Career Goals and Stress

Written by Debbie Brown, MSM, MSW


Career Goals and Stress: How to Achieve Goals and Maintain Your Sanity

Deborah R. Brown, MBA, MSW ____________________________________________________________________________

"Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession inrepparttar changing fortunes of time." Max Ehrmann "Desiderata"

When it comes to career success, direction and focus are crucial. But beyond direction, how effective is it to have goals?

Requirements for Effective Goal-Setting

Much has been researched and written aboutrepparttar 106326 effectiveness of goal setting. The findings say that :

 Difficult goals lead to higher performance than easy goals.  Difficult goals lead to higher performance than "do your best" goals.  Setting specific goals results in more precise performance than setting "do your best" goals.

Just havingrepparttar 106327 goal is not enough. You must develop a strategy to make it happen. What arerepparttar 106328 activities you need to perform everyday? Plan those activities, but also stay alert and open to new ways to achieve your goals as they present themselves.

There are three critical requirements that dictate how well goal setting will work:

 Commitment to your goals.  Periodically reviewing where you stand regarding goal achievement (getting feedback).  Belief that you can achieve your goals (self-confidence and self-efficacy).

You need to genuinely desirerepparttar 106329 goals you set. If you don't like your job and don't want to be there, then it is difficult to be committed. It's also crucial that you believe that you can achieverepparttar 106330 goals you set for yourself.

Stress and Goal Setting

Goals create striving which results in more stress. So how do you deal with this stress? Since I am notoriously poor at pacing myself, I created a structure to help me with this process. My plan includes eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly, but also not scheduling clients on Fridays. I never work past 8 p.m. I plan vacations and weekends away, and schedule social events with friends at least once per week. Part of my stress management program also involves not over-booking myself with social activities so that I have time to retreat for rest and recuperation.

As I approached graduation from college many years ago, I wrote a poem about goal setting which I titled, "My Brook and I."

I rememberrepparttar 106331 brook streaming thoughrepparttar 106332 woods; spending hours around it, building forts, wipingrepparttar 106333 mud off me with skunk cabbage.

I rememberrepparttar 106334 brook on sunny days; Water babbling over stones and rocks, pieces of wood; makingrepparttar 106335 water ripplerepparttar 106336 way it did.

I wondered what happened torepparttar 106337 brook traveling away from my yard. I had a goal for my brook to flow torepparttar 106338 ocean...but then what?

I see goals for myself thwarted, rearranged, fulfilled. Butrepparttar 106339 goal for my brook; What happened to it?

Deepak Chopra, in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, says that if we want to have a successful career, we should first center ourselves and then release our intentions (our career goals) torepparttar 106340 universe. We should not be attached torepparttar 106341 way these goals develop, or torepparttar 106342 exact outcome, but leaverepparttar 106343 details torepparttar 106344 universe. We can getrepparttar 106345 same results through effort and trying, he says, butrepparttar 106346 result is stress, which can lead to heart attacks and other physical illnesses.

What Is Right Livelihood?

Written by Deborah R. Brown, MBA, MSW


What Is Right Livelihood?

"When you work you are a flute through whose heartrepparttar whispering ofrepparttar 106325 hours turns to music. To love life through labor is to be intimate with life's inmost secret. All work is empty save when there is love, for work is love made visible." Kahlil Gibran

The idea of "right livelihood" originally comes from Buddhism and refers to work that is consciously chosen, performed with full awareness and care and leads to enlightenment. It means we show our love forrepparttar 106326 world through our work and should avoid work that hurts or exploits others. Work provides us with an opportunity to put our beliefs into action.

Conscious Choice

In my consulting practice, I often work with people whose work, through a series of circumstances, has chosen them. Sometimes these career choices seem arbitrary. One person liked a professor he had in college and therefore took up that person's occupation. What many deemed "practical" dictated their direction. Some chose a professional graduate school so they would be qualified to do something, only to realize in their first job that that they do not likerepparttar 106327 work itself. Sadly, career choice is often not inspired from a passion or a particular talent or need of expression.

"We like to think that we have chosen our work, but it could be more accurate to say that our work has found us." Thomas Moore, Care ofrepparttar 106328 Soul

A married person with a family sometimes makes career decisions based on what is best forrepparttar 106329 family. Work that does not harm others and supports our family is important. If we find our options are limited while we raise a family, we can be thankful that we have a well-paying job, and can plan for a career change to more fulfilling work whenrepparttar 106330 children have left home.

Mindfulness

Right livelihood is also about being present inrepparttar 106331 moment and doingrepparttar 106332 work that needs to be done. I t means concentrating on each task at hand. All parts ofrepparttar 106333 work are important, includingrepparttar 106334 paperwork many of us would rather not do. It means being willing to dorepparttar 106335 "grunge" work. Mother Teresa said that there is too much preaching and not enough doing. "Take a broom and clean someone's house," she says. "That says enough."

I have a client who was miserable working at a large law firm. She gained weight and had difficulty completing her work, even though she was very capable. Changing law firms did not improverepparttar 106336 situation. Then she went through a thorough assessment process with me where we looked honestly at who she is and what she wanted. She discovered she really wants to work from her home making draperies or other crafts. She now has a two-year plan to make that happen. Inrepparttar 106337 interim she worked out a three quarter time schedule with her old firm that allows her time to take better care of herself, pay off debt and plan her business.

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