You can rock 2013! (Yes... I said 2013)

The nights are dark, the air is crisp and every other ad on TV mentions the words "this Christmas." Yup - the season to be jolly is approaching which means that the end of 2013 is imminent.

How has 2013 been for you? How far along did you get with any New Years Resolutions you set more than 11 months ago? Did you score the new job you were after? Gain the promotion you were working towards? Create a deeper, more supportive connection with your partner? Spend more quality time with your children? Have more fun with your friends? Lose that excess weight that's been bugging you?  Plan or go on the spectacular holiday you wanted?

Yes? Yay you! There really is not much else that is as satisfying as moving closer and closer to these sorts of goals if they help you create the kind of lifestyle you want.

If you've not quite gotten there yet and are already Thinking "it didn't happen this year but I'll DEFINITELY make it happen in 2014" then I would like to stop you in your tracks. Whoa there! "I'll make it happen next year?!" Your resolve is commendable but you have forgotten one thing. There are (just under) 7.. Yes nearly 7 weeks of 2013 left. You know his much can happen in 7 weeks? Lots - to put it mildly - so with that in mind I would like to share 7 ways that you can progress further to your goals in the last 7 weeks of 2013. 

1. Look for a quick win: Are you close to achieving one of your goals but not quite there yet?  If you've been wanting to spend more quality time with someone for example call them now. This moment. Set a date for 2013. Boom... done.

2. Break it down: No... I'm not encouraging a funky 80s dance move but I am encouraging you to split your goal into parts. For example, if - like a few of my clients - you are working towards gaining your doctorate or your masters, please don't beat yourself up if you didn't complete it in 2013 as you had hoped. Sometimes life really does get in the way or you have been missing the motivation. Whatever the case, don't just decide this is a 2014 goal now. Decide what you can still do this year to progress your goal. Can you write or plan your literature review? Progress your research by booking a few interviews into the diary? Set aside a day or 2 in the library to get away from it all and force yourself to write (you may even find its less busy with everyone focused on shopping for the holidays!). There is no shortage of things you can do to focus and achieve an aspect of your overall goal this year - and you'll be so proud that you did.

3. Make a plan for the coming week/s. At this time of year, the diary may fill up fast with festive fun - which is fantastic in ways but not fruitful of you still have some things to achieve this year. With that in mind, plan your week to ensure you are diarising 'goal time' as if you don't - that time will be swallowed up.

4. Book a meeting: As most goals involve an ally in some way - book a meeting with that person. That can work for most goals! Book a meeting with the person who will help you make it happen. That could be a personal trainer for a weight loss goal, your coach for a business goal, your manager for a career progression goal, your parents or friends for a goal that requires you to have more support from your networks - you name it and there will be someone who can get you closer to it. Make that meeting today!

5. Tell a friend: this may involve posting info about the goal on social media or just verbally telling a friend or two. When you speak your goals - they become alive! When you speak them to friends, you become accountable as although you won't have the structure and focus that you'd get from a coach, you will have them then asking you how you're getting on with it. Accountability greatly helps action. Phone a friend!

6. Write it down: While its helpful to speak a goal it is ESSENTIAL to write it down. Physically write it. Whether its on your iPad or a piece of paper - write or down. There's huge power in getting it out of your head and onto paper.

7. Make yourself a promise: promise yourself that within the next 7 weeks you will take active steps as per the above towards making something happen so while you look forward to 2014 - you have the momentum of very recent goal achievement success in 2013.

I'd LOVE to know what your remaining 2013 goal is, what you think of the above, what you are going to try and any results you have from implementing these steps. Please do share below! 

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Gina Visram is a career coach, speaker, mentor and author who works with ambitious, multi-tasking individuals and couples who are ready to work hard at being successful in their careers and personal lives - on their own terms. She has recently published Happily Ever After for Grown Ups: A Post-Wedding, Blues-Busting Guide for Newlyweds" and is committed to helping people get over overwhelm and achieve the career success/life balance they seek. For more information and to sign up to her free newsletter visit www.limitlesscoaching.com. 

Can Carnival Celebrations Cultivate Career Creativity?

Can sequins, bright colours, feathers and loud pulsating Caribbean music teach you significant, thought-provoking lessons about maximising your career development efforts?
No?
An understandable assumption, but you’re wrong... and I'll tell you why.

Do ever feel exhausted when you think about your work week ahead? Wonder how you managed to make it through another weekend without getting enough rest or switching off and having enough fun?

My recent annual pilgrimage to the streets of West London – to ‘play mas’ (participate) in the Notting Hill Carnival reminded me of a few things:

• Actively participating in an activity / hobby you love is so good for you… it’s incredibly ‘freeing’ 
• Hanging out with a group of friends that you – generally speaking – don’t see nearly often enough is food for the soul 
•    Switching off from work for a few days (whether to dance down the road with a drink in your hand or go out of town to get away from it all) gives a fresh and creative perspective on day to day life – including your career.
  

So… incredibly energised and inspired by my weekend of carnival celebrations, I decided to have some fun pulling together some career development lessons that we can glean from some of the most popular soca tracks from 2013. Get ready to jump and wave your way closer to your career goals:

1.    Track 1: Float: - (Arguably?) The world’s premier soca artist, Trinidadian Machel Montano has had thousands upon thousands of revellers at carnivals worldwide singing along to his catchy hook… “We not staying down… we getting off the ground!”

#SocaCareerDevelopmentMessage1: Float past your challenges

Even when feeling down, out and overwhelmed in your job or business – have the confidence in yourself to know that you can ‘float’ past your current challenges and onto something better. Machel references ‘floating like Superman’ in the track – and if you find the motivation to get you from A to B, I know you can also find your own internal superhero when you’re up against it!

2.    Track 2: Possessed: - Machel is back and this time teaming up with fellow soca artist Kerwin Dubois and… stepping out of the realm of soca as fans know it, they have collaborated with world-famous South African band Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The uniqueness of this track made it one of the most popular songs at Caribbean carnivals all over the world in 2013.
#SocaCareerDevelopmentMessage2a&2b –

 2a) Fight the temptation to be complacent & 2b) Good teamwork is magical: 

 Even when you’re at the top of your game (like Machel), doing something different… truly different in a strategic way will help ensure that people don’t take your talents for granted and instead will make people sit up and take notice. In career terms, although your boss/team may recognise how good you are - you too can increase the quality of your work through a strategic (potentially surprising) and mutually beneficial collaboration. Perhaps you can work with a colleague from a different department or a fellow entrepreneur who has similar, complementary goals. Even if you’re flying high in your career… you can pull a rabbit out of a hat by challenging yourself and stepping beyond the expectations of those that know you… and this can keep a job that you have been in for awhile exciting for you too.

3.    Track 3: Call my name: In this catchy up-tempo track, Destra encourages a boy to call her. With lyrics including “Call my phone… dial my number anytime… call me whenever” - this classic ‘boy meets girl’ scene is a familiar one. Nonetheless, some of the other lyrics in the track inspired another career development lesson.

#SocaCareerDevelopmentMessage3: Expect the unexpected / Be prepared for any opportunity.

I came to this interpretation through taking the notion of ‘calling’ a bit more figuratively – i.e. responding to an opportunity (nothing to do with responding to someone you’re attracted to – that’s a whole different career strategy and not one I advocate!)

Remember, you may have a plan to work towards a promotion… or even a slight change in career direction within 12 months. You have a plan, you’re working hard and you intend to get there. But what happens if the phone rings with an appealing opportunity after 4 months… instead of 12. What happens then? Are you slightly spooked by not feeling ‘ready’ or do you train yourself to be constantly poised to take advantage of whatever exciting opportunities may pass your way – even if it’s on a different time frame to what you envisage.
Do what you need to do to be ready move your career along as you desire… even if it involves an unexpected twist or two along the way. 

So there it is. Creative Career lessons inspired by carnival celebrations. If you have ever felt like you are spending an uncomfortably disproportionate time working versus 'living' then the above has hopefully put a smile on your face and a spring in your step.

This is a blog post I didn’t see coming but I felt so moved by the carnival fun I had recently and thought my Limitless Community would also feel inspired… at least by my enthusiasm if nothing else. I would LOVE to know your thoughts about this post… please take a couple of moments to comment below…

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Gina Visram is a career coach, speaker, mentor and author who works with ambitious, multi-tasking women (and men!) who are ready to work hard at being successful in their careers and personal lives - on their own terms. She has recently published Happily Ever After for Grown Ups: A Post-Wedding, Blues-Busting Guide for Newlyweds" and is committed to helping people get over overwhelm and achieve the career success/life balance they seek. For more information and to sign up to her free newsletter visit www.limitlesscoaching.com. 

How to Prioritise: Tools, tricks and tips for busy professionals (Part 2)

Since posting part 1 of the “How to Prioritise” blog a couple of months ago, I have enjoyed hearing from people who took the time to tell me that they found the tips useful in reference to helping them balance their responsibilities / tasks. This series of posts is designed to help you feel more control, get past ‘overwhelm’ and ultimately - give you the tools to help you answer the question “what did I achieve this year” with your head held high.

You can check out “How to Prioritise: Tools, tricks and tips for busy professionals” (Part 1)  here… and check out a few more suggestions below:

Embrace Mind Maps – Part 1 of this blog mentions making a written task list, however it’s worth bearing in mind that sometimes thinking in a linear fashion doesn’t necessarily channel the information you need for that list you are looking to create. By (literally) spreading out your thinking through creating a mind map – your thoughts sometimes flow more freely. Once you’ve done this, you can then categorise or order the varying things on your list – to help you prioritise.

Set deadlines - In the same way that you had deadlines at school, set deadlines against the items on your to do list. This works on a variety of levels. On a straightforward level, it gives you the opportunity to think through the range of tasks in your life and means that you have clear dates to work towards. Do you have a big project deadline at work? Do you have a birthday or anniversary card to send? Are you applying for business funding? All of these things will have pre-set deadlines so you can stick to those dates or impose your own date in advance - allowing you to make these tasks as seamless as possible.

For anything else that may not be as clear cut - set deadlines anyway. If you stick to them as per the above that's the ideal situation but if you don't you can show some flexibility and provide a new deadline when necessary. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Sometimes there are things on your list that get moved and moved and moved. That's still helpful believe it or not... let me tell you why. Tasks which have endlessly moving deadlines generally eventually result in one of two responses:

1. You get so sick of seeing this same task pop on on your to do list that you either just do it as the fact that it's still there is really ******** you off [insert appropriate term of frustration here].

OR

2. You have a hard long think about this task and what it will really take to do it. At that stage, either you'll give it a much more realistic, considered deadline OR you will just take it off your list full stop. Maybe it just isn't that important to you anyway.

You now have 5 tools, tricks and tips for prioritisation between these two posts and I hope you'll take the time to give them a try if you would like to improve your ability to prioritise. Maximising productivity sounds good to me. You too?

I've also recently recorded video blogs with even more "How to Prioritise" content so sign up here to keep up to date about when you can access those (and other useful content).

***** 

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Want to use this article on your blog or ezine? No problem... you just need to include the below:

Gina Visram is a career coach, speaker, mentor and author who works with ambitious, multi-tasking women (and men!) who are ready to work hard at being successful in their careers and personal lives - on their own terms. She has recently published Happily Ever After for Grown Ups: A Post-Wedding, Blues-Busting Guide for Newlyweds" and is committed to helping people get over overwhelm and achieve the career success/life balance they seek. For more information and to sign up to her free newsletter visit www.limitlesscoaching.com.