April 18, 2018 – JOLT – Is it time to revive your “act now”?
“Maybe it won’t work. But maybe seeing if it does will be the best adventure ever.”- Unknown
Today’s the day…
is a phrase we’ve all heard forever…so much so that’s it’s lost its oomph.
We’ve also lost the impact from the admonition to “Live each day as if it was your last.”
Today’s JOLT note is just to remind you that those phrases, in their original iterations, actually caught one’s attention…and maybe even yours the first time you heard them.
Maybe it’s time to actually hear them again?
What’s the project you’ve been putting off? What’s the undelivered communication you’ve been holding onto? What’s the item on your list that keeps getting pushed down because there’s not enough time?
Don’t let those phrases bring you down, imagining the worst. But, rather, let them remind you to take an action today that wasn’t going to happen anyway, imagining the best.
“Act now” is way more than a mind-numbing infomercial bonus tactic. It’s a way of life to aspire to.
Today’s the day! Live it as if it was your last!
And if you do actually plan to make it to May, there’s a very cool 2-Day career transition “cruise” aboard the Queen Mary that can set you up for a mid-year career upgrade. Early-bird discount ends this week, so Click Here to access all the pre-course education you can begin enjoying immediately.
Got act now?
“Do something today that your future self will thank you for.” – Unknown
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April 11, 2018 – JOLT – Don’t catch it, match it!
“Happiness is not a matter of events; it depends upon the tides of the mind.” – Alice Meynell
Waves can seem overwhelming…
as tides seem to come on strong in life.
Whether it’s world events, business unforeseens, or other life challenges, the energy of being “on edge” can subtly take residence in our disposition..
Sure, we can justify the mood with evidence, but that just takes us deeper.
Though it takes conscious effort, rather than simply catch the wave of that default energy, we can match the wave with alternative energy.
In the midst of all of this, what is going right? What 10 things can I isolate to be grateful for? What’s the real opportunity here, if I refuse to let myself off the hook for finding one?
Matching default waves with intentional ones is not just good, healthy exercise, but helps bring about a turning of the tide.
What world events, business unforeseens, or life challenges can you splash with alternative energy today?
If powerfully turning the tide on your current career options is a wave of interest, see this upcoming LIVE 2-day program to put you in the Captain’s chair. Big early-seabird discount currently in place.
Got match the wave?
“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
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April 4, 2018 – JOLT – Been sprung lately?
“Hope has never trickled down, it has always sprung up.” – Naomi Klein
A traditional time of new hope…
things just look different when spring is in the air.
Besides the birds, bees, flowers and trees, you now have your own next opportunity to pop out and blossom.
One definition of spring is “being suddenly released from a coiled or constrained position.”
We may not like to think of ourselves in such a state, and yet there’s always somewhere that we are a bit held back, seemingly a bit limited.
The good thing about specific, ritual times of the year is that it’s just another wake up call to hope again, get redeemed again, try again and believe again.
It may also help to have little birdies (or JOLTs) reminding you to do so. 
Consider that new life is awaiting — your career, your business, your dreams, your relationships, your possibilities — and simply needs the light of your attention.
What coiled or constrained position can you be sprung from now?
If there’s greener grass on the other side of the career fence from where you are now, consider joining me for special opportunity to be sprung in May. There’s a sweet discount available for a limited time. See the spring launch here.
Got sprung?
“The spring has sprung, the grass is rizz. I wonder where them birdies is?” – Winnie the Pooh
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March 28, 2018 – JOLT – No reason to read this note?
“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.
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
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March 21, 2018 – JOLT – Is a do over in your future?
“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.
Got do over?
“Every tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett
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March 14, 2018 – JOLT – Questionable Health?
“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.
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
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March 7, 2018 – JOLT – Marching for discovery?
“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
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February 28, 2018 – JOLT – Reasonabuild?
“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
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February 21, 2018 – JOLT – What will you create today?
“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
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February 14, 2018 – JOLT – Work of Heart
“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
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