Positive Energy - Where Can Your Skills Take You?

June 2006

Dear Mark

Welcome to Positive Energy, Milestone Consultancy's e-mail newsletter designed to deliver ideas and useful exercises to help keep you motivated, energised and feeling positive.

I have a great topic for you this month – together we're going to be looking at your skills and strengths. By the time you've finished reading we'll have boosted your confidence levels and encouraged you to step outside your comfort zone to reach goals you never dreamed were possible.

Thank you for reading Positive Energy. I'd love to get your feedback on this month's topic. How helpful was it to you? Also, do you have any experiences or success stories you could share with us? Click here to e-mail me or call on 01697 747 821.

Best wishes,

"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."

Victor Frankl

If you have goals you'd like to achieve, then your life is pretty much guaranteed to be more rewarding than someone with no aims or ambitions. Goals, whether they're personal or work related give your life direction and greater purpose.

On the flip side, if you don't specify what you want in life, you have no reason to complain about where you are at. Life can be quite demoralising if it has no purpose.

But what if you've set yourself a goal, but don't seem able to achieve it? That can be very demoralising too.

Do you dream of getting a new job, but don't feel you have the right skills or experience? Would you like a promotion or pay rise, but don't have the confidence to ask? Or maybe you'd like to change your role within your family circle or group of friends, but don't know how to assert yourself.

I'll let you into a secret – you already have what it takes to make the changes and reach even your most ambitious goals.

We all have different skills, qualities and strengths – we're just not very good at recognising them. If you take the time to really appreciate the skills you have, then you will soon start to develop a more positive attitude.

What's more, by focusing on your strengths, you'll quickly begin to realise that the skills you have in one area of your life are transferable to others and you can put them to good use to help you achieve your goals.

It's a liberating experience that will open up many new avenues to you.

It's time to put all this positive thinking into practice. Here are three simple steps you can take that will set you on the path to achieving your goal.

Identify what you need. Think about what skills, qualities and strengths you need in order to achieve your goal. Do you need to be more assertive, flexible or reliable? Or do you need qualifications or technical skills? Take the time to do some research and really think about the qualities you'll need.
Identify your qualities, strengths and skills. Next, sit back and think about all the skills you currently possess. Think about everything you do in life and what helps you achieve it. And don't underestimate yourself. Boasting a little always helps boost your confidence. Ask a friend what they think your skills are. They always come up with things you never even considered!
Fill in the gaps. Finally identify what skills you're missing that you'll need to achieve your goal. And remember, it's not a negative if you have a gap – it's just that up until now you haven't had an opportunity to develop that ability. These can now become mini goals.

Once you've done this you'll realise you've got a lot more strengths than you thought you had. Not only will you have raised your confidence and motivation to drive you towards achieving your goal, but you will also have realised what areas need more work to get you there.

When Ailsa Karrig started writing down her skills she really surprised herself.

Ailsa worked in sales administration, but she really wanted to work in HR. She saw an internal advert for an HR position, but didn't think she had the right skills. Together with a friend, she looked at the advert and wrote down all the skills the job required. Then she began creating a list of all the relevant skills she had. "What about the way you interviewed all those potential dog sitters?" said her friend, "That shows forward planning, interviewing techniques and telephone skills." Ailsa had never thought about it like that. By the time they had finished Ailsa had pages full of relevant skills and she went on to write a successful application for her dream job.

www.workthing.com – primarily a job site, but they have a great careers advice section that helps you assess your skills and set goals.

What Next? by Barbara Moses – a great book for career planning. It helps you to work out what skills you're missing to achieve your career goals.

The Nine Secrets of Women Who Get What They Want by Kate White - a fabulous book from an American author who tells how she studied and copied the successful women around her. It's a must read!

We have a new website - www.milecastle.co.uk. Soon you'll be able to read past issues of the newsletter there. At the moment the site has information on courses and women's development programmes. We'll be adding more stuff over the next couple of months when the training world is a little quieter. Let us know what you think and if there is anything else you'd like to see that would help you.

In next month's issue of Positive Energy we'll look at how to develop relationships that support you. We'll find out how you can learn to rely on other people's support to make your life so much easier.

Milecastle Consultancy Ltd
Tel: 01697 747 821 Email: sue.hewitt@milecastle.co.uk Website: www.milecastle.co.uk
Milecastle Consultancy Ltd, 1 Rose Cottages, Gilsland, Brampton, Cumbria CA8 7AP