The foundation of personal improvement

Ask someone what they need to do in order to improve the quality of their life, make a life change achieve a goal and you will receive the following answers; obtain knowledge by way of experience or education, set goals, be positive, meditate....you get my drift. However these are only useful in allowing you to grow or achieve more from a personal perspective. From my studies I would say the following three factors are the key drivers to achieve growth and implement effective change;

1. Review and identify old habits
2. Create new habits
3. Be your word in adhering to the new habits

Of the three points written above I would say number 3 is the most important. Why? Well I work with sportpeople, businessmen, traders, executives and everyday folk and the result is always the same. It doesn't matter how well you analyse and plan to change if it is never actually implemented. If I identify bad fitness and diet habits and create new ones in order to become fit and healthy do you think this guarantees I will become fit and healthy? If I'm a trader with poor risk management processes and I create new ones to manage my trading do you think this means it will happen? Of course not.

The driver to achieving new goals and implementing change is simply to do what you say you will do. Nothing more, nothing less. But here comes the hard part - habits are very hard to break. It takes will power to get up at 5am if you were getting up at 7am. It takes will power to cut a loss making position whereas before you would believe it would come back. Habits form the basis of our lives as they represent our perceptions of what is real and true. However let me point out that there is no such thing as reality, just your perception of it.

Changing habits may and most probably requires the use of changing the language you use. Changing your language patterns changes your perceptions. Imagine how things would be if you didn't know of the word 'Impossible'? The use of Neuro Linguistic Programming, which I use with my clients, is very helpful in the matter of adjusting language patterns.

But coming back to 'being your word'. How many times do you say you'll do something and then you don't? For many of us all the time. However keeping your word says a lot about you. If you don't keep your word what is it worth? If you don't keep your word and make a habit of it, your inner you will not care what you tell it in the future. People do not keep their word as they are reactive to the world around them. However how they react is a habit therefore if you do not keep your word you will never break your habits and therefore never grow.

What influences your career path? Maybe it's not you.

Personally I think this is a great question as everyone, at some point in their life, will wonder how they came to be doing whatever it is they are doing. They may love it, hate it, wish to change a little, change a lot, further their education in this field or choose another path. But at the heart of it all the question remains - 'what lead me to the occupation I'm currently in?' For me personally this creates another question being 'what will influence my next career decision and is it the influence I should be paying attention to?'.

To answer the first question, I've come up with the following influences which may or may not pertain to you. These are mostly influences over us at a younger age where we were more open to suggestions and ideas.

1. Family - family history, financial position of family, respect for your father/mother etc.

2. Friends - keep respect of friends, same interests of friends

3. Financial - desire to be wealthy

4. Major event - this influence could have come from a major incident in your life

5. Idol - someone you respect eg. sportsperson, entertainer, media personality etc.

However when it comes to the second question not all of us are interested in finding the answer. For some of us our other values, such as financial security, family etc may not require us to question our career path. But for many the question remains and if it is not answered we are talking career dissatisfaction, demotivation, lack of direction, mid life crisis etc. Many of us have the option to change jobs, however studies have shown that the majority of changes made are within the same sector eg. Finance and even the same speciality eg. Investment banking. Why is it that many of us feel that change has to be so limited, that you do not deserve the right to completely change your occupation after a decade or two? You do realize that society only progresses as much as humans change and if we don't change our mindset the future of society is set. Having given this some thought I considered the following key influences over our career path, which we allow us to control our destiny.

1. Positions made available by organizations

The trend is changing however many of us will apply for jobs advertised and made available by big business. Even many small businesses exist due to big business. Only entrepreneurs and those involved in social science, scientific and technological advances really influence the direction of society.

2. The perception is that you are too old to learn

I've heard this many times that after even 5-7 years in a job many of us are fearful of leaving the security of what we have for something else, even though it may be more desirable. Money is a factor however it's the potential letting go of what you already know and starting from scratch that is the greater influence.

3. Perception of society that you are 'not focused' if you change occupations frequently.

Admittedly I get this at times because I've had a few different occupations. Rather than looking at my experience as diverse and well-rounded many employers will prefer someone with more experience in the same field automatically. Not because they are better but because they appear to be better due to the experience. I question that because I know I'm not the same person I was 10 year ago - for that very reason I should be in a completely different occupation. I would question someone not changing jobs at least every 10 years because that shows lack of personal and emotional growth from my perspective.

4. Fear of failure

I work with many of my clients on this and it's forever the same. It doesn't matter how bright the future would be if someone changed their occupation. If there is only the slightest chance of failure then it doesn't matter how much the current job is hated, people will not change.

5. Language Patterns and self belief

Let me tell you how influenced we are through the uses of language. VERY INFLUENCED!! If we didn't use the words 'impossible', 'unfocused', 'financially poor' do you think we would be so stressed out and scared of taking chances today. Our society has built itself around what others think of you and in fact the 1% of the wealthiest people in the world do not speak and think like you. They use words like ' pioneer', ' anything is possible', ' visionary' and more importantly they belief in themselves.

I leave you with this thought. The word 'impossible' is not a fact but an excuse. It is not based on fact but on fear. What might you achieve if you remove this word from your vocabulary? Think instead 'impossible is nothing'.