From the energy of orientation to the excitement of the incoming students, a new academic year is an invitation to renew your focus and propel your career forward. Here are three simple ways to integrate positive practices in the year ahead.
1. Connect with colleagues. Networking is the lifeblood of collaboration. Hearing the ways your peers are innovating will inspire and energize you. Plan two points of connection into each month. It could be dropping into a seminar, inviting a colleague to lunch, or joining an existing meet-up.
2. Learn something new. Each of us can slip into familiar patterns that lead to stagnation and frustration. The pull of inertia is strong. Shake up your thinking and spark new ideas by learning a new method or an entirely novel skill.
3. Walk campus. Get out of your office and stay in sync with the pulse of higher ed. Eat lunch with students in the cafeteria. Sit in the quad. Have to listen into a long conference call? Do so enjoying the ambiance of the library.
