You have to believe you can do it!

Believe you can do it! One of the things that stops many people from achieving their goals is that they don’t believe they can do it. They assume that where they are is where they will always be. They see obstacles. They create new obstacles just because they don’t believe they have the ability or talent or gifts to overcome their current circumstances.

What is the goal?

Inherently, for a person to move forward, they have to believe that there is something worth moving forward at the end of their goal. Job seekers and career changers have come to me for years because there is something they want that they don’t currently have. They don’t know how to get what they want and for some of them, they know they are doing something wrong because they haven’t yet reached their goals.

Why I understand the need to believe in yourself

Some of my regular readers already know parts of my story, how I originally launched Design Resumes, relaunched it after my own job loss in 1987 and how I dropped my contract income in December of 2009 to focus solely on the Design Resumes career marketing business. This last step was a risk since we were in the midst of a global recession at the time, one that I am not certain that we really recovered until 2014.

A test of when to leave

For me, a light bulb went off when I realized that I was hanging on to contracts as a security blanket and yet there was at least one person in each organization who was making me miserable. For the most part, there were many other people I loved working with and would deeply miss. But when you have one person who makes you either massively angry and frustrated or drives you to tears or depression, you are getting a pretty clear notice that it might be time to move on. When I recognized that I was letting people drive my happiness away, I knew I had to leave.

Don’t believe the naysayers

No matter what action you choose to take, there will be naysayers. There will be people who tell you that you are crazy and people who even go as far to say that you will fail. It was no different for me. When I made the decision to drop start dropping contracts and even when I dropped the last one, there were people who assumed that I would suffer and fail. The contracts for the non-profits I worked with represented about $1600 of monthly income and though I dropped them in stages, it was a security blanket. But I determined to move forward, sought expert guidance and advice, and worked hard to create a marketing plan that would extend my reach.

 The results

This is the fifth year of working solely in the Design Resumes business and I can tell you that these have been the happiest years of my life. I have had amazing people from all over the world as clients, deepened my understanding of the career industry, grew a passion for social media marketing, and enabled me to build an upwardly trending revenue stream. My client interaction process has been tested with virtual clients throughout the United States and beyond and I have learned that I can deliver services just as effectively using Skype, Zoom, and WebEx as I can with clients in office. Clients love the interactive writing process which allows them to collaborate with me to capture their best accomplishments can create value-infused career marketing materials.

I haven’t reached all of my goals yet but my debt load is steadily going down and I feel a sense that it will continue. I have made many sacrifices. I haven’t had a car of my own since 2010 but we manage to make sure I can get anywhere I really need to go. Our long-awaited kitchen remodel in the house we bought in 1992 to renovate is still awaiting and I stubbornly stick to not installing the new laminate flooring that my husband bought long ahead of schedule and instead live with a mottled sub-floor surface until we are in a position to fund a kitchen remodel. It is hard to put aside my goals for the room I love in the house (I love to cook) but some goals have to wait.

On the up side, January and February have been remarkable months especially since those were the two months with the least revenue in 2013. Currently, I am scheduling four clients per day (my max) and six days per week. I have only experienced this high of a volume once between in 2011 right after the Jobseeker Makeover article featuring my career expertise was published in the Daily Herald.

Do you have goals you are putting aside?

Start filling yourself with positive thoughts, find experts to help you reach your goals, and make your plan. If you tell yourself you are not worth it or listen to the naysayers, you will fail.

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