I’ve been thinking about what I want to accomplish in the new year personally and professionally, and I’ve come up with a list of professional goals. I’m not calling these “resolutions” because so often the term “resolution” seems to call up the idea of something that’s wrong and has to be changed. There can also be a Sisyphean quality to resolutions — I don’t know how many times I’ve added “eat healthier” and “go to the gym more” to my personal list. So I’ll keep all my good health and exercise intentions to myself right now, and focus on the professional goals I’d like to accomplish, in the hope of being accountable and updating this post in one year’s time to chart my success.

• Create more termbases and develop topic-specific TMs in Trados Studio 2019. Explore more of the software’s features.
• Maintain and develop relationships with new translation agencies I began working for in late 2018 in the fields of art and museums, beauty and cosmetics, and reports for non-profits and think tanks.
• Translate 1 or 2 books this year. I’m currently looking for a new fiction or non-fiction book project.
• Speak at another translation conference in 2019. One issue I feel strongly about is that there should be more communication between commercial translators and literary or book translators. Although these are different types of translation requiring a somewhat different skill set, they also overlap, and it seems unfortunate that there is such a wall between the two areas. Each has its own professional organization (ATA and ALTA) and there is not much dialogue going on. Being active in both types of translation has certainly made my freelance career more stable and more satisfying.
• As vice-president of the New York Circle of Translators, work with the board to increase our membership, enhance our offerings to members, and celebrate our 40th anniversary year.

Do you have any professional goals for 2019? Feel free to share in the comments!