“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” — Benjamin Franklin

Personal development does not necessarily imply upward movement; rather, it is about enabling yourself to improve your performance and reach your full potential at each stage of your career. Follow the 5-step process below to create a successful personal development plan which is a key ingredient to self-improvement.

Step 1: Identify Your Development Target

Your development target should be:

• Interesting to You. You can choose targets that stem from your values; work activities you are passionate about, or other areas that you find energizing and align with your career interests 
• Part of Your Current Role. Look at your current role and identify targets that can originate from having new responsibilities, opportunities to stretch or competencies that could be required to prepare your successor and managing hands-off
• Aligned with Long-Term Aspirations. Long-term career aspirations that would require you to build new skills or change your approach in order to be successful could also guide the selection of your development targets

Step 2:  Identify Learning and Development Activities Related to the Target

• Imagine Your Big Picture. Before you can clearly define each action item, you need to fully understand/visualize the bigger picture. How are you performing at this skill/behavior now, and where do you want to be?  What will success look like?
• Simplify and Make It Tangible. It’s important that your action be simple, defined and aligned. Alignment here refers to this action’s placement in the larger picture you’ve created. How will it add value and help contribute toward achieving success?   Does your action item define exactly what you are going to do and how you are going to do it?
• Measure and Quantify. The more your actions can be quantified, the easier you will find it to monitor and track progress and know that you are making a change.  As an example, how much time per month will you set aside for brainstorming new ideas? For each problem where a tested solution may suffice, how many alternative/innovative approaches can you put forward that would bring the same or even greater value?
• Follow Up and Keep Yourself in Check. Now that you’ve arrived at a unit of measure, how often will you monitor and measure? The other essential quantitative component to building meaningful action items is determining when and how often you will gauge progress.
• Seek Feedback So Others Can Keep You in Check. Reflect on your colleagues in the workplace. Who can you turn to that you know will offer candid feedback? By honing in on these individuals and seeking their honest feedback, monitoring action items becomes more scrupulous and increases your likelihood to perform them in a quality manner.

Step 3: Learn and Change

• Bring Values to the Picture. When you are thinking about changing habits and achieving new goals consistently evaluate how you feel about it. How will you feel if you achieve the goal? Research shows that when you bring emotions and your core values to the picture, the likelihood of you achieving that goal is much greater than if you do not feel a personal and emotional connection in development of your goal.
• Consistency is Critical. Forming new habits require consistent commitment to your goals no matter how many times you fail. Do not allow failures to discourage you. Replacing negative thoughts with positive, “can do” attitude helps to commit back to the goals. Follow a 21 or a 30-day routine, or 10,000 hours of practice where you consistently try to implement your goal. Building new habits takes repetition and personal commitment.
• Remind Yourself. It is good to remind yourself periodically about the goal so that you don’t forget about it. Set an alarm on your phone; add reminders in your digital planners or post-it notes in your office. A trigger is something that is already a habit and helps you practice your new habit. Use a relevant trigger to practice the new habit. For example: Monday morning meetings will be a good trigger for practicing presentation skills. The more the habit becomes a part of your daily routine, the easier it is to practice.
• Reward Yourself. Examine the rewards that would drive the appropriate behavior.  Reward yourself when you are able to commit to the tasks or activities that you have identified to achieve your larger goals. Rewarding immediately after a success helps ensure that the behavior will be repeated in the future.
• Recognize that Development is a Process, Be Patient. Your initial actions won’t be perfect. They could result in mistakes, self-critiques or even failures. Treat each misstep as a learning opportunity and move on. Whenever you achieve success, celebrate it. Success does not depend on getting everything right on the first go. Change takes time. The goal is to improve incrementally.
• Know the Benefits. What are the benefits of making the change? How is it going to help you? Determine why you really would like to achieve these goals? A belief that the change is going to benefit you is essential as it helps you justify why you are changing. Review the “Is it Worth It tool” mentioned earlier to help you connect back to the benefits of your targets.
• Develop Self-Discipline and Visualization. Self-discipline requires you to think about a task and not give-in to your feelings. Being consciously aware allows you to be proactive about what you do and what you do not do. Write your goals where you can visualize it. Visualization helps keep you aware of your goals. Finally remind and encourage yourself about your goals by revisiting why and how these are important to what you want to achieve.

Step 4: Engage Others

Identify stakeholders among different constituent groups including peers, direct reports, colleagues, and managers who can reinforce the development process by providing additional insights and feedback, and can also help change the perception that may exist around a particular behavior. A stakeholder should be someone who:

• Has the opportunity to observe you in multiple arenas
• Will be open, honest, and comfortable providing feedback
• Has a vested interest in your success
• Is positive and supportive, even when providing unpleasant feedback

Step 5: Measure the Success of Your Targets and Specific Action Items

In order to continue learning, think about the following four questions on a weekly or monthly basis:
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• What did I set out to do (in the action plan)?
• What happened (the good and the bad)?
• Why did it happen?
• What will I do next time?

The desired effect is to reinforce each of your successes and ensure you take any needed actions before the next week or month begins.

You can find a template for your personal development plan below:

Are you a reluctant leader? Are you avoiding or worried about moving into a role because of the added people management responsibilities?  The conversation usually goes like this:

     ME: What are your career aspirations? What are you looking to do in your career?
     CLIENT: I would love to do X, Y, and Z, and move to a more senior level…but I really 
                   don’t want to manage people.

For many, this is a direct conflict. Generally, you can’t move to senior levels and continue to work as an individual contributor. I’ve found that some are reluctant to make this transition because they have false perceptions of people leadership. Adjusting those perceptions may help you move from reluctance to eagerness in pursuing and successfully transitioning into a people management role.  Read on for myths, facts, and tips to help you make the transition.  

Myth 1: Leaders are born, not made.
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Fact:  Leaders are born and made. While some leaders have gifts in a number of areas, all leaders will tell you that they built and refined their skills through critical experiences, mistakes, earnest effort, and a willingness to accept feedback and change. Leadership excellence is a refined skill, not a genetic inheritance.  A recent study assessed the value of genetics vs. learned behavior at 30% vs. 70% in leadership roles. The authors concluded that leadership development follows a specific progression: “ready, willing and [then] able” (Keating & Burgoon). Study participants who displayed leadership readiness fast-tracked their learning and improved their leadership skills more quickly than those who moved into roles reluctantly, lacked confidence, or were unprepared. Genetics may give some a faster start, but as the authors indicate, it ultimately comes down to the fact that ‘it’s not what you’ve inherited, but what you do with it that defines you’.

Transition Tip: Prepare yourself for a people management role by taking foundational courses on people leadership.  If you don’t have access to one in your organization, consider free courses online at Udemy or edX, or read through the free Google course on leadership transitions available here. Then get ready to apply, learn, adapt, and grow quickly.  

Myth 2: Leaders have all the answers.

Fact: If a leader believes they have all the answers, you probably don’t want to work with them. The best leaders possess a clear understanding of what they do...and do not know. People leadership is a team sport and objectives cannot be achieved alone. Great leaders seek and hire passionate people in diverse areas of expertise and bring them together to achieve a common and purposeful goal. Recent studies indicate that humble CEOs, those who are willing to admit their mistakes and limitations, are associated with less turnover, higher employee satisfaction, and better company performance. Even at Google, one of the most technically oriented organizations in the world, technical skills were at the bottom of the list for what makes an effective leader. So instead of worrying about what you know, start assessing the leadership situation for your team and identify how you can best serve those for whom you may soon be responsible.

Transition Tip:  List the core responsibilities of your new role. Next to those responsibilities, list what you currently do and do not know. Some of what you don’t know, you’ll need to learn. But for other spaces, identify how you can rely on experts on your team to deliver and teach you along the way.  On your list, be sure to include the key people leadership skills that are needed for success in the role (e.g., vision setting, empowerment, accountability, coaching, etc.).

Myths 3: I need a big personality and charisma to lead.

Fact. Extroversion and charisma are great leadership traits, but they’re not the traits direct reports crave the most. What are they looking for?  Honesty, integrity, and a leader who is genuinely interested in them and the overarching goals of the organization (Gyles, Catalyst).  I’ve had several clients say, “I never thought of myself as a leader.” For many reluctant leaders, their leader prototype is a charismatic, larger than life individual who rides in with a cape and all of the answers, ready to save the day. But in reality, if you are able to serve, you are able to lead. In several studies, employees indicate the leadership quality they value the most in a leader is Honesty. Employees want to work for someone they trust; someone whom they believe is genuinely concerned about accomplishing the mission of the organization and each individual who is working to achieve it. 

Transition Tip: Avoid the temptation to define your leadership approach based on your personality, preferences, or interests. Instead, assess the business and team situation you’ll now be responsible for and figure out what is needed to accomplish the mission. In a leadership program I was orchestrating, a participant asked the CEO about his leadership style and preferences. His answer?  “I am who the team needs me to be.”  So instead of focusing on your style, focus on what the team needs and provide that instead.    

Myth 4: My direct reports will take up all of my working time. 

Fact: OK, you’re right on this one. Your direct reports will take up a LOT of your time. 
A recent study reported that 48% of the employees surveyed spent between 1 to 3 hours per week with their manager. However, the researchers also found that employees who spent an average of 6 hours per week with their manager were more engaged, inspired, motivated, and innovative.  And if you’re at a more senior level, even more time was needed for a similar effect. I’m sure some of you just did the math (i.e., I have 8 employees! If I spend six hours with each one, I’ll never get my work done!).  Good news is that the 6 hours don’t all need to be one-on-one or even in person.  So, a 1-hour staff meeting is considered 1 hour for everyone. Whew!
But whether you spend 1 hour or 6 hours, your direct reports will certainly require a lot of your time.  And regardless of what your organization may say about ‘working managers’ and ‘player coaches’, being an effective people manager is a significant component of your role. As such, it will and should take up a great deal of your time. Consider it your motivation to building an empowered and capable team that eventually, will require less time for the mundane, and more of your time for true innovation and high-performance delivery.  So instead of avoiding or lamenting (aka whining) the time spent with your peeps, embrace it as a critical component of your new role and make it as impactful as you can. 

Transition Tip:  View your “meeting” times as working time. Use time spent in meetings to ensure your team understands the vision and is prepared and capable to deliver on their responsibilities. Ask great questions and listen to understand their perspective. You may find yourself in meetings far more than you would like.  If so, become an expert at calendar management.  Schedule the right amount of time, but don’t over-schedule as we all tend to speak to the time allotted (do you see a lot of meetings end early?).  Once you’ve mastered your calendar, use the meeting time purposefully to build relationships, share the vision, coach, and understand how to best serve the individual members of your team. Add some walking meetings or meet in a different location to mix it up.  In short, embrace the time – it’s not going away.  

REFERENCES:
 Myth 1:
Northwestern Mutual Voice, “Are Leaders Born or Made?”.  Forbes.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/northwesternmutual/2015/03/23/are-leaders-born-or-made/#6ba61d873e29
David Rosch Keating & Lisa Burgoon. “Are Leaders Born or Made? New Study Shows How Leadership Develops”.  http://web.extension.illinois.edu/ajmpu/news/news31624.html?_sm_au_=iRV6b4DfR50MH7Nr
http://www.journalofleadershiped.org/attachments/article/7/13_3keating117.pdf
:https://www.forbes.com/sites/northwesternmutual/2015/03/23/are-leaders-born-or-made/#4f324bf83e29
Google’s New Manager Training: https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/managers-develop-and-support-managers/steps/review-googles-new-manager-training/
 Myth 2:
Ashley Merryman, “Leaders are More Powerful When They’re Humble”.  The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/12/08/leaders-are-more-powerful-when-theyre-humble-new-research-shows/?utm_term=.8b14fe1360c2
Adam Bryant, “Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss.” The New York Times.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/business/13hire.html
Myth 3:
Sunnie Gyles, “The Most Important Leadership Competencies, According to Leaders Around the World.”  Harvard Business Review.
Catalyst Infographic, “Inclusion Matters”.  http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/inclusion-matters
Myth 4:
​Mark Murphy, "Optimal Hours with the Boss Study", Leadership IQ, 
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0860/7364/files/Leadership_IQ_Whitepaper_Optimal_Hours_with_the_Boss_Study_2014.pdf?4279660079233060856

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Access the Goal Setting Worksheet Here

New Year’s Resolutions have gone a bit out of style; or as my nephew called the idea recently - “old school”.  The growing focus on ‘in the moment’ experiences and hyper-adaptability has made many of us impatient or disinterested in the time required to set, work towards, and achieve longer term goals.  However, if done right, goal setting actually works.  The effectiveness of goal setting is one of the most proven principles in all of social science (Locke & Brian, 1967; Locke & Latham, 2002; Locke & Latham, 2013).  And the new year is just as good a time as any to get started.  
 
Below are 7 practical steps to achieving more in 2017 and a simple worksheet to help.  Cheers to old school principles that work.
 
1. Ensure they matter.  A goal has to be meaningful to be achieved.  So start with assessing your current satisfaction with different areas of your life (e.g., Family, Friends, Work, Service, Spirituality).  Use this to determine the areas where progress would be most meaningful to you and start your goal setting there.  

2. Write them down. Goals ‘in our minds’ are not the same as goals written down.  Goals that we think about only can actually be more frustrating because they become a source of unmet need and stress.  Research has proven that writing it down helps to make your goal more specific, which helps you to achieve it.  And if you can place them somewhere you will regularly see and be reminded of what you’re trying to achieve, even better. One of my sisters placed a picture of herself at her non-ideal weight on her mirror as she pursued one of her health goals.  She lost over 80 pounds that year and has kept it off for more than 12 years.   Written down and highly visible goals keep us from conveniently forgetting the changes we were planning to make by February. 

3. Identify what & how. Along with identifying what you want to achieve, do the work to decide how you’re going to achieve it.  For example, one of my resolutions is to spend more time in community volunteerism.  Along with taking advantage of opportunities as they arise, I’m planning to volunteer with Big Brothers, Big Sisters.  Determining how you will achieve your goal provides immediate action steps that you can take and helps maintain momentum.  

4. Choose a specific date. Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Work Week recommends identifying goals in 3 categories – what you want to Be, Have, and Do.  For goals in your “Have” and “Do” categories especially, identify a target date.  That way, you know if you are ahead or behind schedule, and you can course-correct as needed. 

5. Tell someone. Ah, the joy and pain of accountability. If one of your resolutions is challenging or significantly different than what you’ve done in the past, tell someone who you know will keep you accountable.  Many of us avoid this step because we’re assuming we’re not going to achieve the goal, and would rather fail in private, than in front of others. But if you’ve decided to actually DO something (not just try it), why not tell someone else?  The fear of failure is a powerful motive – use it to your advantage.  

6. Reward progress, even if not perfection. One of the funniest New Year memes I’ve seen this year shows ‘Frank the Tank’ from Old School saying “I’ve already messed up my 2017 resolutions.  Let’s go 2018!”.   I think it describes one of the reasons many of us avoid New Year Resolutions.  We’re measuring ourselves against perfection, not progress.  If you have a goal to read 12 books this year, and I told you that at the end of the year, you will have read 8, would you still pursue the goal?  Of course you would!  There’s no need to throw out your resolutions on January 2 because you didn’t achieve them on January 1.  That’s nonsense.  Attack your yearly goals as you would a problem at work or home; if your first strategy doesn’t work, try something else.  There’s no reason to work harder achieving things for others than you do for yourself.  

7. Make it simple. One of my clients shared a concept with me where she chooses one word every year to define what she is trying to achieve. This year I’m using a word, and others years I’ve used a picture.  For several years my picture was a target because I wanted to be more intentional and act “on purpose” every day.  This year my word is “Service”.  Review your list of goals and identify the common theme across what you are trying to achieve. Is your word “Truth”, “Intentional”, “Experience”?  Even when you can’t see your list of goals, the word will remind you to stay focused and centered on what you want most out of 2017. 

What are you thinking about for 2017?  Goal setting actually works when done well – let's use science to our advantage to achieve more in 2017. Click here to access a simple goal setting worksheet to help. 
 
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Bryan, J. & Locke, E. (1967).  Goal setting as a means of increasing motivation.  Journal of Applied Psychology, Volume 51(3), June 1967 (274-277).
Ferriss, T. (2007). The 4-Hour Work Week.  Crown Publishing Group.  ISBN 978-0-307-35313-9.
Locke, E. & Latham, G.P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey.  American Psychologist, Volume 57(9), September 2002 (705-717).
Locke, E. & Latham, G.P. (2013). New developments in goal setting and task performance.  New York, NY.  Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Thank you for being a part of our circle!   We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and a joyful time with those you love!  Tell us what YOU are thankful for below.  For every comment, we'll add $1 to our donation to Feeding America National Food Banks!  Click the "Comment" word below the FaceBook Like button to comment.  

Do your leaders need Cultural Awareness or Global Leader Capability? 
 
If you’re operating in a global environment, it’s probably both.  But investing in Global Leadership Capability may get you further, faster.  I was recently talking with a colleague tasked with increasing the leadership capability of global teams (i.e., teams based in one country, and working with individuals in other countries).  To accomplish this, the first request she received was for Cultural Awareness Training to help them better understand the cultures of their colleagues.  While Cultural training certainly has its benefits, I recommend first focusing on the development of Global Leader Capabilities. 
 
Global Leader Capabilities are competencies and characteristics that are associated with higher performance and success rates for leaders in global and/or expatriate roles1.  Many of these competencies are not country or culture-specific.  As a result, they form a foundation onto which leaders can build their cultural awareness.
 
Global roles are complex, exciting, challenging, and rewarding.  Are there differences in how leader behaviors are viewed across cultures?  Absolutely4.  But giving your leaders confidence that there are also capabilities that can help them succeed across cultures is critical in building their resilience and ability to win in today’s environment.
 
So the next time you’re tasked with improving the leadership capability of a global team, start hiring for and building competency in the global leadership capabilities known to work in diverse situations.  And by the way, these behaviors work for leaders in non-global roles too since cultural differences are ubiquitous within organizations, teams, regions, and families.  Below are just a few competencies to get you started.
 
Stay Curious:  Staying curious is the ability to seek understanding while suspending judgment in the process.  Mendenhall and colleagues called this “Nonjudgmentalness“ and defined it as being “inclined to withhold or suspend judgment about persons or situations or behavior that is new or unfamiliar” (Mendenhall et al., 2008, p. 8).   Some believe this may be the single most important competency for successful global leadership.  By suspending judgement, the individual creates an opportunity to observe and learn a great deal about context and culture that will help them in future encounters.  While there are certainly ingrained aspects to a leader’s curiosity, there are also behaviors that leaders can learn and practice.  And you don’t have to wait for a global role to begin; you can practice curiosity today.     

• Make it Practical: As you prepare for your next meeting (whether it’s with your client, your employee, your manager, or your child), spend time thinking of great questions, rather than great answers.  Write down your list of questions, and then ask yourself, “what is my intention and unspoken assumption behind each question?”.  Choose questions that are open and don’t presume a certain reality or response.  Once your intentions are clear and unassuming, your questions will follow, and the answers may surprise you and provide insight for your next leadership action.

 
Vision:  Ken Blanchard stated that “leadership is about going somewhere.”2  Teams around the world value leaders who are able to articulate where the team is going3.  And this is especially important amidst complex multi-country landscapes.  People want to know a leader’s vision of the future and their ideas and strategies for how the team will get there. 

• Make it Practical: Ensure your organization and team missions and visions have been decided upon, written down, and shared with each member of the team in a way that they can ask questions and understand.   Want to assess where you are in this area?  At the beginning of a meeting, ask each team member to write down the organization and team mission and vision anonymously.  Collect, assess, and likely, prepare to re-communicate.  Teams and strategies are always evolving - you can rarely say it too many times.

 
Concern for Others:  Around the world, people want to work with leaders that demonstrate genuine concern for their welfare.  While the way this concern is demonstrated may vary, investing the time to build quality relationships is universally appreciated. Even in formal cultures, where relationships may take longer to build, having strong relationships remains critical to success.  Relationship building is also beneficial for the leader’s growth in their role.  Reverse mentoring can be a helpful resource for the leader in developing a more robust and nuanced understanding of the culture and team he or she is leading. 

• Make it Practical:  Start with listening.  For your next one-on-one interaction, avoid the laundry list of topics and endless talking points.  Instead, limit yourself to 1-2 critical topics to ensure the other person has ample time to understand and respond.  This is especially important when working with individuals with a native language different than your own.  Remove the pressure for accomplishing ‘big things’ in initial meetings.  Relationships in some cultures are built over months and years, not days.  So instead, take a deep breath, focus on the other person, listen, and learn about their concerns.  This will in turn inform how you can best guide and support them in accomplishing the strategy.  And doesn’t that feel better anyway?    

 
 
References:
     1Grove, C. N. (2005).  Leadership style variations across cultures:  Overview of GLOBE research findings.  Retrieved June 2016 from: http://www.grovewell.com/wp-content/uploads/pub-GLOBE-leadership-style.pdf
     1Mendenhall, M. Stevens, M. J., Bird, A., & Oddou, G. R. (2008). Specification of the content domain of the Global Competencies Inventory.   The Kozai Working Paper Series.  Retrieved June 2016 from http://www.kozaigroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/gci_technical_report.pdf
     1Stevens, M., Bird, A., Mendenhall, M., & Oddou, G. (2014).   Measuring Global Leader Intercultural Competency:  Development and Validation of the Global Competencies Inventory (GCI). In Advances in Global Leadership, Volume 8, 115 – 154.  Eds. Joyce Osland, Ming Li, and Ying Wang. 
     1Winsborough, D. and Hogan, R. (2014).  Evaluating Global Leadership: Does Culture Matter? In Advances in Global Leadership, Volume 8, 45 – 65.  Eds. Joyce Osland, Ming Li, and Ying Wang. 
     2Blanchard, K. H., & Ken Blanchard Companies. (2007). Leading at a higher level: Blanchard on leadership and creating high performing organizations. P 17.  Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
     3Anupam, A. & Rock, C. (2014).  Global leaders in east and west:  Do all global leaders lead in the same way?  In Advances in Global Leadership, Volume 8, 155-179.  Eds. Joyce Oslad, Ming Li, & Ying Wang.    
     4Grove, C. N. (2005).  Leadership style variations across cultures:  Overview of GLOBE research findings.  Retrieved June 2016 from: http://www.grovewell.com/wp-content/uploads/pub-GLOBE-leadership-style.pdf

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​Often we think of creativity as a trait – some people have it, and some people don’t.  But several studies have demonstrated that creative thinking is impacted by a number of factors beyond innate ability.  For example, the simple statement “please think creatively” was shown to increase participants’ creative fluency in a recent laboratory study.  Sometimes, it’s not about the people.  It’s about the environment, the expectations, and the permissibility to engage in creative thinking and work.  Next time you’re seeking more creative solutions, be explicit and intentionally cue the creativity for yourself or your team.  A few ideas to get you started…
 
 
1.Change the Setting…even it it’s down the hall to the break room. 
 
Want to spur creativity?  Try altering the environment.  Do something to put yourself or your team in a different environment.  Go outside, remove the table, sit in different places, meet in the cafeteria, stand-up.  I remember meeting with two of my colleagues to plan a large recognition event.  Our ideas were traditional, old, and stale – not at all what we were hoping to bring to the event.  One of my colleagues (thanks Jeff!) said ‘let’s get out of here’.  So we moved our meeting a full 100 feet down the hall to the break room.  The act of moving and sitting in a new environment, along with the intentionality of being creative, brought more ideas than we could implement, and the resulting event was a tremendous success.  Environment matters.  If you want to think of new ideas, go to a new place; even if it’s just down the hall. 
 
2.Seek the 3rd and 4th option. 
 
Many of us like the simplicity of two choices:  A or B, Yes or No, Steak or Seafood.  However, many problems require solutions that may not be apparent until option 3 or 4.    If you have a complex problem to solve, force yourself to create a third and fourth option.
 
3.Don’t Choose.
 
Instead of choosing between the 3rd and 4th options, don’t.  Instead, force yourself to identify solutions that provide the benefits of all of the options.  As an example, most of us are often faced with the choice of spending or saving.  However, over 10 years ago, Bank of America launched a campaign that gave customers the benefits of both.  In their “Keep the Change” program, every time a customer used their debit card, the bank rounded up the purchase to the nearest dollar and transferred the difference to their savings account – allowing people to spend and save at the same time.   So the next time you’re choosing between options that have different benefits, consider not choosing.  Instead, force yourself to develop a creative solution that gives the benefits of both.  Cue the cake and eating it too. 

An NIH study reported that one piece of advice older adults would share with younger people is to Live Life Intentionally.  As one participant stated, “ the advice I would give to young people is to live your life the way you enjoy [living it]…. Never, under any circumstances, put off anything that you would like to do, …that you can afford to do, because a week from now you may not be here to do it. I mean don’t put anything [important] off.”  Are you living and working in line with your purpose?  Need motivation to do so?  This video may do it.  Click Here.  ​