3 Simple Questions to Spur Personal and Professional Growth
3 Simple Questions to Spur Personal and Professional Growth
Every now and then, I feel myself getting lulled into a plateau of personal and professional comfortability. And every once and again I have to snap myself out of the lull to help spur on my personal and professional goals! One method I’ve recently started applying involves asking three simple questions.
- Where do you want to be “tomorrow” (meaning some future date)?
- Where are you “today” (current state)?
- What do you need “to do” to get to your desired “tomorrow”?
I first heard of these questions while completing a Sandler sales training with my colleagues Rob and Pete. These tailored questions have been helping us identify the goals of a perspective candidate and their needs/goals.
While these questions have been incredibly helpful in identifying Cameron-Brooks’ ability to help someone transition from the military to a business leadership career, I also had an “aha” moment: I should be asking these three questions about myself and Cameron-Brooks to create a vision. I wanted to share how these three questions have been helping me clearly identify goals for my personal and organizational growth.
Question #1: “What does a successful, fulfilling personal and professional life look like in 5 years?”
I like to think in 5-year increments, so I started with this question. In my journal, I wrote a fully-detailed and descriptive answer to include:
- Professional projects in the works
- Who I’m working with (and who I want to work with)
- What I’m currently learning and what I want to learn
- Skills I’m working to develop
- Bad habits to be dropped
- Making visiting my oldest children (college graduates) a priority
- Help my youngest children advance their education
- Plan (and enjoy) vacations
- Taking time off with my spouse
Question #2: “Where am I today personally and professionally?”
Again, I was objective with myself in answering this question. My journaling included…
- What I know and don’t know
- Mindsets I need to change
- The capabilities of the Cameron-Brooks team
- How much I needed to have saved
- My current relationship with each child
- The quality of my marriage
Question #3: “What do I need to start doing and stop doing to fulfill my vision for myself and Cameron-Brooks?”
This question helps you identify and make moves towards filling in the gaps. I wrote down…
- What I needed to learn
- What I needed to delegate
- Specific books to read
- Types of people I needed to hire
- How I needed to modify my morning and evening routines
- My current vacation plans to spend time with family
For the most part, I was doing well in heading toward my desired future state. However, in taking pen to paper, the gaps between “where I am” and “where I want to go” became more apparent. I was immediately motivated to take action. For example, I wanted to prioritize high-potential growth for Cameron-Brooks. And one of the keys to long-term business success? You guessed it: hiring quality talent. This particular goal has now risen to the top of my “to do” list in planning for the future. Without working through this exercise, I would not have been as motivated to take action.
I would challenge you to use these questions for daily or long term personal and organizational growth as well as personal and professional relationships that you might want to see change.
All the best,
