“Understand that thoughts are thoughts. If they are unreasonable, reason with them, even if you have no reason left. You are the observer of your mind, not its victim.” – Matt Haig

Being a victim of the mind…

can have us looking for reasonability in everything we do.

If it doesn’t make rational sense to our logical mind, we see no reason to go there.

Our industrial Western culture leans very much toward logical, rational and practical, and that has made for good business.

Yet, in our individual and personal lives, some room for irrationality can create new experiences of living.

For example, even thought there will never be the time to do [that thing you really want to do], actually scheduling it, telling someone you’re going to do it (and asking that they hold you accountable), and doing it creates you as a different person in the world. You’re un-reasonably engaged, beyond time.

Also, even when there’s all the problems and issues that seem to obstruct your being happy, choosing to be happy anyway gives you a different experience of life. You’re un-reasonably happy, beyond circumstances.

Though reasons carry the majority of weight in our Western culture, we open ourselves for other innate talents and resources (e.g., intuition) when we practice moving beyond them.

Make a list of 5 reasons you’re carrying with you around anything and everything in your life today. Which one could you give up, and take an unreasonable action in, now?

For no reason, I’m opening up a training I did a few weeks ago for you to wrap up your March Madness in by this weekend. For no reason, enjoy it.

Access the training here.

Got no reason?

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Steve Jobs

The post March 28, 2018 – JOLT – No reason to read this note? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters – 204 if you’re in Japan.” – Claire Cook

If everything was perfect the first time…

neither you nor I would have any chances to grow.

We can get so caught up in how we look, wanting to do it “right,” and our own history of “failures” that we become ever smaller in our self-expressions.

Do you find yourself thinking of ideas you’d like to enact, changes you’d like to make, paths you’d like to pursue…but never take the first steps?

Sure, we can all claim being “too busy” or “just not ready yet,” but more often than not, it’s a way to avoid possibly making a mistake.

What if there are no “mistakes” and only learning?

You’ve probably heard the old, great bit of wisdom that says “Wisdom comes from learning. Learning comes from experience. Experience comes from mistakes,” but do you live it?

Whether in the area of your career, love, purpose or joy fulfillment, until you gain experience, you can’t grow wise enough to have that fulfillment.

The beauty of doing something is that it opens the door for a do over. Perhaps it’s how many do overs we’re willing to play for that eventually gets us what we want.

Where are you holding yourself back from what you want by gaining valuable experience? Where can you get the “do” out of the way to set yourself up for some “do overs”?

I would personally appreciate your support in a do over. Last week, I asked you to answer a quick survey so that I can best serve your needs with both this weekly JOLT Note as well as my CareerGuy offerings. Some of you mentioned there were technical glitches in submitting your survey.

If you haven’t had a chance to take the short survey, or ran into an issue and not sure your survey was recorded, will you please take a moment to click through again? Your feedback is immensely valuable, and I’ll include all submitted respondents in a raffle for $369 worth of valuable, career goodies.

Answer the short survey here.

Got do over?

“Every tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett

The post March 21, 2018 – JOLT – Is a do over in your future? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change.” – Tom Peters

A healthy state of career and life…

rarely ever “just happens.”

Rather, it is by questioning and examining, being open and available for greater insight, and feeding a never-ending desire to see what’s missing.

I was once told I was a mismatcher. Explanation: if you want to go to a movie with a “matcher,” you say “Hey, would you like to go to a movie?” If you want to go to a movie with a “mismatcher,” you say “Hey, you wouldn’t want to go to a movie, would you?”

A mismatcher looks for what’s missing. Of course, there can be downfalls to that if taken to extreme. Yet, there is a constant imperative towards growth.

Though voluntarily opening ourselves up for feedback — around our work, business, capacities, skills, etc. — can be very vulnerable, the rewards can be life/direction/self-altering. Plus, voluntarily sought feedback always falls lighter than that which comes unrequested.

In my work with companies conducting 360-degree evaluations for high-potential individuals, their new awareness of the possibilities for positive change is half their battle to getting there. Asking and getting answers to the tough questions are the key.

In what ways are you willing to be questionable for your own healthy life/career/direction today?

I’m also game. Please do me a favor and answer a few quick questions I have for you so I can best serve your needs. I’ll include all respondents in a raffle next week for $369 worth of valuable, career goodies.

Answer the short survey here.

Got questionable health?

“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill

The post March 14, 2018 – JOLT – Questionable Health? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“March on. Don’t look in the rearview, just the windshield.” – Josh Bowman

Most months are just months…

but a few are charges and descriptives.

I’m a wordie, like others are foodies, and March always inspires me to keep moving…like May has me considering possibilities and permissions and August has me thinking majestically.

As a matter of fact, March 4th is the only day that is also a sentence.

Simply put: March is a good reminder to keep moving, keep playing, and keep discovering it out…whatever that Big Game is that you’re up to.

Discovering it out is way more fun, and takes the pressure off of the idea that there’s already an “answer” out there to “figure out.”

What holes have shown up in your grand plans that could use the playfulness of discovery?

What ideas yet to be enacted could get air from a discovery (vs need-to-know-it-all-upfront) mindset?

This is the time to march forth into discovery, even though it’s March 7th.

Got march of discovery?

“March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life’s path.” – Khalil Gibran

The post March 7, 2018 – JOLT – Marching for discovery? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw

With 1/6 of the year behind us…

It’s easy to become complacent on some of the bold intentions created for this new year (if, in fact, you designed some).

A lot of good reasons may have started to build as to the difficulty, if not sheer impossibility, of fulfilling on those ideals. Or, maybe the actions toward those goals are just not taking place as excitedly as they began.

Yet, if you’re really up for the “game” of growth and transforming your life, no goal comes without risk or muscles to be developed.

That’s what makes it a game.

One important muscle, as you move into the remaining 5/6 of the year, is to raise your head out of the weeds and 1) remember what you were playing for in the game, 2) assess what has worked and what hasn’t, and 3) implement a revised plan for achieving that goal.

“Reasonabuild” is a natural occurrence when you’re really up to something, because if what you’re taking on is big enough, all the reasons that have stopped you in the past will come up to be overcome.

Getting bigger than the reasons is where the “new you” that you envisioned when coming into the year will show up.

Around what goals, dreams and splendid plans can you tear down your reasonabuild today?

Got reasonabuild?

“I tried being reasonable, I didn’t like it.” – Clint Eastwood

The post February 28, 2018 – JOLT – Reasonabuild? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life.” – Julius Ceasar

The word creativity…

is often used in realms of art, design, or imagination.

Creativity, as defined by Dictionary.com — “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.” — is, therefore, rightly associated with these areas.

Yet, the root word itself — create — goes deeper, meaning “to cause to happen; bring about; arrange, as by intention or design.” That’s something we can all do…not just the artistic.

Whereas “creativity” can be seen as molding what’s already there in new ways, to “create” implies making something from nothing, being the source of what’s new.

When it comes to life and career, we can all fall into making the best of what we’ve been handed, and even “turning lemons into lemonade” if we’re so inspired.

But to invent, originate, or birth — a new opportunity, a new initiative, a new business, a new relationship, a new idea — is also something in our wheelhouse of capabilities.

I have heard said that gaining knowledge is great, but to discover something for yourself is far deeper in its impact.

What can you discover and create from nothing in your world today?

Got create?

“Don’t wait for the right opportunity: create it.” – George Bernard Shaw

The post February 21, 2018 – JOLT – What will you create today? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius

The day of love…

is generally reserved for focus on relationship.

And, if you know what’s good for you, and you’re in one, you’d better do that!

A supportive and loving relationship is one of the foundations of a solid, balanced life.

Another major foundation is fulfilling, if not blissful, work…though it rarely gets a Valentine’s Day notice.

Yet, we could at least give it a Valentine’s Day wish: a desire for more joy in our relationship with our career.

It’s a relationship, like anything else.

As a matter of fact, we spend more of our waking hours courting our work than cultivating our romantic relationships at home…so the nature of those hours goes a long way toward a happy heart.

Too often, like in some personal relationships, we stay stuck in thinking this is as good as it gets.

Then we see someone who is clearly in a love fest with what they do…and we get inspired by what’s possible.

Where in your world do you see people loving what they do and doing what they love?

If you see it happening over there, there’s no reason it can’t happen over where you are.

Consider sending a love-my-career letter to yourself today, and say what you admire about it now and where you’d like to romance it into the future.

Like every other relationship, it’ll give you more attention when you give it attention.

Got work of heart?

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs

The post February 14, 2018 – JOLT – Work of Heart appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“The power of imagination makes us infinite.” – John Muir

Amazing…

is the best word to describe what’s possible with the responsible use of power.

Sure, power can and does corrupt, and yet power combined with integrity and character can liberate.

The question is how much of our own power are we willing to tap into.

One power we all possess is that of imagination.

Someone decided to imagine human beings flying…and we are in airports every minute.

Someone decided to imagine music libraries compressed into a speck…and ipods rocked our world.

Someone decided to imagine humans traveling to Mars or reaching any point on earth within an hour…and Falcon Heavy flew yesterday.

Someone will decide to imagine an end to cancer…and it will come about.

Someone will decide to imagine a world that works for everyone…and…we can only dream.

Yet, dreaming is where it takes place first.

The question today is “Who is the someone deciding to imagine your life the way you want it to be?”

You have that power.

Got power?

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” – Wilma Rudolf

The post February 7, 2018 – JOLT – Power appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

Blind spots…

Can be a booger.

Out the side of the car — and in many other life venues — blind spots can spell disaster. Not seeing the obstacles there to avoid can hurt you.

Yet, also being blind to opportunities right there in front of us to relish is a similar tragedy.

Walking on the bluff overlooking the ocean the other day, I faintly remembered what it was like to move here only a year ago and get to behold this view on a daily basis. What an amazing experience!

I felt the same when living on a sailboat in the marina for a few years, vowing to sit in the cockpit and simply look out for 30 minutes every day.

I think it lasted a month.

Let’s face it: there’s a natural tendency to go blind to what once fascinated and amazed us, simply because we get used to seeing it so often. Not so good for relationships, workplaces, careers, surroundings…life.

The question is whether we’re willing to turn that natural tendency on its head daily. It won’t just happen by itself, but a generated pair of new eyes intentionally positioned can have us see things we aren’t now perceiving, even if nothing has supposedly changed.

Where might your world be enhance today by relishing more of what’s right in front of your face?

Got new eyes?

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

The post January 31, 2018 – JOLT – New Eyes appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.” – Unknown

De-comfy-fy…

Is a word I’m coining for 2018.

It’s all well and good that you and I jubilantly project butterflies and unicorns surrounding our new year goals when we create them in the midst of holiday joy and cheer.

It’s another thing when there’s no garland on the ceiling, no short work weeks to enjoy, and no lofty over-arching spirit of the season coloring our mood.

No. This is the time when the so-called rubber meets the road…and we face daily the [uggh!] and [eeek!] and [maybe later?] reactions that come from making those little and large changes.

Now, granted, it can all be accomplished in a spirit of play, making a game out of it all…and yet we can all use some empowering (vs forceful) context to take us over the hill of change.

My personal rallying charge is: De-comfy-fy!

What’s yours? What’s the anchoring statement, phrase or word that you can and will pull out when your rubber meets the road? And, who are you going to tell it to.

Find three people today to share your 2018 personal change charge with. Have them write it down…and beg them to put it in your face when you most need it.

And, for those of you ready to de-comfy-fy to find the work life you really want, join me next Wednesday on a live webinar to support you to do just that. Register for free here.

Learn and overcome the 5 biggest challenges to finding the work you really love.

It’s a new year. Is it time to create the new career you?

Got de-comfy-fy?

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsh

The post January 24, 2018 – JOLT – De-comfy-fy appeared first on CareerGuy.com.