5 Ways to Set AND Achieve Your Personal Goals

5 Ways to Set AND Achieve Your Personal Goals This article is all about goals, why they are important, how you can set them and finally how to achieve them. First off, what is a goal? Well in this context, a goal is a personal objective. Something you want to achieve within a specific period of time. All successful people are goal-oriented. They know exactly what they want they are working toward the achievement of their goals every single day. They tend to accomplish far more than the average person in all aspects of life. Goals are flexible and can be used for short term tasks such as booking a holiday or long term goals such as graduating from university. So how do we actually work with goals? There are myriads of ways to do this; I will present the 5 steps I have found working well. Remember that this is an important life skill so pay attention 1. Decide exactly what you want The more precise and clear your goals are the easier it will be to know when they are complete. Just like in business, objectives should be specific and measurable. Ensure they are achievable and within the realms of reality otherwise you will run the risk of them becoming demotivating. For instance, the chances of me winning a Nobel Prize this year are very slim but me doing my next Toastmasters speech before Christmas could actually happen. 2. Write it down If you do not write your goals down, they will merely be wishes. Something magical happens when you put pen to paper, your writing etches its way into your subconscious. I have found that writing by hand is more powerful than on a computer, just as with any learning. 3. Make it time-bound Make your goals time-bound by setting deadlines and sub deadlines in case you break it down. Give yourself a realistic but aggressive time scales so that your goals challenge you. Goals are here to get things going as we all know that life is not a dress rehearsal. 4. Get it out there By this I mean put the list of goals up very visible at home or at work, or if you prefer to put images of what you want to achieve up. When we see our goals, we are sending an important message to the brain that activates us, and we then take steps to do what must be done to attain those goals. Tell the world about your goals as well, this will make it very hard for you to pull out If you have ever run a race for charity, for instance, you know what I mean. 5. Take action immediately You have to have momentum going and you should ideally be taking an action every day to bring you one step closer to the achievement of your goal. An example could be if you want to own a brand new Rolls-Royce, take action by ordering a brochure or even book a test drive. Bottom line So that was the 5 steps, not exactly rocket science. It sounds easy enough but the trick is to keep things up and move closer to achieving your goals every day. I have found that the more clarity I have on goals the more likely I am to achieve them. Working with goals has worked really well for me, especially when writing them down and seeing them every day. Your subconscious gets to work and sometimes it feels like you attain a goal on autopilot. So take time to sort out what you want and then place your order Having said that, if you do not have that clarity already it’s best to put something down now and you see these goals developing over time. Remember that goals aren’t carved in stone and as they are yours, you can change them as often as you like. RELATED: The Power of Perspective and How to Reach Your Goals

Resume Writing For Exam - Sample Resumes and Cover Letters

Resume Writing For Exam - Sample Resumes and Cover LettersResume writing for exam purposes is a fantastic way to learn about new career opportunities or make yourself stand out from the crowd. Even if you are not qualified for the job, it is still a good idea to have your resume on hand so that any employers who might want to interview you may read it first. If you know any writers, they will be happy to help you write one.There are many different examples of sample resumes on the Internet. You can easily get them to help you create a cover letter to use in your exam writing.After you have gathered the samples, you should be able to write your own. Write a resume on a busy day when you will be required to write and still meet deadlines. Follow the sample template, and you will be on your way to creating a well-written sample resume.Sample resumes are simple, and you will find the information easily enough to finish writing a sample resume in a few hours. The samples cover letter usua lly includes sections that cover key details about you. This is where you would like to start when writing your own. Be sure to add the sample sentence so that the rest of the letter does not look like you plagiarized it.Sample resumes and cover letters can be used on a regular resume or as a separate document. It is up to you which one you decide to use. They can be used in conjunction with each other or at a later time.You do not want to make the mistake of thinking that a resume and cover letter are the same thing. A resume is more about writing skills than they are about experiences or skills; therefore, make sure that you feel confident enough in yourself to write a cover letter.An interview for a job is not a cover letter. Use your sample resume as a guide when writing your cover letter. Focus on facts and not your personality or the type of personality that you would like to portray in an interview.Resume writing for exam purposes should be given some time, and you should hav e a good idea of what you need to include in it. If you are not sure of your skills and experience, consider an example resume and cover letter to help you decide.

Knit a new CV University of Manchester Careers Blog

Knit a new CV University of Manchester Careers Blog How do you convince an employer to take a chance on you if you havent worked in that field before? If you want to change career direction, should you ignore your previous experience and start again from scratch? The key to a great CV or application is to make sense of your story from the point of view of the person reading it. Its also the way to create a compelling answer to that tricky interview question, Tell me a bit about yourself. Your CV probably makes perfect sense to you. Most CVs have chunks of content, organised by themes (education, work history, interests/extra-curricular activities, publications etc). They are normally arranged chronologically within those themes, and being postgrads, youll have spotted that its smarter to start with your most recent activities, rather than leading off with your school qualifications. Thats a conventional way to tell your life story, which means its easy to create and easy for employers to navigate their way around. On the other hand, a first I did and then I did and then I did CV isnt the only way to tell your story. What if you dont want to follow the obvious path, or youve done all sorts of things but theyre not all related to what you want to do next? Get knitting! The trick is to comb through your life to pick out the threads and strands which do relate to your chosen next step and knit a new CV. First up, find the threads you want to use. If you already have significant work experience but are trying to change direction: Look for achievements where you have used transferable skills. This could be managing a large project or budgets, leading a team through a tricky period, dealing with a difficult client and persuading them to your point of view. Even if the context is different, you have compelling evidence that you have applied skills which could be of use in many new roles. Do you have knowledge of groups of people or a particular sector which might come in handy in your preferred new role? If youve worked in the public sector, you may have knowledge of health, education or social work professionals and the challenges they face could be very useful, particularly if youre looking at consultancy or providing services into those fields? If youve worked in industry, what about your understanding of other functions you may have worked with manufacturing, marketing, health and safety, training providers? Being able to understand how businesses fit together could be valuable in a new role. Alternatively, if youre aiming at research, maybe your contacts might be useful for recruiting research subjects or be potential collaborators (or even better for academia funders!). If you have lots and lots of experience, whether work, voluntary or extra-curricular, you can afford to pick and choose: Amongst all the activities youve done, which are the ones which relate most to the job youre aiming for? If youve currently got a 4 page CV, unless youre aiming at academia, its time to prioritise and edit! I know you can probably make the case that everythings useful, but which ones would be most obvious to a future employer? For example, if youre aiming at a communications professional role, a two week internship at a magazine, the time you spent writing and laying out newsletters for a charity as a favour to your mum and the summer you spent promoting products at trade fairs are probably more useful (and distinctive) than having written loads of essays or even a dissertation, no matter how good your marks were. Dont be scared to start to drop things from your CV, particularly any activities which relate to school days (these are generally long past their sell-by date). The only items which should be included are qualifications, if youre still young enough for these to be relevant. If you think you have nothing in your previous experience which relates to your preferred role, dig deeper: Dont discount voluntary roles and social or extra-curricular activities. Pick out relevant modules or projects within your degree(s). Focus on achievements which show you using your transferable skills, rather than listing training courses which youve attended and try to avoid those which relate to simply completing a degree (everyones had to manage their time to get assignments in on time). Think laterally, rather than going back to school-days. As a rough rule of thumb, anything more than 3 years old is generally a bit long in the tooth, unless its a significant achievement, part of your work history, or forms part of a consistent theme running through your life. Knit your threads together to make a new story Now youve identified the relevant threads, find ways to make it easy for the reader to find. Think about a Key skills and achievements section at the start of your CV (just under your contact details). You could start with a short introductory sentence, like a career/personal profile (for some good advice on writing a good personal profile, see Sarah Blackfords recent blog post recommended). Then add 3 to 5 bullet points highlighting the threads youve found which you know will be of interest to the employer. This avoids them having to search all over your CV to pick out the stuff which will get you the interview. . If some of your previous jobs are relevant to the role you want, but not others, you can always have a heading on your first page of eg. Project management employment with your other non-project management jobs relegated to the 2nd page, under Other employment. .. Instead of using a key skills and achievements section, you could lump together different sorts of experience relevant to your preferred role, not just work, and use the same sort of tactic as above. For example, a heading of Environmental experience on the first page could include paid work, volunteer activities, university field work and writing articles for a student publication on environmental issues. Your 2nd page could include Other employment and Other interests and activities to capture the non-environmental parts of your life. . Where youve had multiple jobs, particularly non-relevant or temp jobs, you can lump these together as well. For example, 2006-2008   Various temporary roles, including silver service waiter, call centre assistant, labourer and club promoter. This is probably better than missing them off all together as it accounts for the time on your CV better than making the employer wonder what you were doing for 2 unexplained years! Suddenly, having unravelled the threads of your life youve managed to knit them into a whole new garment, which is more likely to capture the imagination of a future employer. All Postgrad-highlighted Postgraduate applications Applications and interviews CV

Personal Brand Identity Theft - Need Help!!! - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Brand Identity Theft - Need Help!!! - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today was a most unusual and disheartening day.   I woke up for   work at 6:00 am and found my gmail account locked.   I was able to see a few messages, but they were grayed out so I couldnt open them.   I noticed one subscriber to Personal Branding Magazine in the listing, so I viewed my PayPal account to see if the transaction went through.   Of course, my account was locked on this site as well.   I quickly called PayPal and received a message that someone had jacked over $600 from the account that was supposed to be donated to The American Cancer Society and had closed the account.   All of the current subscribers got an email that I shut down their subscription, which of course I didnt.   As a token of my brand, I sent the entire subscription base an apology email. As you can probably tell already, Im not in the greatest of moods, especially because my gmail account is directly linked to my google group account, where I store members of my network who contribute to the magazine.     I tried calling google   and pleading to reactivate my account, but they only handle service calls online.   I even went so far as to   call the adwords   representatives to   ask them what I should do. This whole series of events has actually made me lose opportunities and contact with members in my network.   If you would like to help out, please register for the Personal Branding Network group.   This group is set to have multiple owners, so that in the even this were to happen again, the group would be preserved. As for me, I will have a new email address at dan.schawbel@gmail.com if you would like to reconnect.   It will take about a week to recover all damages I hope.   Issue 2 of the magazine will be delivered as scheduled.   I appreciate your support at this time.

Current Resume Writing Tips - How to Write a Better Job Application

Current Resume Writing Tips - How to Write a Better Job ApplicationIf you want to improve your current resume, there are a few very good and useful current resume writing tips that you will find useful. It is always important to take your time when reviewing your resumes and think about your past career as well as what you hope to achieve in the future. You should try to make your career goals and dreams for the future come to life by highlighting them in your resumes.When it comes to current resume writing tips, the key is to come up with strong points that show what you can do for your future employer. The first thing you need to do is decide what kind of career you would like to have. This will help to define your career goals and dreams for the future.It is important to determine what you want to do in your career. There are many career paths available that you could choose from. For example, if you are more interested in working in sales, you can think about becoming a sales man ager or a buyer for a company. You can also be an executive or a marketing specialist. It all depends on what type of career you would like to follow.Another current resume writing tip that is very useful is that you should check out your strengths and weaknesses. This will help you pinpoint what areas of your resume are not that great. You should be sure to highlight your skills as well as what you can offer your future employer. You should think about your strengths and work on improving them. This will show your future employer how you can contribute positively to their company.The third thing you should do when reviewing your current resume is to be very careful about what information you put on it. Be sure to write down your education, work experience, and any other relevant information that are relevant to your resume. When you get your resume to the people who will be reviewing it, they will have plenty of information to work with and will need to make a decision about whethe r or not you should be hired for the job.Another current resume writing tip is that you should think about your future employment history and career goals. You will need to talk to people that have been in the same position as you to get some opinions on the kind of employer you are hoping to land. You will also need to check out your job history. It may be a good idea to have a copy of your most recent job history on hand when you are doing your current resume. This will give your potential employer the best possible picture of who you are and how you are going to fit into their company.The fourth thing you should consider when reviewing your current resume is that you need to consider what you did wrong and what you did right. By thinking about the things you did wrong, you will be able to improve the things you did right. Even if you did not do anything wrong, it is always a good idea to know how to do things right. If you already know what you did right, you will be able to reme mber more details and will be able to focus better.The five things you should consider when reviewing your current resume are giving your employer the best possible picture of who you are and how you can help them succeed. Remember, this is your future employer, so make sure you take your time and use current resume writing tips to the best of your ability.

Never Undersell Yourself

Never Undersell Yourself Never Undersell Yourself Ever Never undersell yourself.   I know it is difficult sometimes because many job seekers are constantly having to shift their tactics to try and align their backgrounds as closely as possible to position openings. Oftentimes, they find that they might seem overqualified to the prospective employer, and therefore, for the lack of a better description, “dumb down” their résumé in an effort to not come across as strongly. But if you have resorted to these tactics previously, consider these potential career setbacks: You could put yourself back financially by going for a lesser position with equally lesser pay which can mean that your long-term salary earnings will be lot less over your entire career lifetime. Example: If you accept a job that pays $10,000 less per year than what you are earning now, in 10 years that equals $100,000 you won’t have in your pocket. Think about that number. Taking a lesser position could mean that you put a bigger obstacle in your path to what you really want. Sometimes, it does make sense to take a step back in order to completely change careers, but other times, a miscalculated move could mean that the forward momentum you had been enjoying is now moving in the opposite direction. Always keep your eyes on the prize: what your long-term goal is. Then map out the path in getting there. Never underestimate how you’ll come across if you accept a lower level position. Inherently, if you have been in a higher position, and suddenly find yourself in a more subordinate role, sometimes you come across as anything but that. And that can cause problems with your current supervisor or manager who is in charge. Consider how you might fit in â€" if you are truly trying to be the “in-the-trenches” worker, you’ll need to be very aware of how you conduct yourself to avoid outgunning the authority of the real boss. Never undersell yourself to get into this kind of position. You could get found out if you undersell yourself. Over time, as we get more comfortable in a new job, we tend to let our guards down as we get a better lay of the land. Sometimes, details slip out that might not have come up or been discussed during the interview process. That could mean that after this new information comes out, everyone has a different perspective of you. If you obscure certain facts about your expertise, and it later turns out that you are something completely different than what you let on about, that could raise questions about your character and how you might fit into the team. Are you really going to be happy in the job if you undersell yourself? If you know you aren’t fulfilling your top potential, how do you think that will translate into your on-the-job attitude? Will you be happy? Or constantly grinding your teeth because what you really want and/or excel in is beyond your current grasp? This can also impact your career because how you act is directly tied into how people perceive you, and that, in turn, affects your career destiny. Underselling can smell like desperation. Job searches are all about compromise, but don’t go so far as to compromise yourself. By undervaluing what you bring to the table, you could send the wrong message that you are so desperate that you’ve lost touch with what you can do to help prospective employers. Never undersell yourself like this! Underselling yourself can mean that the job really isn’t a match. In the long-tail approach, your duration at a company where you undersold yourself in order to get into the door could ultimately mean a very short employment stint at the company. What it really means is that there wasn’t the best match possible. Since performance and job satisfaction are so closely tied to having the best match of candidate qualifications and background, as well as culture fit to the job opening, it is important to always focus on what you do best. Never undersell yourself. Your value is your career currency, and if you devalue it, you end up with worthless credit that gets you nowhere.

Summary Sunday Beginning, Continuing and Ending Your Job Search

Summary Sunday Beginning, Continuing and Ending Your Job Search On Sundays I share links to posts Ive read and valued during the past week.   These resources are current and relevant to anyone making a change or interested in improving how you look for a new job and how you manage your career! Deciding To Do Something Different 5 Ways to Change Careers by Fishdogs Craig Fisher provides excellent, actionable steps to identify new options and bridge skill/experience gaps! Electronic Communication 3 Secrets to Sending a LinkedIn Invitation That Works Everytime from CareerRocketeer If you dont know the person you are trying to connect with on LinkedIn well, you MUST customize your invite. I know, I know.   When you are using your mobile phone, it may not always let you customize this invitation.   My advice. Wait until you are at your computer and send the invite then!   Joshua Waldmans provides 3 tips for crafting a better, smarter, more compelling invite. 7 Ways to Use Email to Nab a Job from On Careers Miriam Salpeter talks about 7 ways to use email to make your job search more effective! And after you read that, please read What? You Arent Using an Email Signature. Motivation Monday Morning Pep Talk: Create Your Own Opportunities from Launch While Working I love what Tai Goodwin is doing here! A positive mindset sets the tone- this post provides an audio affirmation and questions to get you motivated and moving forward positively! Additionally, this site is all about starting a business while employed. Follow @EmployedPreneur on Twitter or subscribe to this site to make sure you dont miss a thing! Starting A New Job How Can I optimize My First Day on the Job? from Ask The Headhunter ® | Nick Corcodilos It isnt as easy as it sounds. One commenter sites a statistic that goes like this: One in 25 new employees quits on the first day -Kevin Sheridan, “Building a Magnetic Culture.” In fact, Nick goes on to say: the correlation between performance in a job interview and performance on the job is about ZERO. Please, youve worked so hard to land this job, dont blow it.   It isnt as easy as you think to hold on to the job, so take control of everything you can! If you like catching up on helpful posts, mine and others, feel free to   Subscribe to Career Sherpa by Email!   Youll get my posts hot off the press first thing in the morning!