02.18.07
Stay Motivated
By Gino Maccaroni
Self-discipline calls for balancing your emotions with your reasoning. Your emotions provide your driving power, the activating force which enables you to put your decisions into action. Positive emotions are like a river. Their power can be dammed up and releases under control and direction, but it can never be held forever in check. The same is true with negative emotions. Sometimes, fear, disappointment and anger can become your greatest enemy. They can destroy the potential that lies within you. Willpower and self-discipline can amplify the power of your emotions and channel it into a productive force in your life. You must be the one who controls the emotions and channel its passion and fire into moving you forward to your goals.
Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) is the frame of mind in which you can have definiteness of purpose. Through it, you can induce others to cooperate with you and help you achieve your goals; it can also attract the power of Infinite Intelligence by applying faith. Self-discipline ensures that you use your mental attitude to attract the things you want and repel the things that threaten you.
The one thing that has become very clear to me from all the successful people I’ve interviewed over the years is that there is one sure-fire antidote for depression, and that is action! Faced with life’s obstacles, including career advancement, it is clear that to turn one’s vision into reality requires more than words, it requires action. Effort and action are the tools with which we build our future!
Confidence in yourself and consistency in your actions are components of success. Each time you give yourself a jolt of extra energy, it produces results. You’re moving inch by inch towards your goal. The closer you get to your goals, the better you feel about yourself. The better you feel about yourself, the stronger your ability to repeat your success. Consistency is what distinguishes a champion from a “flash in the pan.” Positive energy is the secret to this whole program. Don’t forget, your emotions provide the driving power, the activating force. So stir up your emotions, get excited about your goals and turn your vision into reality by taking action!
Action Steps
- Reach out to an old contact. Send them a link to a great article; let them know how your 2007 is going, or just say "Hi!" Get that network going!
- Join a professional organization, or reconnect with one you’re already familiar with. Keeping up-to-date with your industry, and your fellow members, is a great way to make sure you are staying current.
- Be an archaeologist. Dig through your old files and pull out anything that signals your great past accomplishments. These can be commendations from your boss or colleagues, past performance reviews, or presentations and projects you’re most proud of. This is the best material for a winning resume.
- Take an objective look at your current or most recent job. What did you like? What wasn’t quite right? Understanding what worked for you in the past is the best way to plan your future.
- Do some industry research and make a list of companies you’d like to work for. Do you have any connections within those companies? Can you make or find some?
- Make a list of the things you’d like to find in a next job. Split it up into "must haves", "nice to haves", and "wish list". Keep it handy and only apply to jobs that meet your criteria. It may seem easy to just lob in an application for something that’s close, but not quite, to what you need, but that means you’ll be spreading yourself too thin when it comes to follow-up and interviews.
- Block off at least a ½ hour, no email, no phone, to search through listings. Evaluate each listing you like.
- You can track the progress of your job hunt from application to interviews, and have a comprehensive picture of the status of your search right at your fingertips.