What do you hope to see happen during the coming year, in your work or personal life? Have you made resolutions to effect those changes?
We canvassed a number of NCI-Frederick employees for their resolutions. Responses ranged from personal resolutions such as having a baby, paying off credit card debt and getting more physically fit to work-related resolutions, such as expanding job skills and getting promoted, or meeting the challenges that come with fulfilling the mission of the National Cancer Institute.
In his December 24 message, NCI Director John E. Niederhuber, M.D., reflected on the many ways that NIH employees donate their time, talent, and compassion to help patients in the Clinical Center and other places. He added that the greatest gift is the way that NCI staff cares for these patients: "Each day, our physicians, nurses, technicians, and everyone at the bedside treat each patient with respect, dignity, and a personal touch second to none."
"In a sense," he continued, "each of us at NCI works at the bedside. Whether you are in a clinic, at a laboratory bench, in an office helping NCI optimally support our extramural programs, or somewhere in between, everything you do is ultimately for the betterment of all patients - here on campus, in hospitals across the United States, and in nations around the world. Collectively, you give a gift like no other...We have challenges ahead and much to accomplish in 2009, and I look forward to all that we will achieve together."
Craig Reynolds, Ph.D., Associate Director, NCI, wrote that he has three hopes for the coming year: "As I do every year, I hope 2009 will bring an unexpected breakthrough in the prevention or cure for cancer that will reduce the tragic suffering and death of over 500,000 men, women and children here in the U.S. I hope for a turn-around in the US economy that will allow President-elect Obama to carry out his stated desire to double the NIH budget. Lastly, I look forward in 2009 to watching the construction of a new Advanced Technology Research Facility for NCI-Frederick that will significantly enhance our ability to develop new agents for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer and AIDS."
Keeping those resolutions
It may have seemed easy enough to make personal and work-related resolutions on January 1. But now that a couple weeks have gone by, how are you doing at keeping those resolutions? If you already find yourself starting to stray, here are a few tips.
Ken Michaels, manager of Visual Communications, suggests that before taking on any new resolutions, ask yourself: "How did I do on my 2008 resolutions?"
Then, to help you with those 2009 promises to yourself, Mr. Michaels has several simple suggestions; these appear in the January News & Views:
Make your resolutions measurable and specific. "Lose 20 pounds" is better than "Lose weight."
Make your resolutions realistic. Be sure that each of them is in fact within your abilities andyourcontrol.
Don't overdo; achieving three resolutions is better than 10 resolutions not achieved.
Tell somebody. Take ownership of each resolution and promise somebody that you'll do it - somebody you won't want to go back to and confess if you don't get it done.
Paying off credit card debt
Assess your income and your outflow. You can find web sites and online programs that will help you with this. For example, through the Employee Assistance Program at NCI-Frederick, Business Health Solutions (BHS) offers free financial counseling (up to one hour per issue, by telephone, with a trained financial advisor); the web site is a wealth of information on this and other topics. Call 800-765-3277, or go to <www.bhsonline.com> and enter ncif as the user name. That link takes you to the NCI-Frederick Employees home page, where you'll find links to other BHS pages designed to help you.
Expanding job skills
Do you have particular skills you want to improve or new skills you'd like to learn? Review your current skills with your supervisor, talk about what you need to do to hone those skills or develop new ones. You may be eligible to take courses at one of the local colleges or on our campus. You'll want to check with your HR representative to determine whether you can be reimbursed for any courses.
Getting a promotion
Do you have a specific job in mind? Before talking with your supervisor, check out the employment sections of the contractor web sites on the NCI-Frederick home page. Do your qualifications match the requirements? Do you have other skills that might add value to the job? Jot these down, and then talk with your supervisor to let him or her know of your interest in the job before you apply.
Getting physically fit In the January issue of News & Views mentioned earlier, Mary Carol Fleming, Occupational Health Services (OHS), pointed out another area of resolutions: fitness. OHS has designed a new fitness challenge for 2009 and updated its fitness web site to simplify your initial registration and how you track pounds lost, miles logged, and hours of other fitness activities. Check in regularly at <http://saic.ncifcrf.gov/fitnesschallenge> for events, workplace presentations, and team support groups.
For motivation to keep those New Year's fitness resolutions, you might want to check out some other helpful web sites, too:
Track your food intake, check out the breakdown into fats, salt, carbohydrates, etc., and analyze physical activities to assess your fitness: http://www.mypyramid.gov/
You might also want to consider just how being physically fit impacts your body (http://www.myfit.ca/):
Resolve to burn more calories every day, through exercise, counting steps, walking, or other activities. According to the myfit web site, for every pound of muscle you gain, your body burns an extra 50 calories per day.
Resolve to use it or lose it. myfit says that by age 65, people who haven't engaged in regular exercise may decrease muscular strength level by as much as 80 percent.
Resolve to keep the cardiovascular chain in shape. Your body has approximately 60,000 miles of blood vessels that not only oxygenate the tissues of the body and extract the waste, but also act as stringent regulators of the body's environment. If you are 25 pounds overweight, you have nearly 5,000 extra miles of blood vessels through which your heart must pump blood, according to the "myfit" web site.
And of course, some people have a resolution that they keep each year without any effort. As one of our respondents wrote, "I resolve I will not make any resolution. It has served me well. Life is good, why change it?"
What do you hope to see happen during the coming year, in your work or personal life? Have you made resolutions to effect those changes?
In the January issue of News & Views mentioned earlier, Mary Carol Fleming, Occupational Health Services (OHS), pointed out another area of resolutions: fitness. OHS has designed a new fitness challenge for 2009 and updated its fitness web site to simplify your initial registration and how you track pounds lost, miles logged, and hours of other fitness activities. Check in regularly at <