What’s Your Plan in Persevering in Life and Work?

It’s been several months since my last posting, so I’m overdue. This next topic is an interesting one and of course we can all agree that anytime is a good time to review our respective professional development plans. We all work extremely hard for many different bosses, our teams, goals and objectives. I’ve found myself asking various different questions related to this and it’s been useful in my quest to ensure I’m heading down the path that will ensure optimal success. I suppose the biggest question in my mind is, “Have I left an impression so far?”

How about you? So I’ll leave us with a few questions and a couple of interesting measurement techniques. Would love to hear from you.

1. What is your life objective? (could be personal, financial and/or professional)
2. Are there specific and intentional strategies laid out for you to achieve your objective?
3. What investments have you made in achieving success? (Time, money, labor, coaching, and/or anything goes in terms of investment?)
4. How often or are you even asking yourself, “Am I doing all the right things to ensure success?”
5. How are you measuring success to achieve that objective? (It’s OK if you’re not sure about where you are, if you are, then it’d be a very good thing to revisit/reinforce it.)

The velocity of change in our personal and work arenas can be overwhelming. Of course if you have a framework that works either from business school or life experience, I’d love your comments as well.

Here’s what I’d leave you all with, my principles:

1. Identify the right goals and outcomes: I use a basic approach to ensure there’s a balance between me, my family and others.
2. Develop a timeline to achieve them: I will make sure that the timeline is realistic yet “aspirational” focused on both the now and the future.
3. Create a measurement plan: I will make sure the goals are easily measurable, taking into account feedback from key stakeholders.

I’m actively using this framework. It’s easy, not too complex and doesn’t hinder me from achieving my objectives. Life, work and stuff will throw you curve balls. One thing you can count on is that change is indeed a constant. Live with it, cherish it and most of all learn and apply and you will persevere in life and work.