So What Next?

Begin With Action.....Without Overwhelm :)

Welcome to another Friday, and the Final newsletter in our 3 step series on 'How To Begin 2024 without overwhelm'?

WARNING: TRANSFORMATIONAL, INSTRUCTIONAL, AND PRACTICAL WORDS AHEAD! YOU WILL NEED WRITING EQUIPMENT :)

In our last edition we spoke about your personal and professional brand, and 3 areas that you can start to look at to?design and build your brand, which will result in opening more quality opportunities for you this year.??

Today we are going to look at an action plan - and before you groan and sigh - I promise you will be able to implement it without overwhelm.

When we established your baseline, a couple of weeks ago, you scored it using the following four categories: (please see previous issue if you missed it here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/herenow-dawn-morton-young-z0wle/ )

• Job Satisfaction
• Work-Life Balance
• Leadership Potential?
• Personal Fulfilment

These are going to be your four goal areas for this year, and if you look at them, they are not independent of each other - each area impacts the other, so for example - if you don’t feel that there is leadership potential in your current role - that effects your job satisfaction, which affects your work-life balance, which affects your personal fulfillment.?

This is why you can implement this plan without overwhelm, as you only need to pick ONE area a quarter to work on, but ALL areas will be impacted positively.

Clever right? :)

When you saw your scores, there were areas that are worse than others - those will be your priority.?

Your Next Action (Part 1):

1. Divide the next 12 months as follows:April - June; July - September; October - December; January - March (2025)
2. Take the life area with the lowest score - if there is a tied score, just pick one - put it against the April to June timeslot. This is what you will be working on during this time.
3. Take the next lowest score, apply it to July to September, and so on with each area, until your highest scoring area is scheduled for January to March 2025.

Yes - it will take you into 2025 to ‘finish’ all of the categories - but remember the following:

• We haven't 'lost' three months - we've been preparing, so that what actions we do take are the best actions for us, and ones that will create the most impact. Remember, there is no point just doing 'stuff' for the sake of it.
• This is a non-overwhelm plan, and its specifically designed to ensure that you get the maximum shift and change, from minimal actions.
• The perfect time & place is always right when and where you are :)

Your Next Action (Part 2):

Now you know when you are going to work in each area, next I would like you to:

1. Look at each score, and decide how much you would like to improve each area- I would suggest, by no more than 2 points - you will improve more than that - but psychologically and avoiding overwhelm sometimes means not being as ambitious as you would like to.

For me, the first area I want to focus on is Personal Fulfillment, currently a 6

- I want that to be an 8 - so that is my goal.??

2. Next step is to think about what would make your score 2 points higher ,and write that down in a sentence - again using my example of personal fulfillment, I may write:

'I am tangibly and statistically impacting more people in my work, and I have at least 10 opportunities to enjoy the fruits of my labour with my daughters and in other social circles' ??

3. Once you have assessed what from a practical sense can boost your score, I want you to think of what your one next best step would be towards your goal sentence

My next best step was to connect with 100 more people on LinkedIn, and to make sure that I am creating content - like this - that can impact people more people.??

I also booked a short break for the middle of the year, for no reason other than to just relax and enjoy the fruits of my labour:)?

So what would your next best step?? Could it be:

• Personal brand development in thought leadership by committing to writing articles/posts on LinkedIn,
• Taking an industry course that would enhance the work you are doing,
• Asking for flexible working hours so that you can spend more time with family and or friends?

Whatever the step is, you need to quantify it - so how many times a week will you go to the gym?; how many people in other organisations who do the same thing I do will I connect with and network with? Maybe you could commit to writing one business case that puts forward a necessary leadership role you have the skills to do; or even as simple as revising your CV and applying to 5 roles.

4. Re-write your next best step from step 3, and add your quantification, of exactly what you will do towards your goal.

5. Revise your next best step for that life area each month, if you need to change it - do so.

Lastly - if you don’t achieve everything in a particular life area within the 3 months - still move on to the next area, I assure you whatever you started will continue to snowball in the right direction- particularly as? - none of these areas are an island - one impacts all.?

I hope you all have found this short series impactful and effective.? Please do inbox me on any of the platforms I am on, or email me at [email protected] if you need any help with anything at all, or have something I haven’t covered here.?

The video to last weeks step on branding, is now out on YouTube!! Please watch as there are a couple of extra nuggets for you! You Are A Brand - YouTube

Please, please, please like-share-subscribe :)

Wishing you all the best with your 2024 career plans?

Dawn x

PS: There are still spaces for my 'Show Up to Reach The Top' FREE workshop - Exclusively for Female leaders of Colour -

My gift to you for this years International Womens Month ?? -

If you are looking for Transformation this year, not just internally - but in what you experience in your career, I guarantee movement in your career over the next 6-12 months for all active attendees - and I don't do that lightly??

Click the link below to register, there are already limited spots available!

Get Yourself In the Room (virtually) Now: https://buff.ly/48OcEbP