Feb 7, 2024 – JOLT – Suggestion vs Resolution – A 2024 Restart
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“I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.” – Anaïs Nin
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An Ounce of Suggestion is Worth a Pound of Resolution
OK, ok, I hear what you’re thinking: “Darrell, you’re still talking about the New Year when it’s February 7th??”
Uh. . .yaaaaaaaah! Because by now the “resolved” demands you’ve made upon yourself may have started to reveal the weakness of domination and rigid control.
Look, none of us in our “mature” years respond very well anymore to guilting, shaming or unsympathetic demands being made upon us. And that goes for those being made upon us by us.
Rather than achieve progress, if the proposed changes are too rigid, our inner child may rebel and maybe even go the opposite direction of what our mature self wants.
By this age we know that much of our life is not directed by conscious thought but, rather, the subconcious. And the subconscious — whoo boy! — play carelessly with that fire and it will seemingly burn you just to keep you safe.
Suggestions land softer on the subconscious and respect one’s inner sovereignty with the desire to grow without the firm rigidity of resolutions.
So, if your resolutions have run their course already (as studies show they will by now) without winning the race for you, I suggest that you manage the rest of the year by inviting and entertaining suggestions.
You can find lots of lists out there or make up your own. Considering various ideas and then implementing the ones that resonate for you as a part of your daily/monthly/quarterly practice can have 2024 be an ongoing growth-producing experiment rather than a one-and-done resolution run.
For example, here’s a few iterms from a list I ran across a couple weeks ago which I’m taking as suggestions to have 2024 be uniquely grounded. They come from a therapist host of a favorite radio show, Life Examined by Jonathan Bastian:
1. Create “stop-doing” lists and begin subtracting items from, rather than adding items to, my never-ending growth aspirations. I can find at least a few things to drop that no longer serve me.
2. Create three-person book or listening groups. I actually did this a couple of years ago when The Back Forty first came out: only 3 people. I agree that there’s an intimacy available with a small group that can get dropped when groups becomes less personal and accountable. If you’d like to hear about the reading group coming this spring that will dive into the now award-winning The Back Forty book, let me know.
3. Take a digital sabbath each week. This one will require a LOT of mindfulness on my part! But, then again, that’s the point.
4. Stop asking “What if?” and instead ask “What now?” This is so aligned with the message of The Back Forty that I wish I had coined that phrase! My own growth continues to be in dropping the woulda/coulda/shouldas that still emerge in a past-addicted mind and focusing on what I can experiment with now!
5. Live the 80/20 rule in pursuit of my goals, which is what inspired my message above. Slow and steady support of my goals by consistent and extended daily suggestions rather than only immediate and intense drive will have me grow beyond the hot and passionate moment of “resolution.”
(Read the full article by KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian here.)
I suggest you reconsider a good and sober grasp of your amazing opportunities for 2024 growth ahead.
Think differently, play better.
Radically,
Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier
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“Don’t let the New Year get old.” – Anthony T. Hincks
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Jan 17, 2024 – JOLT – Your Million Dollar Soft Skill for 2024
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“In a high-IQ job pool, soft skills like discipline, drive and empathy mark those who emerge as outstanding.” – Daniel Goleman
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The Million Dollar Soft Skill That Trumps AI
Anyone who has ever studied effectiveness in life realizes that it’s not simply the DOING of the tasks but it’s the BEING that underlies and contextualizes the DOING of the tasks.
And one of the soft skills at the heart of effectiveness in life, career, relationships, etc. is the element of Human Connection.
Understanding the capacity of the soft skill of Human Connection to right wrongs, turn hearts and minds, and build foundations of cooperation that endure lifetimes is something that many folks have still not pursued, even 30 years since Daniel Goleman wrote “Emotional Intelligence.”
Yet, when it comes to your career, it’s never been more important to gain this understanding.
Face it: Artificial Intelligence will soon be reviewing your resume, not humans.
Think of it: ATS systems have been around for years. Do you think it will be long before AI will completely determine who should be called for an interview, if not conducting the screening interview itself, if not even making the final hiring decision??
“Hi, this is the X [Company] recruiting bot, affectionately known as Hedda Hunter. Congratulations! You have been chosen from 133,692 resumes submitted to record a brief initial video interview. Please press the button below to answer the questions included in this email. Be sure your camera and audio are working properly as we do not allow retakes.
Note: Please do not respond or attempt to follow up. If I decide to pass you on to my supervising bot, Slim Pickens, you will be notified. Don’t bot us, we’ll bot you.”
The only way for you to ensure career growth along the paths that YOU determine — versus the typical take-what-you-get-of-what’s-available road — is to develop the soft skill of Human Connection because, hopefully, there will always be a human being at the top of that AI ladder.
For over twenty years, I’ve empowered executives to manage their own career through an alternative, “backdoor” approach. Your next multi-6-figure role can be enjoyably attained in this way while circumventing the whole front-door hassles of resumes, interviews and bot land.
This skill, like Bitcoin, will continue to grow in value as the technological world expands to eliminate the personal touch from the firm and iron hand of the Matrix.
But, if you learn it, you’re always assured of rising above the automation of the Matrix when it comes to driving your career dreams to reality.
Human Connection is aspirational intelligence, and you can learn it.
Think differently, play better.
Radically,
Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier
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“I really reject the idea of soft skills. There is nothing soft about them. We have hard skills and we have human skills. We need more human skills in business today.” – Simon Sinek
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Dec 7, 2023 – JOLT – 2024 Can be Different if You Look Differently
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“Making progress on longstanding challenges requires a different lens and a new approach.” – Ayanna Pressley
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Looking Differently
Let me acknowledge upfront the challenge I’ve personally experienced in putting out a newsletter over the last several months when there’s so much tragedy happening in the world. My heart goes out to everyone experiencing the heartbreaking impacts of these times. For those of us blessed enough to contribute through our careers to making the world a better place in our own unique way, perhaps those careers can support contributions to others in need wherever they may be.
The quote above, and “looking differently” applies not only to problems we face in the world today but also the problem of personal career evolvement, whether it be upleveling our roles or growing our business.
For those wanting to grow, looking for that next career move or business self-expression the same way everyone else does has you appear just like everyone else: an indistinct commodity.
In the job seeking world, it’s being just one in a pile of resumes. In the business development world, it’s just a smile-and-dial “me too!” effort. (Consider me too! Consider me too!)
In job seeking, we all grew up inside the resume/application/interview/I-need-them-more-than-they-need-me career model. Basically, we learned to “spray (our resume all over the place) and pray (that it gets noticed).”
This kind of activity is based on a false power-dynamic premise which holds that the company is in the catbird seat and the employee is in the place of need.
Maybe that was true when you first began your career, when you simply needed a bit of experience and to land a paycheck.
However, for more senior professionals and veteran executives, it’s important to graduate from that indistinct-commodity paradigm because your thought-leadership — and even “statesmanship” — can have you in the catbird seat. . .IF you look differently.
This goes for business building as well when you replace “smile and dial” with creating value-based relationships first.
What’s required for atypical career expansion is “a different lens and a new approach.”
Warren Buffett is a big proponent of taking a contrarian approach. He says to look and see what most others are doing and to do the opposite.
- Most job seekers treat their resume like the Holy-Grail key to their job search
- Most others are looking to see what positions are posted as available and applying to them.
- Most others are using LinkedIn to see who they know in a company and asking them to float their resume over to hiring managers
- Most others are trying to “network” while wearing on their sleeves (and LinkedIn profile) a badge of “Willing to work”, “Need to work” or “God help me, I need a job!”
- And most business owners are out “networking” as well, to uncover needle-in-a-haystack openings to contribute
God bless everyone looking to land their next role or build their business.
Yet, a Buffett-esque approach to what most others are doing would have you, as the seasoned, stripes-earned, senior leader play the career-shift or business building game in a much cooler and demure way than how “most others” do.
That way is to turn the table on organizations in your areas of fascination and interest to become the belle of the ball, having them chasing you to get on your dance card versus the other way around.
The keys to that approach are:
- Personal Branding
- Thought Leadership
- A Backdoor Approach to Career Expansion
As you begin to close out 2023, take stock of where you are now in terms of joyful career self-expression. If it’s anywhere short of fascinated and passionate, consider 2024 as an opportunity to “look differently” at both what’s possible for you as well as how you’ll go about finding a sweet-spot career change which is not only a perfect fit but you’re, literally, “the only one for the job.”
It’s called aspirational intelligence, and you can grow it.
Think differently, play better.
Radically,
Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier
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“It’s a new season. A perfect opportunity to do something new, something bold, something beautiful!” – Anonymous
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