Popular posts of 2009. Sort of.

Popular posts of 2009. Sort of. Its the time of year when I list my top posts of 2009. When I first started doing this top-posts-of-the-year thing, I felt obligated to actually give you the real version of what was most popular. Now I dont feel so obligated. If youre wondering, some of the posts that brought in more than 400 comments are: Five time management tricks I learned from Tim Ferriss I hate David Dellifield. The one from Ada, Ohio. Whats the connection between abortion and careers? Miscarriage is a workplace event. But whatever. I feel like Ive been talking about those posts all year. What about some other posts? Ones that are so well researched and I love what I learned from writing them: Will taking drugs help your career? And maybe you need Adderall. High-income women get more oral sex. Maybe. Do you belong in NYC? Take the test. Here are some firsts for me during the past year: First (mis)use of alcohol as a career tool: Try to give more hugs to more people at work. First fake tan: Consistently successful careers stem from consistent personal decisions. Here are two topics that have been in my head for years. And I finally figured out how to address them in my blog. How to decide how much to tell about yourself on your blog. Aspergers at work: Why I need a sick day to register my car. A big deal for me this year is that I started a few story lines that pop up repeatedly, and I sort of like it. If nothing else, it makes career advice more interesting. A good story line is that I brought my company from almost bankrupt, to funded, stable, and growing, and while I was doing that, my kids were basically okay, and I was able to keep giving career advice, even if I got a little impatient at times. A not-as-chirpy story line is the one about the farmer: Back from a breakup, engaged, ensuing mess, and breakup. All in one year. I want to say something upbeat about 2010. You know, start on a good note. But it seems so artificial. I dont think we need to magically be in a great place at the end of a year. Or magically know our goals to start off a new year. I think, sometimes, that its already magical that every day we wake up with the strong belief that we can make things better.