What is it that is stopping you from achieving your dreams?
When I asked this in a survey I conducted recently these were the responses I received, mostly people think that money and time are holding them back from achieving their dreams. In there were responses like needing a degree, know-how, and age.
Interestingly, most of these same people thought that skill improvement programs were important to enhance their communities.
There has been a multitude of research done on trade skill improvement programs, such as Barton (1993) who talks about how the federal and local governments need to invest in skill improvement programs to improve productivity so that the USA can better compete in the global market. There are benefits to improved skilled workers, employees with more skills take less sick days and tend to be constantly employed, and employers can delgate upper management to do jobs that better align with their job duties rather that meeting productivity demands, creating a more profitable business in the market place. Another article put out by the Department of Education and Employment (2000) points out that to be viable programs need to fill skill gaps that are prevalent in the workplace and to fill skill shortages to improve local employment rates.
I recently found out that know 1 in 7 American’a experienced food insecurity in 2015 (FAO, 2015) and that food insecurity is correlated to poverty due to unemployment or underemployment of the people experiencing poverty (Satia, 2009). Families in poverty have a difficult time maintaining good health and well being (Whiting & Ward, 2010). Food choices and dietary diseases have been linked to socio-economic status, greatly effecting those under the poverty line more (Satia, 2009). A study put out by the Ford Foundation in 2002 found that to be self-supporting members of society a person must have some higher education or skills training. Nationally we want our communities to thrive, to be well fed, and to find reasonable employment opportunities. Businesses need human capital to succeed in the global market, and we understand how to improve human skills to meet demands, but it still isn’t a priority for local and regional government agencies. More than that though, beyond government. We need to inspire people to succeed and to improve their human capital because it is important for more than just them but for us as a national economy. Bandura, in 1986 said that self-efficacy, or a person’s beliefs about what they can or can’t do hold them back more than their ability to do the specific task.
I challenge you today to think about what your dreams are, and what is stopping you from achieving them. Are the things stopping you just your beliefs? If so, lets work together to change those beliefs, because you and I both know we can accomplish anything and everything that we want to. LETS DO THIS!
Tell me below what your dreams are, and what belief was stopping you from achieving it. Lets work together to plan baby steps to success so that we can achieve our dreams!
