Happy New Career

Happy New Year.

Happy New Career.

Whether it’s a new start, a new plan, a new enterprise, a new spin on an old idea, or you plan to go all out and make next year a game-changer….

May you be creative, inspired, motivated, productive, patient and brave in your quest.

May you be creative...

And find a clever way out of the status quo and onto a new playing field.

A book that was a game-changing read for me and got me thinking really creatively was Richard Nelson Bolles’ What Color is Your Parachute?

You can learn more about this book from my post Can a Book about Job-Hunting Show You the Path Back to Yourself?

Give it a whirl. 

One of the things Richard Nelson Bolles’ book led to, for me, was the writing of the Dare to Share letter.  Which has been a powerful communications tool in dealing with new clients - you can read about it here.

May you be inspired...

And take a leaf out of other people’s books.

Famous work heroes...

Take your pick...

Leonardo Davinci.  Benjamin Franklin. George Washington Carver.  Marie Curie. Henry (Bula Matari) Morton Stanley. Albert Schweitzer. Steve Jobs.

I am throwing out a few names as food for thought.

Pick one or more heroes.

And study them.

What is inspiring about their story?

What can you learn from them?

Is there some small way in which you can emulate them?

Don’t stop at historical heroes.

Book and movie heroes can work just as well.

I channeled Howard Roark for several years early in my copywriting career.

You can try to walk in the shoes of your book or movie hero.

Norma Rae? Erin Brokovich?

Your favorite sports star?

Who will it be?

May you be motivated….

Are you suffering from inertia?

You can always find your mojo again.

By reminding yourself of how much you’ve accomplished.

Play this game.

Get a life coach.

Bounce off of the energy of a book, a movie, or a trusted friend.

And there are a ton of motivational resources out there.

Dan Pink; Seth Godin; Norman Vincent Peale.

The Secret, The Last Lecture, The Alchemist.

Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Zig Ziglar.

TED talks like this one.

You can get out of that funk.

And get that fire in your belly back.

I know you can.

I did.

May you be productive...

What if you have all the ambition, all the accomplishments, all the skills, all the experience -  but you don’t know how to channel all of that? Correctly?

Could things go horribly wrong?

Could you flame out or burn out?

Who knows!

You want to insure yourself against that.

So find a way to become more productive.

You know that you are not being productive if your home life is being compromised in any way.

Start by prioritizing 3 top goals for next year (Any more is too much).

And use every trick to get those goals accomplished,

Time management tricks from Steven Covey and David Allen.

Strategy and leadership tricks from John C Maxwell.

Communication tricks from Toastmasters.

Technology tricks (I’ve covered a few in this post).

Be as specific as possible in your tactics and strategies to tackle these goals.

If your goal is to get through your work faster, for instance, a specific tactic would be “I will plan to spend the 2 hours a day I currently spend doing “………” (surfing, grooming, watching tv - fill in the blanks) doing this instead “……..” (reflecting on what I did today, organizing, working out, fill in the blanks).

If your goal is to free up time, a specific tactic is to make a list of the calls upon your time you will say “no” to.  Read Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen’s How Will You Measure Your Life to learn all the things he said no to.  A brief introduction to the contents of his book can be accessed here. 

If you set yourself the task of replacing at least one sloppy work habit of yours every year, starting next year, and you achieve it, you will feel less distraught and more in control as your life goes along.

May you have patience…

And the ability to think long term.

Don’t be afraid to take a few risks.

Don’t second guess too much.

In Garry Marshall’s Pretty Woman, actor Hector Elizondo agreed to play a bit role that would have him dressed as a woman almost the entire movie (a mobster on the lam disguised as a woman). Little did he know that by being such a sport about it, Marshall would show his gratitude by giving Elizondo a role in every movie he made after Pretty Women, ensuring the roles were all very dignified as well.

So just keep going, catching some crazy wild things that are thrown at you.

And having faith that they will pay off.

May you be brave...

Is coming out of your shell your greatest challenge?

Being brave enough to take the leap?

Pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, when you fall down?

Or feeling hopeless in the face of a great limitation?

May you take inspiration from others who have gone before you.

Have faith.

And let other people’s stories inspire you.

Such as the story of Petals & Herbs - the story of one woman’s courage to give up entrenched professional status and a steady income to pursue an entrepreneurial dream.

Or the story of Chuck Colson – the story of a man who went to prison for the Watergate scandal and came out of prison a changed man and a man with a vision and a mission to change people's lives.

And because the right person on your side can make all the difference….

I hope you find your Anne Sullivan like Hellen Keller did.

I hope you find your Tenzing Norgay like Edmund Hillary did.

I hope you find your Sancho Panchez as Don Quixote did.

I hope you find your Rich Dad like Robert Kiyosaki did.

The secret in every circumstance….

is to focus not on what you don’t have.

But on what you do.

As the people in this post have done.

Have faith.

You can conquer any life challenge.

There are resources.  There are tools.  There are people just around the corner who can help you.

Finally, may you have perspective...

At the end of the day, a job, though a big part of life, is not the only game in life.

If every day in some way, you are being bigger than yourself…

Making tough sacrifices.

And passing tough tests (because sometimes even the easiest things become the toughest, and if you are handling these things the best you can)….

You are my hero.

Happy New Year

Happy New Career.

I end with a quote from Albert Einstein:

“Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

Thanks for reading and see you next week…Minoo