euclid Hospital in Cleveland, OH.
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