• Blog
  • Archives
  • Bio
  • Awards
  • Speaking
  • Book
  • Contact

Regaining focus

Published: Wednesday, 23 January 2013

During my time at Robogals, towards the end of every year, I would lose focus.

Why?  All my major projects for the year would have been wound up.  My goals were usually annual goals, so by December, I'd either have got there, or I wouldn't have.  And there usually wasn't much more I could do to change that by then.  So I'd be unmotivated and slow down.

But then I realised that I just needed new goals and plans for the upcoming year to motivate me and make me burst with excitement.  So I would create new goals that were challenging for me, things that were a step above things that I'd done before, so that I could learn many new skills.  This would make me super motivated and I would leap into action again.

In my final year of Robogals, I deliberately didn't sit down and do this, because I didn't want to get distracted creating new programmes.  Instead, I focused all my goals on succession, because I realised that the best thing I could do for Robogals in my last year was to set it up for the future so that many more people could create their own challenges and learn new skills from the organisation.

About Me

Marita ChengForbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Random Articles

  • Don’t forget your notebook

    They’re cheap.  They don’t always look very pretty.  You can even get some with a yellow hue!  (And even if you don’t, but you leave them for too long,...

  • A regularly pleasant airport experience

    One day, as if overnight, all the airport check-in people and desks disappeared.  In their place appeared computerised self-tagging stations.  Across the...

  • One action a day

    Just taking one action a day, moves your project forward.  Keep living your life.  Keep going to work.  Keep studying.  Keep seeing your friends.  Keep...

  • Fetch Robotics

    I visited Fetch Robotics as part of a field trip for a Stanford course I took. Fetch Robotics sold to Zebra Technologies for $290 million in 2021....

  • Why everyone dolls out the same advice

    "Follow your passions." "Dream bigger." "Focus." "You can get there with hard work." "Do what you love because then you'll never have to work a day in...

  • Seek, not given

    I used to think that someone with my character, with my determination, my ambition and my IQ would mean that I would be successful in life because...

  • Brain-controlled Teleport

    I was invited to demonstrate my robots on a QANTAS flight from Sydney to San Francisco, while we flew over the Pacific Ocean.  I said yes!  My fellow...

  • The Year of a Young Australian of the Year

    In 2008, I founded Robogals as a response to there being hardly any other women in my engineering classes. Our organisation is run by university...

  • #TechMyWay with Ashton Kutcher

    Spoke at a Lenovo event by myself for 12 minutes and then on a panel with Ashton Kutcher.  Met with Hollywood’s Steve Jobs and had a yarn about...

  • How the community keeps you going

    When I first started Robogals, the first thing I did was tell people about my vision and ask that they sign on to join. From that, I got a team of 3...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top