Charting Your Course for Improving Performance

Improving performance and productivity can be comparable to charting a ship's course from Point A to Point B. Years ago, I served as a navigator's assistant in the United States Navy. It was my job to help chart our ship's course from one IC3-1 practice test location to another, and make necessary course corrections during the journey to be sure we arrived at our destination as planned.
At the end of my four-year Navy career, I realized the same navigational fundamentals we used for getting a ship from San Diego to the South China Sea were absolutely applicable for charting a personal or organizational course for success and achievement. Here are the five navigational fundamentals I worked with, along with some applications for personal and professional development:
Look Ahead - Determine Your DestinationLook Around - Get Your BearingsChart Your Course - Develop Your PlanSet the Sails - Execute Your PlanAdjust Your Course - Evaluate Your Progress
Look Ahead - Determine Your Destination
Having a clear understanding of where we want to go is essential to beginning a journey. No captain leaves a harbor hoping to arrive at an intended destination. Instead, he leaves with a course well thought out and planned, to make sure he can safely get from where he is now to where he wants to be. Know where you want to go!
Look Around - Get Your Bearings
A clear understanding of QAWI201V3.0 practice test strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is essential to launching efforts to improve your current status. Knowing what your current assets and liabilities are will prepare you for the journey ahead. Know where you are now!
Chart Your Course - Develop a Plan
A life without a plan is like a ship without a rudder. No captain expects to drift into a chosen destination. A successful journey is a combination of knowing where to go, understanding the distance involved, and having a sense of the obstacles you'll face in reaching your destination. The best way to get the future you want is to plan it!
Set the Sails - Execute the Plan
Success is about doing, not dreaming. Once a course is charted, it's time to go to work and do the things necessary for a successful journey. This may be the most important step in the entire process. Having a vision for what we want to accomplish, assessing our assets and liabilities, and making specific plans for success and achievement are all critical, but doing what has to be done to make our vision a reality is what will ultimately determine our success. Life is hard - get to work!
Adjust Your Course - Evaluate Your Progress
No journey of any distance is made without course adjustments. Changing the seagoing metaphor for a moment, NASA reports that once a space module is launched, 99 percent of Mission Control's time is spent making course adjustments.
Things change, and in our efforts to improve performance and productivity, we must EC0-349 expect to have to make course adjustments before achieving the success we desire. Don't fight it - prepare for and expect to have to change your course from time to time. Remember, the only thing constant is change!
Start today. Chart your course for success and achievement. No one else will do it for you.