More activity, more results
By Jim Wiederhold
The old sales adage can be applied to career transition as well—activity equals results. Yet, this is where so many people fail. They don’t buy into this equation, limit their activity, and consequently limit their results. By focusing on those activities that you can control and ramping up the frequency of those activities, you are creating more opportunities to accomplish your goals.
Set reasonable expectations.
The right activities will be different for each person. You have to develop activities that lead to the specific results you’re looking for. Keep in mind that you won’t get there right away. There is a learning curve. Additionally, remember that you won’t get there by yourself. You need to set up an accountability system to ensure you’re doing the volume of work necessary to meet your goals.
Determine what you can control.
When you are trying to establish a new habit or routine, you need to identify what you can control in that routine. For example, one activity could be making seven calls to people in your network in a day. But listing “getting seven call-backs in a day” is an ineffective activity that sets you up for defeat. You can’t control whether someone calls you back, but you can control how many calls you make. This mindset will help you hardwire the new habits into your brain.
Make a time commitment.
To develop a routine, you have to commit time. Work intentionally on your career transition activities for a certain number of hours. In the beginning, duration of an activity isn’t as important as frequency. You can only build a habit by being consistent over a period of time. Whatever activities you determine need to be put into place, focus most on those that you have control over.
