In my practice as a coach, I often work with coachees who decry that 1) they want a career, 2) they have no career, or 3) their career is broken. I usually challenge these statements by asking them to 1) define what a career is and 2) examine why they think their career is non-existent or broken, then 3) what their career, existing or fixed, would look like. This is important because I want to suggest that any of us who are living have embarked upon a career (so that we all that have one). The question then is whether we can shape our careers to be more productive, if not satisfying to us. A quick look at www.dictionary.com shows that a career is 1) an occupation or profession requiring special training which one follows as their life's work, and 2) a person's progress or general course of action through life. I think we might all agree that when we talk about a career, we are talking about an endeavor where there is potential for growth, both reputationally, financially and experientially. I think you will agree that few things in life rob of this opportunity if we approach them with the right "spirit" and "attitude". We are all working on a career everyday because everyday we interact in our families and society, we are developing skills, experiences and relationships, influencing and contributing to outcomes, and making progress in some area(s) of special training that is indeed our life's work. Again, one cannot avoid having a career. One can only choose what type career they will produce in their liftime. That said, I want to encourage anyone who bemoans not having a career to give up that illusion and embrace the question of how productive their career can be. I also want to encourage this same person not to mistake a career with present difficult situations and people, degrees of failure (learning), self-doubt, discouragement and impatience as unproducive as these are the very best instructors and courses in our progress towards a productive career. I see this after many years in my career. I recall that my best mentors were giving me this advice all along and, today, continue to get the best satisfaction in life from reflecting on how I have matured, become empowered and productive as a result of the difficulties of my career. As you move forward to repoint your "present" career towards a more productive end, I offer a few suggestions I give to one of my coachees with whom I recently worked on this question. 1. Acknowledge that you have a career already, that you have been on the road all along, and that you, are merely at this time, taking it to its next logical level. This is empowering and necessary. The fact that you have not accomplished what you wanted by now does not mean you have not accomplished anything. Take stock of what you have and commit to building on that. 2. Understand that nothing is wasted and that all you have experienced, whether you call it failure, stalling or learning, is preparing you for where you are going. There are not successful people who have not been where you are. I recommend the reading of biographies of accomplished people so that you can see this. 3. Eliminate "cannot" from your vocabulary and thinking. Replace it with "have not" and/or "will not". 4. In the areas of your interest, research and immerse yourself in everything you can in the area so that you begin to become an expert and aware of the key issues and players in the space. I recommend you invest in an iPod as a learning tool because you can listen to books and articles at times when your eyes are not free to read. I recommend your looking at sites like www.fastcompany.com, www.ted.com, www.itunes.com, (for pod and video casts), www.audible.com (for audio books and magazines), www.linkedin.com (for networking), www.technorati.com (to find relevant blogs), www.delicious.com(for relevant bookmarks), www.youtube.com (for relevant videos), etc.. 5. As you become knowledgable and expert in your chosen area, begin to connect and network with people in these spaces to understand what the needs are. As you understand what these needs are, analyze where you can contribute your talent, knowledge, insight and network. Your developed expertise and networking will create the conditions for your contribution and contributions are what careers are made of. 6. Develop a tolerance for the feeling of being an "impostor" and do not be stopped by it. Every new role and endeavor makes us an impostor until we get used to it. 7. Adopt a network of people (starting with me) who believe in you and your dream and who will encourage you and hold you accountable. We get little done in life without the support of a community. You can make it, but not alone. Congratulations on your audactiy. Remember that "the day you decide is your lucky day". :-)
So good to be here in my new location with my new name, WiseWorking.com. For the last year, I have been blogging at 360.yahoo.com/cadelarge. I have used this latter space to muse about my work and the impact it has on my life and career. It has been a fruitful exercise that I will be doing more frequently, broadly and richly (if that is a word) in the coming year, thus this move.
In the coming months, look forward to more frequent posts, richer content and insights, and hopefully a growing community, as we continue down the path of producing a work life and career with ever more meaning and purpose.
By the way, does anyone have a suggestion as to a good way to migrate an old blog to a new one? Is it better to link to the old one or to copy all the old posts into the new one?
Happy Thanksgiving!
This quote, attributed to the French philosopher Voltaire is more valid today than ever. This is so much so that I have found that those (perfectionists) who ignore this quote rob themselves of a great deal of health, sanity and satisfaction in life. As a born, and further raised "perfectionist", I have spent most of my life beating myself and being beat by others because I did not perfectly execute a task. This inability to achieve (perceived) perfection has, and continues to be, the cause of more tears, lost sleep, anger, guilt, bitterness, worry, doubt, fear and procrastination than any other other in my life.
One of the greatest gift I have been given in life, by a former boss of mine, Stan Woodland, are the insights that:
1) there are 4 levels of performance that are possible in life: perfection, excellence, adequacy and inadequacy
2) perfection, or penultimate performance, is futile to expect because the definition is narrow and ever changing
3) excellence, or above average performance, is a better performance goal than perfection because it can be achieved more consistently. Also more people agree on its definition.
As I have worked to adjust my expectations of myself and others to these insights over the years I have become less anxious, overbearing, vindictive, stressed, angry and procrastinating. This has been replaced by greater patience, calm, balance, perseverance, resilience, ability to forgive (let go) myself and others and satisfaction with what I achieve. This has, indeed, bee one of the greatest transformations of my life. So much so that I teach these insights in all my classes, whether at my church or at the university.
All this said, I work in environments where this is not often convention wisdom and so I have to continually bring myself to a remembrance of the truth and benefit of these insights. I offer these insights hoping you will use them to gain more satisfaction from what you are getting done and be more forgiving of, and educated by, that which have not yet gotten done.
As I have sent my daughter off to college, watching my friends sending their children back to school and preparing for my own teaching this Fall, I have been reflecting on this issue of school, and what classes we enroll into throughout our lives. The fact is that we are all in school all the time, either formally (in class) or informally (in life/job practice), owing to the fact that we are always in a situation where are being taught and choosing to learn (or not). There are lots of different classes in these different schools. Classes that develop us personally, interpersonally, spiritually, technically, etc. and which enable our effectiveness in dealing with ourselves and others as well as in contributing to the various communities and organizations what take care of us.
I find that from time to time, I have to inventory which schools I am in. I find that, on an ongoing basis, I am tempted to enroll, or find myself already attending schools which are less than productive for me. Every hour that I spend in any one school robs me of lessons I might be learning in other schools. The fact is that I do not have time to attend every school available so I have to be watchful of which I attend. I have to also assure that I attend a variety of classes, refresher and new, so that I am fit to accomplish those objectives I set for how I will contribute.
A few classes I have been focusing on lately, with varied levels of success, are:
1) Consistent Exercise & Relaxation Practice (featuring Yoga videos & podcasts),
2) Intermediate Circle of Influence (from Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People),
3) Marketing Strategy Theory Refresher (which I am teaching at Chestnut Hill College this Fall),
4) Beginner Empty Nesting (which my wife and I are taking as our daughter is at college),
5) Publishing to Share What You Know & Love (as I am learning how to more proactively speak and write about topics which interest me).
As I work at these, I find that I spend less time in other available classes that are not as good for me.
So I recommend you not think that just because you cannot afford the tuition right now, that you cannot go to school. You are already in school. Just make sure you are using your time and energy to take the right classes while you are there.
I have recently gone to work for a company that is in the midst of challenging, agonizing, opportune and exhilarating transition. Everyday I witness various responses to this transition in the company’s managers and professionals. Some are demoralizing, others are fearful, others are enraged, and others are hopeful, empowered and motivated.
As I observe, I find that the dividing line between the former and latter is the belief they bring to this situation, either that change and progress is something that others enact and achieve, or that it is something that they enact and inflict on situations through influence (leadership), situational advantage (strategy), planning & execution (management) and persistence. As we bring these skills and the belief in our power to shape change, we can follow through on Mahatma Gandhi’s words that we, “be the change that we want to see in the world”.
Everyday let’s recommit to refamiliarizing ourselves with the change we most want to see in the world and being that change.
Change is constant.
Change involves loss even as it involves gain.
Loss is pain. Loss is a form of death. Because we fear death, we fear loss, we fear change.
If we can learn to accept the pain of loss, the fear of death and the constancy of change, we can be profoundly transformed in our thinking, our being and our doing. With this transformation of ourselves, comes a transformation of our teams (families included), our organizations, our networks, our businesses and our careers.
So much of the hesitance, hedging, capriciousness, deception, fretting, anger, fear, blame-shifting, etc., that hangs us up at work is a result of this fear of change, of loss, of death.
How is our fear of loss and our lack of acceptance hindering our teams, our organizations, our selves, our careers, our work and service in the world? However they are, let’s commit, and continually recommit, to practicing acceptance versus fear, so that we become not victims, but shapers of inevitable change.
One might say that, “If you can’t beat it (and ultimately we cannot), shape it!”
Replies and rebuttals welcome.
