Combining Nurse Leader With Advocacy My strengths outweigh my weaknesses in personal and professional accountability. On this front, I am actively pursuing continuing education, which gives me to the tools to advance both in understanding of the field and in the workplace environment. I am planning my career along these lines. One of my weaknesses lies in doing the annual self-assessment, which I need to be better about doing and am making a resolution now in my action plan to do this every year so as to turn this weakness into a strength.

In terms of career planning, I am looking at possibilities about where I want to be in the next 5 to 10 years and evaluating options. Career-wise, decisions must be made on the basis of where I am in my continuing education and what the needs of my family are and where we are at as a whole. I must take all of these considerations together before I make a move that would affect us all. However, by knowing my role at an expert level, I am confident that I can rise in my career to the next stage. I am able to do this because I understand my current job description and the requirements that are expected of me. My current level of practice is commensurate with my understanding of the job and I have enough experience to qualify me as a veteran. So these are all strengths of mine.

When it comes to planning the future, my weakness shows because there are many factors that are continually changing...

For example, if we decide to move for whatever reason, will I want to continue on with this career at another location? If the family has other needs, like schooling, that arise, how will this impact my career? What choices am I prepared to make, what goals am I prepared to pursue or sacrifice if need be? Arranging priorities is something I know how to do, but balancing work options, career aspirations, and family life is a challenge and one I need to address more assertively by having this discussion with my family so that there is much better transparency and communication.
Nonetheless, I attempt to position myself well so that I am prepared for whatever move needs to be made whether it is for my career or for my family or just simply for myself. In this way, I like to maintain a flexible outlook, and keep an upbeat and positive attitude that is life-affirming and goal-oriented on several fronts.

My personal journey disciplines include a plan to take part in managing councils that promote shared leadership. This is an important part of developing one's career and taking on more responsibility, and I am very active and supportive of this step. I also take part in "action learning" exercises that are used to problem-solve issues. Another strength of mine is that I take time to actually reflect on these exercises and examine myself on a personal…