2017: A Mid Year Review

What has 2017 taught and given you to be on course with your goals: Have New Year resolutions been kept? Career aspirations on track?  Started that business? Wrote that book?  Lost that weight?  Spending time on  reviewing the status of personal and professional goals for this year  is a good strategy.  Explore any barriers or obstacles that may be preventing forward movement. Look for purposeful tips and resources to reset or relaunch those goals!

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Career Strategy: Building a Personal Resolve and Reputation

 

            As we move forward in reaching our goals, there are other stakes to put in place with the fast pace of life. Stocking these attributes listed below will keep us built to last, whether we’re operating in a paid or volunteer situation or managing our lives.

·         A Little But Good Attitude

      The rules and conditions will keep changing. There will be failures and setbacks. It’s easy to become bitter. Staying focused and positive is essential to present ourselves well and concentrate for the best decision-making. There may be times to push through obstacles in our way. Gratitude, for whatever the situation, is necessary as well.

·         Get It Together—Organizational Skills

Rounding up all needed documentation, such as résumés (old and new), transcripts, evaluations, job descriptions, and letters of recommendation may be time consuming, but it has a huge return on investment (ROI). You don’t want to go on a fishing expedition when something is needed right away. Next, put them in some type of logical order. A tracking process to catalog research data, log phone calls, résumés sent, and networking cards will also be needed. Use supporting technology in this effort, and don’t forget to record those passwords for company websites when applying online! The same tactics work for tracking any financial expenditures, especially for tax purposes.

·         Who Knows You? References

Have you ‘done good’? Can anyone attest to that? Compile a list of people  who’ve known you in a professional setting, such as supervisors or co- workers. Also include those who can speak to your character. Include personal friends with a solid background; teachers, professors, or family friends. Make sure position titles, addresses (e-mail and postal mail), and phone numbers are current. Contact your references to let them know of your career plans, especially if you haven’t communicated with them in a while. The last thing you want is for a potential employer to call a reference who doesn’t remember you or thinks you’re no longer among the living.

This who-knows-you concept isn’t just for job situations. Many community and professional associations may also require references. Due to the worst of human nature (molesters, scammers, and the like) background checks, of the financial and character type, are now the norm.

Ensure that your social media presence reflects an image that’s aligned with who you are professionally, especially on LinkedIn. Recruiters and interviewers do use Google to check out prospective hiring candidates. Censor your tweets and Facebook posts based on the type of opportunities or community positions you seek.

2014 Mid-Year Review – How Are You Leaning?

‘Be Inspired and Lean Into Your 2014” is the slogan that came to my mind as the New Year approached. Like many I had several items on my resolutions list, goals of the personal and professional kind, determined to keep me in this motivational state. More business, lose weight, be kind to everyone…, some standard “I’ll do betters and a few different ones sprang up.

So here we are at July 1 and half of this year has quickly gone by. And for me it’s time to assess and ask myself a few questions—to do a mid-year review. Yet another list to respond to: Is there anything I can check off as accomplished? How am I doing overall with those  goals?  Do I really want the answer to these becomes another issue to ponder. Well it was a snowy winter so I didn’t exercise a lot and comfort food eating became the convenient option. Then when I’m truthful with myself, I own up to what did go right, even with a struggle. A few new clients with business travel, different speaking engagements, and author talk/blitz at local libraries.

Revisiting our actions can be difficult, but often necessary. So I’m posting a few inquiries for thought in obtaining inspiring and leaning status.

What inspires you?

How do you lean in to your purpose?

Who are you when your best self is evident?

For many of us, a basic sense of feeling in control of our lives, showing up authentic, taking care of our physical, mental and spiritual being with a healthy sense of self-esteem would be filtered into the answers to those questions.

So why aren’t we always there? What gets in the way or things that become hold backs?

Certainly life’s disappointments, our habits, motivations and perspectives can flow out in each of those areas to send us spiraling downward.

I realized that it’s easy to be caught in a few of those hold back attitudes from achieving my best “inspired lean into”. Letdowns and cookie monsters reigned.

What’s my now?

“You can always begin again” is one of those spiritual sayings that resonates most clearly.

I’m taking a few steps to move forward.  The weight issue was one of my biggest personal challenges, I got way off course. But I’ve been out for walks and workouts over the last month. Momentum is always good! Then while out on a walk one morning, more clarity came in the way of this statement.

Sometimes we all need a little PUSH. Purpose, Understanding, Support, Healing.

But nothing beats the ultimate PUSH. Pray Until Something Happens!

And “your latter can be greater.”

Stay inspired! Keep leaning into this energy!

 

Ramp Up! Find Your Life's Reliable Resources

When you have no choice, mobilize the spirit of courage.

Jewish Proverb

 

Driving highways paved through hills and valleys with their times of ascent and descent can be challenging to navigate. The series of moves to accelerate and brake while rounding these hilly curves is hard if you’re behind the wheel of a car—much less a large vehicle such as an 18-wheeler. Due to the design and load of these big-rigs, a more significant increase in speed happens as they head downhill. This could cause these vehicles to run out of control. For this reason there’s a special sign for the big trucks, designating a run-a-way landing area to the side of the road—a safety pull off.  This ramp is a reliable resource. We’re all glad these extra lanes are there and can count on them to serve their purpose—an out allowing time for the driver to regain control of his truck.

            There are life situations in which we need an out as well—to get off the road for a while. After one of my lowest life moments I knew the next phase involved God’s stamped and reliable plan to bring some control back into my journey. The road to entrepreneurship was now beeping on my radar as a likely destination. My trust in His word and presence ran firm in my IPS (Internal Positioning System), but until the plan was fully revealed, I needed income. I’d been working a series of part-time jobs, telemarketing and substitute teaching, but the pay wasn’t meeting my financial needs. I was staying with a friend, but wanted to move into my own place again. My checkbook resembled a rollercoaster of numbers running from a high of some money to a low of no money.

            Then it came to me.

            Maybe I can temporarily return to active duty in the Army while my consulting business was in its gestational period.

            I put the word out to my friends—does anyone know of this need.

            One of my active duty Army friends knew of a defense department director who’d requested a reserve officer to come in and support technology issues in his office for about four months (known as a TTAD—temporary tour of active duty). My friend put us in touch and I was selected for the opportunity. This TTAD fit my goals well and once I was done with that assignment, others became available over the next few years. Those few months of army officer income kept my finances under control until my business could sustain me. I was glad to have this option to depend on during such a critical phase of my career journey. My service to the army was a reliable source in many ways.

            We all need something to fall back on—family, friends, things, opportunities or skills.  These are valuable life resources.

            FAITH 

            This is such an important message in today's world. What was once secure in work and institutions…not so much now.  It does us well to keep all options open. As the saying goes, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Watching for our own skid marks, let’s sense when life is heading out of control in one of our lanes.

It’s then time to pull over or off and take temporary refuge on solid ground.  

           

            Identify what we can count on when there’s a need to pull off the road.

 

 

Parts excerpted from my motivational autobiography, Navigating Life’s Roadways: Stories of Insight from My Odyssey and Inspiration for Your Journey http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008FQDPYE