Motivation to Success!

According to the results of recent surveys in the UK, US and Ireland more than 50% of the workforce is unhappy with their career or job.

Most of these people are unhappy with the actual tasks they are doing in their job. The only way they will be happier is if they do something totally different – i.e., take a different career direction. The same goes for a lot of people who are made redundant.

These people have a choice, stay with the career they are or were in, or change it. The biggest thing preventing you from getting a career you love… believe it or not… is YOU!

Many people are simply not prepared to put in the effort needed, preferring to take the easy way out and accept second best… or maybe even whatever seemed like a good idea at the time. They do what they had the points for in their leaving cert or what their parents did/told them to do. Or they come up with excuses such as financial restraints.

It’s important to realise that choosing a career (or changing careers) is right up there with getting married, having kids, and buying a house. It is one of the most important decisions you will ever make in your life! For a few decades you will spend 60 odd hours out of 168 each week working and travelling to and from work.

And what happens at work, whether it’s good or bad, affects ALL the other aspects of your life – your health, family, finances, relationships, self-esteem and so on.

Choosing a career is NOT something that can be done in less than five minutes, but unfortunately, that’s how much thought some people put into it. Then 5 years later they are still on the factory floor, or answering phones at a call centre, selling door to door or in the same office doing the same every day.

Choosing a career involves much more:

1. Looking closely at yourself
2. Researching jobs which might be suitable
3. Being able to make a decision, and
4. Acting on, and being happy with, that decision.

The first of these steps in finding a career you love is “self-discovery”. It looks at such things as:

* The things you like and dislike doing
* The things you are good and bad at doing
* The skills you have or need to get
* Your achievements to date, and what you want to achieve in the future
* Your attitudes, values and personal style.

A thorough, honest and realistic self-assessment is vital if you are to gather the necessary information to make a good career decision… if you are to find a career you might love to do! If you want to find a job that is not work anymore!

That’s where my I come in with my career coaching package. While people can just opt for a new CV or interview technique sessions, I encourage a broader view on how to choose a career or change to the career you always wanted.

First the client and myself look at what makes them tick, what their core values are, what needs to be in place for them to be happy. This can range from family to faith to competitiveness to control to joy. We then use these values as a benchmark for career identification.

Then we look at the clients existing skills, strengths and character traits. They might be skilled at talking or problem solving, their strength might be a natural sense of humour and their character may be Loyal and Supportive.

We then explore the client’s interests, hobbies and favourite things. What is their favourite pastime? What do you read books on? How do you like spending a Sunday afternoon, if you won the Lottery how would you spend it etc…

When we have the results of all the exercises and work done, we match all of these with the ideal role in the ideal industry for the client.

Once this work is completed we start the actual practical work of skills gap analysis, CV and cover letter writing, interview preparation and job searching. Another USP is that I always personally follow through until the client secured a job or is satisfied with the progress made. This is done on a 1 to 1, confidential basis with the client’s agenda as the only one in town.

So ask yourselves and those around you the question if they want to get what they really want from the rest of their career or if they want to settle for second best? If you or them want to stop dreading Mondays, please get me their number so I can call them for a no charge consultation.

Patrick Mercie, 4ward 2 Success, your career coached 1 VIP at a time.

4ward 2 Success are delighted to announce Patrick Mercie’s April and May workshop and seminar schedule, all to be held in the wonderful Absolute Hotel on Sir Harry’s Mall in Limerick. www.absolutehotel.com

These workshops and seminars are all flying under the same banner of ‘Taking responsibility for your own life!’.

More details as well as booking opportunities will be coming your way very soon but here are the dates and topics to wet your appetite:

Thursday 08/04 1900-2100 Rerun on demand of the popular ‘Goal Setting Workshop’. All participants will walk away with goals set and action plans made.

Saturday 17/04 1000-1300 Career Coaching Workshop. Through practical exercises and golden tips all participants will be taken through the do’s and don’ts of career identification, CV preparation and interview techniques. A great morning for all the unemployed and redundant people of the area or the people who want to change career.

Thursday 06/05 1900-2100 ‘Effective Communications’ workshop. You will become more efficient and successful in your relationships at home and in the workplace if you learn how to communicate effectively. This workshop is highly interactive to promote intense learning.

Saturday 15/05 1000-1300 Seminar. ‘It’s your move next.’ Here Patrick will deliver a 3 hour high energy talk about the how to and benefits of taking full responsibility for all your actions, thoughts and feelings. You will hear how you can take control of every situation you face and empower yourself to deal with them YOUR way. Patrick uses examples of his own journey of self development to enhance the experience.

I hope you agree this varied schedule should have something for all to look forward to. More details to follow in the coming days!! Have a fantastic Day.

Patrick Mercie, 4ward 2 Success, 083-3008963.

You can convince yourself that life will be better

After you get married

Or after you had a child

Or even after you had that second child

Later you feel frustrated

Because they won’t leave the house fast enough

And you think life will be better

When they have started their own

You are convinced you will be happier

Once that step is reached

You think your life will be more fulfilling

When things start to get better for you

For your partner

When you have a powerful car

Or even when you will have that country house

When you will go on holidays to paradise

Or even when you will retire

The truth however is that there is no better moment

To be happy

Than right NOW

Than the present moment

Life will always be filled with projects

Targets, goals and deadlines

It is better to accept that for fact

And to decide to be happy now

For a long time I was looking

For the real start of my life

Yet all I met was barriers

Problems and roadblocks

An unfinished goal

A debt to be paid

Time not in hand

Until I became aware

That those barriers are part of life

And that there is no journey to ultimate happiness

The journey IS happiness

Every moment is special

Treat them that way

Then there are no more barriers

And happiness will be your life!!

(Adapted from a Flemish text – Author unknown)

(Patrick Mercie – 11-06-09)

Today is the first day of Lent here. For a lot of people that equals the first day of a 40 day ‘giving up things’ period. Traditional ‘culprits’ are alcohol, cigarettes, sweets, chocolates, television. Personally I will try to give up on judging people. Not for 40 days, for good. It won’t be easy but I will do my best.

Anyway as usual I digress (maybe I should give that up as well)J. I just wanted to briefly point out one thing to look out for when ‘giving up things’. As with most stuff when you remove something it leaves a void or vacuum behind. The question is what are you going to do with that void? You are used to have that pint, sweet, cigarette, TV soap at certain times during the day. Now that you decided to give them up, you created a vacuum or void. What are you going to do with that time?

If you don’t think about this you might have an extra glass of wine instead of the sweets whilst you didn’t want to have an extra glass of wine to start with. So that void has been filled with something you didn’t want to, negating the good you thought it was going to do.

Instead think about what you really like doing and is good for you and replace the free time with it. Instead of watching the TV, go for a walk. Instead of the sweets have a fruit salad. Instead of going to the pub, go support your local sports club (that’s one for the armchair fans who after this rant I will no longer judge on it J).

Filling the void purposefully with positive things you like enhances the chance of you sticking with it after the 40 days have past. And if not then you had fun doing it instead of feeling it was a chore.

Enjoy your 40 day transformation. Enjoy your new found habit. Have a great Lent!!

Patrick Mercie – 4ward 2 Success – 25/02/2009

Doing the best you can is always good enough.

What do you think would change for you if you just tried to always do the best you can? No more, no less. Just do the best you can at any give time. 

This came to me again recently when I bumped into a friend I hadn’t seen for weeks. I tried to start a conversation yet the interest seemed to be coming from my end only. As I am the curious type I asked him straight off what was out of sync in his life. I could see from his body language something was bothering him. I got no immediate response and somehow the question came to me; ‘Are you running out of time?’ He looked at me and his shoulders dropped. I took him for a coffee and he started explaining how his partner had lost her job and he had to clock extra hours to pay the mortgage and seemed married to the job now and was never at home for her or the kids.

He said he was doing his best for the family. I asked him to repeat that slowly and think about it. What were the net results of this serious amount of overtime? He was missing out on family time. He was always tired and had become less effective at work as a result so to cover that he had to even more hours. The job had become all about the pay package instead of something he enjoyed. He had gained weight because of bad eating habits. There were rows at home. And so on. On the positive there was more money coming in. And that was it.

When you overdo things, you will spend more energy than you want or can and your best will no longer be good enough. You will deplete yourself and will eventually have to stop all together.

If he just did the hours he wanted to do and could master those then he would be more effective and had to do fewer hours to get the same result. And if that was not sufficient then they had to look at other solutions to deal with the financial issue. Only by doing his best at work in the time he could afford to give it was he going to get the best results. No more, no less. I have met him since and he looked way more relaxed and said  he found an extra source of income after sitting down with his partner for a brainstorm.

Doing your best is always good enough and will get the best results. It will also remove any need for blaming your self or judging yourself. Because if you know you did your best then you should be happy with yourself and feel good about yourself!!

Go on, give it a try!!

Patrick Mercie – 4ward 2 Success – 12-12-2008

5 simple steps to enhance your quality of life

I thought that today I would just simply share 5 little rules I try to adhere to. Each one of them changed my life. They enhanced my quality of life each in their own way. There is no great mystery to them. They are wonderful in their simplicity and that’s what makes them quite powerful. I invite you to try them out and to let me know what they did for you. (I would love to get your stories here on the blog!!)

1. Strip the word perfection from your dictionary! It is a myth and does not exist. Stop looking for it in yourself and in others. Instead always do the best you can at the time. That is always good enough!

2. Target your energy carefully. If you find yourself warding off unwanted things or people at regular intervals then you are wasting energy. Drop the unwanted things from your life as much as possible. Spend your energy on things you like and you will have more of it!

3. Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. This well known serenity prayer works in every day life. Accept everything for what it is. By lowering the resistance to events you open yourself to opportunities to change the outcome!

4. Remember the saying, be grateful for small blessings. By being grateful for everything that’s good we create free space for more good things. Write down what you are grateful for in a book or diary. Thinking of all the things we are grateful for will make us more thankful to others!

5. Whenever possible make time for outdoors nature exploration. Do it running or walking, or sitting on a bench by the canal or near a river or in a forest or in your back garden. Listen to the purity of nature and look at its potential for regeneration. It puts a smile on my face every time!! Allow nature’s power to rub of on you!

There you go, didn’t I tell you they were simple! Go on and enjoy trying these out, I know they will work for you. Oh and please send me your stories!

Have a great day

Patrick Mercie – 4ward 2 Success – 25-11-2008