In the beginning was day 1

I have thought long and hard about Project Flourish over the last few months and today, today I am taking the plunge. This is the beginning. Day 1.

Project Flourish is simple. I want to take control of my professional development and not be constrained by training budgets, business requirements or resources. Originally this was the only objective of the project but I can already see that to develop professionally I will inevitably develop personally. In order to monitor my progress I intend to blog about my journey, anonymously, here.

So, with any good project we need a primary objective:

1. Develop my career

You're probably thinking "so what?". Everyone want's to develop their career. So here's my SOSTAC analysis to explain as I'm hoping to hook you into my journey:

Situation analysis: I'm frustrated with my current job situation. I want to learn more and put my new found knowledge into action but there are too many restraints in my current position.

Objectives: I have already identified I want to learn more but I also want to find an environment where my knowledge can be productive and where I will be encouraged and nurtured to develop further.

Strategy: For the learning, I am going to find and attend conferences, seminars and courses relevant to my industry. All in my own time if I have to. For finding a healthy environment in which my career can flourish, well that's the scary bit of potentially changing jobs.

Tactics: I don't have these all mapped out right now. It's only day one. But I think for a start I am going to:

1. Speak to some industry experts for their advice
2. Make a list of the area's I want to develop in/learn more about
3. Start some projects in my spare time to explore these topics
4. Make a list of and research companies I would want to work for
5. Continue to knock on doors in my current job and see if any open
6. Write some letters

Actions: This is all down to me. I'm taking control.

Control: This blog will be my record and I have set myself a 12 month target on the objective of changing my environment to one more conducive for my career to flourish.  As for learning new things, well you can't put a timeframe on that but I will challenge myself to blog at least once a week and to undertake a new mini-project each month. 

And that's Project Flourish.

Until the next update,

Flourish x