Lord Thompson Manor Career Management

 Career risk management

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Last month’s column focused on the need for those just entering our profession to plan ahead, particularly in regard to their education and the certifications they pursue.

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This month, I want to discuss an equally important topic, one aimed at those of us with a few more years of experience behind us. While it may appear that thinking about where our career is headed is simply for college seniors and freshly minted MBAs, firsthand experience has taught many of us the opposite: The unforeseen can happen at any point in our careers.

Just as we spend time at our respective organizations managing risk–trying to assess and plan for random circumstances and losses–I believe we also must do the same for our own careers, both in how we choose to spend our time and the things we do now to help secure our professional future.

One of the best ways I know to help prepare for unexpected career curves is to invest time in maintaining a professional network. Personally, I am often disappointed when people only contact me when they’re looking for a job or want a reference. One of the first things I think to myself is, “Oh, so now you’re calling me–because you want something from me.” The gap in contact makes it more difficult for me to provide the kind of help they require; it also makes me less likely to go out of my way for them.

Spending time cultivating our professional network is a vital career investment. And it usually doesn’t take too much effort: a few phone calls every so often, an invitation to lunch now and then. Frankly, attending IMA chapter meetings provides a great way to keep connected to your professional colleagues because you get the opportunity to see the same people month after month. Keeping those relationships fresh and up-to-date makes it much easier when a situation arises where you need to activate your network and ask for career assistance.

There’s another aspect of our professional life that should also stay fresh and up-to-date: our job skills. The accounting and finance fields are continually in flux, and so is the technology that supports them. Staying current with the latest trends in management, information systems, and the more technical aspects of our profession helps to ensure that we can adapt when our jobs–or even just job descriptions–change.

The most obvious way to gain this knowledge is through continuing education courses, like the kind required to keep a Certified Management Accountant (CMA[R]) or Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certification in good standing. Don’t think you can rest on your laurels because you once earned these certifications but have now let them lapse. When I interview people who say they’re certified, I always look them up to make sure they maintain active status. Formal professional development courses aren’t the only way to keep abreast of the profession: Business books and periodicals (like the kind you’re reading now) also offer an excellent means to stay informed about industry trends.

Of course no one can predict the future, and that’s especially true in today’s climate of economic change. But working actively at risk management for our own careers can help shore up the investment we’ve made in our professional lives.

I welcome your comments at fschea@imanet.org.

Message from the chair

BY FREDERICK E. SCHEA, CMA, CFM, CPA

Lord Thompson Manor Risk Management

Posted by Lord Thompson Manor. Combining a interest in career management.

 Progressive Goal Setting Techniques

Author John Sprague

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Goal Setting is a necessary component of building wealth in whatever direction we are pointed. If you don’t first have a well defined goal in life, you shouldn’t hope to be very successful at anything you do. This concept can be in reference to whatever path you choose to be part of. May it be school, work or in family life, the requirement is similar. No direction will cause us to be off course and with no landing in sight.

Plan ahead wisely and understand the consequences of taking each day as it comes. You can and should help to determine where you will be five years from now or even ten or twenty years forward. Like in the game of chess, the moves you make now will help to determine who the winner will be later. Don’t get to far off track or you won’t have much to show at the end of the speedway.

After you have locked in your goals, set the plan in place, then it will require a strong determined spirit to produce a favorable end result. You can accomplish this by not quitting prematurely and smoothing out all the roadblocks that you inevitably will encounter along the way. No path is completely free of gravel and rocks. You’ll need to make intelligent decisions along the way, no question about that. In the end, you will do just fine.
“A person without a goal is like a ship without a rudder”- Dennis Waitley

“In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high” - Henry David Thoreau

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream” - C. S. Lewis

“A goal without a plan is just a wish” - Larry Elder

Turn your dreams into a goal setting reality and not just wishful thinking. Make your long term plans now and stick to them until there is a positive outcome. It is just a matter of patience, using an intelligent strategy developed by your own special talents and coupled with your desire for achievement of those goals.

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 Goal Setting and Definition - An Introduction to Lifestyle Design

By Ceena Giselle

Goal Setting is pointless. That is what the people you don’t want to be, tells everyone. The successful people on the other hand, live and die by it and that is already enough reason to believe that it works. I like to call this goal recalibration and I will tell you why in a second.

This stage is the single most important stage in lifestyle design because without this stage, you will never ever start! I define lifestyle design like what you probably think it is. It’s simply designing your lifestyle to the way you want it to be. No fancy explanations, just simple and easy to understand. Know what you really want and more importantly, don’t be influenced by others that want to make that decision for you. This is the foundation of lifestyle design.

Now I want to tell you why I call this recalibration. To calibrate means to correlate the readings with those of a standard. Everyone, you included, already have many goals in mind and those goals are usually “calibrated” to the standards of who you know, what you see and how they want you to be. I want you to re-calibrate your goals to the standards of the “uncommon” people. The successful one’s, the people you envy the most. Recalibrate your goals so that you’d know what is important to you and only you. Do it like how they do it. Find someone you know and look up to and observe them, see what makes them successful at what they do!

So how do you do it? It’s pretty simple actually. Here’s something you can follow right now.

* Close your eyes now and clear your thoughts. Brainstorm personal goals and write them down immediately.
* Impose a deadline. This is important so I suggest you pick 6 months for now. You can change this later on for other goals. Don’t make it too long though because you will lose steam. Remember you crammed before an exam then you still got those high grades? That’s what you want.
* Write your Long Term Goals. These should be finished within the deadline of 6 months. Don’t be worried about how hard they are and don’t over think them. Just keep a positive mindset and stop thinking of conquering the world.
* List your Short Term Goals. Think of what you could do now to start your long term goals.
* Lastly, list down your Medium Term Goals. Without this, you sometimes lose steam and lose track of your goals. Here’s an example. Your long term goal is to be able to fit in that dress of your that your mom gave you last Christmas. So you state that your short term goal is to enroll in the gym and start training to lose weight. Your medium term goal is to lose at least 30 pounds in 3 months. This is like a checkpoint or a big stepping stone towards the milestone. Remember to reward yourself when you finish a medium term goal. This will keep you motivated and positive throughout.

Eventually, when you get the hang of it, you will learn about tracking your progress which is equally important to see where you are at and what you are doing wrong. Do not be afraid to fail, keep working towards your goal and never give up.

In conclusion, simply state your goals and divide them to Short, Medium and Long Term Goals. Write them down and be dedicated to it. Without your whole hearted dedication, you will notice that will stray away from what you need to do and start doing time wasting activities.

Posted by Nicholas Daniels by Direction Janet Schlarbaum

 10 Keys To Personal Goal Setting

By: Steven Gillman

Lord Thompson Manor found this article interesting.
Does personal goal setting work? Many people want things, situations or accomplishments, call these goals, and then are disappointed when they don’t get them. Call desires goals if you want, but just naming your desires sure isn’t effective goal setting. Good goals have some or all of the following:

1. They are specific. “I want to be healthy” is too general. “I want to lose weight and walk three times a week,” is better.

2. They are measurable. How many pounds do you want to lose? How much money do you want to make? How will you know if your relationship is better?

3. They are in writing. There is power in writing down your goals. It makes them more real, and this influences your subconscious mind, especially if you review the goals regularly.

4. They are realistic. Sorry, but even if it is possible that you could become an astronaut, if you’re already 55, you better try for becoming a pilot for now. Unrealistic goals set you up for failure.

5. They have deadlines. You’ll have a new job by when? Setting dates really helps your progress.

6. They become plans. Making a goal into specific steps makes it much more likely. It isn’t overwhelming to take one step at a time.

7. They are motivated. Having the goal for the right reasons is a good start. You should also learn how to re-motivate yourself, and reward yourself when you make progress.

8. They consider personal factors. Can you really get what you want if you feel like you don’t deserve it? Maybe, but good goal setting takes into account personal changes that are necessary or useful.

9. They are followed by action. One of the keys to motivation and to getting where you want to be is to start with any movement towards the goal. Action begets action. Start slow if you must, but start.

10. They are not written in stone. Goals naturally evolve. Why would you become a doctor once you learned that you liked doing lab work better?

The last one is a tough one. An excuse and a change of course are not the same thing, but to know the difference means you need a certain level of self-awareness. Develop that, apply the keys to personal goal setting above, and you’ll get to where you want to be.

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 Why Goal Setting Has Not Worked For You

By: Koz Huseyin
Setting goals is a great way to achieving them! We find only a few percentage of people ever goal set. I am going to make a bold statement that everyone sets goals. However, there are many reasons why goal setting just is not working for you.

Our desires are a key to a successful outcome with our goals. However, the desires that we have can be summarized into a couple of types. These different types of desire can make or break your goal setting efforts.

Often we will chase symbols. We see that nice car, that nice house and we just want it. Perhaps it is to be better than the Jones or you just feel you got to achieve that goal you set yourself.

Achieving any goal is down to the right kind of desire. With the right kind of desire, the seeds come with the fertilizer, and the plant (your set goal) can grow. But, it needs the water. Without water the goal that you have set will never appear.

Conscious desire is that seeking symbols. It is as a child wanting something so bad, and when you finally received it, you wanted something else! This can be thought of as water that is polluted. Often these kinds of desires make goal achievement not possible. The universe, higher power, God, etc always knows your deepest needs and wants, and will only manifest those things which are necessary for your growth.

So, what is the best kind of desire to have, whether you want to achieve financial success, business success, or even a happy life? The desires which come from deep within, those kinds of goals we place on instinct. We just don’t know why we are having that desire. Kind of like the desire is when you have fallen in love with someone. You just have that feeling.

These subconscious desires are great desires to have. When you find them realize that you have gold in your hands. You have a desire which comes from a higher power, God, angels or whatever you want to label that higher power. These kind of desires always come with the necessary resources for there attainment.

When you goal set, these kind of desires can tell you whether you will achieve them or not. Now I am not saying that no conscious desire manifests, they do manifest. Though a simple look at every lottery winner and you will find that even though they attained the conscious desire, it soon vanished as fast as it came in. Often leaving the people one step behind.

You can start living your dreams when you understand the process of goal setting in the right way. Anything you truly desire can come to fruition. All it requires is taking action, as soon as you feel the impulse of that subconscious desire.

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Lord Thompson Manor Goals

By Greg Dempsey

Most people find the act of a goal setting activity almost impossible because they set goals that are way too large and become disheartened before they ever come close to reaching them. A goal setting activity that works is one that is broken down until it represents a single event. It is the progressive, sequential accumulation of single events that ensure the final desired end result.

For example, if your goal setting activity is to save $10,000 this year and you are paid fortnightly, you should have 26 single event goals, each written progressively to allow for changed circumstances.

Your goal setting activity should be what I call SMARTIES! SMARTIES is an acronym for the following:

SPECIFIC
Be absolutely specific when producing a goal setting activity and use the present tense.

MEASURABLE
You need to be able to monitor your progress so you can measure your success.

ATTAINABLE
You also need to be able to conceive your goal to attain it.

REALISTIC
Obviously goals need to be within the grounds of logic and circumstance.

TANGIBLE
Your goal needs to be something that is real or physical, that you can see and/or touch.

INSPIRATIONAL
If your goals don’t inspire you it’s unrealistic to expect that you’re going to be driven to achieve them.

EMOTIONAL
The more emotionally involved you become with your goal the quicker it will manifest into your life.

During your goal setting activity, as well as writing down your goals, I recommend you write down every possible benefit you will realize as a result of achieving your goal and its impact on all areas of your life.

Lord Thompson Manor Goals

By Jason Osborn

Goal setting is a very powerful way that can help you achieve anything in life much faster then if you didn’t have any goals set. However, there are some common goal setting mistakes that you want to avoid so that you can reach your goals as fast as you can.

One of the most common goal setting mistakes is to set to many goals at one time. Have you ever tried to carry too much in your arms at one time and before long you couldn’t manage it? You might have been able to balance everything in your arms for a little while but then, all of a sudden, everything in your arms come crashing down to the ground.

Goal setting can seem a lot like that if you set too many goals at one time. The best way to achieve your goals in life is to focus on just a few at a time. This way you are not spreading yourself so thin that you can put your full effort into anything. The more focused you are in your goal setting that more you will find that you achieve.

The best way to stay focused in goal setting is to pick 2 goals. One goal should be a long term goal that will take anywhere between 6 months and 5 years to reach. Your second goal should be a short term goal that somehow supports your long term goal. As you complete your short term goal, move on to another short term goal that supports your long term goal. By doing this you will be working on your long term goal while seeing the benefits of achieving your short term goals.

Lord Thompson Manor Goals

By Koz Huseyin

Do motivation and goal setting go together? Can motivation and goal setting propel you to your goals? What is more important, goal setting or motivation? Continue reading to find out the answers to these important questions.

In this article, you will find:

* A Look At Motivation And Goal Setting And Achieving Success

* Why!

* Getting More Motivated

* A Look At Motivation And Goal Setting And Achieving Success

When we take a look at motivation and goal setting, what are they exactly? If we think of motivation, and consider that motivation is fuel. Then goal setting is guiding that fuel in a given direction.

So, which is more important in motivation and goal setting? They both go hand in hand. The motivation is needed so you can get off the ground and take action. Without a goal there is no need to be motivated, after all what would you be motivated about?!

* Why!

If your level of motivation dictates whether you will even see your goal, how are you going to get motivated? The answer is your why. Why do you want this goal in the first place? Your level of motivation will be born from your why.

Why do you want that house, why do you want the million dollars, why do you want a certain type of woman? Why? Asking these questions will give you a reason to continue. So many people often will simply leave it at ‘I want to get rich’, but this has no level of motivation, and ultimately they fail. Symbols are not things that give us long term motivation.

* Getting More Motivated

We now know that motivation is a key ingredient. Yes, motivation and goal setting go together, but there is a difference. Your goal could take a few seconds of your time to think about or it could take an hour, a day, week or even years, but your motivation must be constant.

Getting more motivated requires several points to consider. These are your questions. A good place is to begin with your why. This acts as a litmus test also. Knowing your why, when setting your goals, you will get motivated. However, if you feel that you can’t get motivated, then consider whether this is simply wanting things that others want, and not what we want. Everyone wants to get rich, but maybe you don’t. Maybe you do want it, and have real reasons. This will give you the motivation to achieve the results.

Results are born out of motivation, and your motivation and goal setting go hand in hand. You must know why you want something, so you can achieve it. Far too many people hope, few try, and even fewer succeed. Many who try never succeed because there thoughts are simply materialistic. No, you don’t want to eat, you want to eat because it gives you nutrition to live another day.

By Jason Osborn

Making goals are a great thing to do but many times you are setting yourself up for failure before you even begin. Knowing what some of the common mistakes are in goal setting will help you avoid so that you can set yourself up for success, not failure. As you set goals in your life begin to test them to see if they are sound goals or if they have some of the common mistakes listed below.

1. Set too many goals at one time.

You don’t want to overload yourself with things to do. You will have much more success by being focused on 2 or 3 goals then you will by having 10 or more goals. If you are focused you can accomplish more.

2. Making your goals too big.

It’s better to set a smaller goal and achieve it than it is to set a huge goal and never come close to ever reaching it. Huge goals look great on paper but can become huge failures in real life.

3. Setting improper time frames.

Have you ever set a goal that you told yourself you would reach in a much shorter time than was ever possible? This is very common. It’s better to be a little pactient and set a more realistic time frame than it is to be over ambitious and not even come close to reaching your goal on time.

These are just a few common mistakes that are made when goal setting. The more you learn about setting goals the more you will find that you accomplish them faster and better.

By Terry Vermeylen

Do you want to be happy and successful in the future? Then set goals. People live successful, happy and living meaningful lives because they have taken the time to set goals. Below are 11 compelling reasons why goal setting is extremely important to you.

Goal setting helps us realize what we really want to accomplish in life.

Goal setting helps us to commit and take the necessary steps to make our desires a reality.

Goals setting give us direction and purpose.

Goal setting reduces the clutter in our mind and makes it clearer as to where we are heading.

Once we commit goals to paper or a computer, it makes them more tangible, specific and concrete.

Goals that are written down can be easily reflected on, changed, admired and analysed.

As you change you can change your written goals.

Once goals are written down they can be broken into manageable parts.

Goal setting allows us to look at our present, past or future and learn from mistakes.

Goal setting helps us get over the fear of change.

Goals can help boost your confidence as you reach them.