Reality Check

“Working smarter, not harder,” is one of our favorite slogans. Unfortunately, it’s one of those popular sayings that receive huge amounts of lip service . . . but few people really apply it with any degree of consistency.

We think we’ve finally figured out the reasons. They are many, they are varied and most of the reasons are complex. To put it simply: we live in a fairy tale world of myths and motivational hyperbole. So, let's do a "Reality Check" on some of the common beliefs you may (or may not) subscribe to. Here are some prime examples:

You can be anything or do anything you want if you believe in yourself.
Hard work and dedication will earn you a place at the top of your field.
Do the right thing and you will always be rewarded.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
. . . etc.

Stop Living in a Dream World.

It’s one thing to hold a positive attitude, to promote hard work and encourage commitment to the future. But let's take a quick reality check. We all know that we are not born equal, nor are we born with equal opportunity, much less equal talents. The cruel facts are that the overwhelming majority of people go through life working hard to overcome deficiencies, working at jobs that are drudgery and living on the hope that something will change. Perhaps the cruelest example of all is the “Peter Principle” that states employees tend to rise through the ranks until they reach their level of incompetence. (That usually comes as a reality check out of left field!)

Maybe it’s the right time for you to take a hard look at what’s really true for you. Take a good look at yourself.

Reality Check: What Would You Really Like to be Doing?

Well, you have just opened Pandora’s Box for yourself here. We’re going to give you the tools to make your own future. We’re going to lead you to the holy water of creating your own working environment. But, there’s a catch. You’ve got to drink it all in. You’ve got to do the work to make it happen. There’s no mystical babble or magic wand to it . . . just straightforward tasks that will make perfect sense to you if you’re ready to move forward.

To that end, we would suggest that being out of work is an extraordinary opportunity to pause, examine realities and change your future to one that is both psychically and financially rewarding. Yes, you can design your future, but “hope” and wishful thinking are not strategies!

So, exactly what could that future look like? What would you be doing if you could follow your dream/s and fill your working life with activities that were so interesting and even exciting that you could hardly wait to get to work every day? Well, that’s not a pipe dream. But getting there is a process. It starts with two steps.

Reality Check: What Are You Really Good at Doing?

First, you need to do a thorough self-assessment. Dig into your head, your experience, your talents and your skills. What do you enjoy? What are you naturally good at? What have you done that has been successful and/or easy for you to accomplish?

(Remember that first rhyme or song you probably learned in school . . . ”Row, row, row your boat . . . gently down the stream . . .?” Notice that it didn’t say “fighting UP the stream against the flow.”)

Reality Check: Are You Still Trying to Measure Up?

Socrates said it very succinctly: “Know thyself.” If you have the hands of a football player or a massage therapist, you aren’t likely to enjoy success as a concert pianist or a brain surgeon. If numbers don’t “talk to you,” why would you pursue a career as a statistician or accountant? Some people are born with natural abilities or talents. If they follow the path those talents lead them to, they will enjoy considerable success. Those of us with different attributes can struggle our entire lives in those same paths and never get beyond a modest level of success . . . and, at what cost?

Combine Talents With Skills, Then . . .

The key is to identify the talents we gave been gifted with, however many or few they may be. Add to that the skills we have developed and successes (Accomplishments) we have achieved by virtue of our aptitudes. Match those with what we enjoy doing, find out how more of that could be available to us and build our Executive Job Search around a campaign to seek out those opportunities.

Why are they so difficult to find? Maybe you're asking, “Why don’t they find me?” The answers to that are complex, but simply put, most of the opportunities are in the hidden job market. You have to know what you’re looking for, how to find them and why you’re right for any one of them. Then you have to come out of hiding yourself and make sure the people operating with “hidden jobs” know about you. Where to start. This Training Program begins with an immersion into your life, work and professional history to begin cataloging your Accomplishments.

Documenting your successes into a Library of Accomplishments of at least 25 (that should ultimately total 100 or more!) begins to give you a body of work that can be analyzed for patterns.

Why is this necessary? Don’t we know what we’re good at? Not necessarily. This may come as a surprise to you, but we tend to deceive ourselves. In fact we deceive others as a matter of course. Not on purpose, but because we tend to see ourselves as what we want to become rather than who we are.

Think about that for a moment. That is where your reality check really starts.

Doesn’t it give you pause when someone tries to “sell you” on how honest or moral they are? Who are you more likely to trust . . . the person who claims to always be right or have impeccable judgment of character . . . or, the person who says they tend to be right 60-70% of the time , but admit to mistakes?

Analyze Your Past Successes . . . and the Reasons You Succeeded.

If you start to realistically analyze your performance and set out to honestly define your talents and skills, you will be well on your way to changing your life more to your liking . . . and, probably for the better. In addition to spending a couple of days (more as necessary) documenting your Accomplishments, you might want to invest in a book, first published in 2007 by Gallup, Now, Discover Your Strengths, and more recently as, The Clifton Strengths Finder. You will find a packet in the back of the book with a code and directions to a website. Taking this test (timed for top-of-mind answers) will be of significant help to you in identifying some key strengths or talents that can guide you in determining what direction you want to take in your next career choice.

The results of this test will be a reality check. They'll be even that much more helpful if you analyze the results (and your perception of what the outcome "should" have been) in light of your Accomplishments Library. We’ll be providing some worksheets to facilitate this exercise. But, you are the judge and jury for the results. You have to decide that you are going to look at the outcomes for what they are . . . objective observations about what talents and skills you really have that have contributed to successes in the past.

It’s a “reality check” on who you are versus who you want to be. It’s only the first step . . . but, it’s the most important.

We suggest you now go to the “Start Here” button for a more comprehensive overview of this training. Or, continue with the other segments in the "Start Here" section; they are all listed at the bottom of the "Start Here" page.

Return from Reality Check to Start Here.

Return from Reality Check to Job Search Training home page.

SBI!