Live your life by developing and growing each day

Okay so I was going to have the title as 'why life is the same as baking a cake'...or something along those lines. Then I thought 'too cliche'.

But the message I wanted to communicate is along the same lines. I could keep it real simple by saying 'you get out what you put in' but it's not as simple as that. Achieving what you 'want' in life is not simply about effort. It's about a focused and directed effort that has been refined from past experiences, failures and research. Living a life you 'want' can be tough because it isn't as if your wants remain static...once you achieve one thing then you move onto your next goal. This is usually automatic for achievers in that not having a goal, even though you've reached all in the past, is worst then the difficulties faced in achieving a current goal.

But the fact of the matter is that none of us is owned anything in life and you have to be prepared to take the good with the bad. It doesn't matter how much you think you deserve something or wish for something to happen....even if you think something is 100% guaranteed to happen for you the fact is if it doesn't it doesn't - no matter how much you thought it would.

Now in these current economic times we are all being tested; financially challenging, jobs and careers not as secure...this could be leading to relationship and health issues etc etc. However it is what you do now that will make the difference and not a time to give up. To lead the life you want you have to take a path you think is correct, judge the results and if not as you want, make adjustments and try again. This is repeated as long as it takes. It's not about following the same process or 'receipe' but harder but doing things a little different, adding something/taking something away. You can also look at the 'receipe' of another person who has what you want - this is again another theme of neurolinguistic programming or NLP; modelling your actions on another.

Bottom line is that you cannot get out of bed each morning expecting something to happen because you 'deserve it or think it will happen because it did in the past'. Each action has to be attached to a result and you have to be prepared to change your actions if necessary - most important thing is not to ever stop because it might only need one more adjustment for everything to fall into place

Knowing if you are value-adding to your company's success?

Why would you want to know if you are a value-adding component of your organization? At least for the following two reasons; first is simply to know where you stand in respect to job security, future opportunities including promotion, new challenges and remuneration. The second is to know, for personal development reasons, whether your role actually means anything to anyone, including yourself.

I decided to write on this topic taking into account the economic challenges we are facing in the world today. Many people are being made redundant, there is concern about where new jobs will come from and on top of that there is an issue where the meaning of many roles is becoming very unclear, adding stress to the human resource system.

Without going too deep into the concepts of personal development, engagement and satisfaction from your role within your company I wanted to address the more immediate concern of job security, value of knowledge and skills and future employment prospects. What we are finding in the current economic climate is that many roles are no longer needed and this is leading to either redundancies, people being let go, lack of pay rises or indeed pay reductions. Many of us are finding it hard to cope because lets face it, Gen Y and late Gen Xers have never worked in this kind of environment. We would have never thought that "my skills and knowledge is obselete" and in fact we have something in common with the older generations and their 'job for life concept'. So the question is just how valuable to your organization are your skills and knowledge?

You have to start by being completely honest and looking at both the direction society and your organization is moving. If you have a niche skill, is the demand for that going to continue in the future. An example of this is mortgage broking...sure it will continue to be needed but not to nearly the same degree. The bottom line is that you cannot think your skills will always be needed by your employer, but you also have to remember that they will not tell you that until it's too late.

To be able to ensure your job is safe and be able to request any rise in remuneration you have to make sure you are fulfilling a demand - a demand by both the organization and society. This is the only way to know you are a value-adding component. The work I undertake with my clients is around this very matter...determining the value of someone's current skills and knowledge both now and in the future. Plus more importantly determing what skills and knowledge will be required.

So ask yourself two questions; firstly could my organization replace me easily if I decided to leave today and secondly, what would it mean to my organization's bottom line and performance if my role no longer existed? Answering these honestly will give you a good indication of where you stand. What you then do about it is up to you.