Back in October, 2009, I wrote an article entitled “16 essential life skills students should know before leaving high school“.
It was based on personal observations of high school-aged students I have known over the years, including my own kids.
This post takes things a little further, itemizing the 7 necessary skills a student should master before entering college.
» Read more: 7 necessary skills a student should master before entering college
How many times have you missed out on opportunities because you were too afraid to act? You spent too much time thinking about what might go wrong instead of focusing on the potential for success. Too many times we end up talking ourselves out of taking action because it would require us to step out of our comfort zone. Resolve to be aware of the risk but have the courage to be successful.
» Read more: Acknowledge your FEAR, then Do It Anyway
Employment-wise 2009 was an uncomfortable year for lots of people. It seems like either someone was unemployed or they knew someone that was unemployed. Everybody knows at least one person that was effected by the recession. Many were thrown into circumstances beyond their control. Steps taken to control their situations didn’t always yield expected results as they had a decade ago. » Read more: Step out of your comfort zone in 2010
Success groups are designed to foster encouragement, support, accountability and creativity in a group setting to help its members sharpen their personal skills. What are the benefits of participating in a success group?
Have you ever wondered why some people are hesitant to refer their family, friends or even colleagues to perform work for someone else? What does it take to get a job referral or letter of recommendation? The key to getting a referral is not just having a history with someone, but having a history of success with this person.
How to get referrals: » Read more: Referrals and Reputations
How do you know you’re going down the right path?
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
If you couldn’t answer these basic questions, stop right now. You need a Life Vision. It tells you who you are and what your values are. You need a Career Vision. It tells you and others what you do. When you have both your Life and Career Visions together you will see where you need to go. Your mission statements will tell you and others how you plan to achieve your Visions.
If you don’t take the time to find out where you are headed and check against where you should be going, then you can’t say if you’re heading down the right or the wrong path?
The Right Path:
A Clear Vision:
A Clear Mission:
Do yourself a favor, take bearings on where you are. Set your course on where you should be and periodically check yourself against the path you have set. Make minor corrections along the way to ensure your Life & Career Missions become successful.
I teach a two part workshop called Personal Marketing Workshop on a regular basis. During the first workshop we do several exercises to help the attendees figure out what their Career Vision should be. During the second workshop we do more exercises to help the attendees figure out where they are in the Job Market and how they need to position themselves to compete with others in their field of expertise. One of these exercises is the SWOT analysis.
The Strengths and Weaknesses are internal things we have identified that might help or hinder your attempts to market yourself to potential employers.
The Opportunities and Threats are external Job market conditions.
During these classes, I do my own personal SWOT analysis just to keep current. I have discovered there are many opportunities available to me, if I eliminate one of my weaknesses.
How am I going to develop and keep a LASER Focus on the weakness elimination?
Develop LASER focus on Weakness Elimination:
Keep on Repeating the LASER focus on your targeted Weaknesses they have been addressed.
I woke up yesterday feeling really great and ready to take on the world. I had a meeting at 9AM and was getting ready for a busy day.
Somone gave me Lemons
About 30 minutes before I had to leave, my son came to me and said that my car had been broken into in the middle of the night. Someone had broken the driver side window and stole my GPS unit. After a conversation with my neighbor I discovered it happened sometime after 4:20AM.
I do have to admit that I had a little bit of shock and anger related to that incident. I felt violated that somebody did not respect my property and would break a window to steal something from my car. This was my first time to experience this.
That kind of changed my plans for the day. I suddenly had several more things to do; contact my insurance agent, file a police report, get my window replaced, find my proof of purchase for the GPS unit.
At this point I had been given some pretty sour lemons. What was I going to do? I had two paths to follow: I could be a victim, dwell on the negative and suffer, or I could let go of the anger and be thankful it was only a Window and my GPS unit and move on with life. I chose to take the latter path.
Make some Lemonade
So, what do I mean by making lemonade? Well, lemonade is made with three ingredients: lemons, water and sugar. I mean take the sour lemons and pour equal amounts of water and sugar on it. The lemons are your circumstances. The water is forgiveness (letting go of the anger). The sugar is to find the good in it (learning experience, remembering what you still have).
You are in control
Remember, when external forces affect your life, you are still in control of how you react. You can be a victim (focus on the anger) or you can make lemonade (let go of the anger) and focus on the good things you still have in life.
I’m suddenly thirsty for some lemonade, maybe you are too. I found this Perfect Lemonade Recipe to make some lemonade with real lemons.
I like to write down my ideas and action items on paper. Sometimes my family kids me about the lists I keep, but that’s okay because they help me stay focused on what needs to be done.
I seem have lists for many occasions:
Of course these lists usually grow every day, tasks are forwarded to other lists and some tasks turn into their own more detailed lists. I’ve even had a foreign exchange student comment, in a good way, about Americans and their lists. We like to get things done and lists are one tool we use to organize our activities.
Occasionally, I review my lists I have recorded. It’s pretty amazing to see how many of these tasks have been completed. One trend I’ve noticed is that when a task is written down, it eventually comes to fruition. Of course in the past, when I wrote these tasks down, I didn’t put a completion date on them. So they were things that I would like to be completed sometime in the future. Napolean Hill would have said they were just dreams.
“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Napolean Hill
I’ve got a pretty good start, I know I’ve been getting things done. However, I think Napolean Hill had it right. Adding deadlines to the dreams will convert the dreams into goals. The end result will be getting the more important things done.
Till next time, add deadlines to your dreams 
A pair of motivational books, “Getting Things Done” and ”The Success Principles”, emphasize the need to clear your mind of all unfinished business so your mind can focus on the present as well as the future.
To use a Windows analogy: it’s like having a process running that’s associated with a program you installed a long time ago, but aren’t using anymore. It isn’t needed anymore, but it takes up some of the CPU processing power. It needs to be uninstalled in order to remove the associated process.
Sometimes, we have a project or task that we completed, but we never recorded the results or didn’t have an opportunity to pass along the wisdom. These little loose ends need closure. I have started working on my success logs. This is the place I will record my successes along with wisdom learned. The success logs will do three things for me. First, it will allow me to record the wisdom I’ve gained through the experience. Second, it will allow me to remove the subconscious process that was installed to handle that task. Third, it will provide a place for me to review my successes whenever I need the encouragement.
The end result should a clearer mind and possibly more processing power for today and the future.
Till next time, Tie up your loose ends
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