"MY FAVORITE TALE"

Very close to the Christmas, I will tell you my favorite tale.

"Two travelling monks reached a river. There was a strong current,   and  a prostitute  asked them if they could carry her across.  The first  monk  hesitated, but the second one picked her up onto his shoulders.  Together the monks strode through the river until they reached the other side.  The monk left the prostitute down on the other side. She thanked him and continued her journey.

As the monks continued on their way, the first monk was brooding and preoccupied all the way.  Unable to hold his silence, at the end of the day he spoke with anger.  “Brother, our spiritual trainer teaches us to avoid any contact with women – let alone that sort of woman – but you picked that one up on your shoulders and carried her!”

“Brother,” the second monk replied, “I left  her down on the other side, but  you had been carrying her for all day, and you are still carrying her.” "

What does it mean?...So many things!!.
Enjoy the life, help people, see inside the people and do not judge them by the apparences, forgive the people that did bad things to you, forget the bad experiences, be a good person, ....after reading the tale, I am sure each person will have a different lesson to be learnt.

How can we apply it  to our work?

......Well, I think that we have to enjoy our work as much as we can, but below our targets, position, salary increases, our stress to get them and our work discussions,.. at the end, it is only a work and I am convinced that we feel happier when we help others that when we are not doing it.

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to all! 

Enjoy the holidays and recharge the batteries for the New Year, that it will arrive soon and for sure with new difficult challenges and difficulties! I will do it!

A PERSONAL DASHBOARD: VISUALISE THE TARGETS HELPS TO GET THEM

Let´s  do  our  Personal and Professional Dashboard for the next year.  

A) When is the best moment to do this exercise?

It is November, because the year is very close to be finished and  it is easier to take in consideration what we did, what we did not and  what we want to get. Using all this information,  it is easier to  plan all our targets for next year and our  actions to get the targets.

B) Steps to do the Dashboard:

1. BRAINSTORMING 

Sit-down and write all you want to get or do next year. Take all the ideas coming to your brain.  At the start, do not eliminate any option.

2. ORGANISE THE TARGETS AND ACTIVITIES BY GROUPS. WORK, LIFE, SPORT, MONEY,... 

When you have all the targets  and actions, organize them by groups. Example: to do a specific training at work or use more time to improve the way to do presentations it is part of the same group: work.

3. REDUCE THE NUMBER OF TARGETS AND GROUPS, BUT BE AMBITIOUS 

They should not be more than 6 groups and if possible, 1 target per group. If not, the risk of dispersion  and not getting the targets is very big. There is as well a risk of selecting a lot of targets, but not very ambitious targets, because you think that the desired targets  are very difficult, then to compensate, you are selecting many targets. At this stage, you can realize that some activities are similar or serve  to  get the same target or that you do not have the time to do both activities or get several targets. Be efficient, but ambitious. You do not want to keep yourself busy, you want  to realize at the end of the year that you progressed dramatically.

4.  SET A  KPI FOR EACH TARGET / GROUP AND THIS IS YOUR KEY TARGET 

The KPI could be of two kinds:

 4. 1. A KPI  linked to the activity that will make possible the target . For example, to be successful at work and  at life, you need to have lots of energy. A way to be more energetic  is having better breakfasts or do more exercise. To have  more breakfast you    need to wake up early, then  the KPI could be the time waking up OR  if you want to run several times per week, the KPI could be  the number of times. Other example,  if you  want to improve  your network, the target could be the number of lunch per week with new people.

 4. 2. A KPI linked to the own target . When you have more energy,  you have  usually the right weight, then  the KPI could be the desired weight. If you want a promotion, the target could be your desired position or your desired salary level . I prefer this kind of KPI, because there is more  link between the target and the KPI and   if the activity is not getting the result, you can  always change the activity easily.

5. REPRESENT THE  DASHBOARD TO  MAKE EASIER TO VISUALISE THE TARGETS  

A number or a drawing, for example. If you want to do hiking, a drawing of a mountain should be perfect or if you want to get a weight, the number in capital letters!!.  If you represent in this way the target, it is easier to visualize the objective, and then it will be easier to meet it.  

6. PUT THE DASHBOARD IN A  PLACE WHERE YOU SEE IT EASILY 

For example,  in the fridge with magnetos. If you see it all day and your family, colleagues  and friends know them, it is more difficult to resist from  getting the targets and everybody is an allied to get the targets.

7. FOLLOW THE TARGETS RESULTS. 

If you are not getting the desired  results,  reanalyze if it is necessary to do an additional activity or change the activity that will make sure  to get the targets. Please do not abandon your objective unless there is a good reason.  And when the year ends,  use all the experience gained  to fix the targets for the next year. 

Now it is your turn to see if it works or not for you.  This Personal Dashboard will help you:

a) To know exactly what you want 

b) Keep more focused to get your targets. 

Remember!: " No wind is good for the sailor that  does not know where he goes"

PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL DASHBOARD - "No wind is good for the sailor that does not know where goes"

I think  that there is a very deep  relation between the different arts and sciences, as you can see in the influence of  Freud in the surrealism,  and that you can apply a practice applied in an area to another area, as some invents discovered in the space by the NASA are applied nowadays in our real life in the earth, as for example, the nappies, the joystick or the Velcro.

Some years ago I did a exercise inside my company called "Bilan de Competence" that consists in analyzing all your professional career,  obtain feedbacks from your colleagues, friends and bosses,  find your strengths and weaknesses and considering all the  data, the final results are two:  

1) Your ideal professional position

2) The action plan to get there. 

Although it was a very demanding exercise in terms of time, analysis and psychological change to assume the real facts, I am very satisfied about the results, because now I know how to take advantage of  my strengths,  I am more conscious to avoid errors coming from my weaknesses,  I am more constant and regular, I have a target to get and eventually,  I am more motivated at work.

But I discovered that there was a link between my failures in my professional life and in my personal life, because  at the end the person is the professional and you behave in the same way, and surprisingly  I discovered  that I was not using  some very good traits from  my personal life in my professional life; for example, I am a very  consensual and friendly person in  my personal life, but I was not so friendly in my professional life, because I was too absorbed by deadlines and tasks to complete.

And I discovered something more interesting,....  in  the period from September to November,  all companies plan the actions and budgets for next year and fix the set of KPIs that defines the success of all actions. This set of KPIs are called Dashboard. I realized that I could take the results from my professional analysis to define a Personal and Professional Dashboard for the next year.

 And from now on, I am doing this Dashboard  all years. Why?. No wind is good for the sailor that does not know where goes.  I  will explain the rules to do this Personal and Professional Dashboard in my next entry.