Waiting is a Trap!

I have a wonderful quote on my website that inspired me to write this short post.

It says " If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin"- (Ivan Turgenev)

How true is that?
Why are you waiting to be healthy, waiting to change careers, waiting to be happy, waiting to start a new business, waiting to clear up the relationships that are not working, waiting to fall in love etc etc?

We wait for out holiday (or the weekend to finish) before we start our diet, we wait for interest rates to go down, we wait because we think our friends/partners bad behaviour will change, we wait for the economy to get better. We are constantly waiting for something. And whilst we are "busy" waiting, life is moving ever faster.

Sometimes waiting is just an excuse to not do something. I have  a number of clients who list a multitude of reasons as to why they can't start their action plan, and it's usually because they are "waiting" for something. But after some digging and delving, we soon uncover that what they are  waiting for is irrelevant; it really won't stop them beginning their change NOW! It's a cover to hide behind to avoid taking action. 

What are you waiting for? Is it genuine or just a ruse to delay action?

Please leave your comments and share your thoughts.

WWW....Wednesdays

Over at Should be Reading, MizB hosts WWW… WEDNESDAYS and asks readers to just answer the following 3 questions:

1. What are you currently reading?
2. What did you recently finish reading?
3. What do you think you’ll read next?

As an avid reader I follow a lot of blogs and came across this wonderful thread posted by MizB
OK, here are my answers:

1)Currently reading:
I am currently reading
This was recommended on another blog (can't remember which now), but really enjoying it.

Also reading


I always feel I should read a business book. I feel terribly guilty if I read a novel during the day.

And finally, re-reading



2) Recently finished:



This book is hauntingly beautiful and will stay with you long after you turn the final page. I couldn't stop thinking about it weeks after I finished it.And it still brings tears to my eyes now.

3)Planning to read next:

Just ordered One Day by  David Nicholls, Seventh Heaven by Alice Hoffman and Spiritual Economics by Eric Butterworth.

 



That's my list.
Any recommendations  or  comments on the books I am planning to read next would be appreciated.


 

So What Breeds Corporate Loyalty?

What I have found recently talking to many of the clients I have is their loyalty to a company seems to fall into distinct categories, and none of these categories are related to money!! How’s that for a shocking statement?

Talking to my clients, several themes seem to emerge:

Professional Development:
Employees who are given the opportunity to learn more skills and increase their skills set are much more likely to stick around. It seems to be the most important reason clients have given for staying with an organisation.

Coaching and Feedback:
Even top performers need to know how well (or not) they are doing, what’s working and what needs improvement. Smart managers understand that every employee wants to feel their contributions are being appreciated, and once this fails to happen employees start heading for the door (even surprisingly in this economic climate)

Positive work environment:
As we spend nearly 70% of our lives at work, this really is a biggie!
Whether you are on a factory floor, or have the much coveted “corner office”, ones environment and co-workers influence a big chunk of job satisfaction. It seems that apart from the work flowing, a little fun every now and then; birthday celebrations and the like, do a lot to keep morale up.

Good bosses:
Ooooh, this is a really subjective issue. But the fact is people don’t really leave their work, they leave their bosses (well I know I have in the past!). You just have to consider what happens when a popular boss leaves an organisation, there usually follows a mini-exodus. Even people who are happy with their job resign to follow their leader (irrespective of the money on offer).

So to close both this post and the previous post (which are connected), if you take a job merely for the salary, I’m willing to bet your job satisfaction will be on the lower end of the scale, and your frustration will be off the chart. But if it’s a job you love, chances are the rewards will follow.

Money isnt' Everything!

Since this recent world recession I have been inundated with clients who want to change direction, have been made redundant and see this as an opportunity to follow their passion, or those who are just being squeezed so tightly in their current positions that they know they have to jump ship sooner or later.

One thing I have noticed with all my clients is that those who didn’t have control over their destiny and unfortunately lost their jobs are actually really eager to get back to work. They are desperate to prove their worth.

There are other clients who are secure “at the moment”, but are looking to move. They are grateful to be employed but are really keen to find new challenges or to use their abilities elsewhere. These clients keep plugging away until something comes along; they have their antennae up ALL the time!

But one common theme I have noticed with all my recent clients is that it’s not just about the money.

Naturally we all work to pay our bills and hopefully have a little left over to play with. However, this recession has made many re-evaluate their requirements in taking a new job, and perhaps number one on the list is job satisfaction. At a time when people can’t be as picky as they might like to be, doing what you love and what you are good at still seems to trump a bigger paycheck. How surprising is that?

This theme along with what breeds loyalty to a company will be in my next posting-stay tuned!!!

A Creed to Live By (by Nancy Simms)

Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself to others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.

Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

Don’t let life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.

Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other.

Don’t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn to be brave.

Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it is impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give love. The fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly;and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don’t dismiss your dreams. To be without dreams is to be without hope; to be without hope is to be without purpose.

Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savoured each step of the way.

Career Myth 6-Ignore your career dissatisfaction

Oh my!!!! If only this really worked. It does work at first, but in the long run, trust me, it really doesn’t. When you initially start questioning your career, it’s easy to push aside the random thoughts and pretending they don’t really exist. You know what I mean, the “what if’s” and the long list of regrets. Over time these random thoughts become real nagging thoughts. You start to find yourself day-dreaming about your options. You start building a list of reasons to ignore your growing dissatisfaction i.e “I’m too old”, “I don’t want to take a pay cut”, “I don’t want to return to study” etc etc etc.

With clients who are going through the same thing I work on identifying and confronting the fears; finding out whether the fear is real or just an excuse not to do anything and stay in ones comfort zone. Sometimes the fear of change remains but with a different intensity and there grows a greater commitment to living the life the client really wants to live, than to feeling the fear.

So this is the last of my career myths post. I hope if you are at a cross-roads in your career at this moment, you would have found a myth you might have been hanging onto, that you now realise is not enabling you. Now you know that it is really just a myth, what are you waiting for? Go for it and make the change!

Career Myth No. 5-“What’s the best thing for me to do?”

This is one of the most frequent questions asked by clients when considering a career change or a career move. It seems like a logical analysis, but don’t be fooled.
Do not ask yourself this question! It rarely leads you to the job or answers you are seeking. It will lead you to feeling overwhelmed with options, or feeling like you have to choose what’s practical over what seems to be impractical.

The question that will lead you to answers is simple (but not necessarily easy!) It is , “What do I really want to do?” This is a very different question to “what’s best?”