Get a life!

Do you ever feel like your job is really getting in the way of your life? You know the feeling. After eight (or more) hours on the job, a long commute and a couple of errands on the way you are beat. So it's eat, veg for a while, fall asleep in front of the TV and then get up to go to bed.

It seems like there is never enough time for fun relationships or to stretch and grow so you can break the pattern and get a life.

So where do you start the process and how do you do it? Well, before you can start a trip you have to have an idea where you are and where you want to go. Are you in Seattle, WA or Barcelona, Spain? Do you want to go to Paris, France or Paris, Texas? Big difference! Your starting point and destination determine how you get there. You can take a bus to Paris, Texas from Seattle. Not going to work from Barcelona. Likewise you can take a train from Barcelona to Paris, France. Not happening from Seattle. Now it might be a piece of the journey, but you get the point.

So step one, take a look at your current situation - job, relationships, finances, health, etc. Is the work you do fulfilling or draining? Do you have healthy energizing relationships or are people sucking the life out of you? Do you have the money to spend AND the time to spend the money?

What kind of life do you want to have? Do you and to own a business or have employment that counts and is appreciated? What kind of relationships do you want? Do you want a spouse and children, lots of friends or just a few really deep friendships? Do you want to have enough money to do the things you enjoy and enough time to enjoy them?

Once you know where you want to go you can start making travel arrangements.

We'll look at that next.

Remember the key - making confident career choices.

Coach

What makes you tick?

Each of us has something that makes us unique. Bright red hair. Eyes as blue as Nordic waters. Seven feet tall. We also have innate talents that make us uniquely equipped for a specific purpose. Manual dexterity. Agility. Hand/eye coordination. When we connect those talents with the work they love, the pieces fit together like a masterpiece puzzle. The dentist is able to perform those intricate maneuvers in our tiny mouthes. The seven-footer deftly tightropes the baseline before a spinning shot to the hoop. That is a confident career choice!

Part of the career journey is discovery those talents and the work they complement. Not surprisingly, when we are doing what gives us joy it doesn't seem like "work". At the same time other areas of our lives improve as our overall well-being increases. It is easier to be kind, loving, patient and accepting when our neck isn't knotted and our head isn't aching.

OK. Now for some fun. I have added a link to one of my favorite sites. Monica Guzman is a columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper. Her column is Net Native and she has lots to say about fun places to get your daily requirement of caffeine and wi-fi. Check it out.

Share your thoughts on work and change. Let's talk.

Coach

Career DNA

One of the more important aspects of choosing a career (or changing) is finding out who you are - your career DNA. Life experience may change your priorities and values, but your DNA doesn't change. DNA determines the color of your eyes. Career DNA hardwires your innate abilities, the talents you are born with, not the skills you develop through experience. If you are born with blue eyes, they will always be blue eyes. Yes, you can wear contact lenses to disguise the color of your eyes, but they are still blue. Likewise, you can camouflage your career DNA by overcompensating, forcing yourself into a role like a square peg in a round hole.

If you have ever worn contact lenses you know they take lots of attention and can cause irritation, even damaged eyes and sight. You have to expose your eyes to the air and light occasionally to keep them healthy. On the job, working outside your natural DNA takes lots of extra care and may cause irritation, stress and dissatisfaction.

Confident career choices involve matching your career DNA with the job.

BTW - if you live in the Northwest treat yourself to some time on the Long Beach peninsula in SW Washington State. This is the longest beach in the world (28 miles) and a great place to go for some R&R.

Confidence

I am in Portland today and Saturday learning how to share a tool to help people, like myself, make confident choices about their careers. After 15 years at a job that I dislike and doesn't come close to using my real talents and abilities, I am making a change. But I want to be as sure as possible that what I am gong to is better than what I have. So I am taking courses and assessments to determine what my ideal, fulfilling work really looks like.


So how about you? Care to share what you are doing to make your work work for you?

OK. Time for R&R. Another long day of class tomorrow.

Take this job and ...

If you have ever worked in a cube farm under the watchful eyes of "the boss" you know my world. But I am ready to escape. I am throwing off the chains. I am going to stop doing what I don't like to do and do what I like to do! (Thank you Marcus Buckingham.)

Have you ever felt that way? Have you dreaded going to your job, not going to work, just the work you are doing now? What keeps you from pursuing your dream? Is Saturday the only morning you can get out of bed early because it is the only day you get to use your strengths doing something that brings a smile to your face?

Well you are at the right place. We are going to do this together. We are going to break the chains and run for daylight. If you want to come with us just say, "Put me in, Coach!"

See you soon.

Coach