Welcome back, everybody. Well, this is Food for
Thought Thoughts, if it were you, season two,
and I'm your host, Neogentrics. It's been a while,
and I'm back in the driver's seat. We're gonna
go ahead and pick up where we left off with practical
steps to personal development, okay? A lot of
stuff's been going on. School finally came to
an end for me, you know, and a lot of other things
are building up on blast. I kid you not. This
year is gonna be one hell of a teaser as we try
to go back. from the pandemic into what we call
the norm. Today's topic, the practical steps
for personal development, picks up on the piggybacks
off of the last podcast I did. And I just want
you to know, there are a number of things that
are vital in supporting your personal development,
okay? Including developing a vision of where
you want to be and planning how you're going
to get there. But alongside these, it would also
be helpful to take some simple but practical
steps to change how you organize your life. These
changes... that I will outline will help you
to give you more time and space to manage your
personal development activities. Without that,
you may actually struggle to find the time and
energy to improve your skills or study. Hell,
even I need to take a number off of this. Okay?
Practical steps can be taken to enhance personal
development, including organizing your time,
producing a personal CV or resume, you know,
in a way, to help you, and overcoming... barriers
to learning any or all new skills that you decide
to take on. Okay? Alright, let's begin. Let's
talk about organizing your time. If you're considering
making changes in your life, then finding additional
time may often possess a problem for a lot of
people. It could be that the changes you're thinking
of making are to ensure that you have enough
time to, oh, I don't know, let's see, spend time
with your family, spend time on things you enjoy
doing, devote to your work, devote to your education,
you know, things of that nature. In my case,
I want to say working on my next book. Okay,
I got three of them done. I need to finish the
next one so I can put them up there for release.
But in the meantime, I'm trying to find a way
to sell them, but I can't do that if I don't
set aside time to learn what I'm missing and
what I need to do, okay? And, you know, that
goes into another topic of time management, which
I'll cover next time, so, you know, look forward
to that. But, I mean, without these, we wouldn't
be able to move forward in the way that we need
to. So, I want you to learn how to say no to
jobs or requests that you feel are not your responsibility.
Okay? This requires the ability to be assertive.
And I do believe I did cover that in another
podcast previously. So, feel free to go check
that out. You need to learn how to delegate your
jobs. Sorry, not delegate. Delegate. Which means
sharing jobs with other people. It can be fun
and it can leave you with more time. Obviously,
not a lot of people are going to want to do stuff
for free, so offer the proper incentive. But
you get what I'm saying. You have to make what
they call a to -do list of tasks that you need
to do each day. Taking off tasks as you complete
them. Give up things you do not really want or
need. That way you have more free time and you
can move forward. Identifying your highs and
lows of the day. Everyone has a time when he
or she feels more or less energetic, and then
try to do the most demanding tasks when you have
the greatest energy, as you will do them probably
more quickly, and thereby releasing more time
to spend on other things. For many people, their
personal development will involve setting goals,
which is a whole other topic in itself. So, you
know, we'll cover that in detail another time.
But this might be to change behavior, such as
looking at time management, or learning new skills,
or advancing your career. The reason I make this
a point is because many employers are looking
for the same sort of skills. These include good
communication skills, the ability to work as
part of a team, and the ability to learn. They
call them soft skills. Beyond that, the skills
required are dependent on the particular job
that you're trying to get. I don't know if I've
covered soft skills yet, but I will definitely
do so in a later episode. So look forward to
that. Okay, so let's talk about your personal
curriculum vitae or your resume. And if you want
to know what a personal curriculum vitae is,
that's essentially your CV. Drawing up a CV or
resume is not only necessary when applying for
jobs, but it can also be useful for your own
benefit as, you know, it'll help you appraise
the skills you have gained through education,
training, employment, voluntary work, leisure,
and other activities. This is based off of what
you've done up to the current date. In turn,
a personal CV will help you to highlight skills
that you should work or improve on, such as developing
your cooking skills or your customer service
skills. There are numerous ways of sitting out
and presenting a CV or resume for the purpose
of applying for a job. You should be careful
to include all relevant information and make
sure your document is well written and well presented.
That being said, I probably should go into preparing
a CV or resume, but again, that's an episode
for a later date. However, for the purposes of
personal CV or resume, for your reference, your
own reference, and as a way to access your skills
in a simple format, that is all that is needed.
A quick guide to preparing your personal CV would
be, let me see, split your document with headings
including education, training, past experience,
skills, etc. Do it like that. Then use dates
to establish when each item on your personal
resume was achieved, i .e. when did you graduate,
just to give an example, or when did you learn
a particular skill, or when you became proficient
at it in some cases, that depends. And then keep
your CV or personal resume concise. The aim of
the list is to show your skills and abilities,
not write an essay about them. People want to
know what you can do. They don't want to read
about it. If they're going to read about your
skills, you might as well just write a book about
you. That being said, writing a biography might
be a good way to utilize your skills and improve
on others and give you something to do if you're
bored. But many skills that you have learned
and developed either through work, education,
or your personal life can be successfully applied
to other areas in your life if you know how.
For example, good listening skills are important
in many aspects of life. Such skills are known
as transferable skills. A term which is usually
associated with a skill set that can easily be
transferred from one job to another. Like customer
service can be used for phone calls, interviews.
or receptionist, or even just dealing with people.
Analyzing your existing skills will help you
to identify both skills and personal qualities
that you can use in other fields. Examples of
transferable skills are IT skills, interpersonal
skills, communication, whether verbal or written,
doesn't matter, organizational skills, literacy
skills, believe it or not, numerical skills and
problem solving are also transferable, as well
as understanding. Okay? The needs of others in
other emotional states and also emotional intelligence
are other transferable skills that many people
need but don't have. Okay? There's a lot of topics
to cover, so I'm going to be looking into going
over all of these in the future, so stay with
me as I go through all of these. It's going to
take time to put it together, so bear with me,
as it may take a while before each episode is
released. As long as you stay with me, we'll
be able to move forward. Okay. Last thing I want
to cover for today's podcast is overcoming barriers
to learning a new skill. Okay. When learning
a new skill, it'll help broaden the opportunities
available and open to you, okay? But at the same
time, also empower you as an individual. There
are many things that prevent people from learning
new skills, but these barriers can be overcome
with some thought, depending on what they are.
These might include lack of confidence or self
-esteem. Hold on a second, let me go into that
before I go further. This one's actually one
of the greatest obstacles facing a lot of individuals.
However... If this is a problem, just ask yourself
this. If there's anyone who would support you
and help you to take the first steps towards
learning a new skill. There's always going to
be someone who's willing to help you. Even if
you lack the courage or self -esteem to do so.
Often, once that first move is made, then the
greatest hurdle is overcome. And you can continue
moving forward that way. And a little bit of
confidence goes a long way. as it helps increase
as you develop that new skill. The more you learn
it, the better you see you're good at it, the
more your confidence will grow as you utilize
it. Next would be the economic situation. You
may see your financial situation as a barrier
to learning new skills, but this may not always
be the case. As you know, the internet is full
of a lot of free things that you can find all
over the place, whether pages, tools, resources,
or even some free courses that can help you develop
specific skills. Okay, you can browse a lot of
different pages for comprehensive guides and
things of the sort that will help you. There
may even be courses offered at local schools,
colleges, universities, which are free or, you
know, offered at an extremely reduced rate for
people with lower income. So it just depends.
Distance learning allows you to study from home
and it has become a very big thing as of recent,
especially with the pandemic since no one can
really go anywhere. And it can help you reduce
the cost of learning by a large margin. There
may also be trust funds and charities that offer
grants for people developing new skills in your
area, so, you know, look into that. It's even
possible to learn a new skill with the aid of
books from the local library, if you can find
one that's still open, or they have an online
library, I guess. But essentially, you know,
they're... Things that you can do. There's also
voluntary work, which can also provide excellent
opportunities for learning and developing skills.
As you know, being part of a group, as a member
of, I don't know, a cleanup crew or something,
you can learn something interesting or something
new. Next would be family commitments. If you
have family commitments that prevent you from
having time to learn a new skill, it may be possible
for you to enlist the help of a friend or family
member to give you a few hours free each week
to make that available. Colleges and universities
often offer vocational training courses, which
may also have free or subsidized places that
you can go to to learn. As far as lack of time
is concerned, this is where time management and
minimizing distractions can help you reorganize
your time to fit the development of that new
skill you're trying so hard to learn. The question
that you need to be asking yourself, is there
really a barrier in front of you, or are you
just giving excuses? Many of these barriers may
be no more than just excuses, but they're just
fundamental blockages that are there in front
of you, whether created mentally or physically.
If you're using any of these as a reason for
avoiding your development, though, It may be
worth looking deeper to see if there's any reason
for why you're thinking that way. Perhaps deeply
held values may be in conflict with one of your
personal development's goals or, you know, something
of the sort. But just keep this in mind. The
first step is often the hardest. Okay? But barriers
to personal development are often more in the
mind than anywhere else. So they're not as physical
as you would think. Okay? Essentially, the first
step, whether it's signing up for a course, getting
some books from the library, or finding a website
that can help, while this may be harder, why
don't you take that first step? Remember, the
process is described as lifelong for a reason.
You're always going to be learning. You're never
going to not be learning. It's only the level
of formality that changes. Okay? Just when you
think you're leaving school and you're not going
to learn anything else, as a result, that's when
you stop learning is when you stop growing. Okay?
You're never going to stop growing. Once you
leave school, you're going to continue to learn,
even out there in the workplace, because just
because you earned your degree, or if you already
have your degree, doesn't mean there's not something
out there that you don't know. Okay? You're going
to have to learn it, just like everyone else.
Alright? Anyway, this has been Food for Thought.
That's if it were you. Neogentrix is your host.
That would be me season two on the personal development
practical steps. I'll catch you guys next time.
Thanks for listening.