The M.A.P. Maker [Meaning, Abundance & Passion]

Save energy - go with the flow

One of my biggest challenges over the years has been learning to accept that I'm not actually in control of the world. (Yeah, I know, it still surprises me too. But it's true.) However tempted I am to believe otherwise, I find that the world just goes about its business, completely ignoring my expectations.

Running late and traffic is backed up? Not my choice. Trying to make a connection and my flight is delayed? Nope, not what I would pick either. Bad hair day? Hmmmm...OK, so that one's not so relevant for me. ;-) But still, you get the idea.

I've discovered that the more I am able to go with the flow and not waste energy being upset about things I can't possibly control, the happier I am. Not surprisingly, I'm also more productive, and more able to focus on what matters. I won't claim to be perfect (or even close to it), but I'm way better than I used to be.

With all that in mind, I loved this post on Zen Habits offering 12 practical steps for learning to go with the flow.  I'm listing them here, and you can follow the link for all the details. If you even incorporate only one of these into your habitual approach to life, it will be well worth the read.

1. Realize that you can’t control everything.
2. Become aware.
3. Breathe.
4. Get perspective.
5. Practice.
6. Baby steps.
7. Laugh.
8. Keep a journal.
9. Meditate.
10. Realize that you can’t control others.
11. Accept change and imperfection.
12. Enjoy life as a flow of change, chaos and beauty.

In The Gain to Drain Ratio, part of the trick is maximizing what gives you energy, and the other part is minimizing what drains you. Learning to go with the flow is a great antidote to the energy drain that happens when we waste energy getting our knickers in a knot.

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Career change tips - Job search pointers from the pros

Unless it involves being an entrepreneur and creating your own path, any career change will most likely involve a job search at some point.

Back in late 2001, at the height of the dot com implosion, I interviewed a variety of recruiters  and hiring managers in the tech industry, asking them what job search advice they had. I wrote an article summarizing the tips, which I just came across this morning.

Since a career change and job search is often part of the path to finding a career that energizes and inspires you, I decided to add it as a resource here:

Job Search Tips: Pointers from the Pros

Feel free to add whatever job search advice you may have learned along the way in the comments section below the article. Thanks!

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Reviews: 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work

My book, 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work, has been out for three months now, and one of the things I've loved is hearing all the great feedback about it.

What are they saying? Well, here's a taste, with all the blog posts I know about that have written comments about it:

Doing software development in Chicago

"I am enjoying reading this book and taking it slow. I would recommend it to anyone..."

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Gautam Ghosh

"The writing is upbeat, and the message is written straight from the heart...There is a strong bias towards tools to help yourself too. People who like to focus on "so what" from a book, would gets lots of techniques to deploy it.

In that way, it's a book for the dreamer and the detail-minded. I think the message from Curt's book is that to be passionate about work you have to be both."

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Innovation Weblog

"...it is packed with thought-provoking insights and exercises that you can put into action today to revolutionize how you approach your talents, dreams, aspirations and ideas."

It can be read like a regular book, or you can use the topical cross-index (which serves as a more useful version of a table of contents) in the front of the book to zero in on the areas you really want to focus on. Each chapter is only 1-2 pages in length, so you can easily digest one nugget, think about it and take action on it. Each chapter ends with a set of "taking action" bullet points that are designed to help you explore it further and make it your own.

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legal sanity

"Curt offers a lot of practical insight and action points for reenergizing our current work or reorienting towards a different job or career that rewards us on many levels – financial, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. There’s a hefty helping of material here. But, Curt makes it very easy to consume by breaking it down into bite-sized tips, ideas and inspirational perspectives."

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Make It Great

"If you're not 100% in love with your job, I encourage you to pick up a copy of Curt Rosengren's new book 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work. It's packed with (you guessed it) 101 ways to get wild about work. It's an easy read, as you can take each piece as your own daily to-do. Not only does this book have information, but it has (my favorite) action steps. Curt calls the ends of his chapter "putting it to work" and they are invaluable ways for you to love your job more.

...I strongly encourage you pick up a copy of 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work for you and for those you work with."

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Management Craft

"This book offers 101 ways, and each is written up with energy and inspiration. Yes, there are lots of practical ideas, too, but I just like the "vibe" of this book.

I think it would be a great book to give to all employees as a nice surprise. Just slip one into everyone's mailbox (you know that place crammed full of boring memos and tedious reports?) and let it do the work."

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If you have a review that I've missed, please let me know and I'll add it to the list. And if you have read it and have any feedback to share, drop me a line. I'd love to hear it.

One pleasant development has been several multi-book purchases (the largest order was for twenty). My guess is that it has been managers buying the book for their employees or co-workers, but I don't really know because there's no way to see who made the purchase (so if one of those was you, I would love to know about it!).

If you want more of a taste of what the book has in store for you, you can find three sample chapters here.

Enjoy!

 

Check out 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

10 ways we waste our time (and what to do about it)

If you've been reading this blog for long, you know that when I talk about abundance (the A in M.A.P.), I'm not just talking about financial abundance. I'm talking about multiple kinds. One of those is time abundance.

Unlike financial abundance, where it's possible to increase the sum total of money you have available to you, with time abundance you have what you have. Rich or poor, wildly famous or unknown, we all have one thing in common. Each and every one of us has 24 hours in our day. So if you want to up your time abundance, you have to focus on one thing - how you use that time.

One aspect of creating time abundance is being diligent in evaluating how we spend our time. You have to ask the question, "Is the time I'm spending on this contributing to the life I want to lead? Is this a good use of this scarce and valuable commodity?" If the answer is no, do everything in your power to jettison it.

Alex Shalman has a great blog post putting the spotlight on 10 Global Time Management Pitfalls (and what to do about them). It's a great place to start. I like it because it goes beyond technical efficiency of accomplishing the most with your time into the energy gain or drain things carry with them (remember The Gain to Drain Ratio?).

Here are some of my favorites...

4. Entertaining Bad Company. There really isn’t any excuse for subjecting ourselves to the company of people who are bringing us down in life. The type of energy vampires who suck the life, vitality, optimism and dreams right out of us with constant complaining, as well as their input on why life sucks and you’re going to fail.

• Solution: Get rid of them. The world is full of amazing people, I’ve seen a bunch. Surround yourself with the best people in the world, and keep them close.

6. The Lack of Presence. Ever notice that while you’re supposed to be paying attention your mind wanders to something else? When you get to that something else your mind wanders to the next thing? When you’re living in this state of future, you aren’t giving your 100% to what you are doing. You are constantly wasting the time away.

• Solution: Give your 110% to whatever you are currently undertaking. If whatever is at hand is not worth your 110% than that’s a sign that you should drop it and pursue what’s real for you.

10. Not Being Valuable. The biggest waste of time and oxygen that you can be is not being a valuable person. Not valuable to yourself, to your family, to society, and to the planet.

• Solution: By the time your time expires, make sure you can answer how you’ve left this world a better place than you got it.

For the moment, don't worry about eliminating each and every time waster in your life. Sit down and take stock of the pieces of your life that aren't contributing to the life you want to live. Pick one thing, and for the next week or two, focus on eliminating it. If it's really big, break it into pieces and make it an ongoing project.

Once you have done that, you're ready to move onto the next time waster, and the next...

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Canadians say fulfilling work is more important than high pay

Quick, which do you think employees find more important, fulfilling work or making gobs o' money?

OK, my answer would be "both" too, but pretend you can't say that. From what I've been seeing over the last several years, I would answer fulfilling work, hands down. Here's a recent study out of Canada that supports that notion.

More Canadians are looking for a job that is challenging and rewarding, as opposed to one with high wages and a quick climb up the corporate ladder, according to an online poll.

The results appear to mesh well with trends being seen by career counsellors, with intangible career expectations receiving more attention from job seekers.

Results of the poll, based on the responses of 4,721 participants at Monster.ca, showed 53 per cent of job seekers are looking for "challenging work that is fulfilling." This is in contrast to 27 per cent who were looking for "financial gain and advancement" and 20 per cent who preferred "job security, even if it means a less challenging role."

Here was a tidbit the cultural-diversity-geek in me found fascinating...

Results on the French-language site were even more stark, with 70 per cent of respondents looking for personal gratification over high compensation and job security.

And finally, here's a little slice of what is giving me so much hope for the future...

Dawn Legault, director of career development at Carleton University in Ottawa, said the results mirror the attitudes of students moving into the workforce. She said young people are more concerned about finding an organization that fits their lifestyle and values rather than one that will provide superior compensation.

What do you think? Does the fulfillment vs. money priority reflect your experience out there? (Yes, even you non-Canucks can answer.)

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Too many interests? How about a portfolio career?

Ever find yourself pulled between multiple I-wanna's as you look at potential career paths? I wanna do this - no wait! I wanna do that!

If it's hard to choose, take heart. You may not have to. Maybe what you really need is a portfolio career. What's that? According to this article, it's part of a growing trend...

Gold is one of a growing number of professionals who are opting out of the traditional one-job track. Instead, they are crafting a portfolio of careers comprising multiple part-time jobs that, when combined, are equivalent to a full-time position. The number of people pursuing these dual - or even tri - track careers has doubled in the past couple of years, said John A. Challenger, president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an the outplacement consulting company.

Before I discovered my Passion Catalyst work, I had my fingers in multiple pies. A bit of my income came from this. A bit more came from that. I seemed to have an inability (not to mention a complete lack of desire) to focus on any one thing.

When I heard about the idea of portfolio careers, I thought, "Whoohooh! I'm not scattered - I'm a Portfolio Careerist! I belong to a category now!"

Even since discovering the focus of my current path, my work has had a portfolio career flavor. There is one core focus - helping people create careers that energize and inspire them - but I do that in multiple ways. I'm a coach, a writer, and a speaker. And these days I'm feeling increasingly drawn to developing more products to help people along that path.

For me, having that central focus has played a key role in shaping my portfolio career. For others, as the article describes, the focus might be more diverse.

This alternative approach to work isn’t just about cobbling together a patchwork of freelance gigs, but rather is a distinct career path that allows people to combine their interests and not be seriously penalized in the process. “You want to try to find a combination of things that work well together like writing, teaching, speaking and consulting,” said Marci Alboher, who calls these multipronged careers “slash careers” in her book One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success. Alboher said she knows successful portfolio careerists who have become both a pilates instructor and an art dealer; an attorney and a minister; a psychotherapist and a violin-maker; and a teacher, dancer and puppeteer.

How about you? If you were to create a portfolio career, what would it look like?

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Who would you be with no praise or criticism?

One of the biggest sources of career misery, stuckness, or just plain lack of fulfillment is giving external factors too much importance in our decision making. Two of the biggies that get in the way are the pursuit of praise and the fear of criticism.

In his excellent book, It's Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks, Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks International, touches on the importance of discovering who you are without those two factors in the picture. In a chapter titled, "Know Why You're Here," Behar writes:

In my thirties, I heard someone ask the question, "If there was no praise or criticism in the world, then who would you be?" This is such a powerful concept...I learned that when you discover the answer to that question, you've discovered your greater purpose and the path you need to take.

I love that question! Think about it. If there were literally no praise and no criticism, their role in your decisions would cease to exist. And if they didn't exist, they couldn't distort your decisions.  It would be like speakers that had been blasting muddy, distorted sound suddenly becoming crystal clear.

What music would you hear? What decisions would you make? How would you act? Who would you be? Would your path be different than it is today? How?

Of course, praise and criticism do exist, and to some degree they will always play some role in the choices we make. But the better you understand what's at the core, the easier it is to focus on a path that is energizing and inspiring, and the less likely those external factors are to lure you into making choices that aren't right for you.

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Career change tip: Weigh the discomfort of change vs. no-change

Have you ever known you needed to make a change in your life, but dragged your heels because the idea of actually making that change felt even more uncomfortable than whatever needed changing?

It's something I often encounter in my work helping people find careers that energize and inspire them. So many people out there who are unhappy with their current careers look at the idea of making a change and think "Yikes!" They decide that however uncomfortable their current situation, at least it's a discomfort they know and are familiar with.

They put the two options on a scale, weighing the discomfort of change vs. the discomfort of staying put. Often the discomfort of change seems much heavier, so they stay where they are.

The trouble with that is people frequently don't weigh the right things. The discomfort of change is a short-term discomfort, so they compare that to the short-term discomfort of staying put. They put a day, or a week, or maybe a month's worth of their current situation on the scale and think, "Well, I don't like it, but at least I'm familiar with it. And compared to the pain of wholesale change, this is really just a low-grade ache." The discomfort of change seems clearly heavier than the discomfort of staying put.

Except that's not the full picture. The pain of staying put in a situation that is wrong for them isn't just the pain of showing up to work again tomorrow and doing something that doesn't fit. It's showing up the day after that, and the month after that, and the year after that...

When they're weighing the discomfort of change vs. the discomfort of no-change, they need to look at the cumulative effect of days and months of years of doing what's not right for them, not just how it feels to show up for work tomorrow. Because that's what they're committing to by deciding not to change.

Next time you find yourself avoiding change because the discomfort of staying put seems easier to tolerate, ask yourself, "Am I weighing the right things?"

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

5 ways to invite delight into your life

Would you like more delight in your life? If you're like most people, your answer to that is probably, "Well, duh. Of course I would." Having an experience that delights us is liking adding happyspice to our day, and yet all too often it's not something we even give much thought.

Lucky for us, Christine Kane has given it some thought, and she shares the results over on her blog in a post on the architecture of delight.

First, what's so important about delight? Here's what Christine has to say...

Delight is a “now” word. Delight is about living in the moment - but without having to prod yourself to “be present.” Delight shifts your energy so that you become “attractive” and happy. When you are attractive and happy, then effortlessness has a way of delivering your success to you, rather than you having to “work hard” for it all the time. Also, when you are happy and when you allow delight in your life, then “working hard” isn’t so hard. In fact, it’s more fun.

Christine shares five ideas for inviting delight into your life...

1 - Create a “Here’s What I Love” List

This is an on-going list in your journal. Just write a list of a hundred things you love. If you can think of more, write them down. But write at least a hundred. From the way your dog’s ears bounce when you take her for a walk, to watching West Wing re-runs to strawberries in the summer. Call it your Master “Here’s What I Love” list. Just creating it will open your heart.

2 - Create a “Fun To-Do’s” List

This is a list to have on hand when you forget to have fun. You don’t have to come up with 100 things, but it’d be great to get at least 20 things. Be sure to include stuff you used to love when you were a kid, just in case you might try them again some time. (Don’t forget swinging on swings, jumping on trampolines, and throwing water balloons!) What is fun for you? What gets you excited? What do you love doing? Put it all down.

3 - Create a “Friends I Want to See More” List

I called my friend Beth right before Christmas and left her a message. In it, I pointed out that we had seen each other only thrice this entire year. (Though I didn’t actually say “thrice.”) Whenever Beth and I get together, we usually laugh so much, I think it boosts our immune systems for a few months! It’s so easy to let time slip by without hanging out with your most cherished friends and family. Make a list of people you love to be with - and then call them and make some plans.

4 - Consciously choose to enjoy something in your day

Let’s say you’re at work and you’re giving a presentation. Let’s say you usually despise doing this. Try shifting it. Pretend you like doing it. Look around at the people, feel the funny blips of fear in your stomach, smile to yourself and have some fun! I started doing this on stage in the past few years - and it’s really changed how I show up as a performer. To just have fun in some of those moments and realize that this is where you are right now - this can be so liberating. You might even find that you can delight in things that you never even liked before!

5 - Do things imperfectly on purpose.

Let go of perfection. I know this is a hard thing to do. But it can really add to your delight to just do something because you want to do it - not because you have to do it well.

Great advice! (And if you're not familiar with Christine's blog, head on over and spend some time with it. It's well worth reading.) 

How about you? What do you do to invite delight into your life?

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Find a solution with problem-solving questions

Next time you have a problem to solve, instead of saying, "What's the answer," try saying, "What's the question?"

Questions have an amazing ability to open the door to insights, ideas, and possibilities.They can shine a light on options, uncover flawed thinking, and help you get a full picture of the issue at hands.

Here are some of my favorite problem-solving questions:

What if…?

I love this one, because it inherently carries with it a risk-free exploration of the possibilities. What if we do this? What if we try that? What might happen? What result might that create? There are often multiple solutions to any given problem, and "what if" lets you get a picture of each of them.   

Why?

This one helps you get down to the root cause. Why is this happening? When you know that, you have a better picture to build a solution from. Why helps you start filling in the blanks on the next problem-solving question...

What are the pieces?

If you're going to solve a puzzle, it helps to know what the pieces are. And if it's an especially big or complex problem, it could be that you need to trouble-shoot multiple sub-problems (i.e., the pieces) to come up with your ultimate solution.

What do I know? What information am I missing?

Breaking the problem down into pieces is a great step, but it's entirely possible that you're missing some of those pieces. Asking what information you're missing (and where you might be able to find it) can help give you a more complete set of information to work with.

What assumptions am I making? Are they valid?

We all make assumptions. They help us move through our days without constantly having to evaluate every little move. But sometimes those assumptions are flawed (I can't do this. That won't work without... Etc.), leading us to see an insurmountable problem where one doesn't actually exist. Identifying your assumptions and checking their validity might just open the door to a solution you never would have considered (or even make the problem disappear entirely).

What one thing could I change about this situation? What difference might that make? 

Sometimes getting stuck with a problem is a matter of inertia. When you start taking action, things start to happen. The result might solve the problem, or it might give you more information that you can use in pursuit of a solution.

Who has the answer? 

Whatever problem you're facing, odds are good that there are people out there who have insights you can use to help solve it. The question is, "Who?"

What is holding me back from solving this?

Finally, on the "we are sometimes our own worst enemies" front, ask yourself, what is holding me back from solving this?

Is the problem acting as a convenient buffer between you and something you're subconsciously trying to avoid? Do you have a fear of one of the steps that would be required to solve the problem?  Does the problem offer convenient proof about the impossibility of something you're subconsciously committed to seeing as impossible? Whatever it is, bringing that out into the light can help you take action and make it happen.

What  about you? What problem solving questions do you use?

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM