AFRICA NEO-COLONIALISM

Identify and Deal with Your Shortcomings. Self-improvement requires an initial self-assessment and identification of those characteristics or shortcomings that you want to improve. Chapter one deals with learning to improve your self-confidence, and in this chapter, you need to learn to be modest, insightful, and self-critical. Mostly we know those aspects of our character that we would like to change, but, modesty aside, it sometimes helps to get some feedback from someone else. So first of all, see what sort of list you come up with by thinking about what you believe you need to improve on. At work, of course, it is sensible to consider what it is you do well, but also where you might fall short a little. What is it you need to work on to give you the best chance for promotion? Don make the mistake of thinking that the things you are good at will be sufficient. It is always worth improving your skills, and you never know how important that might be for your future. It also shows that you are not too big-headed and that you are prepared to work at things even though they may present difficulties for you. For example, are you impatient, snappy, and too easily able to criticize others? Do you think you are always right, or more able than others?Or are you too timid or frightened to put yourself forward, always thinking that other people would do something better? Or are you worried that you are slow to pick up on things, or don like taking any risks, or worried that someone might laugh at your suggestions? Do you worry about the way you look, your clothes, your self-presentation? Each of the above categories reflects an area that you might want to change. Starting from the last first, self-presentation is a great confidence booster, and good confidence levels will help you work positively towards your development. Check your wardrobe, check your hairstyle, and check your hygiene. All these things are just taken for granted by many, and sometimes we get a bit behind the times with our fashion sense, and sometimes slip into some lazy personal habits. However it is the case that the better you look, the better you feel, and the better you feel, the more you feel capable. Sometimes it helps to get a friend or relative to give you an honest assessment and make some suggestions. Take a deep breath, as you might not enjoy hearing that your clothes no longer fit you so well, or that you do wear unsuitable clothes to work. Ensuring that you look business-like and professional is much, much more important than trying to wear the absolute latest fashion, which might look great at a club, but not in the office!Sometimes time is tight, and things like ensuring fingernails are trim and clean take a back seat – however, things like this make a real impression. If you look as if you take care of your appearance and presentation, this will influence other people when making their assessment of you too.Poor presentation can be overcome with a little thought, a little time, and not too much money. There are, however, other shortcomings that may need a bit more consideration and time to improve on.Attitude is incredibly important. A friendly, helpful, and self-confident attitude will always impress. However, learning how to behave calmly when under pressure is not always easy. This is, of course, just one example. Sometimes you will need to project the confidence you might not feel. It may be that you are just shy and feel ill at ease with some people. Even pretty confident people can sometimes just feel as if they are on the back foot with someone who seems to exude self-confidence and self-belief. Attitude change is achievable with effort, time, and the belief that you can change your behavior. Practice your affirmations, and if possible, find someone to help you work through role-playing. It may feel strange at first, but it will help. Being able to apply yourself to something new and a bit daunting is sometimes difficult if you have low self-esteem. One way of avoiding things you don want to do is to just not allow yourself enough time. That way you always have the excuse that there just wasn enough time! Though, you need to meet the challenge. Make the time to do the things you don necessarily want to do, but which you know you ought to do. Nine times out of ten, these things are not too difficult. They just need you to concentrate, to put any fear of failure aside, and perhaps break down the tasks into smaller and more manageable ones. Incrementally, you will find you can achieve everything you need. The key here is to be quite honest about why some things are difficult for you, or why you just don want to do them. Acknowledging that you might be frightened of not doing something well is often the only thing between your fear, and you doing away with that fear. Plan for Success, Thinking and acting positively is part of training yourself to feel and believe you are positive in your approach to things, and that you are going to be successful. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy! However, it only works if you make it work! First of all, you do need to plan things. First, you need to plan out your long-term goals. Decide where you want to be, and then you need to decide on your strategy and have an action plan with target achievements and target dates.This plan needs to be a visible part of your life every day. Every morning you need to review your goals and review how you are going to achieve them. Every day you need to have at least one thing to achieve that takes you nearer your long-term goal. If you fail to keep sight of your goals, you won get to achieve them. A way of helping you believe in yourself, and in reaching your goals, is to visualize yourself in the position you hope to achieve. For example, you can, in your mind, see yourself in the boardroom, receiving the thatlongedforr award, or sailing that fabulous boat on wonderful warm blue seas. You can see yourself living in that wonderful penthouse, with a huge terrace, wonderful views, and a hot tub. Or maybe you see yourself as an acclaimed musician, golfer, or artist. It doesn matter what your dream is – what matters is that you work at achieving it.Make the absolute most of your time. If you let your emotional fear hold you up, you will put off starting the things you need to do. And if you start, you will prevaricate and find distractions – anything to avoid doing what you need to do. This is something you have to overcome to be successful. Acknowledge the fear, and work out short periods to do at least a part of a task. Don allow yourself to be distracted. Ensure you have peace, and make sure you take your water or coffee with you. This way you won be tempted to just put the kettle on while thinking of task A, and won just wander off to the fridge when you should be concentrating on a task BStudents particularly suffer from procrastination syndrome. Its easy to say oh well, I work much better under pressure, but its rarely true, and most people just make life harder by putting off the moment. So learn to work to the plan, live with the plan, and see the plan as your route to success. Don treat it as an enemy – actually, it is your best friend.Make sure your plan allows time for you to think about where you want to go, and why. Thinking about your future is a good way to keep your goals in sight, and adapt them if need be. It is worth dreaming a little about how it will feel when you achieve your goals. Make sure your goals are not too easy, or way too difficult. The long-term goals may be a real stretch, and you know you have to work on progress in a realistic manner. So set your interim goals, but review them regularly. Your
ext goal should always be just a little bit harder than you think you can manage. Always ensure you have to aim a tad higher than you think you can reasonably get to at each stage. Review your progress and goals at appropriate times. Build your reviews to your critical path.Yes, you should have a critical path plan. That way, you can save time instead of constantly thinking about what you should do next. The plan should show each task in a format that tracks the sequence of your goals and tasks. A critical path also enables you to build flexibility and potential for change. It doesn mean you are tied to each goal, each date, and each vision. It should enable you to see how well you are doing at meeting your targets, though. You can build almost anything into your critical path. If you need to get your diet right, then you can build in targets for reducing your dependence on sugary foods. You can have a target date for stopping smoking and weaning yourself off that bad old nicotine. You can build in the need regularly to examine your attitudes, feelings, and self-esteem.