It’s been a quiet couple of months from me on the blogging front, mostly because things have been really hectic. Work continues to keep me occupied during the day, taking up a lot of energy. I keep on taking weekend trips that cut down on my catchup time, with a trip to Ithaca for Jofish’s birthday in January, and a trip to Boston for TEP’s Initiation a couple weekends ago. Plus, classes started up again in January as well. The homework load in classes isn’t as heavy as last term, but it’s been compensated for by the fact that I’m starting my master’s project.

My mentor, Jon Wiliams, is pushing me hard on getting me to define what I’m trying to do with my project, and how it is going to fit into the marketplace. So I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about that, as evidenced by my post earlier today. I’m learning a lot, and Jon has been excellent so far in correctly identifying the areas of weakness in the project and giving me the resources necessary to address those weaknesses. I think this project and this mentor relationship is really going to benefit me in my career.

Along those lines, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about my career and what my strengths and weaknesses are. We had a great talk in our Saturday seminar from Jim Noble, the CIO of Altria, on what it takes to be successful at the executive level, and his questions got me thinking whether I have what it takes, or, more accurately, am willing to put in the time and effort that it takes to achieve success. I read an excellent article by Po Bronson last week pointing out that it’s effort that matters, not talent. So whether I have “it” or not is irrelevant – the question is whether I am going to continue coasting on my talents or put in the effort to take it to the next level.

So a lot of time and effort being spent on personal stuff, and figuring out how to apply some of these ideas to my job and my life. Not of much interest to anybody else, hence the lack of posts.

It also hasn’t helped that because I’ve been so busy with work and class that I don’t have time for the kind of freewheeling conversations with friends that generate most of my posts. I have a couple proto-posts floating around in my brain, but haven’t taken the time to flesh them out because I’m often so exhausted between work and schoolwork that I just want to collapse when I get home.

But for now, I think I’m going to try to get myself together to go catch the pillow fight. Then back home to study for my midterm on Monday and work on my book report for Wednesday before getting back to work on my master’s project.