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“Eight Best Tips for Career Women”

Engagement, Goals, Happiness, Leadership, Motivation, Positivity / My Holland

It doesn’t matter in what field you may be pursuing your career – the arts, public service, the sciences, business management, information technology, math, engineering or any other male-dominated fields – these following tips should help strengthen your resolve to succeed in your professional life: Never say “You can’t do it.” Take a risk. The noted director of widely popular Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Ellen Stofan says she took a risk when offered her first management job. She didn’t think she was equipped to handle it but took on the job anyway and discovered she had the skills to make a success of it. Always have a plan B – If plan A doesn’t work, plan B or even plan C should give you another crack at making it work. Decide and concentrate on who you’re going to be and what you will contribute. Remember that your career is a path. You will have to think about the decisions you will have to make as part of traversing this path leading towards your development as a person and as a professional. Take note of how you spend your time – Log it down and note the big time-users and work out how you can reduce these so you can put in more time into those activities that increase your income, boost your well-being and strengthen your impact. Find ways to delegate or drop the other unnecessary stuff. Have a mindset anchored on growth – Angela Duckworth, author of GRIT; THE POWER OF PASSION AND PERSEVERANCE says, in essence, that having a growth mindset is important. It’s critical to have a hopeful, optimistic way of viewing your experiences and constantly looking to see what you can learn even during the bad times. Never stop learning. Develop your talent – It’s not a question of either you have it or you don’t. With practice and determination, you can develop a special talent you’re interested in. The trick is to work hard and practice to improve in something that has captured your heart. Learn how to communicate effectively – The Vice President and Global Head Honcho of Diversity and Inclusion for Lockheed, Martin, Rainia Washington say communication is one of her “3 C’s” for career success. Nothing beats having great skills in written and oral communications. Her other “2 C’s” are courage and character. It won’t hurt too to get some expert coaching when you can. Seize the opportunity when it comes up – Taking advantage of opportunities is key to every career woman’s growth and success. In the course of your work, identify the tasks or assignments that promise promotions, then ask for those. You will have to go beyond simply performing in your current position. You have got to show your potential. These are 8 important, tried, and tested tips, that have boosted women’s career in various fields. Try them and don’t worry too much about what your officemates may say, or even about not being liked. Not all successful women are liked.

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“No Pain. No Gain.”

Goals, Motivation / My Holland

It’s funny. We all have big dreams of fame and fortune, success and happiness, and yet …the minute we’re faced with some challenge, some sort of obstacle or hindrance along the way, right off the bat, we shelve them with raised arms in surrender and give them up totally. Why? The experts have an explanation for this. In his book “Ego Is the Enemy” Ryan Holiday writes that a primary obstacle to success is the idea of success. Your mind seduces you in a powerful way such that the idea of success becomes more satisfying than success itself, so you stop at the idea of success and never make it real. It’s so easy to dream. There’s no pain in it. It’s so easy to tell your friends about your ambitions, create visions of success and wealth or define your goals. And that’s where most people stop. The very act of dreaming stops you from making your dreams come true. Consequently, when you attempt to do the things required towards achieving your dreams and hit a stone wall of resistance, more often than not, you immediately distract yourself from this discomfort with some kind of fleeting pleasure, creating some sort of this-won’t-hurt the comfortable situation. Robert Green, in his book “Mastery” explains that you can learn to love this internal resistance. You find some sort of perverse enjoyment in transcending the pain you might encounter in pursuit of achieving your dreams. In truth, the author contends that the discomfort or even pain that usually come with personal growth and success should be embraced. They are an affirmation that you are proactively putting yourself through a transformative process. Another theoretical idea that explains why we easily give up on our dreams is the 40% principle. This essentially is the threshold number when people feel they’re all maxed out mentally and physically and therefore stop when they are at only forty percent (40%) of their capacity and potential. Going beyond 40% of this capacity is when things get to be rough, get to be uncomfortable, or when pain is likely to set in. It’s at this juncture when just about everyone rushes to put his/her dreams in the back burner. For the few rare individuals who thrive and succeed, this is a definite NO-NO! When they do things, they never stop until it’s complete. So, how do I get out of this rut? Two inspirational thoughts: A life that doesn’t include hard-won accomplishment and triumphs over obstacles may not be a satisfying one. There is something deeply fulfilling, even thrilling in doing almost anything difficult extremely well. And from the great Mohammed Ali… he reportedly lived by this… “The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up”.

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Research Findings About Sticking To New Year’s Resolutions

Goals, Mindfulness, Motivation, Positive Psychology / My Holland

“I’ll stop smoking from here on in.” “I resolve to pay my debts and I.O.U’s on a more regular basis.” “I’ll do some jogging every morning or do some brisk walking at night when I’m unable to get up from bed at sunrise.” With the onset of 2019, these are some of the most common New Year’s resolutions (not too many resolved to be less sexually active) you’ll hear from family and friends, colleagues and associates at work and school mates. Funny thing is … like promises, as some cynics might say, they’re meant to be broken. Let’s see what research has to say about these. Conducted by researchers at the University of Scranton, a 2014 survey found that seventy-seven percent (77%) of people stuck to their New Year’s resolutions during the first week. Six months after, this figure goes spiraling down to forty-six percent (46%). Given that fifty-five percent (55%) of resolutions are related to health and fitness and twenty percent (20%) has to do with paying off financial obligations, human behavior experts and psychologists felt this was quite disconcerting and dug deeper to get a better understanding as to why this happens. An analysis on the subject led by Ayelet Fishbach from the University of Chicago and Kaitlin Woolley of Cornell University found that, in a nutshell, people were less likely to stick to a resolution or a goal that did not offer an immediate payoff, or at least a reward that is obvious and can easily be seen. So what does one have to do to stick and follow through on a New Year’s resolution? Michelle Segar, director of Sport, Health and Activity Research and Policy Center at the University of Michigan says the trick is … to “feel like every little bit of self-improvement counts.” In other words, if you’re planning to join a ten kilometer (10K) marathon, you don’t train for just one day. Neither can you pay off a business or student loan with a single check? As the popular saying goes … there aren’t any elevators to reaching a goal. You gotta take the stairs. Some of the other hard-working tips that will help you stick to your guns re New Year’s resolutions are : Stay away from temptations. If you resolve to stop smoking, stay away from people who smoke and pubs and bars that have that hard-to-ignore cigarette fragrance permeating the air. Plan a course of action. Resolving to pay off debts regularly? Calendarize it or have your payroll guy at the office deduct a portion of your paycheck each payday. And, most importantly, should you backslide into something you resolved to stop doing, it’s not the end of the world. Don’t give up on the goal or the resolution altogether. Stick to it like glue.

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New Financial Year? Define or Redefine your goals

Emotional Intelligence, Goals, Mindfulness / My Holland

Help Your Employees Set And Define Better Goals It oftentimes happens that with the start of a calendar new year or a fiscal year among business companies, employers set up their employees to develop and achieve goals. Left to their own devices, these guys could pretty well be writing down traditional new year’s resolutions as in reducing weight or, they may simply go through the motion of listing down objectives as nonchalantly as doing the grocery list. Of course, it’s got to be a little more serious than that. Reason enough why employers should play a role in their staff’s goal setting. Here are several ways you (as a business owner or entrepreneur with employees) can help your guys set better goals: Reiterate the company’s mission. It’s funny. In a survey of three thousand US workers, only about four in ten know what their organization stands for and what makes their brand different from the rest. You have got to help employees better understand the over-all mission . Redefining this and sharing the company-wide goals will get your guys working towards goals that will run parallel to your company’s. Make the employee goal-setting a two-way affair. You can’t let this be the employee’s sole responsibility. You, as a manager have got to jump in and make it a collaborative process. Why? Because it’ll help to get those objectives more aligned with your company’s mission. Ensure you help make those goals as specific as possible as to include the who’s, what’s, when’s, where’s and why’s of it. And, use concrete numbers so you can quantify and measure the results in realistic terms. Set your employees up for success. Work out goals that are within reach or, you may want to break down long-term goals and set up timelines for what has to be done and when. This will make short-term, smaller goals more achievable which should provide the motivation to push on. Map out an achievement plan. Don’t stop at simply setting and defining goals with your employees. A goal achievement plan is essential as well. This is where you need to have control points as you get to know what needs to be accomplished for the quarter and how all concerned should actively work to address any issues that may have risen. This should also help to keep your guys on track. So you’ve been the conscientious manager who assisted the team members in the setting of goals. Now take a step back and review what you’ve collaboratively put down. Honestly, ask yourself the question … “Are these the goals that will inspire passion among my team members? Will these drive them to go the extra mile?” If you’re getting affirmative answers, give yourself a pat on the back and treat yourself to the biggest ice cream cone at Dairy Queen. If not, I don’t have to tell you… it’s back to the drawing boards till you’ve got something that’ll fly!

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This year I will…

Goals, Positive Psychology / My Holland

January is here and almost over…and it is often the same old story. We use the time between Christmas and New Year, or as it’s sometimes called ‘inbetweenmas,’ to reflect on the year gone by and make resolutions for the year ahead. The first two weeks of the year start well, you don’t touch a single cigarette or you hit the gym every night, but by February you are flagging and you start to feel disheartened. In fact, the third Monday of January is known as the most ‘depressing’ day of the year or ‘Blue Monday. ’ One of the reasons is that most resolutions have failed by this point. According to the researcher John Norcross, in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, approximately 50 percent of the population makes resolutions each New Year. The most popular include weight loss and exercise, reducing debt and stopping smoking. Social Psychologist and Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy say these resolutions could be doing us more harm than good. She says that when we set ourselves up to fail, we experience a negative backlash to our self-worth. The key is not in ‘willing’ ourselves to change but in setting positive habit changes in our lives. While motivation will get us started in our quest for change, it is routine that will keep us going. Resolutions are often made when people want to motivate themselves, but in reality, many of us do not know how to change our bad habits. So, how can we make resolutions and promises to ourselves, in January, or at any time of the year that we can stick to successfully? Here are a few suggestions: Happiness expert Shawn Achor says the key to success in achieving our goals is our mindset. When we reflect on the past year in a negative way, we are more likely to fail in sticking to resolutions in the year ahead. A positive state of mind releases neurochemicals (such as dopamine) that allow your brain to perceive greater possibilities. Use positive language when setting out your goals. Rather than saying ‘I will stop eating all that junk food’ try switching it to ‘I will eat five portions a day of nutritious fruit and vegetables.’ Just using more positive vocabulary focuses your energies in a positive way. Be true to yourself and always align your goals with your core beliefs. You are more likely to achieve success, if you take the time to examine and realise what it is you want the most. Set goals that are realistic. The way to do this is to make them specific and measurable. Start small! Rather than jotting down your general aims for the year, specify your plan of action in more detail and not only what you want to achieve but how you intend to do it. Seek support in reaching your goals by telling your friends and family about them. This way they can help keep you accountable along your journey. It might also be worth joining an online forum or community group of like-minded people with whom you can share your progress. Inevitably, there will be times when you fall off the wagon. Don’t beat yourself up about those times. Remember how you felt when you first made that resolution and why you made it. The longer you can make small yet significant changes to your life, the more likely these are to become habit and routine … and result in success. Happy New Year and good luck!

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Goals

“Eight Best Tips for Career Women”

“No Pain. No Gain.”

Research Findings About Sticking To New Year’s Resolutions

New Financial Year? Define or Redefine your goals

This year I will…

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