DID 2009 GO AS YOU HAD PLANNED?

2009 is almost over. Did it go as you had planned? I know mine didn’t. The economic picture just hasn’t improved as predicted (or hoped for). Self-reliance is still the best way to plan. You know you can depend upon yourself. Finding a new job probably took longer than you had planned. Companies are being more selective than ever. Employers are adding more interviews into their processes. I have heard of as many as ten interviews for one job for the top candidate. This is in addition to the fact that employers probably already know the candidate. Who You Know Now more than ever, it is who you know. For years you have heard, “Networking, networking, and more networking is the way to a job.” More true than ever! Eighty percent of the jobs are not advertised. With the unemployment rate over 12%, you need to find one of the jobs in that 80% pool. So try volunteering where you want to work. Get an internship, paid or not. Internships aren’t just for those out of college. Find ways to make connections. Go to industry, association or other meetings where the folks who do the hiring or do the work you want to do gather. Do informational interviews. No risk, no gain, no job. If you read me regularly, you know I am all about self-evaluations. So do the self evaluations (already) so you know what you are best suited for and pursue the job out of it.

The Final Analysis

There are only eleven more days to 2009. See where you have been. Sit down for a moment with a pen and paper and jot down answers to the following:

• What were your greatest accomplishments in 2009?
• What did you learn from each of these accomplishments?
• What were your biggest failures or disappointments in 2009?
• What did you learn from your failures and disappointments?
• How did you limit yourself in 2009?

Now analyze this information and use your conclusions to amaze yourself in 2010. If the questions seem overwhelming, just do the first three accomplishments/disappointments that pop into your head as you read the questions. 2010 and Your Future Unless you are really jazzed about what you are doing, I encourage you to pursue your dream job. If your job “isn’t so bad” and you feel “ok,” you should be scared. It is this mindset that will let 30 years slip on down the road, and suddenly you feel like you wasted time and opportunity. It isn’t that you wasted time so much as “did time.” Is that the working legacy that you want to leave? How does “doing time” in a job affect your family? Or, do you want days where you leap out of bed in the morning so excited by the prospect of working? At the end of the day do you want to be happy and satisfied about the day’s job or just “ok”? Life is too short to just be "ok." The choice is yours. A dream with a plan is a goal. A goal without a plan is just a dream. Warmly, Elisabeth Elisabeth Adler-Lund Executive and Life Coaching Telephone: 916 • 803•1494 E-mail: eal@EALCoaching.com