By Jim Hasse, ABC, GCDF, Disability Employment Expert
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Goal setting for adults is all about learning how to work less and, at same time, do more.
In fact, knowing how to work less but do more can be a career builder for your mature son or daughter who has cerebral palsy (CP) and is now entering the job market. It can help him or her get hired. Let me explain.
Yes, job seeking is a full-time job. But, no, it does not have to consume the life of your son or daughter who is making the transition from school to work. Gaining that balance is knowing about goal setting for adults.
In fact, learning how to work less and still get more done than competitors for a particular job before working full-time is a valuable skill your son or daughter can highlight in the bundle of personal attributes he or she markets to prospective employers.
Those who are productive in their job searches are likely to be productive on the job. Employers are well aware of that fact. It all comes down to goal setting for adults.
And, knowing how to effectively manage personal time may be even more important for your youngster with CP. Prospective hiring managers, after all, probably wonder in their heads whether, as a result of CP, your son or daughter will be able “to carry their share of the load” within a work setting.
Goal setting for adults: Work less, do more
That’s why I’m particularly impressed with what Stever Robbins, a recognized time management expert and executive, has to say about maximizing productivity on the job without sacrificing one's personal life.
He’s a graduate of Harvard Business School and MIT. His newest book is “Get-It-Done Guy’s Nine Steps to Work Less and Do More.”
I like Robbins’ basic premise about productivity. He believes putting in eight hours of work a day is irrelevant (particularly for the person who is self-employed). What counts is working on activities which have the most impact on achieving one's most important goals. He recommends spending time on what will move a project forward toward those goals. Again -- a mature approach to goal setting for adults.
Robbins says goal setting for adults needs to give direction to one's life. Goals can help your son or daughter develop the kind of life he or she wants.
So, he recommends, “First, decide how you want to spend your time --- and then set goals which control your time and which will help you achieve that kind of life.”
For instance, at 74, I want to build a balanced retirement in which I continue to:
To gain that balance, my goal is to spend two hours a day at my computer (managing www.cerebral-palsy-career-builders.com to pass on career, business and marketing tips I’ve learned -- and wish I had 40 years ago -- to others).
That covers the first two points above that I thoroughly enjoy. Then, I want to devote the remainder of my time on point number 3, my free time for exploring other interests.
My dream is a life with continued growth and challenge without heavy deadlines.
In his book, “Get-It-Done Guy’s Nine Steps to Work Less and Do More,” Robbins gives a broad range of quick tips for managing time effectively. I’d like to share a few of them with you that I find refreshing and that you may want to pass on to your job seeker with CP. I’ll do that in the context of his nine productivity steps.
His nine steps to working less and doing more are:
Robbins defines productivity as how much work it takes to get the results you want from your job and to live your life to the fullest. He says that means sometimes you need to say “no” to someone who is seeking a portion of your time.
I wish I had these bits of advice 50 years ago. I was 24 and needed advice about goal setting for adults.
The key concept in goal setting for adults is that one is in charge of his or her life. Your son or daughter needs to decide how he or she will use personal time (and let no one else make that decision).
In doing so, your young job seeker will be able to answer, in concrete terms, the often-unasked question in job interviews: “With your disability, how do you intend to carry your share of the weight in this job?”
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Go to Cerebral Palsy Career Builders
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