Initially, I started wondering…

• Is this what I am all about?
• Why would they say this to me?
• When did this start?

I needed to dig deep to understand whether I should feel good or bad about this.

• One family member said that after talking to me, he usually feels motivated to work. Huh??
• A friend said, “you are very good at making me feel guilty”. Realizing what she said, she quickly added, “in a good way…I am energized to get the job done”.
• Finally, a client believed that after talking to me, she is eager to take on any challenging task.

Reflecting on my conversations with everyone, I primarily thought that this was due to — what everyone tells me — my being a good listener. With a bit more pondering, it was clear that the urge to hustle comes from talking about their reasons for procrastinating — to me.
I narrowed our motivational conversations and brainstorming chats to one question. I personally use the following method to move forward productively all the time. It became obvious that it works with others as well because the urgent requests to chat, when needing to beat dawdling, keep coming from friends, family members and clients.

Here is the one question you need to ask yourself to slay the dragon of procrastination:

• Why am I doing this?

Your personal situation will dictate the significance and the meaning of the word “this”.
When I use it, I focus on the task at hand. For example, when I am not eager to write my blog, I ask:

• Why am I writing blogs?

This simple reflection question reminds me of my personal enjoyment of sharing my knowledge. Sharing knowledge also triggers the feeling of accomplishment particularly when I receive feedback from readers and hear their stories of how my blogs helped them move forward in their career — so be sure to share your feedback.

And finally, writing my blog is part of my mission to increase career literacy.
This reflection process doesn’t take too long and soon I get the urge to set the timer for 30 minutes thinking that I will just write for 30 minutes and stop.
Notice how I transitioned from procrastinating to working on the task?
Here is another example.
You need to start working on a project. You know that it needs a couple of hours at least but you find yourself delaying and finding excuses. “In a few minutes” quickly changes to “later” until a few hours go by and you still haven’t started. Depending on your situation, your reflective questions will have a few possibilities:

• Why are you procrastinating?
• Why are you doing this project?
• Why are you writing, designing, working and so on?

Take a few minutes to answer the questions and see what happens. Your answer/s should motivate you to start working on the project.
I use a timer if the urge to start working is not that strong. 20 to 30 minutes are usually enough. You can use the timer on your phone like I do but there are many timer apps available that you could use such as, Promofocus
Now it is YOUR turn. Fill in the blank
Why am I…?
Stay reflecting and keep moving forward productively!
Need more ideas? Let me know.

Have you ever thought about creating your personal Education-Career Portfolio?
It is okay if you don’t have a portfolio yet. However, you really need to have one. And it is never too late to design and create your first portfolio.

Here are the three reason to have an Education/Career Portfolio. A portfolio helps you:
ONE - Get to know what makes you happy – who doesn’t want to be happy? It is about developing confident knowledge of who you are.
- What truly makes you happy?
- Is it about finding a challenge?
- Does involve finding need a "purpose"?
- What are you passionate about?
- What does your next mission or whatever you would like to call it look like?

TWO - Create a career action plan - experiential learning or employment opportunities you want to explore. A portfolio also helps you design your next steps or goals that will lead to your success and overall happiness. 

THREE - Have the knowledge and tools to regularly update your resume – an important skill these days. Using artifacts and memorabilia of your accomplishments will help you identify stories to market your skills – think interviews, LinkedIn profile, resumes and so on.   

Ok, not convinced? Humor me and ask yourself this question.
What will you include in YOUR portfolio? It is easy and can be fun!
You start building your portfolio by collecting mementos that you value. These mementos can remind you of good or bad moments in your life. The choice is yours!

Here are some ideas to get you started but remember that it is your portfolio and only you get to determine what to include in your education-career portfolio:

• Self-assessments
• Resume/CV
• A list of dreams/aspirations
• A checklist of goals or objectives that you hope to accomplish
• Any awards or certificates of accomplishments that you value
• Compile and choose the top 10 projects that you created, alone or as part of a team
• References/testimonials

Your voice is central to the creation of the education-career portfolio. You get to decide what to include in it, how to create it, and how you will utilize it in the future. 
Most importantly, beware that the eventual focus is on scaffolding you to use the portfolio as a tool to launch your experiential learning or to develop and maintain a successful career journey.

The responsibility for the betterment of your future is in your hands. Zoom your focus on developing skills and pursuing intentional practices along with iterative lifelong learning, experience processing, and continuous reflection.
The more involved you remain in your career story creation, the happier you will be with your storyline.
Neet help getting started? Work with me!

As the New Year approaches, we start reflecting on new beginnings, considering new hopes for the future and most commonly thinking about new goals...
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Many of us have written goals before and for some reason you may be thinking that for this year you don’t want to write goals.

I have worked with clients who do not see value in writing goals. You agree and that is why you are reading this.

I am certain that you have good reasons for not wanting to write goals. It could be that you tried it before and it did not work. Or you felt frustrated when you could not attain a particular goal. More possibly still, you wrote a goal and had to change it for what felt like a million times.

Here is an idea!

How would you feel if I told you to forget about writing goals? For now...anyway.
Instead, I invite you to think about your favorite memories.

• What did you want most in life and got?
• What made you happy?
• What led you to feel accomplished?

​The idea behind these questions at this point is to focus on positive experiences and how they made you feel. I ask myself these questions on a regular basis. The answers help me stay focused and of course, see value in creating and pursuing new goals.

When I ask these and other questions that help clients reflect on what makes them happy, some clients are very clear on what they want, on the things that will make them happy and they can be very specific when thinking of achievements. Other clients find it hard to answer these questions. I explain my reasons behind this line of questioning. The most important reasons are:

• If you do not know where you are going, how are you going to get there?
• If you do not know what you want, how will the hiring manager know?
• If you do not know what makes you happy, how will you be happy?

Here are some suggestions to facilitate reflection on the three questions.

• Dig deep into past happy memories and forgotten dreams.
• Try to be as specific as you can.
• Write down the memory, record your voice telling it or if you prefer share it with someone who can help.

​Life gets in the way and we tend to forget what is important to us. I started asking myself these questions many years ago. Looking back, it now seems that I have been building on them year after year. One of my dreams and accomplishments included receiving a doctorate degree.

I have completed my degree and oh what a feeling that was!

As I worked for that goal, the journey was tough and there were times when I was ready to quit. Having goals and keeping my eye on the dream kept me going.
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The light at the end of the tunnel helped me persist in handling the constant revisions of my thesis and persevere in focusing on the smaller goals. In the process, I remembered that I really enjoyed going to school and university. The tests I passed and the positive reviews were the little lights that made the journey fulfilling. I discovered that I am a lifelong learner. I continue to cherish and honor this value by learning and researching.

I invite you today to take a break from writing your goals and focus on what specifically makes you happy.

​Be as detailed as you can!
Let me know how that goes and we can work on the next set of questions.