The Meaning of SMART Goal Setting
Goal setting is one of the things that successful individuals go through regularly. Setting goals will help them determine what they need to achieve and the necessary steps they need to take to complete them.
If you are planning to set your goals soon, you should do it with the SMART goal setting method so that you will be able to be effective in doing it.
The SMART method of setting your goals is a way to make it simpler for you to do. If you are wondering what this method is all about, SMART means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.
Each letter found in the word SMART represents an essential factor or element you need to consider when setting your goals. When you do that, you will be able to set your life goals properly.
Specific – This means that your goals should not be vague or too general. For instance, if you want to be promoted in your job, you want to make it more specific by saying that you want to become a supervisor, manager, or senior manager. When you set specific goals, you will be able to determine the steps that need to be taken since the direction you need to go to would become more apparent.
Measurable – Setting measurable goals can help you see your progress in attaining them. For instance, to become a supervisor, you will be able to monitor your progress by carefully evaluating yourself, such as your skills acquired, the kind of tenure you have in the company, and such to achieve supervisory level.
Attainable – You should not set goals that you know it is not possible for you to achieve. For example, suppose you recently were hired by a particular company. In that case, it is not suitable for you to set your goal of becoming a CEO since there are many promotions that you will need to go through before achieving that. You can put that as your long-term goal and the smaller promotions as your short-term ones.
Importance Of Skills Emphasis On Job Interviews
Skill emphasis during the interview is essential to show the employer what makes you different from all the other job candidates. Companies search for the most qualified employees in this competitive world by weighing the candidates' skills and determining how they would benefit the company.
The majority of the top companies search for employees who stand out based on their expertise, ability to give new developments, and pleasing personalities that would enhance the organization.
Skills are grouped into knowledge-based, transferable, and personal traits.
1) Knowledge-based skills are those learned from experiences. These may include educational attainment, additional training, seminars attended, and other practices that you have studied to enhance your expertise.
Knowledge-based skills include computer and communication skills, marketing or managerial knowledge, product development, and many more. These skills vary depending on the field of industry of each job candidate.
2) Transferable or portable skills are those you bring to a specific job. This is why interviewers ask, "What could you offer the company?" Transferable skills are essential because companies strive to look for quality employees that would improve the development of the workforce.
Portable skills include problem-solving, team leader potential, organization, writing and communication skills, customer service oriented, time and project management, and good with numbers and budget. This kind of skill varies depending on the experience and versatility of each job candidate.
3) Personal traits determine who you are. One of the most common things an employer says in a job interview is, "Tell me something about yourself." Your response is vital because it would set the tone for the rest of the interview.
Personal traits include good judgment, being well organized, analytical, goal-oriented, flexible, creative, and many more. Try to sell yourself in as modest as possible within a limited time.
Practicing Gratitude Part 3
Gratitude to Better Your Relationships
Some recent studies have shown the positive links between the practice of gratitude and the satisfaction and strength of relationships. Gratitude can help you form and maintain better relationships and is the key to relationship success.
When you are genuinely grateful for the person you're with, you are more likely to behave better toward them and are more likely to want to work hard to keep your relationship going. Gratitude can also help you enjoy better and cherish the time you spend with your partner, making them feel more appreciated and more grateful toward you.
To improve your relationships through gratitude, start by appreciating your partner more consciously. Take the time to notice all the things you enjoy about them, their personality, mannerisms, and actions.
Think about what it is you love about them. Consider why you enjoy spending time with them. When you become more aware of these things, you'll notice yourself being more grateful for them.
This is not to say that all relationships will work if both of you practice gratitude. You have to be genuinely grateful if you want it to work. If you don't particularly feel positive about your partner, you will struggle to generate an authentic sense of gratitude.
Resume Tips to Help You Land That Job
Are you looking for a new job or a new career? If you are, have you already started using the internet to find employment? If you have, you may be at the applying stage. The applying stage of job hunting is perhaps the most crucial part. You are often only required to send in a job application or submit your resume.
Since your face and personality will not originally be seen, you will need to let your resume do all the work for you. That is why your resume must be professional-looking. Here are A few tips that you may want to keep in mind when creating your resume.
As a reminder, your resume is the first thing that an employer will see. If you apply for a job that you saw advertised online, there is a good chance that you will not be submitting your resume in person. Although it isn’t always fair, many employers categorize their applicants solely on their resumes. You must thoroughly review your resume before turning it into hopeful employers. In most cases, the resume makes or breaks an applicant’s chance of getting the job they were seeking.
The most important tip to remember when creating a new resume for yourself or reviewing your current resume is the appearance. Many people mistakenly believe that they stand the best chance if their resume stands out. Yes, you want your resume to stand out, but in a good way, a professional manner. You will want to try and avoid colored paper and flashy, hard-to-read print at all costs. As stated above, many employers categorize their applicants by their resumes. Having an unattractive, unprofessional resume is the quickest way to get your resume into that “don’t bother” pile.
Career Development Takes Work
Do you currently have the career of your dreams? If so, congratulations on all your hard work, because I'm quite sure that your success and accomplishment didn't happen overnight. If you do not have the career you have always dreamed of, do not worry, you can get there. Career development isn't easy, but it is definitely worth it.
Career development can mean a lot of things. Here, for my purposes, I simply mean doing the things you have to do to get the career you really want. The first step in the process of career development is to figure out - really figure out - the career you want to have. This may be harder than it seems. You need to know yourself, know what you're good at, and understand what excites you.
Not many people last long in a career that they hate. Career development begins with taking a close look at yourself. See a career counselor for even more help or take tests to help you determine your personality and jobs that will fit it well.
Once you have determined a career or two that seems to fit you and your dreams, continue with your career development by discovering what needs to happen to be qualified for the career you want. Career development does not occur instantly or even in a year. It may take years of hard work to get to where you want to be.
It is essential to be realistic about your goals and the process. Does more education need to take place for your career development? Or perhaps you just need some special training courses in your field, but you do not need another degree? Find these things out and then begin pursuing them.
Career development is essential because I am convinced that it is vital that people spend their lives on things they care about and feel like they can do well at. There is nothing worse than spending years of your life in an unsatisfying career. Fortunately, you do not have to let that be your life story. Take proactive steps that put you in control of your career development.
Goal Setting and Its Importance
People all have dreams about what they want their lives to be in the future. Whether a person wants his finances to be on track, have better health, contribute to society, and make his family happy, what matters most is if he can make those dreams of him a reality.
When you look around you, you will see that each person has a different life story. Some people are successful, while others continue to dream the life they want but can't reach it due to lack of action. If you study them well, you will eventually realize that the main difference between each person is goal setting.
Every person in this world has goals. You may not realize it, but you set goals almost every day of your life. There are times when you have a plan to pay your electric bills at the end of the week, buy a car in a year, practice techniques to increase your business's profits, and such.
With all the goals you have set for yourself, you should check if most of them have been achieved. However, when time passes by, how would you know that you set a particular goal? Would you remember that you set a goal of buying a car a few months after thinking about it?
There is a big possibility that you want to hit your goals, but you cannot do it because you lost track of them, especially if you have a hectic life. Therefore, you must write down your goals on a sheet of paper.
Don't make use of just any kind of paper you come across with, but choose something that has good quality, so that you will be able to refer to it even after a few months have passed.
How To Have A Great Job Interview
You will want to make the best impression of all when you have a job interview - after all, you do not get a second chance to make a first impression. When you are going for a job interview, this is your one chance to shine. How do you go about this?
Take the following tips when you go for your next job interview so that you can make a positive impression and please your prospective employer as well as get that job:
Dress for success
Ensure that you are wearing your best clothes when you go for a job interview. You should wear a shirt and tie if you are a man and a woman’s suit for a woman with low heels and stockings. Although most companies go for business casual nowadays, you do want to dress for success when you go for the job interview to land the job.
Talk positively about your past jobs
Employers will most likely ask you about your past job experiences. Make sure that you talk positively about any experiences you might have had when working. You should speak positively about them even if they were unpleasant experiences. Never talk bad about a past job or a past employer as it looks bad for you.
Practicing Gratitude Part 2
Counteract Negativity
When you begin to practice gratitude in your life, it can help you cope with the negative emotions you feel and the challenging situations you face. As you worked through the consciousness exercise, you should have started to notice that you experienced a sense of increased positivity and contentment.
This happens because when we think about the things that we are grateful for, we actively focus on the positive emotion and good things in our lives. This positivity can be harnessed to help us through the more challenging times.
By bringing positivity to stressful situations, you can shift your focus to a more positive response, leading to more energy and positivity to deal with the problematic situation.
Learning to counteract negativity does not suggest that you live a life of relentless optimism because such a perspective is unrealistic and can do more harm than good.
Instead, using gratitude to counteract negativity is not about feeling positive all the time, but rather learning how to be grateful for what you do have and gaining a greater sense of happiness during times of turmoil, and providing you with more resilience to cope with difficulties.
Incorporating gratitude in your life will help you achieve a greater sense of wellbeing and bring more happiness into your life. While it won't prevent you from experiencing hardships, gratitude can create a more positive outlook and allow you to accept the adverse situations from a healthier perspective. This can let you solve issues more efficiently and help you to better deal with the adversity you'll face throughout your life.
Stay Grateful When Striving For Your Goals
Job Hunting: Should You Lower Your Expectations
Are you in need of a job? If you are currently unemployed, you may consider yourself desperate for a new job. If you need a job, you may wonder if you should lower your expectations to make it easier to find a job right away. If you are thinking like this, you are definitely not alone.
When it comes to determining whether or not you should lower your expectations when hunting for a job, several important factors need to be considered. One of those factors is your need for a job. For instance, do you have a family to support? Do you have rent, mortgage, or car payments that need to be made?
If you do, your need for a job may be pretty high, especially if you are not receiving money from your state's unemployment fund. If your survival depends on having a job, you may need to lower your expectations, even just temporarily.
Another factor that needs to be examined when determining whether or not you should lower your expectations when hunting for a job is your expectations. For instance, are they reasonable? Are you interested in working as a doctor? If you are, do you have a degree in medicine? If not, your expectations are not only too high, but they are unreasonable.
The first step in not being required to lower your expectations when searching for a job is making sure that your expectations are reasonable. For instance, if you worked as a retail cashier for a while and attended business school, you may want to think about trying to acquire a job as a member of retail management. This goal is just right, as it isn't too unrealistic.
Advantages Of Time Management
The advantages of time management include reducing stress, gaining time, reducing avoidance while promoting reviews, and eliminating cramming. Another advantage is that managing time helps us stay motivated while avoiding procrastination.
The trick to successful time management is setting up goals that work while being aware of those goals and prioritizing your list of goals. When you set up an effective time management plan, you are growing and upholding a personal commitment to yourself, with the ability to be more flexible.
When you have a great time management plan, you are giving yourself a unique chance to generate a timetable that works to suit your busy caseload. When you create a good plan, you will soon find time to do everything that matters most to you in life. In addition, when you have a good time management plan, you are saving your health.
Plans have a schedule timed, including all the activities you are responsible for handling. Your Master Timetable should include all the most important actions you are responsible for handling. It would be best to modify this schedule according to your time changes. When you set up a Master Timetable, you must list the priorities first and work your way down to the least important tasks.
You must complete the tasks first listed. In other words, if you state on your Master Timetable that you need to write up some documents for your business, then do this task first and proceed to the next task. Avoid multitasking unless it is your job and you are proficient and have laid out a time management plan.
You will also need to include meals, sleep, family, friends, yourself, and other tasks if they are a part of your time management. By setting up a Master Timetable, you can work out your time scheme by working through the list on the time chart. Avoid skipping a scheduled task or procrastinating since this will only delay your plan.
The Right Attitudes to Achieve Your Goals
If you genuinely want to succeed in achieving your goals, you need to have the proper habits and attitudes to keep you on track. You have to keep several good traits for life to discover that more opportunities and good things will happen if only you allow them. Here are some of the features that great people had.
Being Industrious
Hard work always pays off. There is no single famous person in history who achieved several goals in life without working them off.
Being Industrious means working harder than anyone else, studying more than anyone else, and even suffering more than anyone else.
You have to understand the importance of delayed gratification as you work towards your ultimate goal. To begin working hard, you can start by fixing your schedule, writing down tasks and functions, and finding the right people and resources that can assist you. Remember that you have to be as independent as possible to finish more long-term.
Discipline and Consistency
Discipline is what separates the leaders from the followers. If you genuinely want to make changes in your life, you must understand that you need to do things even if you do not wish to do them. You need to maintain excellent quality and optimum performance each time.
Being consistent is Mixed with patience. Consistency means you continue performing well, regardless of the situations and challenges, to deliver the results you want.
How to Answer Interview Questions
No matter what age you are, there is nothing more stressful than going through an interview. Whether you have years of experience in your profession or are a teenager looking for a summer job, the thought is how to answer interview questions.
There are obvious right and wrong answers to some questions. The simple questions determine the basic skill level needed for a particular job. These are usually not the questions that determine who gets the job because they cover the basic job description and essential duties.
It is learning how to answer interview questions where the interviewer is looking for a particular attitude or skill to determine if you will stand out among the others being interviewed.
These are the questions that are the most difficult to prepare for. These are also the questions that you repeatedly answer in your mind once you leave the interview room. I know that I have left many interviews wishing I had worded my answer differently or elaborated on a specific answer. It is also essential to learn how to answer interview questions to let the interviewer know that you will bring enthusiasm and knowledge to the job.
Practicing Gratitude
It is often much more comfortable for many people to remember the bad experiences in their lives rather than the good. When unfortunate things happen to us, we tend to spend a significant amount of time and energy thinking about what went wrong.
By taking the time to increase our experience and depth of gratitude, we can start to balance out these negative thoughts. When we focus on the right thoughts, memories, and feelings from our lives, we can begin to gain numerous positive benefits and opportunities that further enrich our lives.
Genuinely feel grateful in your heart and choose to articulate it through your words and actions. You will be able to grow beyond your self-imposed limits and achieve a life of greatness and happiness.
Practicing gratitude can have numerous positive physical and psychological benefits, so why do so many of us fail to practice gratitude in our daily lives? The most straightforward answer is that we are taught to be ambitious and strive to be better.
However, when you practice an attitude of gratitude, you can open your life to more possibilities and achieve the greatness that you seek. Learn how to practice gratitude for a life of excellence and Happiness.
Understand Gratitude is a Choice
Applying to Places Not Hiring: A Wise Move or Not?
Are you in desperate need of a job? If you are currently unemployed or if you genuinely think that your current job is making you “crazy,” you may be. When it comes to finding a new job, especially in a hurry, many individuals think that the more job applications they fill out or, the more resumes they submit, the better their chances of finding a new job are. But, what about the employers who are currently not hiring? If you are wondering whether or not you should fill out a job application or submit your resume to a place that isn’t hiring, you are not alone.
When it comes to determining whether or not you should submit a job application or drop off your resume to a place that isn’t hiring, several important factors need to be considered. Perhaps, the most critical factor is if you know for sure they are not hiring.
When filling out job applications, many applicants try and determine, upfront, whether or not there are any positions available. If you happen to stop by a local business or call to ask about hiring and get a negative response, you may not want to apply anyways, especially if you gave your name. This creates a wrong impression, stating that you don’t necessarily listen to what you are being told.
6 Ways to help your employees beat stress and work more
Most employers dream of having a well-motivated enthusiastic workforce producing high-quality products or services on time and within budget. It does not have to be a dream, and sometimes only minor changes can have a significant impact.
If you would like your business to employ highly motivated and high-energy level employees, investing in the workplace atmosphere and facilities will help reduce workplace stress. Research confirms that if your employees are stressed, that will cost you even more money in missed workdays and increased on-the-job injuries over both the short term and the long term.
In addition to the negative repercussions of having stressed-out employees, your business may be experiencing lower productivity and poor output quality. Some very cost-effective strategies could minimize stress on the job and provide your employees with opportunities to reduce other stress-related problems.
Here are six ways in which you can help your company reduce stress for your employees while increasing the output of your business:
Set a Goal to Get the Desired Results
Many people want to achieve success without putting in any effort. However, they may appear to succeed for a short time, but they are bound to fail in the long run. One can only achieve success by sheer hard work.
Setting a goal in life is essential for a person who wants to succeed. To be successful in life, you have to set your priorities straight. You need to know exactly what tasks you want to give more importance to. After you set your priorities, chalk out a timetable to write down the daily work you have done. This will make you more systematic in setting your goals.
Next, focus on the task you are doing. Generally, you lose focus on a task if you work on it for long hours. It is not your fault, it is a habit of human beings, or we can say that it is a state of the human brain. Therefore, it is advisable to take short breaks between the tasks to keep your brain focused on the task. Also, do not keep tasks pending, as when they pile up, you tend to divert from the goal.
Take actions when obligatory. Imbibe decision-making capabilities in yourself. This is an essential factor in getting the desired results or achieving success. If you fear taking any risks or actions when it calls for it, you may divert from your goal. To achieve success, you have to undertake certain risks at times.
Sometimes people undertake the risk and fail. At this point, many people lose all hope and sets into a depressed state. However, you must always have faith in yourself to do better next time. In addition, when undertaking a risk, have a backup plan to help you come out of the failed situation.
Mistakes To Avoid At A Job Interview
When you are going on a job interview, you will want to avoid mistakes that may cost you the job. Job interviews are very coveted because the economy is so bad. Jobs are challenging to get, as are job interviews, so when you get one, you want to avoid any mistakes that you can make that might blow the job for you.
Avoid the following mistakes when you go to a job interview:
Being negative about past job experiences
Being negative about a previous job is probably one of a prospective employee's biggest mistakes. Never be negative about past job experiences. No matter the circumstances of your last job, try to turn it into a positive. Look for what you learned in that job, and do not make any negative comments about your past jobs or past bosses.
Being unprepared for questions
The purpose of the job interview is for the employer to find out what you know about the job and ask you questions. If you are unprepared for questions and stumble around when asked questions, you may blunder the job interview. Be prepared to answer questions about the type of job you will perform.
5 Action Ideas to Deal with Difficult People
Do you find it stressful dealing with difficult people? Today we will review some simple steps to show you how to deal with demanding customers, coworkers, or your boss!
When was the last time you had to deal with a difficult customer? It was probably an external customer, but perhaps it was an internal customer, such as a member of your team, a coworker, or even - your boss!
I'm sure that you always want to provide exceptional service to both your internal and external customers. However, in the real world, things go wrong, and mistakes are made. These "customers" will often judge your level of service based on how you respond to a mistake. Do it well, and they'll probably forgive you and possibly even say positive things about your business or your abilities to other people.
The critical thing to realize when dealing with an upset customer, be they internal or external, is that you must -deal with their feelings, then deal with their problem. Upset customers are liable to have strong feelings when you, your product, or service lets them down, and they'll probably want to "dump" these feelings on you.
You don't deal with their feelings by concentrating on solving the problem. It takes more. Here are five action ideas that deal with the customers' human needs:
Tips For Writing Effective Interview Thank You Letters
You've just finished interviewing for your dream job. There's nothing more you can do than wait for the phone to ring, right? Wrong. To increase your chances of getting a job offer, you need to follow up with an effective interview thank you letter. If written correctly, an effective interview thank you note can be used to separate you from your competition.
Remember, the main point of sending a thank you letter after an interview is to help you stand out in an employer's eyes. Most of your competition won't take the time to send a thank you letter. Those who do won't write an effective thank you letter to sell them to an employer.
Key Points to Consider
Here are some key points to consider when developing your post-interview thank you letter:
·Write a thank you letter to each person you met with
·Send your thank you letter as soon as possible - the day of or the day after the interview
·To ensure a timely delivery, e-mail your thank you letter, if possible
·Ask for business cards from each person you meet with during your interview to gather the appropriate e-mail addresses to use with your thank you letters
So what should you Include in Your Post Interview Thank You Letter
As you're writing your thank you letter, be sure to incorporate the following:
·Keep your thank you letter to no more than one page
·Start by thanking the interviewer for meeting with you
·Express your interest in the position
·Identify your strongest selling points and reiterate them in your thank you letter
·Cover any key points you forgot to mention in the interview, but know would increase your chances of receiving a job offer
·Close by again thanking the interviewer for their time, expressing your interest in the position, and indicating you hope to hear from them soon
Why Coaching is the Way to Go in Team Management
What comes first into your mind when you hear the word “coach”? Do you picture a basketball team with a man/woman shouting out directions? Or perhaps a football team with a person pacing the sidelines and calling out the players' names?
Coaching is no longer reserved for sports teams; it is now one of the key concepts in leadership and management. Why is coaching popular?
Coaching levels the playing field.
Coaching is one of the emotional leadership styles. Moreover, it is a behavior or role that leaders enforce in situational leadership. As a leadership style, coaching is used when the employees of a group or team are competent and motivated but do not have an idea of the long-term goals of an organization. This involves two levels of coaching: team and individual.
Team coaching makes employees work together. In a group of individuals, not everyone may have nor share the same level of competence and commitment to a goal. A group may be a mix of highly competent and moderately competent employees with varying levels of responsibility.
These differences can cause friction among the employees. The coaching leader helps the employees level their expectations. Also, the coaching leader manages differing perspectives so that the common goal succeeds over personal goals and interests.
In a big organization, leaders need to align the staffs’ personal values and goals with that of the organization so that long-term directions can be pursued.