The greatest credit goes to the 25 students who principally wrote this book. The process was daunting at times, but they came through with flying colors.

The book is research intensive. It was written to present the findings of the experts in the field. To that end, you will find that they quote extensively. We have done our best to remove errors, including due diligence to prevent misquoting or failing to cite any particular author. Yet in a work so dense with research, if we have missed any of these, it is oversight, not intentional.

Kaitlin Parker, the manager of the book project did a remarkable job keeping the class on track over the four months it took to write the book. Jaclyn Hoffman likewise oversaw the editing and distribution of the text class.

Three Sigma Tau Delta (English Honor Society) students helped shape the document: Alicia Allen, Margaret Bush, and Valerie McGinnis. Thank you for all of your hard work to make this book successful. Two of my colleagues, Dave Lawson, Ph.D. and Paul Rickert, M.S., M.C.J., Ed.S. provided with marvelous suggestions and editorial comments.

Finally, I wish to thank my wife Nicole for enduring the process as I reviewed and revised the manuscript.

Darin Gerdes, Ph.D.

Preface

This book is the result of contributions of the students from my Organizational Behavior II course (BUSI 441) at Liberty University. Through their diligent effort, their contributions are presented in an attempt to help students and adults develop the skills necessary to find a fulfilling career in the global environment.

The authors are listed below. Although some did more work than others, all of them had a hand in that which you are about to read. They are listed alphabetically because it would be difficult to rank their contributions in a clear and accurate way.

As professor, co-author, and editor, it is my pleasure to present the work of the following authors:

Contributors and Authors
Benedict Adejinle	Ritesh Adhikari	Zachary Angell	Spencer Billups
Doncel Bolt	Richard Boyd	Michael Brado	Desiree Braxton
Michael Cocco	Rebecca Cottingham	Fernand Dullavin	Michael Ferretti
Tyler Gaudet	Aaron Hensley	Sungguk Kim	Chi Bang Lee
Kyu-Eung (Paul) Lee	Dexter Looney	Ryan Lubrich	Kaitlin Parker
Sara Proctor	Jarren Rucker	Harsh Sharma	James Smith
Ryan Smith

I assigned these students to investigate the topic: “how to get a job.” As you may imagine, this is a subject that graduating seniors are very interested in researching. It was not difficult to motivate them to thoroughly research the matter.

My students scoured job-search websites for the most up to date information on the topic. They read 26 books about finding a job and they read hundreds of articles—many of which are only contained in university databases. I calculate that they spend roughly 400 hours on the research alone.

The book is written in such a way that each chapter stands on its own. You can read through from the beginning (which is recommended) or go directly to the chapter that is relevant to your situation.

Furthermore, we have crafted self-evaluation questions at the end of each chapter to help you inventory your skills and abilities so that you will be better equipped to demonstrate how you will add value to your next employer. Many chapters also contain links to online resources.

Finally, all net proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to an educational fund in the name of a Christy DePriest Wright, a former student who died of epitheliod hemangioendothelioma, a rare form of cancer in May, 2010.

We hope that are findings are useful in your pursuit of a meaningful career.

Part I:

First, Know Thyself

Understanding Who You Are

I must first know myself, as the Delphian inscription says; to be curious about that which is not my concern, while I am still in ignorance of my own self would be ridiculous.

--Plato

Know Thyself

In order to successfully accomplish your goals in life, you must know yourself. When you recognize your unique qualities, skills, and abilities, you will understand the value you can bring to a potential employer.

Is it Time for a Change?

Willingness to change is often the most important step in getting a job, as the job market often demands that we change.^¹ Successful change can drastically increase the odds of successfully landing an interesting and challenging position. Knowing oneself is a prerequisite to change. If we are not “true to ourselves and to our unique God-given characteristics…we can lose the power of authenticity, creativity, imagination, and innovation…. setting the stage for compromise in all other areas of our lives.”^²

To make a change, begin with a firm understanding of your beliefs and values. You must know what you stand for before you stand up to be counted. Do you really know yourself?

We can understand ourselves better by finding out first who we are. But these are merely externals. Peel away the layers and who are you then? Not sure? Well, here are some suggestions that might help you find out. Watch yourself. One way to find out who you really are is to watch what you do when there’s no one around to impress. How do you talk then? How do you act? How do you respond to people when you don't really care what they think?”^³

All the World’s A Stage

In As You Like It, Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage.”^⁴ Shakespeare was right; life is like a play in a theater. You are always on, and you are always making an impression on those around you. They observe your actions, your appearance, what you say, and how you say it. Whether it is fair or not, they stereotype and apply labels. “Labels define you.”^⁵

Knowing who you are increases self-esteem and confidence. What others think of you does not matter as much as what you think of yourself. How would you view yourself if you saw through God’s eyes? Y

Step 1:

Know Yourself

ou were created for a purpose; use the gifts and talents you were given wisely. You will only be happy when you are doing that which you were designed to do.

The starting point for change is awareness of your own personality. Evaluate yourself by “starting with your ‘Who I Am’ statement”^⁶ (see the self-evaluation questions at the end of the chapter). Begin with the general classifications. Over time you will add more and more detail. For example, one way to understand personality is to classify by introversion or extroversion. According to our research:

About half of us are introverts, but you wouldn't necessarily know it by looking around the room. By definition, an introvert is simply someone who recharges by spending time alone doing quiet activities. The blanket confidence of extroverts generally casts them as warm and approachable, while introverts seem to get lumped in with social misfits, and are thought to be closed and detached. We have found that even in corporate communications or sales, where there are strong social expectations—managing clients, working in teams, networking, and lunching—introverts can thrive. It would be strongly advised for you to stay true to your nature and use those ‘quiet ways’ to get ahead.^⁷

Whether you are an introvert or extrovert, God has given you particular talents and abilities. He has a plan and purpose for your life. Neither extroversion nor introversion determines success.

Do not let the false stereotypes keep you from obtaining the right job. You may need to change particular behaviors that are hindering your ability to find a job, but you do not need to change who you are in order to succeed. Accept responsibility. Leverage your personality. And, think about your situation creatively.

“You need to know who you are. Are you seeking a comfortable existence or do you, sometimes at the expense of other parts of life, want to influence the field?”^⁸

Each person is different; therefore, each situation requires a different approach. Your age, your background, your experience, your resources, your skills, your love of adventure, your desire to meet new people, your ability to fit in, and your resilience to adjustments all must bear on your decision to make a change. To be aware of yourself is the first step in making progressive change.”^⁹

So, what are your natural talents? What are you passionate about? When you meet your maker and give an account of your actions, will you feel that your life was well spent? “Our natural talents and passions…last for a lifetime.”^¹⁰And, your influence should outlive you.

The key to gaining an edge over others in the workplace is identifying unique talents that only you can provide the organization. By identifying your talents, you will be able to determine if a particular job is right for you. If you know that you love people and you hate details–limit your job search to certain people-oriented fields or positions. “In many cases, simply being aware of talent that might be undeveloped can help you avoid roadblocks.”^¹¹

Take Stock

Take time to make an inventory of your past in order to develop perspective about your future career path. Research shows that knowing yourself is the first step toward finding a good job fit. Every question you can answer moves you one step closer to the right job. Knowing what you want is important. Knowing what you do not want is equally important.

For example, Michelle Roccia, Vice President of Human Resources at Authoria, found out exactly where she did not want to work when she showed up for a job interview a few years ago. A stickler for punctuality, Roccia arrived 15 minutes early. This was her standard practice. The company kept her waiting 45 minutes past the scheduled interview time and failed to send anyone out to explain the delay. Roccia excused herself and never looked back.^¹²

Values

Michelle Roccia avoided working in the wrong organization because she understood her values. Knowing what you value is a critical step, but it is easy to overlook. Your values shape how you will deal with ethical dilemmas. As in Michelle’s case, values may even determine if you should avoid a particular company altogether.

You must know who you are, how you are geared, and what you value. With these pieces of the puzzle, you will be able to understand how you will handle your time, projects, and tasks in a given position. This self-knowledge will provide two powerful weapons to as you fight for a fulfilling career. First, it will help you identify what you should do. More importantly, it will help you explain to a potential employer why you are the right person for the job.

This self-knowledge will allow you to be a more effective worker and a more confident leader. It will provide self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy is the knowledge and confidence in your abilities that allow you to succeed on the job and in life. One study defined self-efficacy as “a dynamic construct that changes in strength and intensity as a person tackles new problems, learns new skills, and develops or inhibits abilities.”^¹³ Self-efficacy may be the missing ingredient necessary for career success.

Every success you have in school creates competence and leads to greater self-efficacy. Every success you have at work, no matter how menial the task, increases self-efficacy. Building self-efficacy takes time and dedication. As one scholar wrote, “Believing in yourself is not a task accomplished in a few hours, but rather a prolonged, committed exercise in reemphasizing to yourself the positive values of knowledge, experience, and attention to detail that you possess.”^¹⁴

What have you done well? What do you do poorly? What do you need to change? Work out these areas of weakness now before you need to exercise those abilities. As Harvey McKay titled his book on networking, Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty.^¹⁵

If your dream job is an ideal fit, but it requires that you to do a little public speaking, practice public speaking now. Hone your skills. Human beings were created with an amazing capacity to adapt to change and overcome obstacles. “Individuals can learn and practice methods of self-regulation to minimize the impact of tension, nervousness, or other anxieties that potentially impact their efficacy beliefs and their resulting performance.”^¹⁶That was research-speak that means: You can do it.

Personality Assessments

So how do we begin to learn who we are, how we are geared, and what we value? The research indicates that if you are uncertain of your career path, personality and aptitude tests will help you make an informed decision.^¹⁷

As you learn more about yourself, employers are using the same tools to find out about applicants. Try to understand the depth of the problem on from the other side of the table:

Anybody who's ever interviewed a prospective job applicant knows how important the ability to judge personality can be, and how difficult it is to do well. Personality—an ambiguous, amorphous, and subjective concept—has always resisted quantitative measurement….In a competitive global economy, the demand for personality tests in job recruitment has skyrocketed. Big corporations started testing for hiring in earnest more than a decade ago. Small firms, governments, schools and other institutions are getting into the act. Testing is a $400 million industry in the United States. The problem, though, is that current quizzes are often little better at predicting than astrologers. The most popular tests tend to be questionnaires based on generalized notions of personality types.^¹⁸

Personality tests will not indicate that you are to be the vice president of marketing for the European division of Starbucks. Results are limited to generalized notions about your strengths and weaknesses. However, they may provide insight about that which you have to offer. Below we will discuss a number of the more popular personality tests and a few lesser-known tests that may provide some additional value.

The Meyers-Briggs Test

The Myers-Briggs test is a widely used personality test that helps people understand how they prefer to act. Note the word prefer. If you have a strong preference to act in a particular way, it may translate into performance on the job.

The Myers-Briggs test was first developed during World War II. Since then, the military and various businesses have used it to determine job suitability. It is

A psychological-assessment system based on Carl Jung's notion that people make sense of the world through a series of psychological frames. Some people are extroverts, some are introverts. Some process information through logical thought. Some are directed by their feelings. Some make sense of the world through intuitive leaps. Others collect data through their senses. To these three categories—(I)ntroversion/(E)xtroversion, i(N)tuition/(S)ensing, (T)hinking/(F)eeling —the Myers-Briggs test adds a fourth frame: (J)udging/(P)erceiving.

Then each person is bracketed within a four-letter category. ‘ESTJs’ for instance—extroverted, sensing, thinking, judging types—make natural leaders; they direct action and organize projects logically.^¹⁹

The Myers-Briggs has become extremely popular in discovering essential information about how individuals function at work. According to Malcolm Gladwell, “Two and a half million Americans a year take the Myers-Briggs. Eighty-nine companies out of the Fortune 100 use it for things like hiring or training sessions to help employees ‘understand’ themselves or their colleagues.”^²⁰

The Big Five

The Big Five personality assessment is the second most widely used typology test after Myers-Briggs. “According to this model, there are five basic personality traits. The individual differences refer to stable patterns of behavior or tendencies which are independent of each other.”^²¹The classification of the personality traits is as follows:

Neuroticism is the tendency to feel negative emotions which include depression and anger.
Extraversion relates to activity, assertiveness, and social behavior.
Openness-to-experience relates to interest in stimulating intellectual activities or preference for new and interesting ideas.
Agreeableness is the extent to which people are kind rather than suspicious of other people.
Conscientiousness is the ability to be self-disciplined and responsible.^²²

The Big Five is a classic psychological test that is broader than the Myers-Briggs, but is just as effective. The Big Five has been widely researched and empirically verified in numerous academic studies.

One of the most outstanding examples of The Big Five personality assessment was conducted on a sample of 532 undergraduates at a Southeastern U.S. university. Big Five traits accounted for 45% of Life Satisfaction variance with Sense of Identity contributing an additional 7%, and College Satisfaction, 6%. It was suggested that who students become in college and how satisfied they are with different aspects of collegiate experience may be primarily determined by who they are when they enter college. Similarities were noted to findings of personality traits and academic performance, job performance, and adult career and life satisfaction.^²³

The Big Five personality assessment may be helpful in discovering yourself and re-directing your path to success.

The Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory

Our research led us to another major test that we have found helpful in understanding personality—The Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory. It is the most widely used test to assess personality and mental health. According to the New York Times,

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), is a self-report in which subjects answer hundreds of true-false questions, describing their feelings, symptoms, attitudes, beliefs, and the types of problems and situations that they face. It was developed by psychologist, Starke Hathaway, and psychiatrist, Dr. J. R. McKinley, in the late 1930s and has been used since the early 1940s to assess psychological ''normalcy'' and personality structure.^²⁴ Tens of millions of people have taken the MMPI—from military recruits and job applicants, to accused criminals and patients in psychotherapy. However, our society has changed significantly in the last half century and, for some of the 550 items on the test, what had once been considered ''abnormal,'' is now accepted as normal.

For example, a woman who today says ''true'' to the items ''I like mechanics magazines'' and ''I would like to be a soldier'' would not automatically be assumed to have an abnormally masculine bent. And in applying the test to adolescents, it is now recognized that separate evaluation scales are needed because it is normal for teenagers to feel more alienated, misunderstood, angry, anxious and concerned than adults do.^²⁵

This kind of information is essential to understanding yourself. Although this particular personality assessment is not as popular as the Myers-Briggs or the Big Five, it still ranks as one of the major personality assessments.

The DISC Test

The DISC profile is another widespread assessment used in modern industry. The DISC profile has been used in companies ranging from Manpower, the temporary and contract employment leader, to the United States Air Force Academy.^²⁶

The DISC test ranks an individual’s disposition or preferences across four personality categories. These categories are different than those used in the Meyers-Briggs. DISC stands for Drive, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance.

Drive refers to following characteristics: “Direct. Decisive. High Ego Strength. Problem Solver. Risk Taker. Self Starter”^²⁷
Influence relates to: “Enthusiastic. Trusting; Optimistic. Persuasive; Talkative. Impulsive; Emotional”^²⁸
Steadiness refers to “Good listener; Team player. Possessive. Steady; Predictable. Understanding; Friendly.”^²⁹
Conscientiousness refers to: “Accurate; analytical. Conscientious; careful. Fact-finder; precise. High standards; systematic”^³⁰

The DISC test is based on the work of Psychologist William Marston’s book, The Emotions of Normal People.^³¹ His work is similar to other tests that we will discuss below.

Lesser Known Personality Tests

A few lesser-known personality assessments may also be helpful. Florence Littauer wrote a book entitled Personality Plus and developed an assessment by the same name. Personality Plus functions much like the Meyers-Briggs type indicator. You pick the strength or weakness that are most like you in a number of categories. You are rated across 4 common categories: Choleric (commanding), Melancholy (analytical), Sanguine (happy), and Phlegmatic (laid back).

This framework is pervasive. It has been used by many other authors. In fact, it has roots as far back as Hippocrates (460-370 BC). Psychologists Gary Smalley and John Trent simplified the framework by referring to each as an animal—Choleric (the lion), Melancholy (the beaver), Sanguine (the otter), and Phlegmatic (the golden retriever).^³² The short cut helps us understand the four basic temperaments quickly.

The Flag Page

The flag page is a different approach to measuring personality. It looks at what is right about you—what you are passionate about. You simply select traits, rate their relative strength and pick your top traits. ^³³ The flag page costs $25 dollars, but will only take you five minutes to complete. This is a small investment for quantity of self-knowledge that you will quickly uncover.

The flag page contains important additional nuances. It begins with the talents you enjoy (which may be different than the skills you have).^ⁱ In other words, it identifies your passions.

Then it classifies your input using 4 emotional “countries.” This term is used intentionally. Metaphorically, you naturally speak the language of your country (or personality) while the languages spoken in other “countries” are foreign to you.

The 4 countries should sound familiar: Control Country, Perfect Country, Fun Country, and Peace Country. It also shows the relative weight of hard and soft traits. The flag page is interesting because it seems to draw on three distinct streams of research—the 4 basic categories discussed above, Appreciative Inquiry (AI), and the behavioral approach to leadership (e.g. a preference for task orientated or people orientated activities).^³⁴

Self-Evaluation

Nearly all of the tests are useful. Though some may provide duplicative insight, you can gain greater awareness about yourself through all of them. We have listed a number of personality tests (and links to take them) at the end of the chapter. Throughout this book we have provided self-evaluation questions. Please use the links and answer the self-evaluation questions. You will learn about yourself only to the degree that you take the time to study yourself.

What Are You Called to Do?

You must ask one final but paramount question: What are you called to do? Finding your purpose in life can be difficult and challenging. Understanding who you are, how you are geared, and what you value, is only a start. These elements will shape your worldview. “The art of understanding yourself is all about how you see yourself reacting to events going on in your life.”^³⁵

Self-knowledge alone may not answer the most fundamental questions: Why am I here? Why was I created? What am I called to do? Only you can answer these questions with much prayer and soul searching. Personality assessments will help you understand how you function, but there is no formula for scientifically deducing your calling. Nevertheless, here are a few tips.

What you are called to do:

Will likely keep you up late and get you up early
Will energize and motivate you
Would be something you would do even if you were not paid for it

Ask yourself these clarifying questions:

If you never had to work another day in your life—what would you do?
If there was one thing that you could do in life and you knew you could not fail—what would you do? That is likely what you are called to do.

Resources:

Gain insight with the following personality tests:

Take the Meyers Briggs test for free: http://sminds.com/mbti/

Take the Big Five personality test for free: http://similarminds.com/big5.html

Learn about the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): http://www.pearsonassessments.com/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=MMPI-2&Mode=summary

Take the free short version of the DISC test: http://www.personalitystyle.com/

Take the Personality Plus test: http://www.gotoquiz.com/personality_plus_1

Take the Flag Page test ($25): https://www.flagpagetest.com/

Self-evaluation Questions

What changes do I need to make to find the right job for me?

Who are you?

What are your natural talents?

What are your values?

What is self-efficacy?

Do you feel confident about your ability to succeed in your future career? If not, what are you doing about it?

What is your calling?

End Notes

Your Goals in Life

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

— Henry David Thoreau^³⁶

Study after study shows that goals are critical to success. As you prepare for life in the job you want, you need to understand how to set and achieve goals. Since you are reading this book, it is likely that you are looking for a job. If you do not have a clear understanding of this process, your competition will pass you by. Since 2009 until today (in 2011), the United States has been saddled with 9+% unemployment. That means that roughly 15 million people do not have a job because they cannot find one in this economy.^³⁷

What are Goals?

What are goals? Two psychologists, Graham and Griffith, explain that goals “reflect core values, reinforce the image of an ideal self, compensate for inferiority feelings, guard against pain, provide meaning in the present, and promote hope for the future.”^³⁸In short, goals are the mainspring of motivation.

The Roman philosopher, Seneca the Younger, understood the most important feature of goals when he wrote: “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”^³⁹Goals help us navigate. They provide the direction. They provide motivation and momentum. As Fitzhugh Dodson has written, “‘you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination’ when you do not have goals.”^⁴⁰

Understanding how goals operate, the next step is to understand what goal-setting is and what it is not. Research suggests that the strategies themselves do not define future outcomes, but rather they define behavioral or cognitive activities that, if employed, lead to the attainment of such outcomes.^⁴¹Simply put, goals lead to behaviors that lead to results. Goal-setting is an important preliminary step in the transition from college to career. Denis Waitley has said,

The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.^⁴²

Effective Goal-Setting

What are the results of effective goal-setting? Research has shown that individual goals and motivational processes have positive effects on career success. These positive effects include self-efficacy, prioritizing work-related goals, expecting success and avoiding internal attributions after failure, engaging in job-search behavior, and career exploration.^⁴³

Step 2:

Set Goals

Step 1:

Know

Yourself
elf-Efficacy

In the last chapter we discussed the need to know yourself, and the importance of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is what you believe about your ability to affect change. Too often, we criticize ourselves harshly or allow Hollywood to influence our view of reality. Consequently, we set unrealistic goals and set ourselves up for disappointment.

In reality, there are very few 22-year-old CEOs, generals, or world-class leaders in any field of endeavor. The research shows that it will likely take ten years of dedicated, focused effort to become excellent in any arena.^⁴⁴ You may be able to attain the commanding heights in your chosen profession, but it will take time and a solid belief that you can achieve your goals.

Prioritizing Work-Related Goals

Suppose that you have some time on your hands and you decide that you want to build something with Lego® building blocks. Until you know what you want to build, you will not know what to do first. However, once you set the goal of reconstructing the Star Wars Millennium Falcon®, you instantly obtain a mental map. After you have a clear picture of the final product, with enough time and effort (and the right pieces), you will be able to complete the replica. This is how goal-setting works in life. You must have a picture of the future that you want in order to prioritize what must be done next.

Priorities are hierarchical. That is, we cannot hold all priorities equally. Some are, by definition, more important than others. Brian Tracy reminds us that “To set proper priorities, you must set posteriorities as well. A priority is something that you do more of and sooner, while a posteriority is something that you do less of and later, if at all.”^⁴⁵

The Transforming Power of Goals

People with specific goals tend to have more realistic expectations. Realistic expectations are related to greater self-knowledge and self-efficacy. The research shows that people with specific goals also tend to have greater self-confidence than people who do not set goals.

Goals are not created in a vacuum. They are set in the context of real life. Perhaps you are reading this because you have lost a job. Maybe you have never had a “real” job. Your most important goals should relate to your most important needs and desires. Marsha Sinetar explained this eloquently when she said, “Life’s ups and downs provide windows of opportunity to determine your values and goals. Think of using all obstacles as stepping stones to build the life you want.”^⁴⁶Without goals, these stepping stones are just obstacles; with goals, life’s obstacles are transformed into stepping stones to a better life.

Your Behavior Reveals Your Goals

Those who set goals and priorities are more likely to take action. Action includes getting involved in different job-searching activities, determining your strengths, interests, and abilities. Action also means exposing yourself to different experiences such as internships or working different kinds of jobs to determine if a particular career path is right for you.

Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road.

—Dag Hammarskjold

Effective goal-setting affects motivation and behavior. The research shows that, “by comparing their individual motivations to the opportunities that are available, people set personal goals that satisfy their individual needs.”^⁴⁷Sitting in front of the TV, fretting about not having a job is just as much a goal-driven behavior as reading this book or devising a plan to gain an internship at the company of your choice.

Three Steps to Follow in Effective Goal-Setting

We have explored some of the effects of successful goal-setting. Now, you must ask yourself how to set goals effectively. The good news is that it is easier than you think. Just follow these simple steps: a) determine the ultimate goal, b) create a long-term plan, and c) create short-term intermediate steps.

Step 1: Determine the Ultimate Goal

The first step is determining your ultimate goal in life. If you are just looking for a job to pay the bills, this might seem relevant, but it is an important step. You must determine where you want to go if you ever hope to get the job of your dreams.

If you have not already answered the self-evaluation questions at the end of chapter 1, do this now. Self-knowledge is a prerequisite for self-efficacy. You will you positioned to set proper goals when you know yourself (e.g. who you are, how you are geared, and what you value).

One cautionary note: If you do not first know yourself, others have plans for you. Your mother may want you to become a lawyer or a doctor. If this is how you are geared and that is your calling, be the best attorney or doctor you can be. However, if you know that you have neither the talent nor the desire to follow that career path, you will either fail or spend a life-time of misery fulfilling someone else’s dream for your life.

One scholar said it powerfully,

Do not attempt to attain goals that someone else has set for you… ensure that both your goals and the activities you carry out to attain them are your own. Make sure too that you genuinely want to attain these goals, that you are excited by them, and that you are committed and motivated sufficiently to attain them. When your career has ended, you should be able to look back and say: 'Each day, I took a step closer to my goals.’^⁴⁸

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”

-King Solomon

Life Goals

Look beyond your career. Set goals for work, family, and personal growth. If you limit goal-setting to your career, your life will become unbalanced. Our lives are not compartmentalized, but part of a unified whole. One part affects another. You are in the present the sum total of your past.

The research shows that previous decisions and commitments in your past will shape future opportunities. For example, the education that you have received to date will allow you to get the job that will provide for your family tomorrow.^⁴⁹ It is all connected. The research also shows that we must continuously adjust our goals to cope with changing conditions.^⁵⁰ May your motto always be Semper Gumby (Always Flexible).

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey suggests writing out your eulogy as a means of thinking through what is important in your life. This is part of his second habit—to “begin with the end in mind.”^⁵¹ If you were to write your eulogy, what would you say about yourself, who you were, and how you lived your life? This is the essence of long term thinking. Once you know what you want to accomplish with your life, you can develop plans to make it happen.

Your Goal

So, what is your ultimate goal? Put the book down and work out this fundamental issue before you continue reading. When you have identified your ultimate goal, proceed.

Once you have determined your ultimate goal, you must create a long-term plan. Look past tomorrow. As Covey suggested, ask yourself what you want to see as you look back over your life?

How will you get there? Break down long term goals into reasonable short term plans so that you are not overwhelmed. For example, if your goal was to become a Supreme Court Justice or a member of Congress, it would be easy to become discouraged because the odds may be daunting.

If your goal was to become the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, this too might be a menacing goal. But if your objective was to complete law school, get your MBA, or simply get a job, everything changes. When you believe that you can achieve a goal (e.g. you have self-efficacy) you are empowered to achieve it.

To illustrate this concept, consider a ladder. The end of the ladder is the long term goal. That is where you ultimately want to be. It is impossible to jump to the top. But the rungs on the ladder are like short-term objectives. Each rung is achievable. Climb enough rungs, and you will make it to the top.

Create Short-Term Plans

Long-term plans give one perspective. Short-term plans give one manageable, achievable, action steps toward completion of the long-term plan. Create sub-goals or milestones that will help you reach your ultimate goal. Pearce suggests one popular and effective exercise:

Take two sheets of paper. On one, state your goals for the next 12 months; on the other, state what you want to achieve between now and the end of your career. In comparing the two, make sure that achieving the goals on your first list will help you to achieve those on your second.^⁵²

Short-term plans will help you determine the most efficient route to your ultimate goal. A word of caution: Take great care that your short-term objectives are aligned with your ultimate long term goal. If they are not, you may achieve your short-term objectives only to find that you are further from your long term goals.^⁵³In business, strategy consists of plans to move from the present to the future. What strategy will help you reach your ultimate goal? What short-term plans are you using to reach various points along the way?

Practical Tips on Goal-Setting

Set SMART Goals

Make sure that you set SMART goals. Goals that fail to meet any one of these criterion are wishes, but not goals.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Part I:

First, Know Thyself

Understanding Who You Are

Your Goals in Life