According to the Book of James, 2:10, “Faith without work is dead". Now that you have finalized your career development plan, you must work your plan. Don't expect everything that you strategically developed in your plan to magically appear; this is real life not a magic show. To be honest, creating the plan was the easy 10 percent, now it’s time to roll-up your sleeves and implement the other 90 percent.
If you are feeling a little uneasy at this point, you are on the right track. Putting your plan in action will force you OUT of your comfort zone and put you into a space that you've never experienced. Embrace this feeling and use it as fuel to keep you going. Remember this is a marathon not a race.
Work your career development plan every single day, being mindful of the tasks you’ve completed and those on the horizon. Furthermore, don’t half-step on completing your to-dos. If you have a goal to contact five people a day, contact those five people...not four or three. For my overachievers out there, contact 10 people per day. There's nothing wrong with going beyond the call of duty. If you fall short of your tasks, take a step back to figure out how you can get back on track. I still fall short of my tasks from time to time, and sometimes struggle with getting back on track. After a while, I figure out what I'm missing and what I need to do to get things moving. I must admit my decision making process could be much faster, but hey we are all a work in progress :).
At the end of the day, you are responsible for your own career development so what you put into it is definitely what you will get out if it.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
What Goes Up Must Stay Up Pt. 1
We are all aware of the quote "What comes up, must come down". This slogan is true for a large array of situations. However, when it comes to your career you have all the power you need to go up and stay up. Remaining relevant in your industry can be extremely challenging if you don't know the direction in which it’s going and if you don't have a plan to get there. At the very least, you should annually review and revise your and career development plan, to make sure that it’s working to keep you ahead of the curve. We all know if you fail to plan you plan to fail, so don't take the development of your career plan lightly.
Start out by researching next year’s trends in the industry that you are in. Finding this information can be as simple as going to Google and typing "Next year’s trends in __________". Put your industry in the blank, and start figuring out what the experts are projecting about your industry. After reading a few articles you will have a clearer picture of what you must do to "Stay Up".
After finishing your research, it’s time to develop your three-part plan. The development of your plan should consist of: where you are currently, where you want to go, and the most important area, how to get there. This is the meat and potatoes of this initiative so take your time with this and don't get frustrated if this takes a little longer than you anticipated.. Trust me, it’s well worth the time and effort.
Once you have refined and designed your plan, take it to a trusted source,like a mentor, and have them give their honest feedback. It's always important to have a second or third pair of expert eyes take a look. They can only make your plan better than you could ever imagine.
Now that you’ve read this blog entry , it’s time to implement! Don't tell yourself that you are going to develop your plan later in life. Take the opportunity to develop it now, it could be the difference between having that corner office at a major corporation or sitting in a corner mad at yourself because your career isn't what you hoped for.
Start out by researching next year’s trends in the industry that you are in. Finding this information can be as simple as going to Google and typing "Next year’s trends in __________". Put your industry in the blank, and start figuring out what the experts are projecting about your industry. After reading a few articles you will have a clearer picture of what you must do to "Stay Up".
After finishing your research, it’s time to develop your three-part plan. The development of your plan should consist of: where you are currently, where you want to go, and the most important area, how to get there. This is the meat and potatoes of this initiative so take your time with this and don't get frustrated if this takes a little longer than you anticipated.. Trust me, it’s well worth the time and effort.
Once you have refined and designed your plan, take it to a trusted source,like a mentor, and have them give their honest feedback. It's always important to have a second or third pair of expert eyes take a look. They can only make your plan better than you could ever imagine.
Now that you’ve read this blog entry , it’s time to implement! Don't tell yourself that you are going to develop your plan later in life. Take the opportunity to develop it now, it could be the difference between having that corner office at a major corporation or sitting in a corner mad at yourself because your career isn't what you hoped for.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
History of My Future
In the movie, “Back to the Future," the main character, Marty McFly has the opportunity to travel into the future to see how his life would be if he continued to travel down his current path. If there was something that he didn't like, he had the advantage of changing his actions in the present, thus changing his future.
Even though this is just a fictional movie about a fictional future, we can apply this concept to our lives in the present. History has shown that if you don't incorporate certain actions into your present life, a certain type of future will be designed for you. Please walk with me down the path I was traveling and how I was able to accept and embrace changes which ultimately helped me to achieve a better work / life balance.
Years ago at my first job, the most important aspect of my life was working. I would spend countless hours at the office, totally disregarding quality time with my family and friends. My philosophy was that my money was the most important thing in my life and that if I wanted to keep this cycle going, I had to work more. Little did I know that the more hours I worked at my job, the less time I had to spend with my family and friends. I look back at the future which I was creating and I'm not proud of it.
The blessing that occurred in my life was getting laid off from the same job that I had dedicated countless hours to. My first reaction was that my job was taken away from me, but in retrospect, God was removing the one thing that was damaging my life and giving me another opportunity to gain a better balance of what should have been of the upmost importance. If I had failed to accept this divine reroute of my path, my future would have been a lonely one.
Most successful people have some sort of void in their lives, whether it’s losing the strong connection with their family or becoming something that they can't even look at in the mirror. Not me, not now, not ever.......
With any endeavor that you are involved in ALWAYS put you family first! At the end of the day, they are the reason you are working so hard in the first place right?
Even though this is just a fictional movie about a fictional future, we can apply this concept to our lives in the present. History has shown that if you don't incorporate certain actions into your present life, a certain type of future will be designed for you. Please walk with me down the path I was traveling and how I was able to accept and embrace changes which ultimately helped me to achieve a better work / life balance.
Years ago at my first job, the most important aspect of my life was working. I would spend countless hours at the office, totally disregarding quality time with my family and friends. My philosophy was that my money was the most important thing in my life and that if I wanted to keep this cycle going, I had to work more. Little did I know that the more hours I worked at my job, the less time I had to spend with my family and friends. I look back at the future which I was creating and I'm not proud of it.
The blessing that occurred in my life was getting laid off from the same job that I had dedicated countless hours to. My first reaction was that my job was taken away from me, but in retrospect, God was removing the one thing that was damaging my life and giving me another opportunity to gain a better balance of what should have been of the upmost importance. If I had failed to accept this divine reroute of my path, my future would have been a lonely one.
Most successful people have some sort of void in their lives, whether it’s losing the strong connection with their family or becoming something that they can't even look at in the mirror. Not me, not now, not ever.......
With any endeavor that you are involved in ALWAYS put you family first! At the end of the day, they are the reason you are working so hard in the first place right?
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Ten pages a day keeps the ignorance away
I clearly remember when I was going to Harold Washington College after class I would always go to the closest bookstore and purchase book after book after book. It got to the point where I bought so many books that I just skimmed thought them without taking the time to read them completely. I was becoming a book hoarder. I wonder if there's a show like that on A & E?? Moving forward, my excuse at the time was that I didn't have the time to read the books. It was also a little overwhelming to have all of these books in front of me without taking any action. Subconsciously, I wanted to finish all the books that I had immediately however, I knew this wasn't physically possible so I took the action that I usually took at the time...Nothing!
Fast Forward to 2011, I was introduced to the concept of reading ten pages of a book a day. No matter how big or small the book was I committed to reading only ten pages a day. With everything going on in my life ten pages didn't seen as overwhelming as a two or three hundred page book, same book but a different approach on finishing the book. I have implemented this and finished books at a much faster rate than I did in the past. I recommend this approach to anyone that wants to read more but feels like they don't have the time.
Here's my book hit list courtesy of Shelfari.com
Saturday, June 18, 2011
A Better Understanding - Episode Two: How Professional is Your Development?
In this day and age you have more people stuck at a job instead of developing themselves for the next level of their career. This is a huge problem because everyone that’s working a job can have a career they just have to re-develop their strategy. This episode will give you a better understanding of what steps to take to re-align your career for a better and more fulfilling professional career.
Listen to internet radio with EricBHorn on Blog Talk Radio
Friday, June 17, 2011
Be Nice to Everyone But Build with the Chosen Few
In your lifetime you will meet all kinds of people for all types of reasons. Some encounters will be good others will be bad but though it all remember that these people came in your life for a reason and you should be thankful for the experience you had with them. This is a strong lesson that I had to learn especially when it came to friends and trying to make moves with them. My philosophy was that I would build with ALL of my friends so we are ALL successful in whatever they want to do in life. I was the type where if I hear someones dream I was ready to help them succeed however, when I was ready did not necessarily mean that they were ready.
Honestly, I would get frustrated with some of my friends because they say they want to be successful but when the time comes no action is taken. It took me a while to realize that everyone moves at their own speed and when they are ready to move forward they will. The biggest piece of support that I can give to them at that moment is to pray that they will gain the wisdom and drive to chase after their dreams.
To also balance out this frustration I build and network with people who are striving to be successful every second of the day. Building with people who's goals are parallel to yours will give you extra motivation and inspiration you need to decipher the people that talk the talk from those who walk the walk.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
A Better Understanding - Episode One: Open Handed Intentions
The purpose of this radio episode is to well gain "A Better Understanding" of who I am, why I started this show, and what I want to bring to the table. This will be the first step down a long path of personal and professional development that's very much needed in the world. Enjoy!
Listen to internet radio with EricBHorn on Blog Talk Radio
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