It’s that time of year again when everybody starts out saying that this year will be the year that I …  But, is it that you are going to do something different and make a big change to your life or is it just that you start out with a bit more motivation to achieve something you have been thinking about achieving for a while?  And how long will you really stay focused on this new goal or resolution before that motivation dwindles away?

Motivation comes from within and unless the goal you are setting is something that REALLY is one you want to achieve , the likelihood is, you won’t!

So what can you do to make sure your sought after goals become a reality?

Think about goals that you have achieved in the past?  Ask yourself – why was I motivated to achieve that goal?  Why was it so important to me?  What would have happened if I had not achieved it?  You will see that the common theme with these goals that you have successfully achieved is often just pure, internal motivation.  A mindset that meant you wanted to achieve that goal.  The end result was something that you desired and therefore made happen.

So, before you go setting New Year goals that you will not end up achieving, think about the following:

1. Why do I want to achieve this goal? What is in it for me if I achieve this goal?

2. What will it feel like, look like?  Really visualise the end result.  Perhaps even find a picture that depicts this end goal for you and stick it somewhere you will see it every day.

3. How badly do I want to achieve this goal and why?

4.  If I don’t achieve this goal, where will I be?  What will happen?

If after working on these 4 questions, you feel that your goal is worth going for – THEN GO ON – what’s stopping you?

We’d love to hear what your New Year Resolutions are.

I was already active on LinkedIn in my professional life and Facebook in my private life but now I even have a Twitter account – @Zestfor and here I am blogging! I have joined discussion forums and been amazed at the amount of learning I have had from these – a “gathering” of hugely knowledgeable and experienced people I would never have “met” if it were not for the internet.

The power of the internet for building new relationships with people who I would never have met if the internet did not exist has blown me away. One of the biggest surprises is that I have found the whole social media phenomena strangely exhilarating! Please bear in mind that I am someone who loves meeting people and building relationships – face to face – so would have thought that sitting in front of a computer would be the last thing I would be finding exciting! How wrong I was! I have “met” so many interesting people and become close “friends” or “colleagues” and yet, still, I have not even met them – yet!

So, welcome to my virtual world too and I look forward to forging new and productive relationships with you!

What is your experience of the virtual world for increasing your learning?

I had spent 4 years at University studying Pharmacy. I had spent a lot of that time surrounded by my fellow students who I felt were different to me. They studied all the time, they were much quieter than me and their passion seemed to be the detail and the research. Why was I not like them? Was I on the wrong course? Would I be a failure at being a Pharmacist? Why did I want to be a Pharmacist?

It wasn’t until I was fortunate enough to experience Insights Discovery, a self-awareness tool that produced a whole booklet on my strengths, my communication preferences, my personal style, how I interact with others, how I make decisions, my blind spots, how I like to be managed amongst other rather interesting insights, that I realised who I was and why I had felt this way.

I learned that my strengths were building relationships with others……….and these strengths were the opposite of a lot of my fellow students’ strengths. They were brilliant at the detail, the research, working on their own – everything that I was not!

The penny had dropped and from that day onwards I realised that finding a career that played to my natural strengths was so important.

• What have been your “Aha” moments in your career so far?
• What are your strengths?

I look forward to hearing your own experiences around this.

• How does this make you feel?
• What are you going to do about it?

Now is a great time to start really thinking about your personal development. End of year reviews, if you have them, are always a good time to discuss your development with your manager and even if such processes do not exist within your organisation, here are some pointers for you to start that thought process………..

1. Where do I want to go in my career?
2. What are my strengths?
3. What are my areas of development?
4. What are the actions I need to take to fulfil these goals?

Have a go at answering these questions and look out for my next blog which will talk about how to find out what your strengths are.

So, what I ask you is this……

• how steep is learning curve in your current role?
• How much are you learning as each day passes by?
• Are you developing or are you just treading water and cruising?

It’s a balance isn’t it? If you feel the incline is too steep and you feel out of your depth, it can lead to feeling of stress and is not a pleasant place to be. But if you are not learning and developing you become stale and stagnant and can sometimes even feel yourself slipping backwards within your career.

So – how often do you think about your own development? Do you have a personal development plan of your own? If you manage people, do you discuss their development?

Do let me know your thoughts on this subject as it is one very close to my heart and I hope is one that you believe is or should be close to yours.