MoneyWiseWomen

Are You Serving Your Customers or Just Doing Your Job?

One way or another, we all have customers. We may be supporting co-workers and managers or we serve external consumers or business partners. How we approach our work may make a huge difference in our effectiveness and the perceived value of what we actually deliver. All in all, the only control we have over doing what can seem like a thankless job is changing our outlook on why we are doing it.  If you are unhappy in your current situation, the following steps may help lead you to a new understanding of your role or to a new way of thinking.

Understand your motivation. Are you:

• Providing a service or simply completing tasks?
• Earning a paycheck or changing lives?
• Energized by finding solutions?
• Fueled by the successes of others or focused on your own?
• Encouraged by challenges and opportunities to learn, or are you feeling like you are in over your head?

Go Red for Women Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary - Learn and Live!

The American Heart Association celebrated their 10 year anniversary of the Go Red for Women Movement on February 1, 2013! Hundreds of women across the nation wore red on that day to help create awareness about the fact that heart disease is the number one killer in women, causing 1 in 3 deaths each year. My heart goes out to everyone who has lost someone or knows someone who has heart disease.  It is important to also know that 80 percent of heart disease is preventable. How many diseases can we say that we have that much control over?

This Year Make Resolutions That Stick

Leading up to each New Year, it is common for people to establish a long wish list and/or a list of resolutions. The problem is that neither is typically tied to a plan of action and rarely is either list completed by the year’s end. Funny thing is, year after year, people repeat the same behavior and end up with the same results.

This year, make sure your wishes come true and your resolutions become habits, by starting out with a plan for success. Consciously think through what you want and what it will take for you to get there. This year, take control of what you can do to make things happen the way you envision. The following are some steps for getting started.

When Routines Replace Common Sense

Every couple of years, my husband and I get in a debate about the term “common sense”. I believe common sense is something people either have or don’t, and he believes that it revolves around skills that are learned. Regardless of wherever it comes from, the question still remains:  why don’t more people use it?

Each week I receive communications from people that are in dire straits financially. Most have waited more than a year to think about changing their job search strategy. (Thinking about change typically occurs when the unemployment checks are about to run out, or shortly thereafter). It is still surprising to me that when I ask how they have been searching for work, many describe the same process.

Things to Do On a “Snow Day”

By the time this blog is read, the Washington State “snow days” of January 2012 may be long behind us. Still, the concepts can be applied to when you encounter airport closures, canceled conferences/meetings/concerts or when someone gets cold feet and pulls out of a wedding. The intent of this is not to suggest you micromanage your time to the degree of being inflexible, but to help you gain control over your time and make better choices when unplanned events create havoc.

The notion came to me when I was forced to reschedule presentations, workshops and meetings over the course of four days due to our city being almost paralyzed by snow and ice this week. (Ok, I’ll have to insert this bit of info: Seattleites are light weights. We rarely have snow or sub freezing temperatures, have lots of hills and pretty much can’t drive safely under extreme conditions. The result is that many people become housebound and services often come to a screeching halt).

How Committed Are You To Getting The Results You Seek?

Many people start off the New Year with good intentions for fulfilling resolutions, but their interest and enthusiasm often wanes away by the end of February. This year, make a difference in your life. Review your habits and past behaviors that have previously not produced the results you desire. Be honest with yourself. Examine your circumstances carefully to determine what part you have played in the outcomes you have experienced. Don’t rely on your employer, market conditions, or your family obligations to dictate what happens to you (or doesn’t) this year. Make a commitment to reach your goals by outlining specific actions to accomplish them.

It seems the elements I observe that contribute more frequently than not to a stalled job search or poor results are associated with three elements: lack of commitment, failure to plan and unwillingness to change.  The following questions might help you to determine if you are setting yourself up for success, or more of the same this year.

Making Time for What You Want in the New Year

Most people in today’s working world are feeling the pressures of having too much to do and too little time to do it. The stress of trying to do more with less is beginning to take its toll on my productivity and of most of the people I know.  The illnesses, mistakes and even accidents resulting from lack of sleep and extreme stress cost us more than what we are attempting to gain by doing too much. The realization that both time and energy are finite has prompted me to take a deeper look. This year, the buck stops here.

Commitment Self-Exam: Avoid Self Sabotage

Are you truly committed to making a change this year? If you answered yes, then avoid sabotaging your commitment to your goals by reviewing your habits and past behaviors. Examine your circumstances carefully to determine what part you played in the outcomes you have previously gotten. If you are not producing the results you desire, then figure out why. Be honest with yourself.

• Have you let external issues or others’ actions determine what happens?
• Are you spending time on situations/events/issues that (if you were working) would not have taken as long or even been issues at all?
• Have you held off planning a course of action to “wait and see” before you make a decision to do something? Why?
• What would happen if you simply made a decision to take action, make a commitment, and in the worst-case scenario, had to change your plans later?
• Are you able/willing to stay focused? If you are not, have you identified the barriers? What can you do about them?
• Are you willing to work long hours, weekends and holidays for a limited time to accomplish what you desire?

 

What other issues can you identify that have kept you from fully committing?

Dec 17 ~ Free Shipping Day

Money Wise Women who may be last minute shoppers, just wanted to remind you (or let you know about) Free Shipping Day on Dec 17th.  This is the 3rd annual event where numerous popular stores offer free shipping and guarantee arrival by Christmas eve.  Go to www.FreeShippingDay.com for details.  There are an estimated 1,000 stores to choose from.  Plan a head...;-) and then do all your out of town shopping in one easy 'mall' trip.

Abundant Blessings!

Suzanne Kincaid

Author, Financial Freedom On $1 A Day
www.investworks.net

Make a Commitment to Reach Your Career Goals

Too often, people establish career goals the same way they make New Year’s resolutions. The problem with resolutions is that they fade away, are forgotten, and are only a distant memory by February. To actualize your desire for a change, exchange your resolution for a COMMITMENT to action.

Why a commitment and not just a wish?

Achievement of a goal doesn’t happen overnight. Job seekers are confronted with many issues beyond their control—economic conditions, competition, HR, and internal politics for a start. These issues can be very daunting and discouraging. The fact is you can’t reach your goal until you choose to face these challenges head on, with a plan of attack. Making the COMMITMENT to do so is within your control. Your goal becomes more than a “wish”.

Take charge - stay committed!

Don’t rely on your employer, market conditions, or your family obligations to dictate what happens to you (or doesn’t). Make a decision about what you need to do, commit to it, then adjust as events occur. Commitment to your goal and acting on it is more likely to produce the results you want than sitting idly as you wait for things to change.

Make a commitment to reach your goals by first being committed to the process, no matter what. 

• Keep yourself in check for things you can control. Recognize that you can make a choice each and every time something comes up that presents itself as a challenge.
• Write out your goals. Make them specific and measurable.
• Proceed through your outline of specific actions that lead to your specific goals.

 

What kind of resolutions are you planning for the New Year that could more effectively be treated as a goal?

Sherri Edwards

Sherri@resourcemaximizer.com

www.resourcemaximizer.com