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Being your personal best is no easy task. It takes time, commitment, and savvy. In the modern-day work environment, the Catholic professional must do what it takes to stand out from the crowd and excel.
Often, this involves a considerable amount of learning and forming good habits. It also requires developing a stronger understanding of the role of technology and how it should be leveraged to help us. Below are a few steps to help the Catholic professional stay on track and acquire professional excellence.
Step 1: Manage Tasks, Time, & To-Dos
The key to success is focus – and the key to being focused is knowing how to manage your tasks and time well. Not only does knowing how to do this contribute to successful completion of projects and tasks, but it demonstrates a strategic mindset to work and opens up more time to get more done. There are many methods for managing your time, like the Pomodoro technique or the Eisenhower matrix. Finding a strategy that works best for you is essential. With the shifts in workplace options like WFH and hybrid schedules now being more prevalent than ever, it can be even more challenging to focus and prove oneself as a dependable worker and an exceptional professional. So using one of these or one of the many other methods can prove invaluable.
Step 2: Set Goals For Yourself
Setting goals helps establish a sense of direction. Like time management, goal-setting requires a little bit of strategy. Identifying which goals you need to set, making them achievable, and defining reasonable finish lines are crucial to success. After all, scaling a mountain is not accomplished in leaps and bounds but small steps. Keeping your goals well-defined and incremental is the best way to actually achieve the bigger vision you have set for yourself.
Step 3: Learn How To Leverage Technology
For many young Catholic professionals, the adoption of certain technology can be either daunting or disconcerting. The advent of AI, for instance, has left some Catholics wondering whether it is reasonable or necessary to use, fearing it is taking the place of our God-given creativity. While there is a line that can and should be drawn, I think it is helpful for Catholics to look at this technology as a tool to help others. Like any tool, technology is neutral by itself. The good or bad use of it depends on how it is being used. And while some pose greater risks than others, cultivating a strong sense of ethics and acquiring a better understanding of the Church’s views and cautions on the use of AI (and by extension other emergent technology) is very important.
Hopefully, these serve as a springboard to reaching your fuller professional potential. As we are called to live in the world and not of the world, we must keep in mind that the ultimate goal is heaven. Still, Our Lord tells us to be “wise as serpents and as simple as doves” (Matthew 10:16). In other words, we must use certain methods of the world, of our industry and profession, to fulfill our duties and be examples of Godly industry. With that in mind, the Catholic professional can thrive and attain excellence in the workplace.
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