The Secret to Career and Life Management

By Nancy Anderson

With fall officially here, it’s a perfect time to conduct a review of gains and losses you experienced this past year. Frequent reviews are the secret of career and life management, since reflecting before going forward consolidates gains, and the learning that follows failures.

“I don’t want to look at my failures,” said one of my clients, Laura, when I asked her to review the consequences of choices she made the past year, “It’s too embarrassing.”

“Then you are bound to repeat the failures,” I said, smiling. “Don’t be afraid to examine the results of mistakes, if you learn from them, they turn into successes.”

Tolerance for error is an important quality to develop, as is the ability to correct without self-recrimination. Once you look at mistakes as choices you thought were right at the time, you simultaneously realize you would not make those choices now. Since you are not the person you were when you made the poor choice, why punish the new you?

Like many people who measure themselves by how much they get done, Laura believed if she kept going and going like the Energizer Bunny that would keep her on the fast track at work. Paradoxically, holding still so she could listen to her inner voice was the solution to her career frustration. But she was afraid that voice would guide her in a direction she did not want to go.

Next: How to create an effective self-review

1 of 2

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Camilla V.

11:20PM PDT on Mar 15, 2011

that is awesome

send a green star

KS G.

5:58AM PDT on Mar 15, 2011

Thanks for the article.

Mark S.

1:54PM PDT on Oct 3, 2010

Very good advice. Thank you for sharing it.

Annemarie W.

10:21PM PDT on Sep 30, 2010

Good stuff

Past Member .

6:57PM PDT on Sep 26, 2010

How pure this statement, written by an unknown prisoner in Ravensabruck concentration camp and left by the body of a dead child ...

Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have infliced on us, remember the fruits we have bought thanks to that suffering ... our comradship, our loyalty, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this, and when they come to judgment let all the fruits which we have borne be their forgiveness.

There are life lessons to be learned in everything we do, if we're smart enough to see them.

Carolyn A.

6:33PM PDT on Sep 25, 2010

Trust the process! Carolyn A

6:32PM PDT on Sep 25, 2010

Trust the process.

Mike M.

10:56AM PDT on Sep 25, 2010

A work in progress...

Loo S.

5:27AM PDT on Sep 25, 2010

thanks for the article.

Jelena L.