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.

A lot of us every New Year after 2 cans of Lager to many make New Year resolutions of all kinds. We are going to climb Kilimanjaro barefoot, give up smoking after we finished the 400 packs we got in Lanzarote, walk the dog 8 days a week, never get angry anymore at politicians, get fit watching Davina McCall fitness DVD’s, support our local sports team instead of watching reruns of Leinster’s Heineken Cup win on Sky Sports 7 and so on.

Inevitably by the 5th of January you have blisters from walking the kitchen floor barefoot, got another 100 packs for New Year of your neighbour who came back from Gran Canaria, realise there is only 5 days in the week you want to walk that dog, get hit by another 5% levy and spit at the politician on your telly, eat 10 packs of crisps and drink 2 more cans of lager watching Davina do it for you and order in ESPN cause they have the Premiership rights for the 5pm matches on Saturday.

How does this happen? What can you do for this not to happen? Here’s my 10 tips for sticking to that New Year resolution and becoming the envy of begrudgers everywhere!  

1- Write it down in detail. This makes it real and gets it registered into your subconscious. Put it in your diary on page 1, write it on a notepad and stick it on the fridge. Make sure it is somewhere you go very regularly so you constantly remind yourself of it. This helps you staying motivated.

2- Believe you can do it. If your goal is realistic and you can visualise yourself achieving it, then you can do it. Make a clear mental picture of you achieving it. Seeing yourself succeed puts you in the right frame of mind.

3- Make a list of all the ways you will benefit from sticking to your New Year resolution. The more ways you can find, the more motivation you will receive from them.

4- Set a timeframe and write it beside the goal. The date by which you will have achieved what you set out to do. Again you are making it real both visibly and in your subconscious.

5- Think about all the difficulties you may encounter on your way to achieving your New Year resolution. These difficulties may come from inside you (such as willpower, lack of a certain skill etc…) or may come from external influences (such as uncooperative family members, time spent at work etc…). By identifying them you can already start looking at a way around these before they occur.

6- Check what information you lack right now to be able to start your journey to success and take steps to get this information ASAP.

7- Make a list of people you need help from; whether they are friends, relatives or professionals. By asking for their help, you validate them. Ask yourself what you can do for them so they will gladly help you.

8- Use all of the above information and make a detailed plan. Be precise, thorough and specific. Write down step by step how you will succeed. Brake down the resolution into manageable steps and plan them 1 by 1.

9- Celebrate every completion of one of the steps. Pat yourself on the back, give yourself a treat. Congratulate yourself. It keeps the motivation meter at 120%!!!

10- Never give up! You are always closer to achieving than you think you are. So NEVER give up. While change is always good, nobody said the transition period is a bed of roses. There will be thorns, admire them for what they are and move on!

I want to congratulate all of you in advance on bucking the trend and making 2010 the year where you turn those New Years resolutions into real achievements!! WELL DONE!!!

P.S.: remember there is always a friendly Life Coach nearby to help, motivate and support you. He/She is only a phone call or email away.

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