Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from March, 2010

Gather Your Tribe

If you're one of the lucky ones and have a close family, this is a time to gather and think about renewal.  The year, in the north anyway, is tuned to the change in season.  A time of rebirth, renewal and starting anew.  Redemption. Again, this meditation is one we do with those we love. If for some reason you are separated from your tribe of origin, create one.  Gather those you love who are here and now, together.  It could be simply for a meal, or dancing, or frisbee in the park this weekend.  Plan it.  Make the phone calls, get something on the calendar. You deserve the love and support that you'll see around you this week.  It can be called whatever makes sense to you.  It's an important time to reflect on the long winter, and what seeds you want to plant and harvest this summer into fall.  So take the time, gather your tribe, and flourish.  Speak your dreams to those you love.  Lean on their support and give yours too. Happy Hunting.

Dancing in the Rain

Rainy again in New York. It's days like this that test your strength.  Take some time this morning to focus on your objectives.  Let that focus be your internal sunshine.  Allow that to help you manage through the raindrops whether external or internal. Our feelings are powerful.  Sometimes they can be gloomy.  And it's ok.  Acknowledge internal or external storms.  Give them their due and reality.  Say thank you.  For example, we thank the rain for keeping the reservoirs full, and sparing us from drought and dry lawns.  At the same time you can shake your finger or umbrella and be frustrated at the sky.  Then move on.  Keep walking.  It's acknowledging reality and our feelings that allows us to move forward. Yes? Happy hunting today, or happy accepting today's work.  I feel very fortunate to go on my second real interview in five months.  Who knew it was going to be such a challenge to get live interviews?  This is for a temporary position, however, it's

Take One Action Today

It's a gloomy, rainy day in New York today.  And even if you dragged yourself into work today, it might feel like a "stay under the radar" day. One trick I try is "take one action today." Identify something that's important to the business or to you that you feel is good to get done, and will give you a sense of accomplishment.  Focus your attention on that.  If you're in full job-hunt mode, what's one target company?  Look up the news today on their site or the Wall Street Journal.  If you're working, what's that one thing that you've wanted to do for a while?  What's one action you can take towards that project today? Then, do it. And watch your energy create sunshine.

Stay in the Mix

They say if you hang out in the barbershop long enough, you'll get a haircut.  And they say you're known by the company you keep.  It takes deliberate thought and follow up action to stay in the mix you want. Are you hanging with the people who have the conversations you want to have?  Are the people around you seekers for the life you want to have, positively and actively working towards it?  If yes, terrific.  Keep going.  If your evaluation finds the people you hang with in want, then it's time to mix it up.  Be the one that brings out the positive side.  And if that fails to Pied Piper-like get your gang talking different, start attracting a new tribe. Start noticing if the people you hold closest support your dreams and vision for yourself.  Ask them to do that if you forgot to ask.  And see where they land.  You deserve to be surrounded by support, especially outside the office.  Think about associations related to your industry, groups that may have already forme

Own Your Business

Even as an employee in a 90,000 person organization, own your business.  Track your progress against annual, monthly and weekly goals.  What is YOUR one year plan?  In what ways does it align with the organization's goals?  How can your direct supervisor(s) help you meet the organization's goals (and hopefully therein is some synergy with your individual passion-driven goals)? You must map this out.  Otherwise, you're plugging into your work each day like a battery supporting something, feeling drained at the end of the day/week, with no autonomous direction. We were given something beyond the biological for a reason.  To squander it, is the thumb the sky.  Now, do you really want a life of weary gesturing? Have a plan.

Pace Yourself at The Career Fair

Career Fairs are tough.  I learned today that if you can get the list of companies beforehand, that's your best bet.  Look up each organization's website.  Learn about the founder, the mission of the place, their number of employees and locations, their language and what the culture is like as much as you can learn that online. Pick your top six companies and a few others you might want to meet as well.  Create a cheat sheet of key facts for each company.  For example, I liked one company's model of working with clients, and had a rich conversation with the company representative about that.  She said, "I really enjoyed talking with you."  In other words, demonstrating that you know a little about a company at the fair, can make you look good.  Normally, reps at these things have to explain what the company is about.  Half way through that, they're exhausted.  It's refreshing to have a new conversation when you're able to help them describe the compa

Be Confident

Yes, it's true, we all have liabilities and failings.  However, leave the job of pointing those out in public to others.  Self-introspect, hug and accept your shortcomings and aim to let them go. In public, focus on your strengths.  Tell the public story of vitality and power. Cry with and ask for help from friends.

Staying in Balance

Sometimes I want to speed ahead.  Other times I just want to hide under the covers. Balancing those energies is the trick to maintaining a useful and effective life.  Of course there are times when either is the right thing to do.  There are times to rest.  When the doctors said they wanted to keep me in the hospital until Thursday, I almost saw red.  And my doctor had already prefaced it by, "You're not going to like what I'm going to say..."  However, I'm doing my best to rest quietly even though I fought to do that at home.  I'll be back to full energy if I rest now, than if I push too hard today. And, if I fail to get the steel cut oats into the hot water and turn down the flame, there may be a kitchen disaster.  So I did rush to get the right chemistry going on the stove.  Even then, I was careful, since injuries are a no-no for me.  So I rushed with thoughtfulness. As I write, I let the words flow onto the page easily.  And then, I pause.  I look

When you can no longer bear the pain

When you can no longer bear the pain, bare your teeth. Wince: yeah, predatory animals will probably notice and turn you into appetizer, however, it gives your body the visceral response that generates the natural defenses. Grrr: it's than lion-baring show of powerful biting tools that let's others know you have the chops to turn yumminess into nutrition. Wink. Smile: sometimes it's a forced smile.  Sometimes it's a zen-like smile of acceptance and sometimes it's shadowed with a Cheshire-whimsy.  My doctor kept saying through my Odyssey-like journey over the past few days from "horrible breathing noises" to something he felt safe sending me home with, that it was my smile that was his ultimate measure of my health.  The untrained eye knows your true warm loving irrepressible smile and that it comes from a deep pleasure source. Socially, we're trained to at least respect the forced smile.  We may be sure of, and respond subtly to an ANGRY force

Take a Break Sometimes

I took a rare break yesterday.  I had to do some self-care. Let me tell you, life sometimes has its own agenda and we have to follow it's rules.  Slower today, however, I'm never giving up.  Each day brings a new adventure, and I'm up for it. Cheers!

Bring Your Best Self Today

Look at the things you want to get done today.  Prioritize the most important things. As you do each, bring your best self to it.  Who do you want to be as you go through today? Reflect tonight on how you did. See, that was easy.

Flow

It's indescribable: I just feel I'm in the flow.  Life is life.  It's this thing like a powerful river and if I resist it, it hurts and stings, when I go with it...I feel magically guided and filled with purpose. More and more as I talk with other human beings, I realize we're meant to be simply, powerfully who we are. Each of us has a life purpose.  We know it.  Sometimes we hide from it.  And yet it keeps coming to the surface for us.  If we let that purpose have voice in our lives, incredible things happen. Let your light shine. 

Relax

Find a way to relax today.  Whether it's time in meditation and quiet, or going for a walk in the rain, or folding laundry in silence. It's important to let the brain, while awake, just drift for a bit.  See what comes up and let it go. Just for a few moments to a half an hour.  Do what you can to clear your head.

Today I feel JOY

Today, I have joy in living.  How wonderful it is to be alive!  How satisfying to take care of my own being: physical and otherwise, and to be in service of the care of others. I made it to the gym early after a good night's sleep.  I had a nice breakfast with a friend who shared what he struggles with, and I shared my challenges and we gave each other feedback on solutions. I feel empowered to take on the rest of the day with vigor.  I care that others will navigate their day well too. Joy.

Be Your Dream

Even if you experience a huge gap between where you are now and where you would like to be, find a way to be your dream now.  Maybe put on your screensaver a picture of what you'd like to do.  Or write an affirmation and put that close to where you work all day. In the evening, write about your dream before you go to bed.  Meditate on it a little in the morning.  And tell a safe person about your dream.  Living as a victim of circumstance or "never will be" is useless. Be your dream.

How We Manage Others

It seems to me we've known how to manage others well for some time.  It also seems most companies are in a general environment when money is less available to motivate employees, promotions are hard to justify, and we're asking people to solve problems with limited resources.  I've watched career coaching, mentorship and team building make significant differences in engagement and team effectiveness.  I believe the Gen Y population especially just wants human (vs. e-learning) guidance from their (competent to mentor) leaders (supplemented by the efforts of Human Resources).  It's the stuff that many Gen X employees got from their managers naturally when they first entered the workforce, which in this new era managers have felt they have little time to do. CEO's & HR departments then need to embed excellent skillsets in leaders around mentoring & career coaching, and add these to performance measurement processes.  It makes sense that what will drive enga

Oh What a Night

Oscars were interesting last night. My takeaway: work hard towards your dreams, thank the people around you, stay humble and know that sometimes it takes a while to get there.  Dream big.  Work smart, work well with others.  It takes time. Happy job hunting today, and continue to build your brand at work if you're working.

Love is in the Air

In New York City, there's great anticipation of spring 2010.  People were out and about yesterday exploring the defrosted places and enjoying the nightlife again en masse.  And tonight, gay superbowl.  #2.  There are the Tony's too. It's time again to do what you love and gather your tribe.  Had a fun conversation last night at dinner with friends about the Faust legend.  We talked about that internal voice that tells me when I'm crossing the line.  When do I feel I'm selling my soul?  And giving up what is integral to my human experience?  It's so individual:  that place where I find myself feeling that who I am at my core is violated.  And we talked about being too integral?  If that's a conversation at all, and whether it's better to have a warm soft place to worry about the loss of integrity.  Or if it's better to suffer some consequence, and sleep with a clear conscience on a harder pillow. Question to consider as spring approaches.

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Alice in Wonderland was wonderful.  What a great story!  Sometimes the people around us think we should be and should do certain things.  And we need to listen to that inner voice that calls us to do what we're meant to do.  Listen.  Sometimes our defiance of what we're expected to do is just that: pure unhelpful and chaos creating self-sabotaging defiance.  And we make note when we do that and try to shift to a more collaborative and negotiating stance.  It's good to debrief the events of our lives with trusted others.  Sometimes though, it's through the chaos that the next right thing happens for all involved. Life is a mystery that way, and best understood backwards.  I'm still on the fence about my own escape November 4th "down the rabbit hole," however, much good HAS come out of my own adventure in wonderland.  For one, I'm happy, blissfully, irrevocably happy.  And I'm a really good career coach.  I know that, and it's all my experience

Be Careful What You Tell Your Children

That's your real children, and the children inside. Alice opens this weekend and has me thinking about fairytales.  The stories we tell our inner selves about how things work.  These archetypal tales shape our unconscious.  That drives our behavior on the primitive level. Think, a story told in 1865, now a movie in 2010, when there are so many other stories to tell.  Fascinating, yes?  Because it holds: Caroll (the pen name is a partial anagram of his real name) was stuck in a world of mathematics and forced celibacy, and escapes (supposedly in his tending to little girls) in the fantasy of Alice. On the one hand, what mad creativity can you create from your constraints?  Finances, your current work life, etc. On the other hand, pay attention to how you do escape, how you go down the rabbit hole. Be sure when you drop your "empty marmalade jar" that there's no one below who'll get hurt.  Capiche?  Be careful that your actions cause the least harm, most of

Network Network Network

I went to an alumni networking breakfast this morning.  Some post-thoughts: Lead with what you know.  Give first.  This was emphasized by the leader of the session.  Whether I'm trying to get clients, or searching for a job, it's important to give first to help make a connection with someone else.  Just connect: what do you have in common with the other person?  The weather, the heat in the room?  Then, what was something they said in their introduction that you found interesting?  Or do you like an item they are wearing? Bring cards.  Have them made if you're separate from an organization at this time.  It takes time to write on bits of easy to lose paper. Follow up: suggest a coffee meeting at some later date if there's a connection and exchange information.  If there's no connection, thank the person for chatting, excuse yourself, and connect with someone else.  It's ok.  The other person may be relieved.  If there is a connection, still notice when the

Pressure of the World

Do you ever feel the pressure of the world on your shoulders? Breathe. What are you really responsible for?  What have you taken on that's less yours and more your vivid imagination? Maybe I'm putting the pressure on myself.  Today, I look at the list of things I want to accomplish and trim it by 50%.  I was encouraged to do even less, however it was too hard to do.  I'm even going to keep this short.  Less is more today.

Dance with Life

Life's got its own agenda.  And sometimes it feels in direct opposition to my agenda.  And I'm learning to dance with life.  I'm finding a way to be symbiotic with what life throws me, and sometimes even with what I impulsively and regrettably throw into the mix beyond what I'd intended. Yesterday's meeting with the temp agency is a great example.  I was prepared, eager and ready to do a command performance interview.  And in many ways I feel like I botched it.  I felt over-eager, over-enthusiastic.  She wanted to know what I wanted: I think I was too specific?  All the jobhunt literature says being specific is good.  Yet I always fear that being specific: entertainment industry, HR training and career coaching, manager level, and salary, just makes it near impossible for me to get a full-time job offer. I did say I'd be flexible in this economy.  I would be a terrific executive assistant in marketing, advertising or publishing too.  I'm willing to start

Jealousy is a Map

A guy I know just got profiled in the New York Times for his entrepreneurial work. A guy I know had his wedding in Central Park with swans. A woman I know has been travelling across the country singing her songs. My supervisors have been just a year or two older, once even YOUNGER, and had titles often 3-4 levels above mine and made sometimes ten times what I made. And I'm jealous. Jealousy is a map.  It points us to our true north, telling us what we want in our lives and highlights the gap between where we are now and where we want to be.  Investigate what the jealousy is.  For me: do I want to have an article written about my work?  Do I want a greater income level so that I can celebrate the events in my life abundantly?  Do I want a deep committed relationship with an amazing man and a public celebration?  Do I want to travel and earn income from my creations? What can I do today to move in that direction, from where I am now?  Maybe I can even outline some succe