Our boss walks into the office and begins to check on our progress. In response to his inquiries, you begin a twenty minute discussion on all of the projects that you are currently workin on, where they are at the present moment, and your future plans to get them closer to completion. You’re not done with your description of these projects when he casually informs you that he has a few additional projects for you. The first problem here is that before you began to describe the progress on each of your projects, you needed to include an introductory opening that explained how overwhelmed you were and that there are not enough hours in the day to complete all of the current assigned projects. Had you told him about how overwhelmed you were at the present moment, before you began describing the progress on all of the projects, he may have been inclined to leave you alone and assign the newest projects to the newest member of the office staff. But, stop and ask yourself: “Why can’t I assign myself projects for self-improvement?” or, “Why am I working so hard for so little?” or, “If I were to lose this job today, what could I fall back on that would not only support me but my family and my living style?” All of these questions, which should be asked everyday, are most often not discussed, until you have lost your job. Yes, you get so busy on your daily work routine that you forget to work harder on yourself than you do at your job. So, what is the preferred method? Well, write down some short term, mid-term, and long-term goals. What do you want to accomplish in six months, one year, three years, and five years? Begin on your short term goal first. Think of ideas that you could be working on during the next six months. Write those down. Set up some deadlines to accomplish these ideas. Then, move on to the year plan. What do you want to acomplish in the next year? Write those ideas down as well as a set timeline that you intend to follow in order to accomplish those ideas. Use this same routine for the rest of the mid and long-term goals. If you stick to your plan, you will surely have a “safety net” to fall back into – just in case you lose your job, are laid off, become disabled, etc.
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