Do we need to change how we educate ourselves?

What do you think of when it comes to your professional education and indeed your professional growth and development? Do you know what you need to grow and develop both at the professional and personal level, or are you hoping for the best and that whatever choice you make will be the right one?

There is no doubt that our society, in respect to the way we live and do business, is continually changing and evolving. Work and life has never been so intertwined because (1) the corporate environment is becoming more and more competitive thus you have to sacrifice more to succeed within it and (2) with the increasing trend of working for yourself or within a small business there is the need to almost live by working in something that you want to become a large part of your life. There is no switching off when you come home at night; mobile communication sees to that and many people who run a business have to use that time to undertake other tasks that they didn't have time to get around to during the day. However what I've seen is that whilst we're working harder than ever, and perhaps enjoying the experience, there is still a challenge in ensuring that our professional and personal development is not only a priority but is also meaningful and of real benefit.

What I see in respect to the professional and personal development frameworks currently in place, at least in the Western countries I've lived in is; (1) schools are not preparing students for the reality of the changing world when it comes to teaching them the basic competencies they will need, (2) universities are struggling to do the same and for the most part change their courses only when they feel they are going to make enough money from it, (3) there are many what I would call inadequate and 'unauthentic' training and development companies that charge a lot of money for something that is either sub-standard or doesn't deliver any meaningful long-term benefit and (4) society as a whole is uneducated about the most efficient and effective way to ensure they develop both professionally and personally. Sure people develop but usually after a lot of wasted time, money and personal sacrifice that in hindsight (you have to love hinsight) could have been done a lot better.

We all need to consider how we educate ourselves and my belief is that as a society we can do this a lot better. Of course I have no real solutions but I would love for learning to be fully collaborative rather than directed by institutional bodies that by chance have put themselves in a position to dictate a lot of what we are taught. I also believe the future of our society is to ensure that our personal development is at least given the level of importance of information based learning so we are able to manage ourselves and make better choices when it comes to the key decisions in life. My advice is to think outside the box when it comes to educating yourself and really look at what you need - remembering that the information you learn today could very well be outdated within a short period of time but that the development of you as a person is an ongoing journey.

Life is about making the decisions that you truly believe will make a difference

When it comes to making life choices there are a number of unconscious and conscious forces at play. We can talk about genetics, behavourisms due to your upbringing and social circle and even your specific cognitive traits. These forces will produce needs, motivations, drives and goals. When it comes to making a choice in life about what you want to do it is common, at an early stage, to list a large number of options and wishes. However only later do you begin to realize that though you would love to do everything listed, inherent skills and time and even place in life will impact the success you will have in achieving those goals.

Humans all say a lot of things without really knowing what they are saying because they don't take the time to think about what they are saying. However language and thoughts most definitely influence behaviour so this isn't to be taken lightly. If you say you want to achieve 10 things in a year and you achieve one there will be a level of disappointment along with stress, anger, frustration and anxiety depending on your individual personality. Therefore it is better to think and realize that though you have the capabilities to achieve a lot it is better to focus on only a few at a time to ensure success.

In this goal driven world we live in goals are a normal part of everyday life. But what's the point in having goals if we have no time to undertake the actions necessary to achieve them. Why complete two of 20 goals in a year when you know that simply by living your life that year that you will have another 20 for the year after. Goals and dreams are the life-blood of humanity but unless they are achieved the human psyche will perceive weakness and failure rather than the realization they never had the resources to achieve all stated goals.

The secret is to do the work, make the effort to understand your true needs, motivations and goals and focus on achieving those few most important at any point in time - then move on to the next lot. Achieving five from five each year, rather than 10 from 20, will boost self esteem, increase confidence and reduce negative emotions. But the first step is to remember it's about quality not quantity when it comes to achievement.

The secret to achieving the important things in your life

Time is always something we desire more of however it is the one thing we cannot control - it is also a resource that is limited in nature. We all want more time in order to achieve more of our goals in life rather than seemingly spending more and more minutes on admin such as banking, grocery shopping etc. Therefore how can we ensure that we make better use of our time if solely for the purpose of not looking back at our life and regretting certain things we didn’t achieve simply due to a perceived lack of time.

The first step is to become aware of how you are actually spending your precious minutes on a daily basis and over the course of the week. Are you spending time on the tasks that will allow you to achieve your goals? Do you even know what those tasks are? Have you aligned your time to reflect the importance of the goals in your life? Have you even spent time considering what your goals are and what you need to do in order to achieve them? Habits can either aid you to achieve in life or detract from your ability to achieve. People may see habits as good or bad but I would prefer not to label them this way. A bad habit may have a useful purpose but only up to a certain point, therefore it is not necessarily bad.

The second step is to focus only on those actions that are proactively going to allow you to achieve your goals and to reduce or rid yourself of your habits that are not. One example is that of watching television. Now watching a certain amount of television may provide some benefits – enjoyment and relaxation being a couple. However at which point does watching television impact your ability to achieve your other goals? If you watch only five hours of your favourite programs rather than allow yourself ‘television creep’ (where you end up watching a lot more then intended) then you provide yourself with more hours automatically. What this means is that you should weight and rank your goals and the underlying tasks in order to know what you should spend more time on.

The third step is to identify ways and means to become more efficient with your time. Time means money simply because there is a financial opportunity cost attached to every second of your day. One hour less sleep or one hour less television produces two additional hours of earning activity. It also affects the quality of your life in respect to the time to spend on non-enjoyable tasks. Look for ways to double up on actions during the one time period. For example whilst cooking dinner listen to study CDs, work on your hobby on your laptop on the bus ride to work, sending out laundry, ensure all bills are paid via direct debit and listen to your favourite music whilst writing emails (and reduce the latter to once a day). Changing your habits is only as difficult as you wish to make it but it is advised to work with a professional coach in order to change your mentality and motivations behind how you choose to live your life. There is no better time to change then today. Realizing you wanted to make changes five years in the future (what they call hindsight) is not going to help you but if you can visualize right now how this might feel it will allow you to make the necessary changes in your habits.

Why freelancers must be forward thinking and specific when setting goals

The perception of freelancing in the marketplace is changing and you must be aware of where it is heading before you commence your freelancing career. Starting your freelancing practice without being 100% clear on what your goals and values are, along with a concept of how you might evolve will simply guarantee disappointment and frustration in the future.

Don’t be limited by the old definitions of ‘freelancing’

Our career choices are wider than ever before and accompanying that are a number of work styles offering varying degrees of flexibility, financial compensation and work-life balance. Freelancing was traditionally chosen by those wanting greater work flexibility with an outlook to achieving a better work-life balance compared to that perhaps experienced by an employee in full-time employment. Freelancing was not intended to provide someone with greater wealth rather the benefit was to come from a better quality of life. However with trends in the workplace seeing organizations replacing full-time employees and requiring more project oriented labour freelancing has the potential to become quite lucrative for those willing to seek out the opportunities.

Creating goals for the present and the future

Today’s society is all about breaking down the barriers; there is nothing to say that you cannot work as a freelancer and have it all: greater work flexibility and the opportunity to increase your financial earnings. How you can achieve both is all about managing yourself effectively and ensuring your freelance practice is a well-run machine.

I now coach a number of freelancers who are simply not satisfied with working as freelancers because they want to increase their earnings capability and are unsure as to the best way to go about this. The challenge they face is (1) they haven’t created their business model to be capable of increasing earnings in any meaningful way and (2) their mindset and focus is still that of a small self-employed operator who never expected to be focusing on money and has never made it a priority for one reason or another. What I recommend to most freelancers is that they first must open their mind to the possibility that they can be someone whose career and professional aspirations are not limited to earning through the old time and materials approach. The second recommendation is to consider freelancing as a professional business venture with the same requirements as any small business.

Be specific when it comes to identifying your professional goals

Being specific in your professional goals means that your actions will be more specific – leading to the greater possibility that you will achieve what you set out to do. If you’re a freelancer that might like to run a business in the future don’t start off by thinking you can change the way you work at a later date to accommodate your business goals – it is better to establish a framework early on that you can leverage at a later date with minimal effort. Specific goal setting simply reduces unwelcome surprises and unnecessary effort at a later date.

The principles behind increasing your income

If there is one thing entrepreneurs and freelancers should be focusing on this is it - how to increase your income or of more use how to increase your productivity. It amazes me how many startups and self-employed focus on aspects of their business, that whilst important to some degree, fail to concentrate on the drivers of income creation (note I say 'income' not 'revenue').

When consulting to clients there used to be the question of how to charge for work performed. That is, charge per job or charge per hour. Of course you may still charge per hour is required but your preference should be always per job. Why? Because you could (1) complete the job in fewer hours than the budget and therefore increase your per/hour rate of income or (2) give the job to a qualified associate for 80% of what you are receiving. Five such jobs will see you earning 20% more than what you could have as an individual.

But what I really want to communicate is that the wealthy do not sell hours - they sell knowledge. A motivational speaker does not speak to a single person if they can speak to hundreds. A website will not provide information to just one person - rather the same 'valued' information is presented to hundreds, thousands and millions of customers. This is the leverage of knowledge.

This is not an option for everyone but many careers and businesses can utilize the concept. Not only consulting, motivational speaking and certain web-based advice business e.g career and investment advice. However those in a trade can certainly also leverage their knowledge so they are not handicapped to work for only a particular rate per hour.

However just as important is that you have to recognize that you cannot just know something and expect huge success if no one else values that knowledge as much as you. This is the fallacy that many professionals believe to be true - that once you have a professional qualification then you're set. Unfortunately this is not the case. Firstly you have knowledge but probably cannot utilize it effectively within a working environment. Secondly many other people also have the same knowledge. So it appears the secret to business and career success is just not having knowledge and leveraging that knowledge. It's about applying the knowledge in such a way that (1) not many others can copy (2) how the knowledge is applied is valuable and (3) you can leverage across many people.

Be aware of the attraction of short-term goals

"Now, wait just a minute" you may say, "we all need short-term goals so who is this guy Daryl Close thinking he is when he says to be aware of them?". I will then respond by asking you all to let me explain just what I mean.

I first started thinking about this topic when reading yet another article on the saga of the US financial system. AIG, if you haven't read it, are paying out another couple of hundred million dollars in bonus to the people that supposedly lost billions. Now, whilst interesting on its own, what is more interesting is the approach bank chiefs and regulators are now recommending - that is reward for long-term performance only, not short-term.

That got me thinking about my own decision making and how I differentiate between short-term and long-term goal setting. Obviously, it would seem, I make short-term goals that benefit me now and long-term for the future. But are is goal-setting process aligned? Do I make short-term goals that benefit me in the long-term and long-term goals that benefit me in the short-term? 'I don't know', is the answer to the first and 'I don't know' is the answer to the second. But for the second 'I don't know' may be a acceptable answer...it sure as ain't for the first.

As with the financial markets, if I take a high risk position to make myself a lot of money in the short-term, I carry with that a high risk of losing a lot of money. I've gone through that experience and it isn't pretty. Did that result benefit me long term? No way it did, though the intention was good. Now apply that logic to every other short-term decision you have made; at work, about a career choice, about a business choice, about a relationship choice, about a fitness choice....short-term goals and results do sometimes blind us from making decisions that are best for us in the long-term. Taking a job, for example, for 20% more is something that benefits us in the short-term but not if it takes us on a direction we don't really want to head in. Even settling for a job 85% of what we truly want will come back to bite us in the ass in the long-term...and let's face it, that's not great because at some point the long-term is the present. Everyone hates the word 'hindsight' and that's what that word represents - making a decision that is regretted later on.

So when you're making your next decision or setting your next short-term goal, question yourself as to the real benefit of that decision. Is the benefit in the short-term going to become a long-term benefit, and if not, is the short-term benefit going to out-weigh any negative consequences in the future? Not starting a business and keeping your 'safe' job may benefit you in the short-term, by protecting you from risk but in the long-term?....have a think about that one which is only just one example.

So my message is keeping setting short and long-term goals....but don't think they are independent of each other. If you don't then I think the quality of your short-term decision making will improve dramatically.

When do you make your best or most 'life changing' decisions?

The focus of this question, is in part, due to the fact that many of us are facing some difficult decisions over the next few months because of the challenges presented by the current economic state. I got to thinking the other day what drove a lot of my decision making and came up with the fact that making decisions are meant to benefit yourself - the challenge being whether that benefit is in the short, medium or long term. Short term gain for long term gain is something I do believe in if a decision is made with only the short term being the main focus.

Decision making is a cognitive process that the brain manages and the final decision is based on a variety of underlying factors. Personal values, motivations, your sense of expected rewards (and your valuation of them), emotions, past experiences, consideration of what your friends and family would expect....the underlying components are many. Many of these decisions are not 'life changing' simply because the human being is a creature of habit. It can be difficult to make decisions when you don't 'have to', even if you know making a change would be the best medium to long term decision.

Take for example the situation that many professionals are facing today. You may have been made redundant or there is a good chance of redundancy - what do you do? If you've always wanted to change jobs or get out and start a business then perhaps there is no better time. Sure things are dire now but when is there a 'best time' to make this change. The decision to make this change is more easy for the person who is out of a job then for the person who still has a job. They might have the same goals to start a business but for the person with a job, they might most probably think they are one of the 'lucky ones' to still have employment. They will think it is better to keep their job and plan to leave in a few years when they are more financially secure. On the other hand those who have been made redundant either have the choice to follow their dreams or look for new work.

What I want to emphasize is that when 'forced' to make a decision, there is perhaps a better chance of making it a life changing one. In the example above being forced to choose between job and new business does not mean you have a choice to remain with the status quo - you need a new job or need to start a business. There is no going back. Either path is new. So consider your own situation now and consider what decisions you can make today that might most impact your life...in a positive way and whether your current situation is holding you back. Might be worthwhile to consider what decision you would take if you were forced to change what you were currently were doing - would you try and revert to what you were doing or start out new.

Manage your professional development effectively by understanding how and why the value of skills and knowledge changes

So you're a professional worker or business owner and you are currently providing the market place with one or more services. These services are based on your current skills and knowledge and the services are supplied because there is some demand for them. Not so hard to understand. At any point in time your services (the drivers of which are your skills and knowledge) are attributed a certain value based on market demand. So how do you base your career or business development knowing that the value of your services may increase or decrease simply because the wider market values them more or less? Do you assume as a professional that your skills will always be useful and if you decide to re-train/study etc how do you know whether that will add value to you or just cost you time and money?

The point I want to make is that you shouldn't assume any professional development is actually going to be beneficial even it is does improve your professional performance. Economic forces of demand and supply are what determines our value and so even if you study to become a lawyer, a web developer, a consultant, a banker or psychologist (to name but a few) your value may not increase because (1) you are not the best at what you do (2) there are too many others with the same skills for a level of demand in the market (3) whilst there is a need for many with your skills the value-adding benefit perception of your skills is not so high.

This is why I am personally against training and development programs just for the sake of providing people with new skills. Whilst there are skills and knowledge that we should all aim to improve for the sake of developing in line with our society (such as in the area of the internet and general understanding of IT) a lot of skills that are taught in training and vocation programs are simply going to provide knowledge that (1) might not be effectively utilized and (2) not going to be in demand when it comes to ensuring a strong career path or business venture.

Professional development has to be taken in context of what is needed by our society. Learning for the sake of it is commendable but it will not enhance your professional development. You have to consider what benefit your professional development activities are providing and how they are taking into account demand and supply shifts for certain skills and knowledge in our society. You have to consider trends in society around the way we live, how we see ourselves (who ever considered personal branding consultant to be as big a hit as it is), the influence of technology and global mobility. What is in demand one day might easily not be in demand the next.

Make sure you are in control of your career, don't let it control you

So we all know there are hundreds of articles in the paper and online about the economic disaster and job losses and I'm going to give you yet another one http://www.cnbc.com/id/29034624.

I only wanted to put this in today to show the extent of job losses across the economy, no company is not impacted and no job is safe. However right now I wanted to make three points about the situation - one is that the jobs are disappearing because there is no demand for them, two is that there is no guarantee the same jobs will return and three who is making the decision as to what you do next - you or your situation?

When it comes to an organisation making a position redundant because there is lack of demand that is not something within your control. What is in your control is what you choose to do about it and how to plan on moving forward, updating your skills and knowledge to make yourself in demand again.

What our society is becoming to understand is that an organisation will no longer provide a job for life and whilst many of us realize this and prefer this when times are good when times are challenging many of us look to the organisation for security. Going forward this is not going to be a solution but will simply cause more issues. Why? Because you will have no control over your career because you have no plan. You will scramble to take 'a job' and this leads to a situation where you will reduce the quality of your life because you do not identify with or value the job you were forced to take. Organisations are also on a trend where they are looking to continually reduce their costs and this will result in lower permanent staff. Where does this leave you if you have no career plan and no job security?

So what to do? Well no matter if you need to find a new career or are thinking about a new career, start now by looking at what you need to do and who you want to be. Define your path, define each action in detail and ensure you are the one in control of where you are heading. Do not wait for the tap on the shoulder from the organisation - the bottom line is they do not care about you when it comes to creating shareholder value. Respect yourself and do not let yourself get in a situation where you are forced to take a job for the sake of survival. I do realize there are times when this will happen but in this case still make sure you have a plan to hold this job only temporarily with a clear vision as to what you want to do and why.

Motivation and motivating others at work

So what does it take to motivate you at work? The thought of money, the feeling of accomplishment from achievement, the respect of your peers or the fact that you are working at something you are passionate about? Apart from the last point it can be difficult to motivate yourself at work or motivate others simply due to the fact that work is not something we enjoy or choose to do in many cases. It is something we have to do as part of our life journey and for that reason not being motivated is not wrong, it is a circumstance of life. Even someone with passion, such as Barack Obama, would have days when he is not fully motivated to perform and his energy is low.

However there are some solutions to this challenge. The one I wanted to look at was motivation through relating work to an activity one might enjoy, for example sport or music. A lot of people like and watch sport and respect the dedication, perseverance and technical ability of athletes. Likewise many of us appreciate the same for musicians and performers. Now if we look at what it takes to be a top athletics star for example, we can break down the activities and personality traits into the following;

1. Dedication and perseverance
2. Technical ability
3. Need to stick to a plan and plan a course of action
4. Definite short term and long term goals
5. Attention to detail and long term vision

Same could be for musicians but the fact is success in these areas takes a lot of hard work, planning and dedication. Though you might not be required to do the same at work, you might find that your motivation (or your ability to motivate) will improve if you use examples that you and the people you are looking to motivate can relate to and believe in.

Does our society need employees or freelancers?

Historically our society was all about employing people with the intention that they would be with the organisation for pretty much life. Organisations had the upper hand, employees would be forced due to demand and supply imbalances to be satisfied for most part with what the organisation offered. That trend has changed and gained a lot of traction, in my opinion, from the beginning of the 1990s with the introduction of the internet and associated online businesses and with the global recession causing downsizing which led to many professionals becoming freelancers and contractors.

There is no doubt that society sees the rules and cultural norms surrounding employment to be greatly different than they were even 30 years ago. There is no fixed assumption that a job is for life and neither do employees or employers want this. Employee loyalty and performance is still demanded by the organisation but the rewards expected by the employee is not the job tenure, but rather the benefits attached in the form of motivation, enjoyment, professional development and financial reward.

So we come to our current economic climate where many organisations are finding it difficult to adapt and many employees are also finding the time very challenging. I know many professionals who five years or even a couple of years ago would with no second thought market themselves to different organisations whilst employed if it meant they could benefit in some way. Now that is definitely not the case and many of these professionals are willing to take any relevant job in order to gain some kind of job security.

But what is best for our society, for economic growth and benefit of both organisations and employees? Is the concept of an employee something that we should start to move away from and instead look at developing our society as a flexible group of individuals who can fulfull a number of roles and who are flexible and adaptable to develop new skills in order to easily fulfill future role demand? Organisations do not want employees who can only perform a fixed role set because the nature of their business may find this skill set obselete within a short period of time. The employees should not want to work in this environment as it creates a false sense of security that they are more valuable to the organisation than what they truly are. That we have seen in this current environment where many professional employees are finding their so-called skills and knowledge is just not required. This is because the role requirements for a professional employee are on an expotentially increasing trend - if you don't think this is the case just think back to the start of this century and how the demand for skills and knowledge have changed.

This change is not going to happen overnight but it has been communicated that organisations want a more flexible labour force and as such employees are going to have to adapt. Society is also demanding a more flexible work-life balance and if you look at these demands, then it makes sense to focus on a contractor or freelance driven environment than than of a permanent employee driven environment. My advice is for all professional employees to start to reassess their knowledge and skills and to make plans to adapt to an environment that is ever increasingly hiring on value alone.

Why "awareness'' is critical to you achieving what you truly value

The word 'awareness' has come to my attention recently and in fact the more I think about it the more I am beginning to appreciate the importance and benefit of paying attention to what it actually means. The context in which I want to approach 'awareness' is that of recognizing where you are today, where you want to be in the future and ensuring you are undertaking the correct actions to make that happen - and not get lost in the complexities every day life brings. Some might even want to call this 'self awareness' but what I'm talking about isn't really about being aware of your identity...it more about being aware of your actions and are they congruent to your goals.

Why do I choose to write about this today? Well it's been on my mind for a while and I've come to the conclusion that whilst many of us have goals, or seeing as we're at the start of 2009, perhaps a resolution I would predict no many of us know how to achieve that goal, whether it is the right one for them considering their current position or whether knowing what it would take to achieve the goal be prepared to undertake the commitment. Such as saying you will go to the gym 4 times a week for an hour when your current schedule would only allow 2 or by saying you'll save 25% of your income when your budget is tight at 15% savings limit - these are all good goals but there are non-considered hurdles in between to take care of. You might say "Daryl, but I'll just clear my schedule or ask for a pay rise...this will take care of those hurdles". Great, but what is the cost of clearing your schedule and what do you have to do to ensure the pay rise?

From my perspective the importance of awareness is that to clearly understand what is probable, possible and not possible at any point in time and to focus on the first two to enable the latter to be achieved as well. Being aware will prevent you from wasting time, money or emotion on actions that are not going to permit you to achieve your goals and may perhaps take you further away. It is also of great importance to be aware of what those goals mean to you...even if you do achieve it then what? If you 'just go' to the gym 4 times a week then what? If you save 25% of your salary what does that mean for you? If you get promoted in your work what position does that put you in?

Being aware is critical in career and business management - particularly at the early stages of each. Pretty much everyone I know is excited during the interview stage of a job and even more so when the job is offered. However if that job does not turn out right then only a short time later that excitement is replaced by disappointment. Same goes with a business, where everything in the startup phase is exciting but the reality hits home once you are running the business. Being aware will allow you to make better informed and objective decisions which should create more optimal results for you.

So my advice is do not live life on automatic. Achieve a state of awareness of where you are, why you are where you are and where you want to go. Ensure that you are taking the necessary steps to head in the direction you want to go and if you remember one thing, don't assume everything will just work out. You need to take control.

The need to be aware of where you are and what you are doing

The word 'awareness' has come to my attention recently and in fact the more I think about it the more I am beginning to appreciate the importance and benefit of paying attention to what it actually means. The context in which I want to approach 'awareness' is that of recognizing where you are today, where you want to be in the future and ensuring you are undertaking the correct actions to make that happen - and not get lost in the complexities every day life brings. Some might even want to call this 'self awareness' but what I'm talking about isn't really about being aware of your identity...it more about being aware of your actions and are they congruent to your goals.

Why do I choose to write about this today? Well it's been on my mind for a while and I've come to the conclusion that whilst many of us have goals, or seeing as we're at the start of 2009, perhaps a resolution I would predict no many of us know how to achieve that goal, whether it is the right one for them considering their current position or whether knowing what it would take to achieve the goal be prepared to undertake the commitment. Such as saying you will go to the gym 4 times a week for an hour when your current schedule would only allow 2 or by saying you'll save 25% of your income when your budget is tight at 15% savings limit - these are all good goals but there are non-considered hurdles in between to take care of. You might say "Daryl, but I'll just clear my schedule or ask for a pay rise...this will take care of those hurdles". Great, but what is the cost of clearing your schedule and what do you have to do to ensure the pay rise?

From my perspective the importance of awareness is that to clearly understand what is probable, possible and not possible at any point in time and to focus on the first two to enable the latter to be achieved as well. Being aware will prevent you from wasting time, money or emotion on actions that are not going to permit you to achieve your goals and may perhaps take you further away. It is also of great importance to be aware of what those goals mean to you...even if you do achieve it then what? If you 'just go' to the gym 4 times a week then what? If you save 25% of your salary what does that mean for you? If you get promoted in your work what position does that put you in?

Being aware is critical in career and business management - particularly at the early stages of each. Pretty much everyone I know is excited during the interview stage of a job and even more so when the job is offered. However if that job does not turn out right then only a short time later that excitement is replaced by disappointment. Same goes with a business, where everything in the startup phase is exciting but the reality hits home once you are running the business. Being aware will allow you to make better informed and objective decisions which should create more optimal results for you.

So my advice is do not live life on automatic. Achieve a state of awareness of where you are, why you are where you are and where you want to go. Ensure that you are taking the necessary steps to head in the direction you want to go and if you remember one thing, don't assume everything will just work out. You need to take control.

Are you great at what you do or just think you are...the danger of believing hype

When it comes to achieving career goals, whether that be within an organisational environment or as the owner of a business, it is critical to recognise whether or not those goals are achievable or not; there is no justification in having goals for the sake of it. In order to have goals that are achievable you must know what it takes to achieve them - this is one of the major inhibitors to achieving goals (the other is simple procrastination and lack of task dedication) in that you might be doing nothing to achieve the goal you have set yourself.

So what does it take to achieve a goal? So as stated above the nature of the task undertaken influences how well you might achieve your goal. But assuming you are undertaking the proper actions to achieve a goal that is not enough to guarantee achieving a goal. You must perform that task at the required level and you might be required to do so over an extended period of time. A great writer, athlete, investor and so on do not achieve long term goals by achieving something once - they succeed at achieving over and over again. But as it is with life you must recognise your limitations and plan your goals accordingly. Of course we would all love to play football like Thierry or Ronaldinho, be a gifted actor like Benicio del Toro or motivate like Tony Robbins. However the fact is that we cannot.

So when it comes to assessing or reassessing your goals it is important to recognize your level of talent and ability. Now personally I've been in a situation more than once where the support and feedback from my colleagues and senior management has led me to believe that my performance inferred I was a 10/10 (and I naturally applied this to everything I did...who doesn't love recognition). However in retrospect I was perhaps an 8/10 and this applied to perhaps 50% of my responsibilities. What this caused me to do was get myself in situations where I greatly over-extended the limits of my abilities and knowledge. It was like a weightlifter being told they were the best after lifting a personal best....then thinking they could lift another 20%. Whilst I'm a major promoter of continual personal development, it is important to recognize your current limits - not only do you not set yourself up for goal failure but you can set out a professional development program that truly and accurately reflects where you are now and what you need to do to in order to put yourself in a position to achieve your future 'reach' goals.

So don't believe all the hype around your achievements - assess what and how you achieved and what this means for your future goals. Believing in hype around your talents will create a void in your development as you will not think you require the level of development that you actually do need. Remember greatness does not happen overnight and do not let your ego get in your way of achieving those future goals.

Are you achieving your professional goals or just going through the motions?

Many of us are guilty of setting goals that we have no chance of achieving. Why do we do this? It's because there is nothing of substance underlying the goals, just passing interests. Because they do not represent something you care about and is of no importance to you or your principles, your subconscious will soon pass them over and move onto something else. However you feel principled to have these 'goals' so you will continue to have them and fail.

I believe because our society, in general, is brought up to fear failure we limit ourselves when it comes to achieving our maxiumum results and performing at our maximum potential in life. For many of our our goals are either not realistic (can blame this if we fail), too easy (highest chance of not failing), not timely (can always point to achieving something in the future) or not important to our lives (you and others will forget you have these goals). In my experience within the white collar world there are those of us that demand more from ourselves everyday and those who simply go through the motions. The first group are driven, have clearly set objectives that relate to their life principles, are organized, are prepared to sacrifice but most important clear their life of useless clutter. They are also top of their game. The second group believe that by getting a job in the white collar world they have achieved something big - their professional lives are controlled by others, they do not truly know what they want, sacrifice little because life is 'pretty good' and completely fall in a pattern of behaviour. Their skill levels are very similar in ten years time because of this. Then times change, as we have seen recently with recent financial and economic upheaval and many of this second group are left stranded - the first group may also go through some difficulty but will always succeed in a fight.

I've studied the existence of both these types of professionals over the past few years and have concluded that the first group is distinct because they (1) know themselves and have a clear reason(s) for what they want (2) are prepared to sacrifice (3) push themselves to be the best in their field and take the steps to ensure their performance is always high (4) do not take failure lightly and will push through adversity (5) have a plan that includes goals and action steps (6) always look to better themselves (7) they have done the research and know what is takes to achieve and (8) manage their time effectively.

I'm undertaking some work for an organization now that at the moment has no real measure of performance or productivity of the company or the indvidual staff - yet management thinks by simply going through the motions of the past ten years everything will be okay. This falls into the second group I was talking about above - thinking they are good enough as professionals because they have certain experience and a qualification. Well wake up guys...times change and skill and knowledge requirements change if you want to achieve in your profession. Fighting a battle with weapons and information of 100 years ago is not going to help you today no matter how strong you were back then. It doesn't matter how hard you work if you do not know what you need to achieve and do not therefore have the skills or knowledge required.

If you don't know (what you need to) and you don't do (what you need to) then you will never achieve.

Look, I'm not talking about earning millions and millions here - my message is about unlocking your potential and to stop wasting our time on this planet. The bottom line is why do something if you don't want to do it at your maximum potential? If you don't then maybe it's time to move onto something else.

Tactical and strategic career management - both need sufficient attention

I tend to focus a lot of my thoughts on career management these days as it is aligning itself more and more with my business mission. My primary focus is on increasing professional performance in the context of both an organization and individual. That is, improving the performance and the results you achieve in your professional life and in many ways apply where possible sport science princples for individuals. Why shouldn't bankers, educators, engineers, fitness professionals, actors etc all benefit from a complete performance improvement program similar to that made available to professional athletes who train for the short terms and long term? From what I see many small business enterprises and individuals do not have a clear objective or an understanding of how to control the actions necessary to achieve their objectives. Instead both business enterprises and individuals just go through the motions, perhaps working hard, but there is no real control or management over the direction they are taking.

On the back of this I wanted to discuss what career planning and management is about and what should be recognized as being required. Planning is crucial in running a business and no self-respecting or successful businessman or entrepreneur (at least the ones I know as clients and friends) would ever consider a project or opportunity without a plan. If you watch Dragons Den on BBC 2, concepts without a plan are just that - concepts as opposed to a potential business idea or model. In talking about career management, at least for this blog, I am looking more at those people working for an organization rather than working as an entrepreneur or business owner. Reason being is that I believe if you're running a successful business then you have dealt with the issues I am discussing - however please feel free to take note of anything useful.

For many in organizations the concept of career management is based on a six-monthly and annual review with your direct manager. You discuss some objectives for your role and what you want to achieve or need to achieve in the next period. Longer term plans are not really discussed, your manager has no expertise in this field, there is no discussion around shifting demand for your role and knowledge requirements, and there is no talk on how to improve your performance - not just in the role but your baseline performance ie. mental agility, confidence, core skills, leadership and teamwork etc etc. Is it no surprise you find you lose control of your career after a period of time, do not know where your job is taking you, become unmotivated and most probably on a path to not having the skills or knowledge you need to perform in the job of your choosing in the future.

I've decided the answer to this is tactical and strategic career management - similar to short term and long term goals and objectives but more of a plan rather than just listed points or abstract concepts. Career management must be split between tactical and strategic because they are not the same thing. Tactical plans are in place to achieve short term goals and strategic plans long term goals. If you are in war and win a battle, you will not win the war if you only know how to fight a single battle with a single goal. Likewise strategic thinking is of no benefit if you get killed in the first battle. So below is some advice divided under tactical and strategic career managment headings.

TACTICAL

1. Understand what it will take to succeed at your current role and what the next step will be and by when.
2. Do not just work for the sake of being busy - work hard to achieve clear objectives.
3. Do not make a decision today that will negatively impact your strategic goals.
4. Do not think your organization will support you in achieving your long term objectives - you have to make your own effort to learn, network and gain useful knowledge.
5. Recognized the tactical planning is the foundation for long-term achievement but that short-term wins do not guarantee long term success if they are not the 'correct' wins'

STRATEGIC

1. Achieving in the long-term means achieving many times in the short-term.
2. Your mission, values and self-purpose form the basis of your strategic objectives - you need to establish these early in your career and self-manage on a regular basis.
3. Once you have a plan don't be impatient and look for a short-cut in the short-term.
4. Never believe in the status quo and visualize yourself and the world two decades or more from now. What skills will you need, what will be job demand etc.
5. Combine Personal and Professional development plans to create your 'career framework'.

I use a combination of performance psychology, neurolinguistic programming and business strategy concepts with my clients to achieve the above framework. The bottom line is too many of us do not give our careers the attention they deserve (rather hoping for the best) or make too much effort in the wrong areas. Don't think you know what is going to work - put the time in to ensure your effort is rewarded.

Preparing for the day when you must become 'You' Ltd

A lot of talk and good talk has been in the media, over the past year in particular, in respect to 'the brand call you' and what this actually means for you. In today's society where trends in social and business networking are necessitating the need to communicate personal differentiation, it is very important to see yourself as a personal brand and more importantly what it takes for your brand to be perceived how you intend it to be. What you think and what others think can be completely separate things - this is one of the most important rules of knowing yourself.

However I see personal branding a little more than how you dress, how you speak etc. I see the whole concept more about 'You' Ltd, meaning you have to see yourself as a company in itself. In addition to branding, you need a strategy, goals, financial targets, development plans and processes that will permit you to succeed in achieving your goals. Society is moving away from relying on big business to provide jobs for life, guarantee your future or provide the personal and professional development you desire. Remember big business is also run by people who for most part will put themselves first. I am aware of large organizations that are planning today to contract out large sections of their workforce in order to better control cost, streamline the organization and be able to control the resources they utilize. That means if you are not prepared for the day when your company asks you to take redundancy then you will not be in a good place.

So what I wanted to do is provide a few key steps in getting you thinking about the day when you may have to take your skills and work as an independent.

1. Think about your overall strategy and what you want to achieve from your work. This includes personal development, lifestyle and financial needs and wants. Write yourself a business plan on 'You' Ltd. Undertake research on the market to see what careers may be in demand in the future and why - or go to someone who can assist in this area like a business and career consultancy. Dynamic Life Creations undertakes such research for a lot of its clients in this space.

2. Consider the competititive advantage do you bring to the market. What skills do you have that others do not. Which sectors and organizations would want your skills and what period of time are we talking.

3. Before the time comes perhaps consider networking with others who can provide complimentary skills that can contribute to you achieving your overall strategy.

4. Update your basic skills around goal setting and management, networking, financial management, marketing and the internet - these are skills you will need to ensure 'You' Ltd succeeds. Even if you won't be actively involved with everything, when running your own business you need an understanding of all facets of your organization in order to manage them.

5. Speak to others already running their own business. Events never happen until they do and not being prepared for a changing economy will be something you will have to deal with when the time comes.

How to effectively achieve goals and enjoy the experience

What would you say creates more pleasure - achieving goals or knowing you are on the right path to achieve your goals through undertaking the required actions? From what I have studied it takes shape in two forms; the first being the initial pleasure in the moment of achievement but then there is a subsequent feeling of emptiness if there are no future goals to move onto. Likewise working towards a goal can be immensely satisfying and rewarding over a period of time, but only if you know you are moving towards the goal you truly want.

What I wanted to write about today wasn't about ensuring your stated goals are truly the ones you want, rather I wanted to explore what was required to achieve your goals more efficiently. But also as important, and often ignored, was how to enjoy the journey of achieving the goals and minimizing any stress involved in the process.

When it comes to setting and achieving goals, the majority of us think of something we would like to achieve because of a reason important to us at a point in time. The majority of us don't consider a range of goals or even where a particular goal fits in with their overall life plan...if they have a life plan at all that is! A goal is something in the future and the primary weakness in goal setting today, whether wealth creation, health, business or career is that not enough thought and analysis is put into what is required to achieve the goal. That is, what steps or actions must be undertaken, in a somewhat predetermined order, to achieve your stated objective.

People are generally good at planning or action but not both and this is why goal setting and achievement is always an area we can improve. But the first point I want to make it that time must be allocated to planning the actions and steps necessary to achieve any potential goals.

Time management is also crucial in achieving goals...not much point in setting a goal for the next year that will take an average of 4 hours a day to achieve if you only have 2 hours available. Thus you must know your schedule, be strict in what you do and don't think more inputs to a goal will get you there faster. Often less is more and it is important to minimize the tasks required - performing only what is necessary. But more important is ensuring you act on your plan once you have cleared your schedule accordingly. This is where tools such as neuro linguistic programming (NLP)are useful where old habits and perceptions need to be broken and new ones re-established.

Lastly, goals are often achieved to gain a positive experience or to lose a negative experience. Either way not achieving a goal should not be an option but so many of us set goals that are not achieved. Worst still this becomes a habit and leads to underachievement and future stress due to the fact that you recognize you are not achieving what you want. The solution...don't focus on the goal, just focus on the actions you have identified you must undertake. If it helps create personal principles underlying these eg wanting to get to work early could be attached to a principle around starting the day fresh and wanting to maximise each hour of your life for personal development...something like that but it must work for you. The benefit is that you are more likely to respect yourself for undertaking these actions and not be tempted to continually change or adjust the goal because you are focused on the actions. Focusing on the goal, particularly one in the far future, will lead you to change more often as you become impatient and if you don't achieve then your stress levels and life enjoyment will suffer.

How to effectively shape your career

More and more questions continue to arise in respect to work-life balance and life purpose, the main challenge revolving around how to shape your career to achieve the first two whilst maintaining some level of financial sanity.

I wanted to focus on career shaping as the career represents more than simply a job where you earn money. A career today provides opportunity for personal growth, financial security and independence, giving back to society, life purpose and direction, self discovery and many others. However it is recognized that it is very difficult to shape a career to achieve all these things with the time we have and everyday pressures....it's not like we live forever. Therefore you must first be able to put a framework around your dreams, goals and purpose to fit what is either being demanded or will be demanded by society in the future.

The way I see it your career or purpose must supply a need or want within our society's economic, political, social or health environments ie. it doesn't matter how important you think something is if no one else WILL NEVER think the same. Of course you will still have to convince people at times that what you have to offer is valuable but the fact is that they will be or can be convinced. Even now all careers (prefer this word to 'jobs') provide a use to society, either directly through a self-owned business or to a larger organization - but you see what happens when this demand is no longer wanted. Either the business fails or the organization makes your position redundant. At that point you ask yourself "what is it I am actually providing to society..what purpose do I have?" Not a great question to be asking.

So it's a question of just being thoughtful in selecting your career path and the skills and knowledge you are acquiring. Never assume society will remain status quo and never assume your organization will always support you. Look at the shifting sphere of demand and supply in the economy and then look at your personal interests. What do you like, what would you like to achieve, what would it mean and would it motivate you to succeed? Not only do you have to look at what society wants you also have to understand yourself - personal motivations and principles by which you want to live is crucial. Remember your decision not only impacts you but also your family from the position of a role model.

Achievement of goals part 1 - work smarter not harder

Achieving goals consists of a number of factors; defining the goal, allocating the time, working hard consistently, having a vision and purpose etc. But the one thing I see that consistently prevents individuals and organizations from achieving goals is the fact that the actions undertaken are not aligned to the achievement of the goal itself. No matter how hard you work or how much you plan or how much you visualize the goal, you will not get to your objective if your actions are not appropriate.

This is where business psychology needs to catch up with sports psychology and sports science around performance and goals if it's going to truly assist entrepreneurs and organizations and individuals achieve business and career goals. The science behind sport is quite clear depending on the sport you are undertaking and what you want to achieve and when. Training schedules are arranged, diets and nutrition laid out in detail, rest periods/tapering etc. The psychology around sports is also quite clear. However in business and career management there are many organizations and individuals who I see with great goals, lots of dedication but really do not know how to decide what actions to take or validate their decision.

So how do I suggest goals to be achieved more effectively? Well for one focus on working smarter not harder. Working harder and making more effort does not achieve anything if you're headed in the wrong direction. Based on this you need to continually assess whether your actions are actually the right ones - therefore have mini goals that can provide you with some feedback at regular stages as to whether you're on the right path. If you're not achieving the mini goals then there is no basis for thinking you'll achieve the main objective. It's also important that the reward for achieving the goals is there and tangible..otherwise motivation will fade.

Individuals and organizations have a lot to learn about goal setting - in an organization the difficulty is that the positions responsible to help achieve organizational goals are often held by those who do not know the science or art of achieving goals to begin with. In part 2 I'll look at individual goal setting and part 3 organizational goal setting

What do you know or have that others will buy from you?

If the answer makes you think for too long, you have no answer or you come up with some reasoning including the words 'consulting, strategy, development...etc' then keep reading. What we need to understand is that the level of education and savy is such in the market today amongst the masses that the fancy titles and concepts that were difficult to understand and taught at only the top business schools in the past are no longer impressive. Every fourth rate school teaches the same concepts and with such a high percentage of the western world going to college the coverage of these concepts is extremely wide.

Am I recommending not going to school and to become an inventor, internet entrepreneur, celebrity cook, athlete etc instead? Perhaps so, but actually it doesn't matter what path you take as long as you do two things. One is to work hard and the second is to be very clear on what you are offering and why. The work hard is the easy bit, even the bit on being clear on what you are offering...the hard bit is to confirm the 'why'. 'Why' are you producing a product, delivering a service, studying something at school etc.

Liking what you do it extremely important (and I will get to the fact that there are different levels of 'liking or loving' your job) but more important you have to recognize a demand for your skill or knowledge. If no one is in the market for what you have to offer then what you have will go to waste. I'm not talking about the challenge of being able to 'brand' or 'market' your offering so people are interested...I am talking about no interest no matter what you do because it doesn't hit the right demographic, is out of sync with social trends etc.

So what you need to do, to ensure a meaningful career either as an employee or business person is to clarify what you have to offer, how you're going to offer it and why it will be bought. If you cannot do this now take the actions you need to in order to do so. Last word regarding liking your job...it's not always about pure enjoyment, but can be satisfaction gained from making a difference, achieving what only few can...don't confuse liking or loving the job along the same lines as loving your family or liking a gift. Make the meaning of the word whatever you need it to be to suit you.

Is the foundation of your career skill and knowledge or process driven

Every career is not created equal when it comes to looking at future progression, opportunities and rewards. At the most basic level the career is influenced by the same forces as pretty much everything else in society, that being demand versus supply. Ensuring demand or supply for knowledge or a skill is not something we can truly control as individuals because the forces surrounding that are larger than all of us. However we can help ourselves by identifying the careers that are and predicted to be in demand today and in the future and then suppliment our current skills and knowledge to be able to supply that demand to the market.

We can say there are skilled and non-skilled jobs, jobs that require specialist knowledge transfer and those that require none. In general that is how society views the careers available to the market today. In actual fact all careers require some level of skill and some level of knowledge that must be transferred when performing a task. However when I allude to 'process' in the title of this blog I am making a distinction between careers where there is some kind of barrier to entry and those where there is very minimal. For example, working hard labour as a seasonal fruit picker (though still physically challenging) is easy to commence as opposed as working as a top laywer or doctor where many years of study are required. It is these kinds of jobs, that though not guaranteed, can morph into another career using the same underlying skills and where the skills and knowledge are still in demand by society. Fruit pickers on the other hand, once replaced my machines or cheaper labour, cannot take their skills to another industry.

I am not saying that jobs will not come and go, career becoming something different from initial intentions. The point to be made is that survival in this society is not from assuming you can perform the same job forever. Here I will make a distinction between job and career; job is an actual undertaking of a task in the present, a career is utilising a core set of skills and knowledge for different but inter-related objectives over the course of your life. Transferrable skills and knowledge, and ensuring that these are up to date with demand, is key to survival. Undertaking a process driven job and assuming the company will take care of you is something we all know very well is not going to happen.

I want to conclude that process driven jobs are not just those in manual environments - many desk jobs are also process driven with little skill or knowledge required, rather just some training and practice. The secret is to recognize what kind of job you have in respect to the foundation underlying its demand, and make a conscious decision to take on additional skills or knowledge to protect yourself and to give yourself more options in the future.

Goal setting in face of financial adversity - part 1

When it comes to discussion around goal setting and achievement of those goals all the text books talk about having clear values, motivations, action plans and the like. They talk about time management and keeping focus as if it is something unknown to the 'uneducated' masses. But of course we might suspect that the people writing these books are not goal setting 'gurus', they are just writers who have decided to write a book that they hope to sell to make money. Quite simple.

However the one thing that many writers of goal setting books, coaches etc do not take into account very well is the influence of life/other uncontrollable or even some controllable events on the human psyche. Even the best laid plans for goals, even those you thought were important, can be adversely affected by other matters that are important. Today, briefly, I want to talk about how to consider setting goals even when you are being impacted by negative financial events.

So by now even the people living underground know that there is a massive upheaval in financial markets, asset worth and capital allocation in the world at the moment. Many of us are losing a good portion of wealth, seeing assets fall in value and becoming burdened with debt. Now another topic I will talk about soon is the fact that wealth is not real....but to most of us increased wealth makes us feel good and decrease makes us not feel so good. Many people I speak to say that their life goals are impacted by this feeling of becoming 'less wealthy' and seeing money being taken away from them. Many other goals are being pushed aside because of the stress of financial pressures and this is causing lack of motivation, determination, vision - even from those people who would state that they are not motivated purely by money.

This is not something that can be covered in one setting so I've made this part 1. At this time I would choose to leave you with these five thoughts;

1. Learn to focus on what you can control, not what you cannot control. Financial markets move in cycles and for 99.9% of us we cannot determine what happens. Therefore do not blame yourself for what has happened.

2. Whilst we all need money to live, take a breath and truly think about what money means to your lifestyle and way of life. Do you really need the money today? If financial markets move in cycles do you never expect your wealth to increase in the future? Exactly what have you lost? Perhaps it's not about the wealth itself, rather you feel something has been 'taken' from you. Take the emotion out of this thought!

3. Own up to yourself that being financially secure or even independently wealthy, or whatever it is, is important for you. Perhaps look at what you can do to control your finances better...but only within the realms of you can control.

4. Revisit your goals and ask yourself do you still want what achieving the goal will provide? Do they still equate to what you value as a human being. Refocus on these benefits and even include what you can gain financially. Standing still and doing nothing is not going to get you anywhere - if you keep on moving forward things will happen. This is a fact of life - action results in change of status quo.

5. Look at improving your knowledge of investments and perhaps consider taking charge of your own finances a little. Many finance professionals know little more than you in many respects. My other advice is to invest in what you know - I have a friend who invests only in his business only because he knows the value of this in detail.

It's how you adapt to a situation or event that is important

The natural tendancy we have in life, when facing or experiencing a particular situation, is to live in the present and exhibit an emotion based on this. Whether that be making or losing money from an investment, starting or finishing a relationship, being accepted for a new job or being fired, or even landing in a strange country and feeling out of place - the natural reaction is based on that exact moment in time. If it's determined to be positive your emotion will be as such and if negative likewise.

However little do we realize that the current point in time is just the current point in time and there will be thousands of those moments in the future. What we also ignore is that it's how we react in each momemt that will determine the events and thus emotional reaction in those future moments. When we experience the good times then for many of us it is 'good times forever' and no planning is made for the correction (that occurs as equilibrium in life)or we choose not to accept it. When the less than good times roll around then often it is all about self sympathy and stress rather than planning and putting in place a foundation to take advantage of the future up cycle.

Therefore this leads to the conclusion that it is more important in what you do to move from one present point in time to the next present point in time rather than where you actually are. Let me explain..

If you are in a great situation presently it is not enough to congratulate yourself on where you are - though I would most definitely do that. It is imperative that you take the actions necessary to help ensure that your future life maintains this standard based on your values and purpose at that time. Likewise if you are in a unattractive or undesired situation in the present it is not about only reflecting on where you are today but more important that you identify and act on those steps you must take to move to a desired future point. The reason I say this is that current experiences are not always within your control...but what you do to move forward are and there is no excuse if you do not act.

Conclusion....don't get arrogant in the good times or depressed in the bad, but rather focus on the steps you must take to help ensure as best as possible that your future 'living in the present' experiences are what you truly want.

Is life actually about survival of the fittest?

Consider your life today and the journey you have taken to get to where you are. Think of the decisions and choices you made, the experiences you've had and your goals for the future - then consider the underlying theme behind it all. The theme is survival. That's right...all you have done and all you will do is based around surviving in this world.

I've said for a while that as you start moving out of childhood, where life is all about fun, life becomes more complicated. You encounter more forced responsibility and duties that you wouldn't choose to undertake. You work a job, rarely out of choice, but rather to earn an income that you need for survival. How you got that job was perhaps influence from parents who focused on survival and a main component of university study and career choice is financial reward - again about survival.

So how can you ensure you are one of the fittest and make life more than just survival but rather an experience? Well for one start by taking a look at those in the world that appear to have made it and living this way. One approach is to work extremely hard, make a lot of money at what you love to do and delegate all other tasks. Another way is to simplify your life and reduce the pressure on having to survive rather than actually living eg. reduce financial commitments and excess expenditure.

End of the day everyone runs a different race with a different winning post but the secret is acknowledging that fact and making sure you do not get caught up running the wrong race. If you do and if life is indeed about survival of the fittest it will be a race you will surely lose.

Understand you can do anything but not everything...at least not with total purpose

When it comes to making life choices there are a number of unconscious and conscious forces at play. We can talk about genetics, behavourisms due to your upbringing and social circle and even your specific cognitive traits. These forces will produce needs, motivations, drives and goals. When it comes to making a choice in life about what you want to do it is common, at an early stage, to list a large number of options and wishes. However only later do you begin to realize that though you would love to do everything listed, inherent skills and time and even place in life will impact the success you will have in achieving those goals.

Humans all say a lot of things without really knowing what they are saying because they don't take the time to think about what they are saying. However language and thoughts most definitely influence behaviour so this isn't to be taken lightly. If you say you want to achieve 10 things in a year and you achieve one there will be a level of disappointment along with stress, anger, frustration and anxiety depending on your individual personality. Therefore it is better to think and realize that though you have the capabilities to achieve a lot it is better to focus on only a few at a time to ensure success.

In this goal driven world we live in goals are a normal part of everyday life. But what's the point in having goals if we have no time to undertake the actions necessary to achieve them. Why complete two of 20 goals in a year when you know that simply by living your life that year that you will have another 20 for the year after. Goals and dreams are the life-blood of humanity but unless they are achieved the human psyche will perceive weakness and failure rather than the realization they never had the resources to achieve all stated goals.

The secret is to do the work, make the effort to understand your true needs, motivations and goals and focus on achieving those few most important at any point in time - then move on to the next lot. Achieving five from five each year, rather than 10 from 20, will boost self esteem, increase confidence and reduce negative emotions. But the first step is to remember it's about quality not quantity when it comes to achievement.

Financial wealth may not equate to a wealthy life

The first thing for many people when asked what wealth means to them is to turn immediately to money, material items and a lot of assets. Our society has pre-packaged wealth into monetary terms only and this perception has caused the greed that we all see evident in society today. Many of our occupations are geared to produce wealth for the wealthy, increase numbers on a computer screen and do whatever it takes to gain an extra dollar, pound etc. When we choose our careers, and let’s not kid ourselves, the majority of us want to know how much we will earn, bonuses, share schemes rather than giving a s**t about what it is we are actually doing. Forget producing goods, undertaking research and manufacturing….much of our industry is financial services which in fact produces nothing and adds no real value.



It is no surprise that the whole self help and actualization movement (SHAM) has evolved exponentially over the last 20 years – this is the time where our society truly began to focus on financial wealth rather than wealth through creating. SHAM is still in part a scam but the point remains that it wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t at least partly accepted. Society, even if it had money, has become depressed and unmotivated because financial wealth cannot be touched and instead after a period of time the human subconscious starts to evaluate what it is we’re actually doing with our lives. At a basic level self-development is crucial and simply earning money doesn’t provide any development. I don’t have $10million but if I did with no family, a worthless job and no real life would I be happy? Can I die happy with $10million in the bank?



Society has to stop evaluating wealth from only a financial aspect and start considering what wealth means to them individually. I’m not saying money isn’t important, you need it to live and your personal finances must be managed, but too much emphasis is placed on financial, rather than relationship, career, spiritual, emotional wealth etc. If you value ‘emotional wealth’ at the subconscious level, which I will define as living an emotionally fulfilling life, your focus on financial wealth because society tells you it is important will cause stress and frustration. Same will occur if you focus on financial wealth rather than prioritising satisfaction from a career or relationship independent of financial gain. Unless you define, recognise and accept your own definition of what constitutes wealth you will find your focus is distracted from the life path you should be taking and instead pointed in the direction of focusing on financial because you continually read about how important it is. Your life has to be defined wealthy based on your terms, not on what you read or hear in the media.

How do we plan our life if we don't know our personality?

So you think you consciously control all of your actions? If you say yes then you'll deluded and good luck to you. If no, then how do you think your actions are controlled and what are you doing to become more informed?

As a professional coach and consultant I've attended many self-development (some may say self help) seminars including Tony Robbins, Landmark and NLP in London and New York. The basic aim of these programs are so you can fulfill your potential, your dreams and move forward not based on the past - whatever that may be. But what I have seen, like many of our new year resolutions, is that out of sight is out of mind and after time out of the programs we resort back to our old habits. Funny thing habits....humans know they are often not right for us but damn they are comforting because they are familar.

However one thing we, humans, are not very aware of is that of ourselves, our personality, motivations, behaviour patterns etc. Many of us go through life doing things, making plans that we have no basis to say for certain that they will be achieved. Humans are constantly faced with hindsight..."if only I had done this or that" but do they truly ask themselves why they didn't follow through? Do they ask why after attending a self help or development seminar such as Robbins or Landmark that the feeling, the results don't keep occurring? I do recognize that for some people, and I'll say a small percentage of all event attendees, that life changes are made permanent. This, I would hypothesize, is that they were at the right point in their lives and they shared a similar disposition to the seminar leader.

Many of us though cannot move forward unless we know where we are and the vehicle we are using to get to our destination. Not knowing who you are and where you are is like trying to predict how long it will take you to travel (for example) to Sydney, Australia not knowing where you currently are and whether you'll have to drive, walk, fly, boat etc.

Each person's journey is different and starts at a different place and moves at different speeds. You cannot assume that you can take the same path as your neighbour, colleague or friend. So make the effort to know yourself and design your own life path.

Do your own research (DYOR)

For a while now I've been tracking and analysing the use of words used in our financial media to reflect the mood of the stockmarket. Words such as 'plummit, freefall and pain' and phrases 'sea of red', 'earnings letdown' and 'sharemarket jitters' are used time and time again. Likewise on an up day you see positive reflections used. Interestingly enough the same phrases are used over and over again but in reality nothing has really changed - the words are simply words used by media to sensationalise the situation and influence your perception of financial events.

Australia and UK are not so bad as the US as with the latter the media articles are often highlighted in green or red to emphasize a point. When we read this information from a source we believe is legit then our emotions take over - when in fact we receive nothing really of substance on a daily basis. To be a little clearer stocks move up and stocks move down on a daily basis - do you really think the core financial health of economies or the valuation of companies fluctuates like this? Of course not...the stockmarket is built around perception and in no way represents any kind of financial reality.

A lot of emotion exists in the stockmarket and for the uninformed investor can create havoc on their financial plans and their quality of life, the latter due to perceived stress surrounding their investments. A key reason is that many of us do not really know what is happening in the financial markets, whether we will have more or less wealth tomorrow, next month or next year. This is due to ignorance. Therefore we turn to so-called 'experts' who tell us we should use their trading systems of which again we know nothing of and then wonder why they don't work. We read and see media that tells us all sorts of things which in the overall scheme of things mean little to us. Compare today's stockmarket level to that five months ago and you wil see little change. However consider the media communications that have taken place and the level of emotion that has been created in the market over the 'so-called' credit crisis and market volatility.

Upon much research I've discovered that is the answer - to do your own research (DYOR). By that I mean research your investments, learn more about what they truly represent, why prices move and why they don't. Look into the volatity that is, potential price fluctuations of your stocks (very important for more speculative companies) and acknowledge your own risk appetite. One way I like to look at it is 'would you rather win or not lose'.

Bottom line take responsibility for the way you behave and perceive money and be aware that the media is there to support a business - not there for your benefit or education.

Using time effectively and efficiently

Time is always something we desire more of however it is the one thing we cannot control - it is also a resource that is limited in nature. We all want more time in order to achieve more of our goals in life rather than seemingly spending more and more minutes on admin such as banking, grocery shopping etc. Therefore how can we ensure that we make better use of our time if solely for the purpose of not looking back at our life and regretting certain things we didn’t achieve simply due to a perceived lack of time.

The first step is to become aware of how you are actually spending your precious minutes on a daily basis and over the course of the week. Are you spending time on the tasks that will allow you to achieve your goals? Have you aligned your time to reflect the importance of the goals in your life? Have you even spent time considering what your goals are and what you need to do in order to achieve them? Habits can either aid you to achieve in life or detract from your ability to achieve. People may see habits as good or bad but I would prefer not to label them this way. A bad habit may have a useful purpose but only up to a certain point, therefore it is not necessarily bad.

The second step is to focus only on those actions that are proactively going to allow you to achieve your goals and to reduce or rid yourself of your habits that are not. One example is that of watching television. Now watching a certain amount of television may provide some benefits – enjoyment and relaxation being a couple. However at which point does watching television impact your ability to achieve your other goals? If you watch only five hours of your favourite programs rather than allow yourself ‘television creep’ (where you end up watching a lot more then intended) then you provide yourself with more hours automatically.

The third step is to identify ways and means to become more efficient with your time. Time means money simply because there is a financial opportunity cost attached to every second of your day. One hour less sleep or one hour less television produces two additional hours of earning activity. Look for ways to double up on actions during the one time period. For example whilst cooking dinner listen to study CDs, work on your hobby on your laptop on the bus ride to work, sending out laundry, ensure all bills are paid via direct debit and listen to your favourite music whilst writing emails (and reduce the latter to once a day). Changing your habits is only as difficult as you wish to make it but it is advised to work with a professional coach in order to change your mentality and motivations behind how you choose to live your life. There is no better time to change then today. Realizing you wanted to make changes five years in the future (what they call hindsight) is not going to help you but if you can visualize right now how this might feel it will allow you to make the necessary changes in your habits.

Identify your life needs

Everyone has been told at some stage of their life that there are wants and needs.....this has most likely been passed on from a parent when they say you should focus spending on needs first and then wants. I used to think wants were more important as they appeared to provide me with a higher quality of life then needs - needs being defined as the basics you need to survive.

However upon further reflection perhaps it is the needs that should be focused on if we look at our needs in respect to satisfying our core values. If we redefine needs as those things that are necessary to provide us with a fulfilled life and wants as a short term influence from the social environment in which we live then it appears that needs are more important.

An example and one that relates to myself is the desire to lead a life with financial independence. This means having the finances to not have to work for money ever again if I choose not to. What will it take to achieve this? Well apart from winning Lotto it will take hard work, dedication and good investment principles over a period of time. However because of the social environment I live in I am influenced to party, eat at good restaurants, drink at expensive bars for the purpose of enjoying life. However the life to lead to fulfill my needs and my wants are not aligned so in some way are in conflict. You may want that expensive jacket, flashy car or to stay in a six star hotel.....but you need to ask yourself what you are getting from that and whether it is aligned with your personal needs (thus values). The law of diminishing returns exists here - if you do not live life according to your personal values then the activities you think you enjoy will become less enjoyable over time.

The answer is simply to know yourself, know your values, know your purpose and be disciplined to do what is necessary to achieve.

Achieve your goals by action not thought

Too many times we think of a great goal we want to achieve and how fabulous it would be if it was achieved. Then in the future, whether it be weeks, months or years, we look back at that unachieved goal and think 'what if'. The 'what if' concept is not a positive thought as it signals that you regret your current situation and am considering what may have been if you had taken another path in life. That may be a career move, choosing to get fit, investment decision or relationship.

However I can think of at least two ways to benefit from the 'what if' thought. The first is to learn from the thoughts you are having in respect to a past decision. Can you identify a trend or bad habbit you wish to change - what might happen if this trend continues? What can you do today to ensure you don't make the same choices you made in the past? The second way to benefit relates more to what you didn't do in the past, that is, you thought about doing something but never went ahead and actioned it.

Unfortunately you do not achieve goals simply by thought, you achieve them by actions. The 'what if' thought might include 'what if I had more money/good relationship/career I love.....' and now it is a matter of acknowledging what you need to do to achieve this. Thinking is not going to change anything by itself. You need to combine thought and action to achieve your goals.