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A career decision requires a lot of research and contemplation. You need to assess yourself and your interests in order to make the right decision, as there are many career options available today. However, if you are creative and you have a desire for a strong career option then you may give the entertainment industry a try. People have always amused themselves through various forms of entertainment and this industry has been growing exponentially. In the United States, this industry has been more about ‘industry’ and less about ‘entertainment’, as any project is a combined effort of a large number of people.

The entertainment industry holds opportunities for everyone. There are many career choices available in this industry, which offer an excellent chance to satisfy your creative urge and put your talent to optimum use. There are options for people who want to work behind the scene as well as those who want to be in the limelight. You can take part in creating good entertainment in any way you want, as there is place for all. The only factor you need to have is a creative bent of mind and a strong inclination towards art and entertainment.

Television And Movies: If you always dreamed of becoming popular and being in the limelight, then you can try for a career in this industry. If you have a penchant for acting, you can act in movies or television, or you can also work behind the scenes. You can become a part of the makeup and costume department if you are interested in dress designing and make up. You can also work on building movie sets or writing scripts for movies and television.

Music: This industry can help you in making a promising career in this field. All you need is talent along with a passion for music. You can either work for distribution or production. On the production side, you can work as a music director, playback singer, songwriter and composer, musician or technician. Production is for those who want to be involved directly in making good music. You can also work for music stores and radio stations in the distribution of music.

Designing And Animation: A creative hand and interest in designing can open up a career option for you in the entertainment industry. So if you are interested in creating characters through animation, computer graphics and web designing then a good opportunity is waiting for you in this industry. A good knowledge of digital graphic packages like Flash and Photoshop may land you in an animation studio where you can make the most of your creativity.

Dance: Dance and music are inseparable part of entertainment. This field has a lot of appeal and importance in this industry. You can be a choreographer or a back up dancer for any music group. If you have an interest in making costumes and equipment related to dance, then you can also make a career out here.

Print Media And Books: The opportunities that are available in print media are diverse. You can aspire to be a publisher, writer, reviewer or editor. The process that is involved in this media ranges from writing to publishing to printing and reviewing. Each process needs people who are not only talented but people who are creative and can deliver their best.  http://www.careerberg.com

So if you thought that the entertainment industry had a place just for people who are vying for the limelight then it is advisable that you give it a second thought. This industry not only provides you career options directly related to entertainment business, but also presents many indirect opportunities as well. You just need to have talent and dedication.

It is very important that you know yourself and what you want in life. Choosing what you want in life can only happen when you create a life based on your own particular design. This design reflects your own personal growth and the way you make them fall into different choices made by you in life, i.e. in relationships, career and jobs and so on.

Right Values, Right Goals
As mentioned, your first necessary step towards your personal growth should be to identify yourself and your likes and dislikes. You should clearly demarcate a line between your needs and wants in life. For your personal growth, it is very necessary that you strengthen your strong suits and talents, a gift which you can identify yourself best. Everyone wants to achieve the best in life, give a push to their career as well as personal life. This can only be realized when you strengthen your core abilities and achieve a higher personal growth in life.

You attitude towards life and society in general is based on some values. Your values automatically are reflected in the way you present yourself to others. This forms an important aspect of your personal growth. When you as an individual contribute more towards your society and community, inspire others through your learning and values, admire beauty and stay connected, you already achieve a different position for yourself, a position, which is unique, and a position that contributes to your emotional, mental and personal growth.

We always, as individuals, set some priorities and goals for ourselves. We lead our lives based on these priorities. However, it is very necessary that these goal oriented priorities do not off sync with our values and ideas. Try not to pursue goals for the sake of pursuing it. This stagnates your personal growth. Therefore, it is always better to write down your goals, which you yourself can identify with and match it up with your values that define your true self. By focusing yourself to a particular set of goals, you can really motivate yourself to achieve what you want in life. It allows you to stay focused, clear in life, and identify your true self in the pursuit of personal growth.

Experiment with Life:
Achieving your goals require commitment and a desire to work on those goals and spend time on them. Change can only take place when you are prepared to undertake certain risks and experiment with different aspects of life. This really shapes and contributes to one’s personal growth. Experimenting with one’s life is very important as it helps you in discovering many facets of life and simultaneously designs your life according to these experiences.

Remove the roadblocks that come on your way when you are designing your life according to your values and goals. Often people are unaware or unable in identifying and removing these blocks. They seek the help of a Personal Coach who helps them in exploring their opportunities, outside perspective and the possibilities of achieving their goal. They guide you through the necessary tools and structures that leave a profound and ever lasting impact on your life. In the long-term, you would reach the higher echelons of your personal growth.

Many people go into careers and jobs without thinking if this is suited for me or 5 to 10 years later they realize this is not what I expected.

Many individuals spend months or even years not happy with their careers. Some may take any available job while others may follow in their parent’s footsteps. This may work out for some but many others never discover their true career skills and are dissatisfied with their jobs.

Careful career planning is essential in fulfilling one’s job search that will give years of work enjoyment and satisfaction. If you are going to work it might as well be something you like to do and skilled at doing. Knowing what your skills are and what you are good at is the starting point in choosing the right career. You will unlikely be completely satisfied in your career unless you use the skills you enjoy and are good at.

Ask yourself some questions such as: What interests do I have? What sorts of people would I like to work with?

Don’t confuse an ideal job with a job title. You might enjoy working in one place and hate working in another. Both could have the same job title but be entirely different jobs.

Let’s say you were looking for a job as a sales person or a teacher, these would be job titles. The ideal job within the salesperson category could be in retail sales, real estate, manufacturing sales representatives, car sales, etc. A teacher might teach kindergarten, elementary, middle, or high school students. Or a teacher might teach adults or special need individuals how to read and write. So don’t choose a job just by its title but by the different job areas under the title that fits your interests and skills. People are more likely to stay in a career and be successful if it suits their interest and skills.  http://www.careerberg.com

It would be wise to spend extra time thinking about what type of work you want to do. Some key factors to consider when planning a career is your skills, interests, earnings, location, work environment, kinds of people you like to work with, etc.

You may have to go back to school for more education, but don’t let that hold you back from that ideal job. Education and earnings go hand in hand. The more education you have the more money you are capable of earning. Although earnings are important, liking your work is equally important.

Having a college degree is definitely a plus in career planning, but many trade, technical and other schools offer similar opportunities to individuals without a college degree.

A well trained electrician, plumber, police officer, auto mechanic, computer repair technician, tool and die maker among many others can do very well in today’s economy. There are many jobs that only require one or two years of training. Many companies and organizations have on the job training while paying your salary. People in sales, small business, self employment and other job areas do quite well without a college degree, although for better positions more education is often required.

Your career will most likely change over the course of your life no matter how much career planning you do. That makes it important for you to recognize what you are good at and develop those skills throughout your life. As your interests change you may want to develop new skills.

Good career planning is very important, but it should be done in the context of what you want to do with your life.

Whether you are male or female, a mom or a dad, balancing career and family can be really difficult. When you’re a woman, though, the choices you have to make seem especially difficult and the responsibilities all the more great. For some reason, women are guilt-ridden with their career decisions and the choices they make about working while trying to raise their children, providing nutritious meals for their family, keeping a respectable house and keeping their husbands happy. Last on the list, of course, is finding some time for themselves. So how does a woman find time to actually feel happy with her daily activities while keeping up with all of the responsibility?

First, take time to smell the roses! Literally, you can take time to smell the roses but you can actually do this with no flowers in sight. Every day, try to look around and appreciate what you have, taking in the sounds of your child’s laughter, the wag of your dog’s tail, the special glance of your husband as you tell a funny joke. Sometimes, the knowledge of what you have on your plate for the day will feel overwhelming, but a little perspective goes a long way. It may be a cliché and a very tired phrase, but it truly does work. People tend to get lost in the mundane, day-to-day “functioning” instead of really living their lives. For example, next time you are worried about fitting in your exercise with your child’s play date at Little Gym, forego the Little Gym and head out with your son or daughter for a run.http://www.careerberg.com

Strap the little one in the jog stroller or if he or she is old enough, ask them to put on the running shoes with Mommy and head outside! Once outside, you can literally stop to smell the roses. Just a few minutes of gratitude a day will work wonders for your soul and automatically make your life feel more balanced.

Along these same lines, try and give yourself some “me” time once a week. Once a week may not seem like much, but if you really allow yourself to soak it in and enjoy the time spent, it will make the stress of all of the rest of the hectic days melt away. Take a good block of time on a Saturday or Sunday – 2 hours, maybe – and mark this time in your calendar in pen, not pencil. Keep a standing appointment with yourself, and honor it as you would any other. Think you are too busy on a weekend to do this? You will feel much more productive the rest of the weekend allowing yourself this little ‘refresher’, rather than trying to cram some time in on a random Tuesday or other weeknight. For this special time, you can book a massage or a facial at your favorite spa. Take a couple of hours to go window shopping at your favorites stores, by yourself or with a friend. Take in a matinee with a couple of girlfriends. If your husband is willing to fly solo on a Saturday night, you can even book a girls’ night out once in a while and truly let loose! Even if your budget doesn’t allow for these activities once a week, you can lock yourself in the bathroom with a good book, a bubble bath and a nice glass of wine and feel good about your time alone – you deserve some!

Probably the most obvious way to balance career and family is to incorporate your family into what would otherwise be “work time”. If you have a short commute to work, for example, perhaps you can drive your kids to school each morning instead of having them take the bus. In the alternative, you could have your morning cup of coffee at the bus stop with them and spend a few minutes chatting about their day and what they plan to learn in school as you sip your cup of Joe and breathe in the morning air to mentally prepare for your own day ahead. If you normally exercise in the morning and leave the house very early, switch your workout time to lunch and leave the office to go to the gym, eating at your desk when you get back. You will have more time with your family each day and get a healthy break from your pile of papers to boot.

You may need to get a little creative with your schedule, but there are definitely ways to help balance career and family. Sometimes an extra few minutes each day or a once-weekly good block of time can go a long way in helping restore your peace of mind and help you feel less harried.

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The New Year Resolution Reality.

After some casual digging on a Sunday afternoon, I discovered that only 40-45% of adults make resolutions each year. After one week, 75% of those people still have faith that they will make it through the next 51 weeks. However, this also means that 25%, sadly, convinced themselves that their goal was so not worth their time and effort. I am hesitant to admit that I have been one of those twenty-five percent for – oh – the past two decades or more. Oh well, “better luck next year,” I used to say.

The thrill of resolution making, for me, had been conjuring up the really great goal – which was enough work in itself. Reaching that goal had always been thought of as ‘almost’ impossible. After all, this is a classic case of man versus himself, and we are either the worst people to go head-to-head with or the best. Fact remains, we are always thinking about what is best for us, and will work tirelessly with the All Mighty Conscience to justify all our decisions… even if it means bowing out of a poorly thought-out choice.

Yet, there are some wonderfully strong-willed people whom have gone toe-to-toe with the beast and seen personal success — for 46% percent of January’s go-getters will still be dedicated to their goals after a whole six months!

That’s both impressive and promising. So how do we make sure that we are among the forty-sixth percentile?

1. “You will become what you think about.”

I’d like to say to set ‘realistic’ goals; however, your and my idea of a realistic goal could vary to a degree. Aiming for something a little more believable for you to achieve is okay; however, low-balling yourself in the process is not. If what you truly want is good enough for you to wish and dream about, then I would think it warrants the effort of manifesting, don’t you think?

2. Pre-plan your goal, and preferably not in the final hours before switching to a new calendar. Think it through. Think of everything that this goal entails – the pros and the cons. How will you handle yourself when you face a challenge – like, say, your negative days? How will you pick yourself up and keep going? Do you have support from someone else? Don’t let the possible obstacles stop you from achieving your goal; instead prepare yourself ahead of time with how you will handle them.

3. Write down your goal with all the bells and whistles. Write it in as much detail as your mind can conjure up. Hey, you are the one that has been dreaming of this very moment – you know better than anyone else what that looks and feels like. So write it down! Journalize affirmations such as “I deserve and am ready to receive…” or “I am so very grateful now that I…” You fill in the blanks. http://www.careerberg.com/

4. “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Baby steps, my friend, baby steps. If your goal is to shed twenty pounds in twelve months, then break it down into something less overwhelming. Focus on losing five pounds. Then the next five pounds and so on. The overall long-term goal doesn’t change just because you chose to reach it in increments.

5. Be kind to yourself. Cut yourself some slack by allowing a little leeway.

Should you cave one day and have the piece of chocolate you vowed January 1st to not have, know that this isn’t considered a condemnable breach of contract. A little slip isn’t a reason to say “better luck next year” and abort your mission.;) Consider it part of the accepting, learning, growing, and manifesting process!

As we embark on a brand new year of fresh ideas, big dreams, and glorious goals, I wish you all the very best with realizing your aspirations, as well as kindness to yourselves in the process.

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You’ve got the itch to change jobs. This might be a good time to make the move. The Wall Street Journal has just reported, “Job-seekers from rank-and-file workers to senior executives are preparing their resumes for what may be the strongest fall hiring season in years.”

“Before you jump to a new job, be certain you have good, sound reasons for wanting to make a change,” advises Ramon Greenwood, senior career counselor at CommonSenseAtWork.com. “You may believe you can accelerate your career with a new job. You may be bored or running away from personal problems.”

First, ask yourself, “Are there things I can do to make my present situation more acceptable?”

Don’t be lulled into believing that the grass will necessarily be greener in another pasture. Or that a new pasture will be a great deal different from the one you are grazing in now.

Except in the most extreme reasons, do not leave your present job until you have another one firmly in hand. If it was ever true that a bird in hand is worth two in the bush, it is when a job is concerned. Remember, it is always easier to get a job when you have one.

What Do You Want?

Take the time to figure out what you really want to do.

What will it take to make you happier? It is not enough to know what you want to change from; you need to know what you want to change to.

Be specific in answering these questions. Don’t allow yourself to be driven by a sense of vague malaise to make a change just for the sake of change. If you can’t spell out in writing the valid reasons you want to move to a new job and be equally specific about what you want that job to be, don’t set the process in motion. http://www.careerberg.com/

Recognize that you are contemplating a serious and difficult undertaking, even under the best of circumstances. There is always some risk to your present situation when you start looking around. What will your present employer think if the word gets around that you are “looking”? At best, the whole process is usually disruptive and can be traumatic for you and your loved ones. Determine that you have the courage to live with the dangers and uncertainties of making a change.

Survey the situation. Be sure there is a market for the skills you have to offer where you want to live.

If You Go, Go Full Speed Ahead

If, after giving the matter careful thought, you are convinced you would be better off in a new situation, go for it full speed ahead. The search for a new job is not a time for half-measures. To vacillate between courting new employers and sitting back in a coy mode, hoping to be courted, will surely breed frustration. Mount a campaign and invest whatever time and energy are required to reach your objective.

If you have something to offer that the market wants, you will find a new job. However, it will take time. There may come a point when you decide that by comparison your present situation looks quite attractive. So you may decide to stay put, at least for the time being. So don’t burn bridges behind you.

And don’t worry about there being a stigma attached to changing jobs. A lot of other people are shopping for new jobs at any given time. It has been estimated that today’s college graduates can expect that on average they will have held eight different jobs by the time they are 40.

In fact, some personnel recruiters argue that your resume will be stronger if it shows some changes in jobs, so long as the reasons for changing are positive.

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A Job is something you do to help pay your way through life. You don’t love a job you may not even like your job but you need to do it so that you can pay your way through life. There are people out there that may even have 2 or more jobs these days and they may not like any of them but yet they keep on doing it day after day.

Now a career is like a job in that it helps you get through life but a career is a job that you love. A career is where your passion is. It’s not just a job that you need to do. It’s something that will pay all your bills in life plus give you a feeling of satisfaction. I Read this book which explains the difference between a job and a career but I was still guilty of not realizing the difference..

A job may be something you do to get through school but a career is what you learned from that schooling. A career is what you have always wanted to do in your life whereas a job is something you may do to get you through that schooling. I have had many jobs in my life and only a few of those jobs were actually careers.

To better explain this a job is like putting your clothes on or doing the dishes. It’s something that has to be done but a career is like putting on a new suit or going to a nice restaurant. A career is not something that has to be done in order to get by but something that you are passionate about.You go to grade school when you are young because you have to but when you go to college it’s because you want the knowledge that will allow you to pursue what you want to do as a career. http://www.careerberg.com

The book that explains it be is by Ayn Rand, “The Fountainheads”. Rourke the main character wants to design buildings and houses which is his

career choice. At one part in the book Rourke get a job in a granite site, he does this so he can earn money to pay his way through life. With his career choice, that of an Architect, it doesn’t matter whether he makes a lot of money but it is what he is passionate about. He will work at the Granite Quarry until he succeeds at becoming an Architect.

If you want a great book to read then pick up a copy of either “The Fountainheads” or “Atlas Shrugged”. Both of these books will give you hours of entertainment plus they will even teach you a few things. I read these 2 books over and over again because each time I know that I will learn new things.

I am tired of just working jobs in my life and need to start working my career choice so that my life will give me some satisfaction. I have spent the greater part of the last 2 decades working mainly just jobs. Ways to pay most of my bills each month. If you don’t know what you are passionate about then visit a career counseling center and maybe take a test that will help you to discover where your passions are.

A Job is something you do to help pay your way through life. You don’t love a job you may not even like your job but you need to do it so that you can pay your way through life. There are people out there that may even have 2 or more jobs these days and they may not like any of them but yet they keep on doing it day after day.

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Rules Of Goal Setting

Most people, when asked, “What are your goals in life?” say something like, “To be happy, healthy, and have plenty of money.” On the surface this may seem fine. As goals leading to actions, however, they just don’t make it. They don’t have the key ingredients necessary to make them effective, workable goals.

Your goal must be personal. This means your goals must be uttered with sincerity. It must be something you want to do rather than something you think you should do. Know your reasons for having the goal. Whether you want to achieve something for status, money, or good health is secondary as long as you want it badly enough to work hard for it.

Your goal must be positive. Try not to think of green elephants! You can’t do it. It’s an automatic response to think of the thing you’re told not to think about. This is because the mind cannot not think of something when told to. We tend to focus on ideas and actions from a positive framework. When you think a negative thought such as, ” I will not smoke today,” your mind perceives it as “I will smoke today.” You end up thinking more about smoking than if you phrased it differently. “I will breathe only clean air today” is a statement that serves the same purpose and is more effective.

Your goal must be written. Writing a goal down causes effects that are a bit difficult to explain. It does, nonetheless, prove effective. Written goals take a jump in status from being nebulous thoughts (which you didn’t care enough about to bona fide entities on paper. Perhaps their being written serves as a visual reminder and thus continually reconfirms their importance. Another possibility is that they can be seen in the statement from the movie, “The Ten Commandments”: “So let it be written, so let it be done.” When things are “put in writing” they become official in our minds. A written goal strengthens our commitment to accomplish it.

Your goal must be specific. If you set your goal by saying “I will increase my sales next year,” chances are you won’t do it. You need to be specific to avoid the lack of commitment that comes with being vague. A more workable and motivating goal would be, “I will increase my sales next year by 10 to 15 percent. This revised statement has several advantages. It defines the increase that you are striving for as well as the range of the desired increase. Giving yourself some leeway is more realistic than expecting to hit your goal at exactly 15 percent.

Your goal must be a challenge. A goal must motivate you to work harder than you have in the past. It must move you forward. Set your goals just beyond your reach so that you’ll have to stretch a bit. The more you stretch, the more limber your goal achieving abilities will become.

Your goal must be realistic. Everything is relative to time and space. What is unrealistic today may be totally within reason five years from now. For years it was believed that the fastest a man could run a mile was in four minutes. It was unrealistic to aspire to running any faster until Dr. Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile in 1954. Since then hundreds of runners have done the same. In any field, we never really know what the upper limits are. How, then, do we define realistic?

For our purposes, the best definition must come from you and your values. You must ask yourself, “What price am I willing to pay to accomplish this goal?” You should always weigh the payoffs and the sacrifices involved before coming to a conclusion. Realistic is ultimately your decision.

Working Toward Your Goals

Now that you know the rules for setting goals, you can apply them to the goals you set for yourself. Here’s an explanation of each of the areas you need to complete while Working Toward Your Goals…

Define your goal. Your first task is to determine whether your goal meets all the requirements of the rules listed above. If it does, then write it as clearly as possible at the top of the worksheet.

Examine obstacles that stand in your way. This is a time to guard against negative assumptions and other self-defeating thoughts. Remember the definition of realistic. An obstacle blocks you only if you let it. You should also write down your innovative ways of overcoming obstacles.http://www.careerberg.com

W.I.I.F.M.—What’s in it for me? Why do you want to achieve the goal? What kind of payoff is motivating you?

Plan your action. You need to carefully list the steps you will take which will bring you closer to your goal. The smaller the increments the easier they will be to accomplish. There is a German proverb that says, ” He who begins too much accomplishes little.” As the American Dental Association is fond of saying, “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.”

Project a target date for your goal. State your deadline range, such as, “between March 15 and April 1st.” Think carefully about the amount of time you need. Too little time will increase the pressure and frustrate you. Too much time may reduce your drive.

Know how you’ll measure your success. Goals should be described in terms of the final outcome of an activity rather than as the activity. This is part of being specific. Instead of saying “I will be running more in four to six months,” you could say “I’ll be running three miles instead of two miles in four to six months.” How will you measure this? Probably by having one-third more blisters on your feet.

VISUALIZING: WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET

Visualization is an indispensable tool in helping people attain their goals. Olympic athletes have proven that visualization is an effective substitute for real practice. In visualizing your goals, you will live your accomplishments in your mind’s eye. The more of the five senses you can involve in this exercise the greater your chances are of accomplishment.

Let’s say, for example, that you want to be the Salesperson of the Year in your company. You know that each year an awards banquet is given during which a plaque is presented to the year’s sales leader. You may choose to focus on this banquet for your visualization exercise. Here’s what you do:

Make yourself comfortable, close your eyes, and relax. Slowly and systematically go through all of the five senses. Imagine what you would be experiencing at the banquet.http://www.careerberg.com

Sight. Imagine what you would see there. You’d see other salespeople and their spouses. Imagine what they are wearing. You’d see tables decorated and waiters scurrying about. You’d see the bar and people standing around talking. Keep going for several minutes.

Sound. What would you hear? You’d hear the chatter of people. You would hear laughter, the tinkling of glasses, and music from a band, people talking. You would also continually hear people coming up to congratulate you. Imagine that.

Smell. Imagine all the smells you’d experience. Women’s perfume, food, alcohol, men’s cologne, the smell of polyester suits (not yours, of course).

Feel. What would your tactile sensations be? You’d feel people rubbing up against you in the crowded room. You’d feel others shaking your hand.

Taste. Taste in your mind the champagne you’ll be drinking. Taste the food you’ll be eating. Experience the sweet taste of success! In advance!

Most importantly, imagine the exhilaration you’ll feel when your name is called to receive the award! Take your time during this exercise and enjoy it. The more you can “visually” attend this banquet the more motivated you will become. (You might even learn something about the catering business!)

The Visualization File

To aid in your visualization exercise, you might want to start a visualization file. This is an envelope or file into which you put pictures, clippings, letters, and other reminders of what it will be like to succeed. Your file should also contain letters or awards that you have received in the past. Anything that makes you feel good about yourself can be included in the file. It can then be used as a source of motivation and inspiration, especially if you begin to feel a little down or demotivated. We all need to be reminded of our past accomplishments once in a while. Be your own best friend— remind yourself!

ROLE MODELS

Many people concentrate only on the goal they wish to attain. There’s more to the picture. Successful people in every field have certain character traits in common. These common traits do not occur by chance, they are an integral part of goal attainment. It is worth your time to analyze the constructive characteristics of people who are now where you’d like to be.

One effective method is to choose role models. These are people to look up to and emulate. Your choices can include people who are dead or living as long as you are familiar with their personalities and accomplishments.

Harry Truman knew the value of role models. When he was in the White House he reportedly went into the Lincoln bedroom, looked at the late president’s picture and asked, “What would Lincoln have done if he were in my situation?” The answers to this question gave Truman the insight and direction he was seeking. It worked because Truman felt Lincoln was a man worth emulating.

In choosing a role model, several things must be kept in mind:http://www.careerberg.com

1.         Keep them off the pedestal. There is no doubt that you will choose people whom you see as being “above” you because of what they have accomplished. That’s good. What isn’t good is to put them on a pedestal, thereby making them larger than life. We are all human. We all have strengths and weaknesses. You must not lose this perspective on people. Putting them on pedestals only further separates you from them.

2.             Isolate their strong points. You need to look at the person you wish to emulate and analyze the precise qualities he or she possesses which you need to acquire. Sit down and write out the characteristics that seem to encourage their success. Use concrete examples of their behaviors that you can adapt to our own situation. For example, if you admire a corporate executive, one of the many traits you might isolate is her policy of “early to bed, early to rise.” Write out approximately when she does each and why. You can then do the same and know the reason why you’re doing it.

3.             Remain yourself. Quite often the tendency when admiring someone is to try to become his clone. People who seem to “have it all together” have done all the “work” for you. All you have to do is imitate them. This is a dangerous way to think because you are not working on your own personality.

In the final analysis, you are you. It is impossible to become exactly like someone else. And why should you want to? So remain yourself while you acquire new traits to help you achieve your goals.

Sometimes it is helpful to have a symbol or another person’s virtues. This symbol will actually remind you of that person and his or her qualities. It can take the form of a picture, a possession (e.g., your father’s pocket watch), or some abstract thing such as a rock. It will be useful as long as it makes the association in your mind.

MENTORS

A mentor is someone you admire under whom you can study. Throughout history the mentor-protégé relationship has proven quite fruitful. Socrates was one of the early mentors. Plato and Aristotle studied under him and later emerged as great philosophers in their own right. Mentors are worth cultivating if you can find one.

The same cautions hold true here as for any role model. It is better to adapt their philosophies to your life than to adopt them. Be suspicious of any mentor who seeks to make you dependent on him. It’s better to have him teach you how to fish than to have him catch the fish for you. That way you’ll never starve.

Under the right circumstances mentors make excellent role models. The one-to-one setting is highly conducive to learning as well as to friendship.

The THOUGHT DIET

The thought diet, developed by my friend and colleague Jim Cathcart, is a tool that you can use on a daily basis to help you become the person who will achieve your goals. It breaks down goals into daily actions that are bite-size and easy to do. By showing you the steps along the way, the thought diet will keep you from being overwhelmed by your lofty goals.

Thought Diet Action Plan

On your though diet card, write out the “minimum daily standards” which you will perform every day to move you closer to your goal. Be specific.

The following are some examples of minimum daily standards:

•           Mental: I will spend 15 minutes every evening doing visualization exercises.

•           Physical: I will do at least five push-ups and ten sit-ups every morning.

•           Professional: I will read something related to my career for at least 15 minutes before going to bed.

•           Financial: I will keep a complete record of every expense and financial transaction.

•           Spiritual: Each day I will do a good deed to help someone less fortunate than I.

•           Family: I will relax over dinner and enjoy a meaningful uninterrupted conversation with my family.

•           Social: I will take time during my coffee breaks in the office to chat with co-workers.

Inspiration and Motivation

Read the thought diet card twice a day until everything becomes a habit. Once you’ve developed constructive habits, you can move on to new goals and behaviors. Fill out a new card and practice the new challenges every day until they become habits. In this way, you will painlessly move closer and closer to your goals.

The dividends reaped by investing in yourself are unlike any other found in the financial world. When you clarify your values and set goals in all the major areas of your life–mental, physical, family, social, spiritual, professional, and financial– the right roads appear in front of you like mirages in the desert, yet they are real. Choices become infinitely easier to make because you are aiming at something specific, and you’ve taken a giant step toward hitting your goals…with amazing accuracy.

I have been thinking a lot about career growth lately, and as a manager, have been generally concerned with making sure there are growth opportunities for my staff, regardless of their level or the point they are at in their career.

This often means rearranging teams so that a staff member might be stretched to grow in a new skill—as a designer, as a mentor and leader, or just in a new domain (i.e., moving from a music product to a mail product). In addition, I am always looking for networking, conference, and classroom opportunities that would benefit not only me, but my staff as well.

But not everyone has a manager that is concerned about her career growth, and there are even times when day-to-day work concerns are a priority and career growth needs are far in the back of my mind. As a matter of fact, for most of my career, I never had anyone watching out for me. For the first part of my career, I don’t even think I thought much about my long-term career. I just seemed to happen into new opportunities that taught me new skills and kept me growing and challenged. But there was no plan, no goal other than to stay challenged.

The point is, in the big picture, no one is going to look after your career for you, but you.

A few years ago, a manager of mine gave me the assignment to work on a five-year career plan. I had never created a career plan before (not even to plot out goals for the coming year), so I was completely unprepared for how and why I should do this. Luckily, she shared her own plan as a guide, but I still agonized through the exercise. Over time I have become aware of how important this was for me to do. Looking and assessing where I was at the time, really thinking about what I wanted to be doing in the future, gave me the tools to make the right decisions to make things happen.

After I was done, I realized that most of what I put down for a five-year plan could be done in a year. But it took writing it down to see that and to make it happen. This also was a good tool for working with my boss to craft training and work opportunities for me to meet my goals. I also made sure that these goals included life and personal goals as well as career goals. The older I get the more I realize that these are intertwined and success in one space brings success to others. Work/Life balance matters.

In an effort to make this anecdote meaningful to you, I’d like to share the steps and some resources I used to help me prepare my five-year goals.

The Template:

Your Name

Today’s Date
This is important as you reflect back on this document. This will become a touchstone for your growth and a reminder of who you were as you look back at what was important to you in this point in time.

3–6 Months

• Start small.
• Think about short-term goals that are easily achieved but will also help move you towards the longer-term goals.
• Include some tangible goals (i.e., ship a product that I acted as lead designer for).

6–12 Months

• Start thinking bigger here—this is planning for a year out.
• What new skills do you want to learn?
• What new ideas do you want to share with others?
• What changes do you want to make? Put them down here along with the steps needed to take to make them happen.

Beyond 12 Months

• Capture specific plans that you know may take more than a year to get to or accomplish. For me, it was to work on my Dr. Leslie book. I discussed the idea with a writing partner 3 years ago, but it is only now coming to fruition with an actual proposal in hand and a potential publisher.
• Be realistic but not afraid to reach. Visualize success in areas you may have little control over. Don’t be afraid to write down a desired goal that may be a stretch.

Longer-term Goals

• This is the area to think out for the next 3–5 years, including life beyond the company or situation you are currently in. For me, I listed “teaching again” as a goal. This reminds me that I want to do this and I need to make certain decisions and changes in order to make it happen.

  If I decide at a later time, that I don’t really want to do this, I should remove it off the plan.

Opportunities to Explore at Your Company

• List all the training and coaching opportunities relevant and currently available at your company.
• Note relationships that need to be cultivated at your company in order to meet success.

Note: This obviously may not apply if you are an independent consultant. Think about other opportunities that might be available through professional associations and networking instead.

Skills to Develop

• Project what skills you need to develop to reach the goals you listed in the first part of this exercise.
• What other skills do you need, besides the ones you have now, to attain your goal?

Since I am a manager and this is the area in which I have been growing, I listed things such as Confidence and Effectiveness—along with ideas on how to master these more intangible skills.

Over the last couple of years, I have purposely put myself into situations to gain confidence—especially when giving presentations. Think about starting slow and building on your successes.

In addition, I also listed skills of associated/allied roles that I would like to learn in order to make myself a more well-rounded and effective manager in my company.

What I Care About in a Work Environment

• This may seem frivolous or not important to the task at hand, but it serves to remind you of the values you need to share with the company you work for. As you grow or the company changes this can help guide you when you need to make a change.

 Personal Goals

• Don’t forget the personal goals that you need to weave into your life. It never hurts to write these down as a reminder of work/life balance and of the things that are really important to you as a person.

You can use the finished plan as a tool when working on performance goals with your boss. Letting her know what you want out of the job is as important as your manager being clear on what is expected of you. Reminding her regularly of your goals is also important, as we tend to fall into patterns of behavior that may not be best for our long-term career plans.

I pull my career plan out periodically to check off what I have accomplished, and have begun adding to the long-term section. I see how I have grown and what areas I still need to work on in order to reach the goals I have set. I can also see that some things that were important to me three years ago are no longer important, and that there are new areas of growth I am cultivating.

The point of this exercise is to come up with a realistic plan within the framework of your interests and career path. The list should be visited regularly and modified as you reach goals or when goals are no longer important to you. The plan should help you shape a vision towards reaching a future destination and remind you that success does not happen by chance.