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Goal Setting Personal Development Professional Development

Finding More Time Now For Fun Stuff Later

April is one of the best weather months in this region! We enjoy longer days and consistently warmer temperatures. It’s easy to let important tasks fall behind when all you want to do is be outside. So how do we ensure that we have more disposable time to play outside and enjoy the fun side of life?

Start by asking what are the things that you WANT to be doing. Are there roles that you pick up because you face a series of blank stares from your family – and let’s face it, it’s just easier to do the tasks than deal with the grumbling? What could you do to make the tasks a little more palatable?

Instead of arriving at the end of summer and thinking to yourself about all of the fun things that you (again) didn’t take part in, identify these now. Make a wish list, and go crazy! Write down what you want to do before September rolls around. Think about how much joy you would bring to your life just by doing a few of the things on your list! Then grab your calendar and identify what you’ll commit to attending/doing.

Remember that by creating extra time in your life, you’ll have to give up something along the way.

  • Your child needs to bring cupcakes to a school function. Normally you’d spend the time baking, icing, and producing mini-masterpieces! Instead consider the value in picking up something from the grocery store, thus creating time for an evening walk with your child, sharing time together instead!
  • Does spring cleaning need to be tackled? Have your children help out – even if it takes you some time along the way to teach them what to do. Will they complain? Quite possibly but the tasks still need to be completed so teaching them when they’re younger makes it easier later in life.
  • Speaking of cleaning, some individuals find great pleasure and satisfaction in these tasks. Me? I love the feeling of accomplishment when cleaning through closets and finding new homes for things – out of my own home! However, housecleaning just isn’t my favorite activity. I would rather coach an extra client, do something I love to do, and then pay to have the cleaning completed. I learned the act of cleaning things from my closets from my father and then the enjoyment of having my home cleaned from my mother!
  • Try the minimalist approach! Do you REALLY need all of the things in your home? How about the extra items you picked up at the new home store at Potomac Mills? Consider putting those items back on the shelf instead of in your trunk. If you couldn’t resist a new pair of shoes at DSW or new golf shoes at Dick’s Sporting Goods, remember the rule of balance. For each pair of new shoes that you bring home, one pair needs to be donated. If you bring new clothes instead, you need to remove something from your closet. Consider cleaning out your closet regardless of whether or not you’re bringing extra things in.
  • Instead of waiting to do your taxes until April 14th, do them in February. For those of you who think saving receipts in a shoebox, use a home bookkeeping program throughout the year. There are plenty of applications available to help you!

Personally, instead of getting bogged down in the day-to-day ho-hum, I’d rather be doing any of these:

I practice what I preach, come join me at the Jimmy Buffet concert at Jiffy Lube Live, May 20th!

 

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Goal Setting Leadership Development Leadership Skills Personal Development Professional Development

Set Your Sights Right for 2017

The national mood in 2016 has been the subject of a lot of writing. Even more difficult to forecast is right here in Northern Virginia. Will it be a boom or a bust? people worry amid the concern for locals who work for the federal government or its contractors directly. Will the Metro still securely transport us to and from work? How will tolls on Route 66 change? As we wait to see how our lives and livelihoods will alter, we are nearly holding our breath.

Remember to celebrate 2016’s triumphs as you turn the calendar from December to January and sigh with relief that it’s a new year.

The last 32 months have seen solid employment growth in Virginia.
According to Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc., the median price of a home in Prince William County climbed by 4% in 2016.

Both personally and professionally, there is room for development and opportunity in our neighborhood. Your success in 2017 will depend on how you set your goals.

Instead of looking back on the year and wondering, “Why didn’t I do that?”

Look at the steps you took to implement the change you wanted to see. (Insert the item that was on the list from the previous year.) Decide what worked well. Then take into account a few of these suggestions to kick off 2017:

Find a mentor, executive coach, or professional organization.
Attend networking and career-related events.
Enroll in a webinar online in your field.
Even if you are not seeking a job, update your resume.
Try to improve your health little by little.
Recruit relatives or friends as a support system to help you stay on track.
Obtain enough rest.

According to studies, writing down precise goals increases success more than simply thinking about them. Make sure to record yours.

Remember that taking action is the only way to bring about change and growth in 2017. Your own objectives won’t materialize immediately. It might take a full year longer.

Categories
Goal Setting Personal Development Professional Development

As the Year Comes to a Close, Are YOU Meeting Your Goals?

With 2015 nearly upon us, New Years’ Resolutions swim in our heads as we prepare to have a “better” year than the last. Often times though, many individuals do not take the time to do a critical analysis of the past, present, and future goals in order to properly set themselves on a path of change and growth. This can be felt both in their personal development and professional development.

Studies show that people who put pen to paper and write down their specific goals tend to be more successful at accomplishing whatever they set out to achieve versus those who do not write them down and are not detailed in their goal setting.

Our personal goals tend to be things like gaining a promotion, losing weight, getting into shape, getting finances under control, meeting someone, and so on. While these are great goals, they need to be quantified and put into manageable perspective. This often cannot happen unless you take stock of where you are and where you want to be. This is doubly true for professional goals. Critical analysis is an important aspect of getting your professional goals in line for growth and improvement.

Goal setting is not a set-it-and-forget-it type of activity. Look at goal setting as an ongoing process of improvement and change. Ask yourself hard questions like “Where do I want to be in a year, or in five years. How does my life look to me now and what steps do I need to make in order to achieve these goals?” These same questions can be applied to professional goals – it is important to ask yourself the difficult questions in order to identify and quantify your goals.

From a business standpoint, here are a few questions that will help you take stock of your current job performance and formulating goals.

As a leader, how do you assess your own performance and make changes?
As a leader it is important to provide tools and programs to assess not only your own skills and performance, but also those of the rest of your team. When you use assessments like EQ360 and EQ-i 2.0 to assess emotional intelligence and consult with an expert to put together an interactive program to improve professional performance and growth, you are setting up not only yourself, but your entire team for success in the coming year.

Do you take the time to review your personal and professional performance goals?
Improving goal setting skills and putting together a consistent review process whereby you are constantly reevaluating goals and readjusting them to fit your reality is paramount to successful progressive growth, both with personal development and professional development. Implementing a goal setting skills training program in the workplace will set each and every team member up for success. Goals cannot be static. Goals are a constant compass that need referencing throughout the year in order to stay on the correct path.

How do you garner honest feedback on your performance as a leader or manager?
Opening the lines of communication between all members of an organization is key to individual professional growth and the growth of a team. How can you set goals if you do not have a reference point on how you are doing? There are many different ways to ask for feedback from your peers, managers, and employees. Take a walk and talk, send an office survey, “feed forward”, or schedule regular one-on-one meetings – these are just a few ways to receive honest feedback. Here are some great ideas from SmartBlogs.

What do you do with that feedback?
Once you receive feedback, decide how you are going to incorporate this into a program to improve your performance and grow in your role within the organization. Use feedback to help map out your own goals.

Goal setting is an important part of personal and professional growth. It is essential to be able to assess where you are to see where you are going. Let us know if we can help you improve your performance and fulfill your goals in 2015.

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