ACHIEVING GOALS 101
"It is important to have a plan, but you must have some form of flexibility and you have to adapt to changing circumstances."- Hans Smeets, Social Media Ambassador - Connex World
This week’s post is about how I plan to achieve my goal here in New Zealand, which in my case of course is to find permanent employment to eventually get a residency. But much more importantly, the fact that plans need to be flexible.
Helmut von Moltke stated, “no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force.”. This was true in my case as well, not the bit about the hostile force of course, but it is safe to say that my initial plan from 2017 is definitely different from the plan I have now…so a little recap:
In 2017 I decided I wanted to move to New Zealand and to be able to do that I needed employment, so for about a year I applied for a lot of positions without any results. Basically, my original plan did not survive contact with, in this case, the New Zealand job market.
I knew I needed to change something in my plan but didn’t know what of course and in the beginning of 2018, purely by accident, I came across the study route. After some research I realised there were several benefits to taking that route, even though it also meant a greater risk since I would be going from a steady job and income, into a financially much more insecure situation. The benefits are of course clear: The visa allows me to work 20 hours a week, so I can get to know the New Zealand job market and work environment up close, I will get a New Zealand qualification, which means something to New Zealand’s employers and if all else fails I will have a refreshed education, which I never a waste.
Fast forward to 2019. By now I have started my course and started an internship. That part of the plan survived first contact at least, though not without a small hiccup just before I left the Netherlands 😉
The next steps are to the New Zealand job market more, build at least some from of network and get some references. Step 1 being; Some more volunteer work, preferably in my chosen field of IT, but if that doesn’t work as planned, I will of course look for any job to further myself towards my end goal.
The message really is, that it is important to have a plan, but you must have some form of flexibility and you have to adapt to changing circumstances.