your plan for growth

“There is no condition so severe that you cannot reverse it
by choosing different thoughts. However, choosing different
thoughts requires focus and practise. If you continue to focus
as you have been, to think as you have been, and to believe
as you have been, then nothing in your experience will change”

~ from ‘Ask And It Is Given’ ~”
― Mary Ann Hickman

What is your growth plan?   You want more success, more significance, more of something and I’m asking you, how are you going to get that?   What is your plan for personal and professional growth.   Growth takes intention, intention to act and grow.

Top performers take time and invest in personal and professional growth.  To reach the level of top performance requires change.  It requires a change in ideas and knowledge.    What is your limit for personal growth?   Is it an hour a week or  an hour a month or is it an hour a day?

If you don’t have a plan then decide what area do you want to grow.   What abilities do you have that you are really good at?   What comes easy to you?   Choose a strength and improve that strength, develop that to a new level.

We only have so much time to develop our skills and working on weaknesses will only be able to upgrade your skills to average.    Average isn’t going to make a dent in the universe.   Developing in your strengths will propel you forward and allow you to make a larger contribution.   Excellence is what is going to allow you to achieve your greatest results.   What is it that you want to be excellent at?

Take some time and outline your personal and professional growth plan.   What strengths do you want to enhance?

To determine your strengths take this assessment (VIA Strengths).

Do it now.

 

intentional change

“Live with intention.
Walk to the edge.
Listen Hard.
Practice wellness.
Play with abandon.
Laugh.
Choose with no regret.
Appreciate your friends.
Continue to learn.
Do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is.”
― Mary Anne Radmacher

Is your life working for you?   Are you at the weight you desire to be?  Are you working at the career you love?   Do you have great relationships with others and yourself?  Are you learning and growing?   Are you finances where you want them to be?

If you answered “no” to any of those questions then what are you doing to create the outcomes you want?   Many people would like to change and attempt to start and then stop.   Dieters do this all of the time.     They get on a diet and lose some weight and think, “wow, that was good and now I can celebrate”.     The celebration goes on and on and so do the pounds.   The rebound is greater and the weight gain is greater.   What sets in after feeling terrible about not losing the weight, eating more.   Eating food is the pain-killer for being overweight.

Finances, it just feels right to spend and buy things.   It feels good to buy things and then it feel terrible to see the bill come in the mail.  The budget is out of whack again and it feel terrible.   Why not spend a few dollars for things you don’t really need, it will feel better.

Is your career killing you?   Do you dread dragging yourself into work everyday?   Oh, you’ll get yelled at again.  No one but you appreciates the work you do, and if you’re the only one that cares about the work then why do it.  Have your ideas been tossed aside when your manager says to your great idea, “Yes, but …”?

What do you want to change?

This is a good news, bad news scenario.   If you want to change it is possible and if you don’t want to change than nothing can be done.  A therapist, coach or counselor isn’t going to be able to help you or encourage you to change.    Change is something you want to do.   If things aren’t working out in your life and you just want things to be different then it might not happen unless you are willing to do some work.

Change is intentional and you have to be intentional about make change happen for you.

Intentional change theory has been explored by Richard Boyatzis of Case Western Reserve University, here is part of the concept.

when leaders fail to lead

“I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.”
― Lao Tzu

Maybe you’ve seen it before, a callous remark by someone who has a role of leadership that says, “I’m more important than you!”.   Maybe you’ve felt those sentiments and asked yourself, “is this the place I want to work at.”   High performance organizations know how to engage the staff and find ways to inspire   their staff so they can excel, does yours?

What kind of organization do you work at?   What do the leaders say to you?  How to they encourage you to be your best?  How do you they encourage you to learn?

There is a distinct difference between leadership and management.  Managing is about getting specific results and in older models people used command and control to get those results.   Today work is far less about being told what to do, and rather more about inspiring people to commit their best.   Some leaders haven’t figured that out yet and believe that leadership is about controlling others.

Companies that enjoy great success often are led by people who inspire and engage all the staff in the company.    Effective leadership is often driven by engaging the positive emotions of the people that are being led.    Positive emotions can be leveraged to create the opportunity for desired change.

When was the last time you spoke with a leader in your organization where you were encouraged to excel?

What does leadership look like in your organization?

Examine your answers.  Determine what kind of organization you work for and what type of leadership is being exhibited.   Observe your emotions over the course of a day, or a week.  What sensations do you have?   How do you feel when you get home?   Energized, drained, indifferent?

One example of a company that is well led is Trilogy Health Care Services.  Take a look at their mission and vision.

In this video clip learn what Bob Davis has to say about leadership and what it takes to lead authentically.

 

do you wait until …

“Inside Critics

The critical voices in our own heads are far more vicious than what we might hear from the outside. Our “inside critics” have intimate knowledge of us and can zero in on our weakest spots.

You might be told by the critics that you’re too fat, too old, too young, not intelligent enough, a quitter, not logical, prone to try too many things…
It’s all balderdash!

Some elements of these may be true, and it’s completely up to you how they affect you. Inside critics are really just trying to protect you. You can:

Learn to dialogue with them.
Give them new jobs.
Turn them into allies.
You can also dismantle/exterminate them.”
S.A.R.K., Creative Companion: How to Free Your Creative Spirit

Have you ever heard anyone say, “What are you waiting for?”  What was your answer?

Getting started can take a lot of purposeful energy.  Big projects can wait after all there is time.   That tends to be the belief that projects that are to be completed sometime in the future aren’t important to start today.

Need a new job and you’re waiting for something else to happen and then it’s suddenly too late to say, “I have a job and I’m looking.”    Waiting often causes regret and at the same time there isn’t that desire to do it now.

If you took that project and divided it into smaller projects and set due dates that were more immediate that would make that big project less daunting and doable.  Small easy projects that can be done quickly offer small rewards now.

Check this video clip out.  Does the method work for you?