“If you add the value you will become the brand. Find a way to add more value than anyone else does.” – Tony Robbins

A player (my term for “client”) shared of her commitment, at the top. . .

of her New Year dreams list, to add value in every interaction with another.

It had me remember a bit of wisdom from the late Buckminster Fuller in his idea of “precession.”

He describes how a honeybee, going after nectar as its main intention, actually causes a side-effect of pollinating the world, so that plants can grow and we can eat.

But that’s not what the honeybee has in mind. It’s just after nectar, and is simply in motion to get it.

Bucky talked about the effect of bodies in motion on other bodies in motion.

So often, we can get caught up in our long-game thinking: Are we fulfilling our purpose? What’s the meaning in what we’re doing?

Bucky’s idea of precession tells us that, if we simply keep moving forward with the intention to add value, we’re actually doing what we’re here to do. . .because we never know, like the honeybee, what positive side effects we’re creating, many of which we may never know.

So, do you want to fulfill your purpose today? Keep moving forward and add value: wherever, whenever, however, and to whomever you can.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Got purposeful value add? “Little did I realize that my desire to add value to others would be the thing that added value to me.” – John C. Maxwell

The post February 17, 2021 – JOLT – Did You Add Value On Purpose? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“If I don’t think about anything and start with a clean slate, in terms of what I have to do, a lot of different ideas come up, and I can think about things more openly.” – Namie Amuro

Elvis sang “If every day could be just like Christmas”…

but what if the beginning of every month could be just like New Years?

At least, in today’s world, why the heck not? We can use every bit of empowering mindset manipulations available these days, yes?

Remember when the New Year started, just 34 days ago, and there was this overall excitement at beginning newly, afresh with new hopes, intentions and possibilities for a better life, a happier year and a greater YOU?

OK, so 34 days have come and gone and some of those possibilities have been challenged. You may have already even become frustrated at moving those intentions forward.

But, do you realize that you have a unique access to power that enables you to refresh at any moment? It’s called your mind and imagination.

Ralph Waldo Emerson says this about ending a day:

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
How about, for this year in particular, we give ourselves the right to end and begin every month this way?

OK, sure, you can play at the elite level and do it daily too.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier 

Got monthly slate wipe? “This year? Clean slate. Of course my past is checkered. But we’re dealing with the now.” – Simeon Rice

The post February 3, 2021 – JOLT – Can I Interest You in a Monthly Clean Slate? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Contrast is the mother of clarity.” – Os Guinness

The 7-Day Trial of 2021 may have failed, but…

what if it’s exactly what we ordered?

Crummy thought, right? But hopefully we can gain solace from the truth about life that says you have to know what you don’t want to get what you want.  

That contrast/clarity element spelled out in the Law of Attraction philosophy kinda sucks when you’re on the contrast side. But, we all know that life moves in cycles, ebbs and flows, ups and downs.

The good thing about rock bottom is. . .there’s only one way to go.

May all of us begin to sense and feel some upticks as we fully clarify how we want to move forward: individually, as a community, and in our world.

Happy Hope Year! (7-Day trial extended to 30!)

Radically yours,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Got hope year, take two? “This piece of contrast that you hate is the very thing that you asked for on a vibrational level in order to bring clarity to you. That you want more than life itself.” – Abraham Hicks

The post January 13, 2021 – JOLT – Happy Hope Year… 7 Day Trial Extended! appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

A New Year thought and wish for you…

as we draw the ritualistic mental, emotional, and spiritual line of demarcation: generate hope.

Many years ago (pre-Ancestry.com), I paid some outfit to research my family history, coat of arms, etc. They determinded that the Gurney family motto was: “Dum spiro, spero” which translates from Latin to “While I breathe, I hope.”

I think it’s a fitting resolution to bring into the new year.

There’s so much ruckus this year about dropping 2020! We can’t seem to get out of it fast enough. Yet, we’ll face the very same challenges we’re in now at 12:01am on 1/1/2021.

However, the ritual is critical this year as it gives us, even though illusory, something to stand on to look higher: the last calendar year under our feet.

What could possibly change at 12:01am on 1/1/2021 might be the direction to which you turn for hope. My wish is that your New Year be one of generating hope.

Generating is not looking to find it out there, though you may find signs. Generating doesn’t depend on the outer world, but in creating. If the world outside of us is weak, for the moment, in its “hope reserves,” we each have the generating power to feed the grid.

So, I encourage you to feed the grid, in whatever creative ways you can, so we can all look forward to a wellspring of hope emerging from our joint efforts ahead.

Happy Hope Year!

Radically yours,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier 

Need help in planning your New Year career, business or personal life? Schedule a session here. Crazy as it sounds, what if there’s HUGE forward movement possible for you out of 2020? You likely won’t discern it on your own. I can help you see what underlies the seeming chaos. 

Got hope year? “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…” – Alfred Lord Tennyson

The post December 30, 2020 – JOLT – Happy Hope Year… A Generational Impact appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

You win some, you learn some…

and, therefore, you always win.

Easy to say, yet requires a mountain of growth to live. . .ESPECIALLY as we mature in life (aka, grow older).

The tendency in later years is to avoid trying something new until we feel assured we’re going to win, because we don’t want to “look bad” or fall on our face. Saving “face” is everything. . .so we end up not even trying.

But that makes life more the same, or even less. We shrink rather than grow. We climb inside a proverbial “box” versus continue to find our greater and greater Self expression.

Seriously: look at any area of later-in-life living and check to see if folks are taking chances and continuing to learn or playing it safe while “looking good” and you’ll find a lot more on the safe side.

If you’re interested in more Self expression — in your career, in your relationships, in your health & fitness, in your finances, in your dreams and purpose — then, at some point, you have to start taking chances, playing “first” (before you have the i’s dotted and t’s crossed), and assuming the risk of winning by learning.

Choose the Blue Pill, stay safe. Choose the Red Pill, face exciting uncertainty and grow.

If the latter appeals to you, I encourage you to take advantage of the last hours of the pre-order campaign for The Back Forty: 7 Essential Embraces to Launch Life’s Radical Second Half, my newest book available until tonight at 8pm PST at https://publishizer.com/the-back-forty/ 

Should I have waited until Covid and the world’s chaos had passed to launch this pre-order campaign? Maybe. . .but that’s retrospective Blue Pill living. The Back Forty is about the courage to take risks later in life to become who we came here to be and do what we came here to do. And that only happens by getting on the playing field.

You’ll find lots of bonuses available with your pre-order if you get it in today, which I’m DOUBLING for these last hours (1 coaching session becomes 2, etc.). And, we will get to start playing together immediately as we move into the New Year to not only make-over ourselves but help to make over our world.

See the bonuses (you’ll get DOUBLE what you see), pick an option to receive the only ever first-run autographed copy of The Back Forty in the New Year, and let’s start Red Pill living together!
https://publishizer.com/the-back-forty/

Radically yours,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier 

Got a Red Pill way of Back Forty living? “You take the blue pill…the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill…you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” –Morpheus

The post December 23, 2020 – JOLT – Last Call! Red Pill Living in 2021 – Book Pre-Order Ends Tonight… appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” -Søren Kierkegaard

A Holiday Gift of thinking differently…

about your past year, your year to come, and your remaining years ahead.

Here’s a free excerpt from the introduction to The Back Forty: 7 Essential Embraces to Launch Life’s Radical Second Half, my newest book available for pre-order for one more week at https://publishizer.com/the-back-forty/

This excerpt speaks to the supposed limitations of our past (2020) as well as the higher possibilities of our future (2021 and beyond) when we approach life from a point of view of “staging” for our bigger game ahead of us.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the blog, where you can also read the excerpt in its entirety here.

Below is an excerpt from The Back Forty: 7 Essential Embraces to Launch Life’s Radical Second Half
The Lay of the Land

The Back Forty is a metaphor with a double meaning. It is a creative allusion to the second half of life, whether that second half will actually span thirty, forty, fifty, or even sixty years to come. It is also a reference to the farming term that means an uncultivated forty-acre patch of land with infinite growth potential that lies in a remote, back area of the farm.

Regardless of your particular age, you might call your first half of life “The Front Forty.” In that first half, you’ve experienced uniquely individual events with “stuff” happening to you that may have fostered a mindset of limitation shaping the way you see your life moving forward.

The Back Forty proposes that your Front Forty, first half of life, is all about research and development (R & D) and that you don’t, and even can’t, begin your true purpose until you’ve completed that R & D. 

Further, The Back Forty asks you to embrace the concept that nothing that has ever happened to you could limit you in any way from being who you came to be or doing what you came to do in this lifetime. It asserts that your Front Forty has been absolutely perfect and exactly what you needed to have happen to put you on the path of your own unique, individual and radical second half.

This bold attitude—that absolutely nothing that has ever occurred in your life has any negative bearing on what is to come—is, indeed, a radical way to live. It is in direct opposition to society’s cultural conversation about aging and defies our conscious and subconscious belief systems, which have been shaped by a subtle, societal depiction of a bell-curve model of life. Society asserts that we gradually rise and supposedly peak at some point of “the best life has to offer us” (and that we have to offer life), and then we begin a slow decline. This viewpoint I call the “Down and Out Model.”

As we age, this “Down and Out” belief system forecasts that we become less creative, less vibrant, less bold, less risk-taking, less vital, less energetic, less entrepreneurial, less playful and all around less (not more) of who we truly are.

Problems abound with that picture. Inside that anti-climactic model, we are left disappointed and depressed when we realize, only after the fact, that our prime came and went without notice or celebration because we weren’t even aware of when we had supposedly “peaked.” A second problem is that the assertion is actually not true, but simply a bunch of BS (belief system) that covertly shuts down the greater Self-expression still available within us.

In contrast, The Back Forty says life is not an eventual decline but rather a shooting out the top in a radical, contrary “Up and Out Model.” The Back Forty asserts that all the creativity, vibrancy, boldness, risk-taking, vitality, energy, and playfulness of your past was only the warm-up and precursor to your future. . .with no final peaks assumed.

Mind you, I’m not simply throwing out warm and fuzzy motivational or Pollyanna ideas. What if, truly, your biggest game is still ahead of you, no matter what your age or what you’ve been through? That is exactly what The Back Forty way of thinking proposes, which many are beginning to align with. The Back Forty says no matter what you have or have not accomplished your growing number of years on the planet serve a function of staging rather than aging.

In the world of theatre, staging is the carefully planned preparation for a production. The Back Forty proposes that, just as in theatre, everything in your life is constructed and laid out for the big “play” yet to be performed. This dynamic is occurring continuously with yesterday supporting today and tomorrow. Using another metaphor, in the field of rocketry staging refers to the in-flight separation of sequential stages (pieces) from a multi-stage rocket. Each stage does its job to propel the rocket. Similarly, the more the previous stages of your life do their job and drop away, the higher you’ll fly. This Back Forty adventure will reveal that the past has done its job and now you can shoot upwards without any previously perceived weight.

What would staging gracefully versus aging gracefully be like for you? I don’t know specifically, but I do know that it would definitely include your stepping up and into greater possibility.

For those of us coming into the second half of life with perhaps few victories or not much of a foundation under our feet (those of us truly beginning right now), the idea that literally anything is possible from here on out is hugely exhilarating. And, even if you’ve already amassed so many accomplishments and such abundance of wealth and satisfaction in your life that you don’t need to do a damn thing in your remaining years, what might be possible if you actually believed that the first half was simply a prelude to your truest Self-expression yet to come? Could you envision an even bigger game still to be played?

Radical thoughts! Thus, the idea of a “Radical Second Half.”

[The above is a copyrighted excerpt from The Back Forty: 7 Essential Embraces to Launch Life’s Radical Second Half, available for pre-order with free bonuses until Dec 22, 2020 at https://publishizer.com/the-back-forty/.]

Check out the valuable pre-order bonus specials now — including a FREE 3-part masterclass, online programs, and one-on-one consultations with me — and let’s adopt a powerful, alternative mindset to designing life in the year, and years, to come. It won’t happen naturally. But it can happen with an intentional staging mindset for our greater games ahead.

Radically yours,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Got staging for 2021? “Our world is not shaped by those who think similarly, but by those who dare to think differently.” –Rashida Rowe

The post December 16, 2020 – JOLT – Free Excerpt to Help Your Staging Into 2021! appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Turn your adversity into building blocks for the palace of your dreams.” -Matshona Dhliwayo

This is the traditional time of year…

when we take steps to reflect on our past year and design our next one.

But, holy heck and whoaaaaa! 2020 looks pretty gnarly in the rear view mirror, and not necessarily a reflection we enjoy pondering!

Nonetheless, in the traditional sense of new beginnings, there is a future to be created for what lies ahead.

In two interviews last week, entitled “Taking a Back Forty Approach to a Radical 2021,” I shared how we might reflect in a constructive way on 2020 so as to help point us in the direction we want to go in the new year. View or hear those interviews HERE and HERE.

Here’s how you might implement this mindset of The Back Forty even now, in the midst of these very challenging, pandemic times, to point you in a new direction for 2021.

A. Rather than see yourself as a victim to this past year, what if you can shift your perspective? Crazy question, but what are the blessings that have come out of the last nine months of a pandemic-impacted world? Force yourself to write down 10 blessings. For example:

1. Got closer with my kids/husband/wife as we spent more time together vs our former running around crazy
2. Became even more in touch with family because we had more zoom connections vs relying on the face-to-face of the past
3. Took more time to really evaluate my life and do some great introspection that, in the regular run of life, would never have happened
4. Made some career and life decisions that, in the end, will likely prove smart
[Your Turn. . .]

B. If the whole Covid-19 experience of the last year was simply a wake-up call or one big “experiment,” what would it have been for? What might you have been exploring that had you go through this? What was the purpose behind this “experiment” for you? For example:

a. Slow down and refocus
b. Balancing my peace of mind with my peace of the pie
c. Gratitude for the simple things in life
[Your Turn. . .]

C. How can you now live your life in such a way that those blessings and purpose create a new direction or trajectory for your life in moving forward? How does this situation give you marching orders for how you’ll now live a fuller, richer and more purposeful life? For example:

* Relationships FIRST!
* Find Gratitude Every Day!
[Your Turn. . .]

The Back Forty: 7 Essential Embraces to Launch Life’s Radical Second Half proposes that, to the degree that you can own and not be a victim to the serious and significant events and influences of your life’s path, you are freed up to move forward with more power, purpose and self-expression. The courage to think differently, to take an alternative mindset to the natural feeling of victimhood in these times, can have you be more powerful as you create and move into your New Year ahead.

https://publishizer.com/the-back-forty/

Check out the valuable pre-order bonus specials now — including a FREE 3-part masterclass, online programs, and one-on-one consultations with me — and let’s adopt a powerful, alternative mindset to designing life in the year to come. It won’t happen naturally. But it can happen with intent.

Radically yours,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Got mindset alternatives? “If you can change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” –Wayne Dyer

The post December 9, 2020 – JOLT – Mindset Alternatives For 2021? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“We need stories. . .they are a fundamental unit of knowledge, the foundation of memory, essential to the way we make sense of our lives: the beginning, middle and end of our personal and collective trajectories.” -Bill Buford

I have some exciting news…

and as a steadfast subscriber to my weekly inspirational JOLTs, I wanted you to know first.

My next book, The Back Forty: 7 Essential Embraces to Launch a Radical Second Half will be available for pre-order beginning next week. Please be on the lookout for it!

What does that news have to do with the power of stories? Let me tell you.

Would you agree that stories have the power to move us into amazing new directions and feats of seeming impossibility, creating new worlds and overcoming tremendous obstacles? Think of the historical stirring speeches of Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, to name a few.

Or, think of stories you read as a child that stuck with you and impacted your life, or a story you read yesterday on social media that you’ve already shared with others.

If you agree with the incredible power of stories, then I’ll ask you this: What effect do the constant stories you tell yourself about yourself have on you??

You’re very used to those stories, many have them have stuck with you since childhood, and you likely even shared one with someone yesterday.

And, very often, those stories limit you and what’s possible for your second half/best half of life!

Got your attention? I hope so. . .and I’m itching to share this book with you that has been years in the making.

So, please keep a heads up for next week’s notice for when the new book will be available for pre-order because, besides the launch of new stories of possibility for yourself and your life, there will be some super extraordinary bonuses available with your pre-order purchase (truly AMAZING values added simply to the early-bird price of your books).

Thanks for being a loyal subscriber. . .and let’s get ready to launch not only a coming New Year but a whole new Back Forty possibility for our lives ahead.

Radically yours,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Need help in planning for your current or post-pandemic career, business or personal life? Schedule a session here. Crazy as it sounds, what if there’s actually forward movement possible for you out of all this? You likely won’t discern that on your own. I’m here to help you see what you don’t.

Got the power of a new personal story? “Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is that to go on living I have to tell stories, that stories are the one sure way I know to touch the heart and change the world.” –Dorothy Allison

The post November 18, 2020 – JOLT – New Book Alert! And the Power of (Your) Stories. appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind.” -David G. Allen

Keeping it short and simple today…

today it’s all about the quotes above and below.

Whether it’s the results of an election, the forward progress of society, the unfoldment of our careers, the growth and development of our hearts and minds, the pursuit of our dreams and/or the finding and fullest expression of our Self…

Patience is where it’s at. Today and every day.

          “All in good time, my pretty. All in good time.”
                                    — Wicked Witch of the West

Take appropriate action. Sow peace. Stay safe. Be patient.

Need help in planning for your current or post-pandemic career, business or personal life? Schedule a session here. Crazy as it sounds, what if there’s actually forward movement possible for you out of all this? You likely won’t discern that on your own. I’m here to help you see what you don’t.

Got all in good time? “Patience is a form of wisdom. It demonstrates that we understand and accept the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time.” -Jon Kabat-Zinn

The post November 4, 2020 – JOLT – Good Time, My Pretty? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“I alone can’t change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” -Mother Theresa

Fatigue is a weariness…

from bodily or mental exertion. Lots of folks are feeling it these days, termed “covid fatigue” or whatever other societal weariness may be numbing the senses.

Don’t let “difference-making fatigue” take over though…because it’s the one lifeline we all have that spans all peoples, conditions or affiliations.

Having no false expectations or visions of supernatural power, but in just sending this email today — even though I could tell myself it won’t make a difference, can’t cut through the email noise, will fall on deaf/numb ears, etc. — I might actually ignite a bit of hope in someone.

The quote above or below may inspire them. They may experience just a brief moment outside the morass of life as it’s now occurring. Heck, they may even take an action they wouldn’t have taken otherwise!

I claim no ability to make a profound impact on a massive scale with an email from little old me. But I don’t doubt for a second the difference you can make today with that bit of extra upliftment you may offer those who come into contact with you!

Like the story goes, when a boy throwing beached starfish back into the ocean was told by a passerby that his effort was fruitless and that he couldn’t possibly make a difference given all the starfish on the beach, he threw one more into the surf and said, “it made a difference for that one.”

Make sure “difference-making fatigue” doesn’t get in the way of little old you making a difference for “that one” today.

Need help in planning for your current or post-pandemic career, business or personal life? Schedule a session here. Crazy as it sounds, what if there’s actually forward movement possible for you out of all this? You likely won’t discern that on your own. I’m here to help you see what you don’t. Let’s play a big game to impact your results ahead.

Got one little difference made? “We can change the world and make it a better place. It’s in your hands to make a difference.” -Nelson Mandela

The post October 21, 2020 – JOLT – One Little Difference Made appeared first on CareerGuy.com.