If you'd like to take a peek at an example of my process and the results, I recently interviewed a former client about her experience. You can read about it here.

Enjoy!

--

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

I have a quote from Thich Nhat Hanh hanging on my refrigerator that I cut out of Conscious Choice magazine. For some reason, it jumped out at me today as I was heading towards my morning cup of coffee and said, "Blog me!" So here it is...

The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now. There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.

Reading this quote again, I started thinking of my attention on the subtler positive elements in my life, and how - unless I'm really paying attention - I just zoom right past them without noticing. In a quest for Big M (as in Miracle) experiences, I miss the mundane miracles that fill my life.

And when I miss the mundane miracles, I miss out on a source of energy and enjoyment that can make my life richer, fuller, and plain ol' more fun.

Where are the mundane miracles in your life?

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Do you ever read about a self-development idea and think, "Yeah! That's a great idea/technique/approach. I'll definitely make that a part of my life...ummmm...maybe tomorrow."

I know I do. Despite my best intentions, I just can't overcome inertia and bridge the gap between the nonexistent and the consistent. 

To counter that, I have started creating 30-day containers in which I experiment with a new idea. Rather than steadfastly incorporating something new into my life for all eternity, I turn it into an experiment with a finite time-frame.

Instead of going into it with a rigid expectation that it will have a massively positive impact, I go into it with a sense of curiosity. "What will happen if I do this for thirty days? What results will I get? How will this affect me?" I leave the door open to a positive result. I also leave the door open to being surprised and discovering something I hadn't expected.

If there's something valuable there, I can continue incorporating some or all of it into my life. If there's not, I can leave it by the side of the road.

The 30-day container does two things. First, it makes it short enough to feel doable, and second, it creates a sense of focus and commitment. "I'm going to do this every day for 30 days" is a lot more likely to yield consistent action than, "I'm going to do this from now on."

What 30-day experiment could you start today?

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

I've heard so many people talk about how much they love it, and how it has been a good tool for their business, that I finally decided to set aside my knee-jerk reaction to it (i.e., that it seems pretty pointless) and explore it first-hand.

I figure it's worth experimenting with. I'll try it for 30 days. If it feels worth continuing, I'll keep at it. If not...well, at least I know.

If you'd like to follow along, my user name is curtrosengren (clever, eh?).

In the meantime, I'm curious...do you Twitter? If you do, why?

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

So it was interesting to find an article in Time magazine by Bill Gates, talking about that very thing. His phrase for it is "creative capitalism." He notes that, while capitalism has had a substantial positive effect on the lives of many, far too many others have been passed by completely. One billion people live on less than a dollar a day, lacking nutritious food, clean water, and electricity.

As Gates sees it, for real change to occur, creative capitalism needs to be part of a whole system that includes government and non-profits.

...the world will make lasting progress on the big inequities that remain — problems like AIDS, poverty and education — only if governments and nonprofits do their part by giving more aid and more effective aid. But the improvements will happen faster and last longer if we can channel market forces, including innovation that's tailored to the needs of the poorest, to complement what governments and nonprofits do. We need a system that draws in innovators and businesses in a far better way than we do today.

Speaking of things that give me hope, Gates has this to say about the new generation of people in the work force...

There's another crucial benefit that accrues to businesses that do good work. They will find it easier to recruit and retain great employees. Young people today — all over the world — want to work for organizations that they can feel good about. Show them that a company is applying its expertise to help the poorest, and they will repay that commitment with their own dedication.

The piece that appeals to me most about all of this is, as Gates points out, the fact that positive change has the potential to "happen faster and last longer" when paired with the power of the markets.

Doing well by doing good fuels its own positive progress.

[hat tip to The Huffington Post's James Boyce for the link]

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Time for a career change? Launch it with...
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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

I often say that your body (including your brain) is the factory you use to create your future. And your energy level is the fuel that powers that factory. 

Jessica Hupp over on Organicasm has an impressive collection of 69 natural ways to increase your energy, with links to various articles and blog posts around the web. Definitely worth a bookmark.

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Find out in my post today over on the U.S. News & World Report blog, Break Out of Your Rut by Becoming a Serial Beginner.

(You can see my previous posts on that blog here.)

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

There's a saying that when one door closes, another door opens. I happen to believe that. I also believe that, like many sayings, it's probably a bit simplistic.

I heard what feels like a more accurate version as I was flipping through radio stations in the car yesterday. I came across what sounded like a charismatic black preacher giving a sermon. The speaker in me was caught by his delivery style, so I stayed and listened a while, admiring his oratorical skill.

"When one door closes, God opens another door," he preached. "When one door closes," he repeated, "God opens another door...But," he said with a hint of humor, "it's hell in the hallway!" 

As I cracked up at the image, I thought, "How very true." I do believe that another door is going to open when one gets shut. But I have also seen enough people go through change - and been through enough change myself - to know that actually making through that door isn't always a cakewalk.

Maybe that hell comes from that limbo space where someone doesn't know what's next. Maybe it comes when they start moving towards the open door, experience a little hellfire, and think, "Ouch! Hey, wait a minute. I don't like this! Never mind. That door must not be open after all." And they give up. Or it makes them think that they don't have what it takes (the fact that they're struggling must prove it, right?).

But the reality is that with any change - especially substantial changes - struggle, fear, and doubt can come with the territory (not always, but often). Feeling the flames tickling your butt doesn't necessarily mean you should stop.

It's just a reminder to ask yourself, "Is that really the opportunity I think it is? (A little healthy questioning is never a bad thing.) Is there any way to move through this hallway faster? Is there anything that can help shield me from these flames while I make the transition?"

Next time you decide to step through a new door and you feel a little heat, remind yourself that it's just the hallway, not the whole house.

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

I love a good dramatic change story as much as the next guy. But when it comes to making positive change in our lives (and in the world), sometimes it’s the more subtle variety that ends up being most effective.

The process goes a little something like this:

• Awareness
• Action
• Additional inputs
• Additional action
• Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

In the description below, I use the example of my choices about food as an example, but it applies to any change you feel called to make.

Awareness

Here, the seeds of change are planted and the door to change is opened. A need is seen. A reason for doing something is learned. You see that something isn’t working, or recognize a better way of doing things.

Wherever it comes from, that awareness starts to create a framework, a new way of looking at the world. A paradigm shift – maybe big, maybe small – is underway.

For example:

One example of the potential for positive change through evolution is the food I eat. Five years ago I may have eaten organic food occasionally, but for the most part it just wasn’t on my radar screen.

Enter awareness. Several years ago I started an alternative energy blog because I wanted to learn more about the issues. That in turn spawned a blog on sustainability.

The more I read about the issues, the more aware I was, not just of the positive health impact of organic food, but also of the negative environmental impacts of a lot of factory-farming. I started to feel a need to make different choices.

Action

As you see the need or opportunity for change, you feel compelled to take action. It might not be big and dramatic action. It could be just a small step; sometimes change comes by way of consistent, persistent action on what feels doable and within reach.

As you take action, you start to develop new ways of doing things. New habits form, and what once felt like a stretch way outside your comfort zone gradually becomes “doable and within reach.”

For example:

That awareness didn’t immediately shift my consumption – organic food was more expensive, and I still hadn’t overcome the mental hurdle of paying more than I needed to. But it did make me think every time I went to the store.

Over time, bit-by-bit, I started buying more organic food. By now, I don’t even pay attention to the non-organic produce section. 

My migration to organic food happened slowly and naturally, and ultimately it became a new way of doing things. It became part of a new paradigm.

Additional inputs

Part of the magic of having a new framework is that it gives you a place to put new insights that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. Maybe you hear a new piece of information that’s relevant to the change you have underway. Or perhaps you have an experience that plants a seed for something more you need to do.

Without the framework, it might simply bounce in and out of your field of view. Like only one half of a strip of Velcro, there’s nothing for it to latch onto. But the framework gives it a place. 

For example:

My friend Sara has an organic farm (she is also a marketing consultant, so she’s incredibly busy). A few weeks ago she had several dozen duck eggs that she hadn’t had time to sell. She didn’t want them to go bad. Looking at how jammed her schedule was at the time, and the relatively small return for the effort of selling the eggs (compared to the time it would take), I thought she should just chalk it up as a loss.

She would have none of it, and made a comment that stuck in my mind. “Those ducks worked hard on those eggs. I don’t want to just waste them.” To her, it was about more than money and time management (she ultimately donated them to a food bank).

Ever since then, I have been increasingly aware of waste. I think of all the food that has become a science experiment in my refrigerator, molding and turning to goo until I finally throw it out. Sara’s comment personalized it a bit for me. It wasn’t just throwing out eggs that randomly showed up in the refrigerator. It was throwing out something that ducks I “knew” had put their life force into creating.

Unknowingly, she connected some dots for me. It got me thinking about waste in the bigger picture. How much energy goes into what we consume and what we waste.

Additional action

Those additional inputs, in turn, both add to the framework and spark more action you can take in pursuit of positive change.

Over time, the framework morphs and grows. The actions you take create new habits and (hopefully) better results.

For example:

Does waste still happen in my refrigerator? Yeah, unfortunately. But I’m starting to be much more conscious of it. I'm also more conscious of it in terms of my consumption overall, not just as it relates to food.

My paradigm is morphing and growing.

The big picture

The point of this post isn’t that you should eat organic food. It’s that awareness followed by action – even slowly unfolding action – can have a world-changing effect. Maybe the world that gets changed is your own personal world. Or the world of the people around you. Or maybe it’s something more far-reaching.

Whatever it is, never underestimate the world-changing power of awareness and small steps.

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
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--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Five!

Friday!

Favorites!

When using an idea journal, give your ideas room to grow
Innovation Weblog

11 Practical Ways To Jump Out Of A Lazy Rut
Alex Shalman

Find Clarity in One Day
Think Simple Now

Wordless
How to Save the World

Monotone – Recasting Vision for Your Life
Life Coaches Blog

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Reclaim Your Time: 20 Great Ways to Find More Free Time
ZenHabits

Life Lessons Learned from Earning a PhD
Susan Bernstein

Stinking Thinking: Do These 8 Patterns of Limited Thinking Apply to You?
PickTheBrain

A Teacher’s Final Words to All of Us
On the Job

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Time for a career change? Launch it with...
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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Have you ever noticed how much the people around you can affect your outlook on life? "You are what you eat," they say, and in a way it's also true that "You are who you're with."

If everyone around you is channeling Eeyore, that mindset can be hard to resist. On the other hand, the energy of positive people determined to get the most out of life is contageous as well. 

If it's time for a career change, ask yourself, "What tone do the people around me set? Do I feel energized and inspired around them, or do they drag me down? Do they inspire my belief in potential and possibility, or do they seem invested in the notion that life is about tolerating the status quo?"

If you discover that the people around you are dragging your energy down, it's time to, as one career changer in this Wall Street Journal article described it, find a new orbit.

Rather than just plugging your ears and singing, "Lalalala I'm not listening to you," get proactive. Reach out and find new people who feed your efforts, people who inspire you. Not bobblehead yes-people who will agree to the genius of any hare-brained idea you happen to come up with, but people who want to see the people around them supported, encouraged, and inspired.

Take a look around you. What do you see? Are the people around you building you up, or dragging you down? How can you launch yourself into a new orbit by connecting with more of the former?

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Every child has the potential to absorb the message that doing good is an important part of life. And for every child brought up not just to believe that, but also to act on it, the future gets brighter.

It starts with a conversation

One of the many things I have long admired about Kevin Salwen (you may remember him as co-founder and editor of the sadly departed Motto / Worthwhile magazine) is the way he and his wife Joan have focused on that very thing with their kids.

I remember one post on the Motto blog where he talked about a conversation his family had around the dining room table. "What if we suddenly had a million dollars to give away to a good cause? How would we spend it? Where would we spend it? What issues are important to us?"

I always thought it was a great way to engage the kids to really think about what's important to them.

Taking action (in a big way)

It was only a theoretical conversation to get them thinking, but something about it must have sunk in...and sunk in deeply.

Fast forward a couple years from that post, and you'll find the Salwens selling their beautiful old mansion (it's still on the market for $1.8 million) to move into a house half its size and half its price, and donating the difference to The Hunger Project. The idea was sparked by his teenage daughter, Hannah. They have a site detailing the idea called Hannah's Lunchbox.

You can see more about their project on these clips from The Today Show and CNN.

Something for everyone

What I love about the Salwens' story isn't the scale of it, though that grabs your attention, to be sure. It's the part that is available to each and every parent, whatever their situation. Playing out on a jaw-dropping scale isn't what's important. What's important is blending exploration, respect for the kids' ideas and opinions, and family action.

In a nutshell, here's what I took away from the Salwens' story (I should note that I have no kids myself, so this is purely from what I have observed and not from any personal expertise - for those of you parents out there, I would love to hear your take on it).

1. Engage in conversations: Having conversations about exploring what feels important and what feels meaningful is where any seed gets planted.

2. Give the kids a voice: The conversations about what's important aren't just about dictating values. They're an opportunity to really open it up for discussion and exploration. What do they think, and why?

3. Explore the possibilities: As you get a better sense for what feels important, you can use that to start exploring possible ways to make a difference.

4. Do it together: The last part of what I find so powerful about the Salwens' story is that it was a family project. Whatever difference you decide to focus on making, there is an opportunity to ratchet up the personal benefit as well by doing it together. Along those lines, here is an interesting study on the benefits of family volunteering (pdf file).

For those of you with kids, how do you engage them around the idea of making a difference in the world? I would love to hear your stories.

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Time for a career change? Launch it with...
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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

That's not to say that you have to embrace failure like a gleeful puppy. In fact, his first suggestion on how to successfully navigate failure is to give yourself time to feel the sting - but not too much time. Here's what he had to say:

I think number one, you have to allow yourself to mourn. And you can be mad at yourself. I mean sometimes I get just – my self-talk, you know, I can be really mad at myself.

I don’t give myself very long at doing that. What I try to do is I try to set a time limit. I say, Howard, after Friday, you’re done with that talk. Right? I do that. It sounds strange, but I’m talking to myself, and I say OK, you’ve got a couple of days to moan and groan, and then you’ve got to start thinking about what you’re going to do, and talk only about what you learned, not what you did wrong.

It’s a little trick you play with yourself. Acknowledge it. Give yourself time to mourn, and to do all those things you need to do. Yeah, it did happen. I’m terrible. I stink. I will never do anything right. And then starting on Friday, OK, what did I learn from that? And how will I take what I learned into the next experiment that you’re going to try?

As I wrote in my recent post on 9 ways to break free of the Craposphere, sometimes you just have to spend some time and wallow in feeling bad, using up that energy so you can transition into feeling better.

It reminds me of something a good friend of mine used to do with her young daughter. She called it the fussbox. If her daughter was vocally unhappy about something, my friend would sit down and give her five minutes in the fussbox (figuratively speaking) to just vent. But the rule was that she had to vent the entire five minutes. Inevitably the energy behind it would sag before the five minutes was up, and then she was ready to move on to other things.

How about you? How do move past failure? What helps you stay positive after you screw up? How do you keep the momentum going?

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Do you have a career change somewhere in your future? Changing careers can be enough of a challenge without adding to the difficulty yourself. Here are ten big mistakes that make the process harder than it needs to be.

1. Assuming you need to change careers
2. Not starting with you
3. Focusing too much on what's practical
4. Focusing too much on passion
5. Looking for a quick fix
6. Ignoring immediate opportunities for improvement
7. Giving obstacles too much importance
8. Ignoring the obstacles
9. Shutting the door to serendipity
10. Hanging too loose
     

I. Assuming you need to change careers

Before you jump into the career change pool with both feet, stop and ask yourself, "Why do I want to change? What am I unhappy with here? Is it my boss? Is it the work environment? Is it the work itself?"

Once you take inventory of the sources of your dissatisfaction, spend some time with each and ask, "How could I change that? What are some possibilities to make things better without the dramatic step of wholesale change?"

You may discover that, with some tweaks and twiddles, you're closer than you realized.

II. Not starting with you

Trying to create a career that energizes you without understanding where that energy comes from is a little like trying to hit a bulls-eye with a dart while blindfolded. Theoretically possible, but not likely.

The more you understand about what makes you tick, the better equipped you are to both identify and evaluate potential opportunities (a key component of my Passion Catalyst work).

When you understand the underlying reasons why you love what you love, you can look around and say, "OK, what are the potential paths out there that match up with that?" You can also look at a specific opportunity and ask, "How well does this stack up against what I know energizes me?"

III. Focusing too much on what's practical

Nothing kills the potential for passion like an exclusive focus on the practical and pragmatic. A practical approach is one of those things that makes a great servant, but a lousy master.

As a supporting element, the practical approach keeps you grounded in the real world. "OK, that's a great dream - now here are the real world concerns to address as you move towards it."

But as the driving force in your efforts, practicality often drives you the opposite direction from what feels uniquely energizing and meaningful to you. Practicality itself has no soul, no depth. Its only concern is to ensure that whatever path you take has as few bumps as possible. And if that path should leave you feeling unfulfilled, that's of no real concern.

IV. Focusing too much on passion

On the flip side, focusing too much on the passion and the dream is a pretty good way to get frustrated and stuck as well. If you focus just on the dream and not on the everyday practicalities of actually making it happen, odds are good you'll find yourself spinning in circles, having a great time (for a while anyway), but never actually getting anywhere. .

As alluring as the passion path is, the reality is that everything happens in the real world. And in the real world, there are mundane, practical things to consider. "How am I going to get there? What is getting in my way? How could this impact ____? Am I willing to sacrifice ____ to get ____?"

Passion is a great guidance system, but a practical approach is an integral part of the logistics that will help you make it happen.

V. Looking for a quick fix

I know this isn't a sexy message, but when it comes to career change, there is no give-it-to-me-now McSolution. Meaningful career change typically doesn't happen with the flip of a switch.

Giving in to the urge to find a push-button option is likely to lead you out of the frying pan and into the fire. Doing the introspection (and the reflection on what you learn from taking steps) takes time. Identifying the right path for you takes time. And the actual transition takes time.

One big result of taking the quick fix perspective is the wall it puts up between you and many of the potential directions you could take. You look at an idea and think, "I can't," when often what you really mean is, "I can't right now" (which might be completely accurate). Unfortunately, our immediate gratification mindset often turns "I can't right now" into "I can't ever."

VI. Ignoring immediate opportunities for improvement

If you need to stay in your current position for the immediate future while you take steps on the side towards change, you might as well make your current situation as palatable as possible by exploring immediate opportunities for improvement.

Start by doing a two-columned inventory. In one column, list the things that drive you nuts about your current situation. In the second column, list the things that you enjoy.

Next, ask two simple questions. For the negative factors, ask yourself, "Is there any way I can minimize or eliminate this part of my experience?" For the positive factors, ask, "How can I bring more of this into the picture?"

It's not a panacea, but the more you can improve the current situation, the easier it will be to stay put while you're taking action towards your new path.

VII. Giving obstacles too much importance

Too often I see people look at a potential path, see the obstacles and say, "Well, I guess I can't do that."

Here's a little reality check. The path to just about anything worth doing is going to have its share of obstacles. Unless you're very lucky, limiting yourself to a path with no obstacles is likely to lead to an uninspired life.

Obstacles are simply part of the landscape, not proof that something can't be done. When you encounter them, instead of saying, "Guess I have to turn around now," ask yourself, "OK, what are my options? How do I get around (or over, or under) this thing that's standing in my way?"

VIII. Ignoring the obstacles

Picture yourself running passionately down a path towards a destination filled with energy and bliss. You're immersed in the joy of the journey, and you're giddy about where you're going. Then all of a sudden...

Whack!

You've done a full-speed face plant right into a big boulder. You should have been paying more attention.

Just like giving the obstacles in the path too much importance is a mistake, so is ignoring them completely. When you pay attention to what's in the way, you have the opportunity to scheme your way around it. When you don't...well...did I mention, "Whack!"?

IX. Shutting the door to serendipity

When it comes to career change, the idea of "you don't know what you don't know" is as valid as anywhere.

Taking steps towards an objective means taking action, and action creates both insight and opportunity. You may learn something along the way that causes you to alter your course, or a door may open up to an opportunity that you never realized existed.

Having a plan for how to get where you want to go is great. But it should be a living, morphing plan, not a set of goals and steps that are etched in stone. Don't be so rigidly committed to it that you miss the opportunity to embrace an even better/more easily accessible/etc. opportunity.

X. Hanging too loose

While some looseness helps you stay open and creative in your efforts, too much looseness just leaves you wobbling around headed no place in particular.

Structure helps focus your efforts, and gives you something specific to get traction on. Goals help you see where you're going, and how the steps you're taking are moving you in that direction (or not). Having specific steps and stages to go through keeps you from scratching your head and saying the career equivalent of, "I dunno...what do you want to do?"

Parting thought: Do a change audit

You'll notice that many of these mistakes are the inverse of another mistake on the list. Which ones loom largest depends on the individual.

If you're looking at a career change (or any kind of change, really), spend some time going through this list of mistakes and ask yourself, "Which ones am I making? Which ones am I likely to make? What can I do about it?"

The more awareness you have, the less likely you will be to turn one or more of these mistakes into an insurmountable obstacle.

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams