Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Personal Development

We all need a little personal development mixed in with our professional and career development. Read blogs in this category for stories and best practices for personal wellness and wellbeing, skills improvement, and more.

Who Will You Be in 2023?

The idea that “The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be” has been coming up as a theme in my life these past few months. First in the form of a children’s book by Joanna Gaines, given to my son Wyatt by his Honey. Then, when Mary Ila hired me, and gifted me with a wall hanging that says the phrase. I think the Universe, God, Spirit, may have been conspiring to write that on my heart. Well, jokes on me! It has worked. I often think of the ways my past can serve me in my future. How can I develop professionally?
As a 38 soon to be 39 year old… Just starting out working in my field after taking the road less traveled for many years, I have plenty of dreams/goals for myself. One of those goals was set in my first one-on-one with Mary Ila, where we discussed the Leaders As Career Agents Worksheet. It is to get my SHRM-CP this year. The credential is for people who perform general HR and related duties; or for those pursuing a career in Human Resource Management. There I said it, I put it on paper, so I have to pass, right? Can you sense the apprehension? There have been quite a few years between my departure from Auburn and beginning work in HR. One thing I’ve learned through life experience is that it is never too late to begin again, to be like a phoenix and rise from the ashes.

One of the things that I love the most about working for Horizon Point and with the Team of ladies that I work with is that they practice what they preach. Does the World value values anymore? Well, Horizon Point does in 2023. “We believe continual learning is a key driver in creating passion and productivity in life and in work. To that end, we invest in the personal development of our people because we know that people are a company and community’s greatest asset (People First). We work with clients who believe in continuous learning and take steps towards continual self-improvement in order to maximize their passion and productivity.” Mary Ila invests in us and works hard to ensure that we are equipped with what need to be successful in our field.

How will I embrace who the world needs me to be this year, you ask? I will be working towards goals in my career, but also putting those goals into action in all areas of my life. I want to be a lifelong learner with no fear of failure or beginning again. How do I do that? Through action and my first step was signing up for UNA’s SHRM CP Prep Courses. To find out more about the courses and to join me this semester, click here: https://www.campusce.net/una/course/course.aspx?C=5&pc=5&mc=13&sc=0

January 31, 2023
Create Bigger Impact by Aligning Your Interests with Your Work
My first interaction with Horizon Point was in 2017 as a participant in Mary Ila’s Facilitating Career Development (FCD) Training. At the time, I was the Program Champion for the Department of Management at Auburn University’s Harbert College of Business, and my primary focus was professional and career development for undergraduate students. I completed the FCD course, became a Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) and a Certified Career Services Provider (CCSP), and have since used the experience and knowledge to provide career development coaching and instruction for over 500 students and professionals.
After joining Horizon Point in 2019, I’ve seen the real-world application of career development theories outside of a formal education environment. In all areas of our work, from FCD Training to HR Consulting to Community Workforce Solutions, and across different industries, demographics, and team dynamics, we utilize career development theory, helping skills, and adult learner strategies. Learning about yourself and your interests will always make you a better teammate, employee, manager, friend, sibling, parent, etc.

Now, I am a Certified FCD Instructor with the National Career Development Association (NCDA), and today, I have the absolute pleasure of returning to Auburn University to deliver FCD Training to a new group of career developers!

As I prepared for this training, I looked back through my notes as a participant in the course for the first time. The first activity in the course is to complete O*Net’s Interest Profiler, which is adapted from The Holland Codes or Holland Occupational Themes (RIASEC).

Mary Ila once wrote about “Passions Via Your Holland Code” on The Point Blog, where she demonstrates the purpose behind assessing your interests. She says, “We typically enjoy what we can do well quite simply because we are good at it. This is where it is important to consider your passions and whether or not they align with the talents you possess.”

So, what does my Holland Code say about my interests, and am I working in a role that creates space for me to utilize them? My 2017 results indicated SCE, or Social, Conventional, and Enterprising (read about these here). In other words, I was interested in teaching and training others, I appreciated clear expectations and structure, and I enjoyed entrepreneurship and generating new business ideas. Because of all that, I thrived in my role as Program Champion, because my interests / passions aligned with the type of work and the environment.

Would you be surprised to learn that many people in coaching and/or counseling related fields have similar Holland Codes? People with careers as Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors commonly have S, or Social, in their Holland Code. O*Net says:

People with Social interests like working with others to help them learn and grow. They like working with people more than working with objects, machines, or information.

They like:
- Teaching
- Giving advice
- Helping and being of service to people
When I took the Interest Profiler yesterday, my results indicated SAC, or Social, Artistic, and Conventional:

Turns out, Training and Development Specialists (closest match to my current role), are linked to the Holland Code SCA, or Social, Conventional, and Artistic. Over time, my interests have shifted away from enterprising activities and towards creative roles. With Horizon Point, I’m given the autonomy and the space to stretch my artistic/creative interests through creation of new training content and materials, amateur graphic and web design, and more. Clearly, I’m in the right role for me in this season of life. Are you?

As I work with this group of Auburn Career Developers over the next 8 weeks, we will talk about the application of career development theory like Holland with both our clients and ourselves. What can you learn about yourself today that will improve your effectiveness in your current role?

Learn more about FCD, Continuing Education, HR Consulting, and Training programs developed and facilitated by Horizon Point at horizonpointconsulting.com or email us at info@horizonpointconsulting.com.
January 24, 2023
Celebrate Your Accomplishments

The new year always brings with it conversations of resolutions and setting goals. It’s the chance to look at the year ahead and decide what you want to accomplish in the next twelve months, both personally and professionally. We sit and we write down those goals and we make our checklist. And throughout the year we (hopefully) mark items off that list. But what do you do when you mark an item off that list?

At Horizon Point, we celebrate our accomplishments. Each quarter during our team meeting we go around the table and each team member shares a list of ten things we accomplished during the quarter and then picks one that we want to celebrate and how we want to celebrate it. The how is totally up to us and varies from things like a gift card to a local shop or restaurant to a new pair of running shoes to a book we’ve been wanting to read. For me, my latest accomplishment list included graduating from Tulane Law School with my Master’s in Jurisprudence in Labor and Employment Law, a two-year journey that was both long and fast. Part of my celebration included going out to dinner with the team.

As you go through 2023, I challenge you to create an accomplishment list. It may include items that are on your goals list and you might find that it includes items that are not on your goals list. Just 8-10 things that you accomplished each quarter, and then pick the one that you want to celebrate and how you want to celebrate it. And these accomplishments can be personal or professional.

If you are the leader of a team, try doing this with your team this year. Ask every member of your team to share their accomplishments each quarter. This can be through an accomplishment list like we do at Horizon Point or you can choose your own format. The important thing is to get your employees to take the time to recognize their own accomplishments and to celebrate them. The celebrations don’t have to be something big; it can be a small gesture like a handwritten note congratulating them on their accomplishments for the quarter.

How will you celebrate your accomplishments in 2023?

January 17, 2023
Another Year Around the Sun; Focus for 2023

I celebrated my birthday last week. The older I get, the more I realize there are only a handful of things
in life that are truly important. Since my birthday falls in early January, it is a great time to reflect on what
went well and what didn’t the previous year, and to set intentions for focus for the upcoming year.

Prior to writing this post, my daughter, a high school senior, asked me to proofread a college scholarship
essay. I may be biased, but it was wonderful. She gets it. It helped me realize that maybe I am doing
something right, and also confirmed my thoughts on what goals and intentions are truly worth my effort.
Here is just a small blurb from the essay:

…as I try to listen to my teacher explain the economical state of our country. After I finish my homework
during class, I watch the tiny seconds hand of the clock tick by as I wait for the class to end. When the
day is done, I let out a sigh of relief as I know I am about to go home to the most important thing in my
life: my family, the people I know without a doubt believe I can achieve whatever I set my mind to, no
matter the circumstances…

At Horizon Point, we determine an annual theme every January. As a team, we talk through business
development, focus, and direction for the year. I have decided to do the same in my personal life. A few
areas I hope to focus on this year are health, financial wellness, career goals all while keeping my faith
and family at the center of it all.

Do you set goals or action plans for the new year or on your birthday? Here are a couple of previous
blog posts to inspire you to take action.

4 Things my Goals Taught me in 2022 about how to be Brave in 2023

Do You Have a Plan of Action to Reach Your Goals?

January 10, 2023
4 Things my Goals Taught me in 2022 about how to be Brave in 2023
“I never tied discipline to courage. I never saw the correlation. I guess I should have, since I lack in both. But in all matters- physical, mental, and spiritual- I believe that to live a disciplined life leads to a brave life. We long to be brave in the big moments, in the clutch times, in the times when our backs are up against a wall. But to get there? It’s the everyday. It’s the practice. It’s the steps. It’s the discipline.

Annie Downs- Let’s All Be Brave

I set goals every year. Do you? You can call them New Year’s resolutions, but I like to call them goals.

I had five, well four and a half really, in 2022. The 1.5 was a business goal we set every year- gross revenue and profit margin targets. We hit the profit margin and missed on the gross revenue. I set out to PR in a half-marathon and missed it by about 9 minutes, but I was somewhat happy with my performance given I had the flu a week before I ran it. One was a writing goal that I fell short on. And the last one was to read 52 books- averaging one a week- for the year.

I set two new process, or habit goals to get me on the right path of reaching these. One centered around how to start a consistent morning routine. This routine wasn’t perfect, but it helped me read 53 books this year- the one goal I made. I formed a new habit there and it steered success.

So what have I learned from the misses and makes in 2022 to tee up 2023? Here they are:

1) One a day. You can see several trends from the picture of the list of 53 books I read in 2022, but I’ll point you to just one thing.On the last day of the year, my 53rd book listed is the Bible. I did not read it all on December 31st (in fact, I didn’t read anything on the list in just one day). I used an app called Bible In One Year to guide me through reading the entire book over the course of the year. It took about 15-20 minutes every morning every day. Yes, I missed a morning or two here and there, but never got behind enough to need to do more than two days of reading in one day. I hit this goal because I did one thing once a day every day of the year. It got to the point where if I didn’t do this pretty much first thing every morning something felt immediately off for the rest of the day. It became like going through the day without brushing my teeth. I felt weird and kind of gross.

And as it turns out that I’m learning from the first book I’ll most likely finish in 2023, Super Genes, our habits of wellness not only help us achieve our goals, they also can shape and reshape our genes. I’ve always believed that the behaviors I model will shape my kids, but science is also informing the fact that the behaviors we commit to not only can alter our own genes, they also very much shape the genes that we will pass on to future generations. Fascinating stuff!

2) Quit. I hit the reading goal as well because I did something I’ve never done before. I quit reading three books I started. One wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, one was written terribly, and one I just totally disagreed with. Wired to power through to the bitter end on everything whether pleasant or not, I realized life is too short to read bad books. They will make you miss your goals and that isn’t worth it. It also isn’t worth it because it violates my next point.

3) Enjoy it. I love to read. And the outcome of my reading also informs a lot of the work I do. If you aren’t enjoying at least some of what you’re striving towards, why are you doing it? Sometimes enjoyment comes in the process of doing something and sometimes it comes in the outcome, and hopefully in both, but if you can’t be clear about why you are doing something and how it is going to contribute to your overall wellbeing, in my opinion, it isn’t worth doing. Goals are really hard to achieve when you’re miserable trying to achieve them. You won’t stay the course.

4) Just because the calendar rolls over doesn’t mean we should stop striving towards the same things. My hits and misses have taught me that the “rhythm” as Annie Down’s calls it is what I need to focus on. Call it courageous or call it discipline like she also calls it, but I’ll be leaning into the word “brave.” I think she does too given the title of her book. I need to be brave in my habits by committing to them fully. Everyday. Then, most likely, the outcomes will happen. I need to realize when these commitments aren’t serving me and those around me well to either quit or pivot. And I need to always focus on enjoying both the journey and the outcomes it leads to. My goals for 2023 won’t change much from the goals of 2022. Instead, I’ll keep striving for the things that are always important to me, my family, and my team by being brave in the everyday.

What did you learn in 2022 that will shape you for 2023?

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4 Steps to Fanatic Leadership Discipline

Out of the 53 Books I read this year, here are my top three must reads:
1. 1. Bittersweet by Susan Cain because it echoed and solidified my thoughts on living in the AND so well.
  2. Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson because it so enjoyable- see #3 above.
  3. Misreading Scripture through Western Eyes by Brandon J. O’Brien and E. Randolph Richards because it made me reexamine some of my thinking.
January 3, 2023