The M.A.P. Maker

Passion Catalyst lesson #4 - You are your own best expert

This is a series of lessons learned in my nine years as a Passion Catalyst.

One of the first things I tell new clients is, "I don't have the faintest idea what's best for you." I follow that up with, "What I do have is an unshakable belief that you do!"

Over nine years of watching clients go from confusion to clarity, not once has the answer to what is right for them come from an outside source. They may feel like they don't have the answer at first, but what's really happening is that the answer is simply obscured. It's there; it's just covered up. And our focus is on uncovering it. Think Indiana Jones hacking through the jungle to find the treasure covered in overgrowth. 

What is the number one reason people's self-expertise is obscured? Focus. 

More to the point, they have an over-developed focus on external factors, and under-developed focus on that internal self-expertise. And that isn't a reflection on them. When I hear people get down on themselves because "I'm __ years old and I still don't know what kind of career I would really love," I always respond with one question: "Why would you?"

Think about it. We live in a culture that celebrates action and achievement. But self-awareness? When was the last time you saw an Introspection 101 class? So when our environment focuses our attention on that external aspect, if we happen to stumble into a career we love it's really more luck than anything. 

Want to build your self-expertise? Keep these three pieces of the puzzle in mind:

1. Develop the self-expertise
2. Compile the self-expertise
3. Use the self-expertise

Develop the self-expertise

I think of developing that self-expertise as an excavation process. The answers are there, but they're going to require a little digging. One great place to start is the Passion Factor exploration I mentioned in lesson learned #1 (in a nutshell, identify the common themes present when you feel energized by first asking what you love doing, and then asking why). 

There are a lot of great books with a lot of great approaches to self-exploration (I'm fond of my own e-book, The Occupational Adventure Guide). And that's where your self-expertise starts. Get to know what makes you tick so you can consciously make it part of your decisions. Otherwise it's all guesswork, and that is ineffective at best.

Compile the self-expertise

Another huge mistake I see people making is doing all this self-exploration work and then just letting most of the insights float away. Maybe a percentage of the insights they gained stick with them, but the rest disappear again. Why? It's hard to keep something in your head when your attention is elsewhere. So as they go about the day-to-day business of life, those insights start to drop off the radar screen.

To make the most of the self-expertise you are gaining, compile the key things you learn along the way. Think of it as creating a reference guide to what makes you tick. Instead of leaving it on pages and pages and pages of a journal, for example, summarize the key points on one page for an at-a-glance view of what you have discovered. 

You can create various categories for it, for example:

• What energizes me
• Ways I get in my own way
• Questions to frequently ask
• Dangers to be aware of

Not only will this give you a useable reference guide as you make decisions going into the future, it will also serve as an ongoing reminder. The question I always ask my clients is, "How much of this will you remember in five years when you haven't been intensely focused on it week in and week out?" Your self-expertise is only as robust as what you can remember. 

Use the self-expertise

Self-expertise is great, but it's little more than glorified navel-gazing if you don't do something with it. The great thing about compiling your insights in one place is that now you have a tool you can use as you move forward. 

For example, in my work with clients I have them make a list of the underlying themes that tend to be present when they're on fire (which we identified by exploring what they love doing and why). Putting those in one place creates what I describe as an internal compass. It's a distillation of where the energy comes from that they can use to both generate ideas and evaluate options. It takes the guesswork out of the process. 

If you do lots of great self-exploration, but then it stays buried in a file in a drawer, the odds are good that you will only harness a fraction of its value. Make the most out of the time and effort you have invested by summarizing the insights you gain in an easily digestible format. Then make a habit of referring to it frequently. 

--

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

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Getting Things Done: What's the point?

Here's a question for those of you who are Getting Things Done fans. As you devour GTD books and create systems that allow you to squeeze more productivity per square minute than should be humanly possible, have you ever wondered, "What's the point?"

Don't get me wrong. I'm not criticizing taking a GTD approach. I could use an uber-sized chunk of that in my own life. I mean the question more literally. What is the point to it? Where are all your jam-packed days leading you? 

Today over on Half-a-dozen Monkeys, there is a post on the need to incorporate a long-term framework into your GTD efforts. 

The post got me thinking about all the clients I have worked with who have been masterful at getting things done, but ultimately realized that all the energy and effort they were putting into their highly productive days wasn’t actually taking them anyplace they really cared to go. 

If you think about GTD in terms of ROI, the payoff doesn’t just come from being able to tick a higher density of things off your to-do list. It also comes from the cumulative effect of day after day, after month, after year of doing those things. If it’s not taking you anywhere that feels meaningful and fulfilling, you’ll likely come up empty.

That's the case regardless of whether or not you are a GTD afficionado. Take a look back at last week. What did you do? What actions did you take? What items did you tick off your to-do list? Was any of it leading you in a direction you really care about? 

If the answer is no, I encourage you to spend some time exploring that long-term vision so you can tap into the cumulative potential of day after day spent taking action aimed in a direction that matters to you. Until you do, your career is at risk of amounting to little more than a series of well-executed steps taken for their own sake. 

--

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

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Use your wildest dreams to find a career you love

One question I often see to help people find work they love is, "What are your wildest dreams?" The question is intended partially to help people think about what they love, and partially to expand their focus past what's readily within reach. 

To make the most out of the question's ability to help you zero in on a direction that lights you up, you need to take it a step further than "What are my wildest dreams?" For each of the dreams you identify, spend some time asking, "Why? What is it about this dream that is so compelling? Why would I love to do this?" 

No doubt you'll discover some simple escapism, but you'll probably also find some valuable insights about where the energy comes from for you. 

As you ask why, pay attention to the reasons that come up. Pay special attention to the reasons that come up repeatedly. The reasons why something energizes or inspires you - the underlying themes that tend to be there when you're on fire - are the passion equivalent of transferable skills. Career paths that have those underlying characteristics have a high likelihood of energizing you. 

[Read more about turning your career into a juice delivery system.]

--

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

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Visual Self-exploration: Your Life in Pictures #11

Welcome to this week's installment in the Your Life in Pictures series. In this series, you will find photos to use as a point of departure for self-exploration.

Q: What insights does this picture prompt about your career? Your life? 

[Click on the image to see it full-sized.]

Pictures have great potential for self-exploration, because they provide a point of departure for asking, "how does this apply to my own life?" There is no specific meaning to any of these pictures. They are simply here to give your brain/intuition/creative mind/etc. something to bounce off.

Your exploration could be intuitive and non-linear, or it could be a logical analysis of an idea the picture prompts.

Need help sparking your picture-based self-exploration? Try these questions.

More information on self-exploration using the Your Life in Pictures series.

Visit the Your Life in Pictures archive.

[photo by Curt Rosengren]

--

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

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Visual Self-exploration: Your Life in Pictures #10

Welcome to this week's installment in the Your Life in Pictures series. In this series, you will find photos to use as a point of departure for self-exploration.

Q: What insights does this picture prompt about your career? Your life?

[Click on the image to see it full-sized.]

Pictures have great potential for self-exploration, because they provide a point of departure for asking, "how does this apply to my own life?" There is no specific meaning to any of these pictures. They are simply here to give your brain/intuition/creative mind/etc. something to bounce off.

Your exploration could be intuitive and non-linear, or it could be a logical analysis of an idea the picture prompts.

Need help sparking your picture-based self-exploration? Try these questions.

More information on self-exploration using the Your Life in Pictures series.

Visit the Your Life in Pictures archive.

[photo by Curt Rosengren]

--

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

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Martin Luther King Day: 4 steps to making it personal

For most of us Martin Luther King Day comes and goes, like so many potentially meaningful days, with no discernible impact on our lives.

This year, instead of just thinking, "Whoo-hoo! I have the day off," or "Hey, there's a sale at the mall," spend some time exploring one simple question. "What could this day mean to me?" You can do this with any special day, but since today is MLK Day, that's a good place to start.

Here are four steps to help you use today (or any meaningful day) as a catalyst for personal exploration and growth.

1. Explore what it means to you.

This exercise isn't about pondering what effect King had on the country, or why he deserves to be honored. It's about stepping back and taking a look at the messages the day has for you, and how that applies to your life. You'll be taking it out of the abstract and finding specific and personal meaning.

You might start exploring it from different angles. For example:

• What are the messages this day has for me?
• What about this day feels important?
• What do I admire about King?
• If I had three words to describe the essence of this holiday, what would they be?

As the resulting insights start to take shape, take it out of the abstract and into your life with step number two...

2. How does this relate to my life?

Let's say one of the things you admire most about King was both his vision. To apply that to your own life, you might ask, "OK, what is my vision? What am I working towards in my life that feels important and compelling? What do I really care about?"

This step is simply about taking stock, not judging what you find. Maybe you look at your life and realize, "Wow, I really don't have any vision that feels compelling to me." Rather than looking at that insight negatively, simply look at it as a potential doorway to change.

3. What action does this suggest?

Once you have insights about how it relates to you life, it's time to start moving towards using them for positive change. Let's say you realize that you're not satisfied with that lack of vision. If that's the case, you have a choice; either lose yourself in being dissatisfied, or use that clarity as the starting point for asking, "OK, what do I do about that?"

You might realize that you don't have clarity about what that vision might be. It's impossible to move towards a vision if you don't know what it is, so exploring that potential vision would be your first step. You might explore questions like, "What would I want my epitaph to say about me and the impact I had in this world? What inspires me? If I could make a difference with one thing in this world - based not on what "they" think is important, but on what has a significant positive charge for me - what would it be?"

Or you might realize that you have a vision already simmering, but you aren't taking any action on it. Your action exploration then might focus on brainstorming different steps you could take, large and small, to start moving towards it.

4. What is the first step, and when will I take it?

Finally, remember that none of the above two steps are anything more than abstract philosophizing if you don't actually choose a step and take it.

So there you have it. Four steps to turn any meaningful day into a catalyst for growth and discovery.

What could this day mean for you?

--

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

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Visual Self-exploration: Your Life in Pictures #9

Welcome to this week's installment in the Your Life in Pictures series. In this series, you will find photos to use as a point of departure for self-exploration.

Q: What insights does this picture prompt about your career? Your life?

[Click on the image to see it full-sized.]

Pictures have great potential for self-exploration, because they provide a point of departure for asking, "how does this apply to my own life?" There is no specific meaning to any of these pictures. They are simply here to give your brain/intuition/creative mind/etc. something to bounce off.

Your exploration could be intuitive and non-linear, or it could be a logical analysis of an idea the picture prompts.

Need help sparking your picture-based self-exploration? Try these questions.

More information on self-exploration using the Your Life in Pictures series.

Visit the Your Life in Pictures archive.

[photo by Curt Rosengren]

--

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

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

If you started over today, what would you do?

Reading an interview today with Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest (a great book), I saw this exchange:

Q: If you were graduating from college today, what would you do with your life?

A: I would try to continue to learn every day and never stop my education. I would try not to get lured in by the trivial, the mundane, the commercial and the profane. I would spend as much time as possible outdoors. I would be sure that I would be able to sing, dance and draw. I would seek the most joyous way I could find to work on behalf of others. I would find mates who would want to join the effort, or whose efforts I could join. I would focus on an array of skills, and know how to work with my body just as much as my head. I wouldn't try to save the world; I would try to serve the world. I would read like crazy. I would avoid too much time on the Internet, but definitely be digitally literate.

As I read that, two things struck me. First, I love Hawken's answer. I looked at it and thought, "That's not just good advice for a new graduate. That's something for each of us to aspire to, starting today, wherever we are in our lives."

Second, it strikes me that the question has the potential to be a great way to explore the career and the life you want to create from here. Ask yourself, "If I were starting over today, what would I create?" Explore the answer across multiple fronts. What would be important to you? What would you aspire to?

When you are finished exploring that, ask yourself, "How well does my current life stack up against this? Where am I strong? Where could I use some work? Where are the opportunities to align myself more with what I would create if I were at the starting line today.

Here's the punch line. You ARE at the starting line today. Perhaps you're not starting over, but you are starting. And you have a choice. Either you coast into the future on autopilot, fueled by the momentum of the past, or you stop and say, "What do I want to create from here? What steps - even small ones - can I take to make that happen?"

--

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

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

What stories will you tell about your life in 2010?

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

~ Anais Nin

Want to create a career and a life that energize and inspire you? Take this quote to heart. As I've written about many times here, the lens you look through determines the world you see. And the world you see determines your experience in life.

Part of that lens is made up of the stories you tell, positive or negative. As you look at the coming year, what stories are you telling about yourself, your life, and the world around you? How are they affecting the reality you create?

Over on the US News & World Report blog, I wrote a post exploring the question, What stories will you tell in 2010? As you look at what you want from the year to come, spend some time with that question. Examine which stories you are currently telling are setting the stage for happiness and success, and which ones are limiting you and dragging you down.

Ultimately, you are the storyteller in your own life. But in order to consciously weave that story, you have to be conscious of it. The first step is to ask, "What stories am I telling?" The second step is to ask, "What stories do I want to tell?"

--

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

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

What is your theme for the new year?

When it comes to making positive change, it's easy to get fragmented and disjointed. There are so many ways we want to make our lives better and we try to take them all on. The result is often a little bit like those fireworks that spin on the ground, throwing sparks off in all directions but not going anywhere.

What if, instead of a random hodge-podge of well-intended but potentially ineffective positive efforts, you created a unifying theme that ties it all together? What would your theme for 2010 be?

For me, the theme that comes up is "compassionate self-discipline." One of my big challenges is staying focused and disciplined. Too often, when I resolve to "be more disciplined," it takes on the feel of a harsh, angry taskmaster. I realized recently that I need to weave a sense of compassion into my self-discipline efforts, or it will never be sustainable.

Other themes might be "feeling energized," "fun fitness," "relationships with integrity," "unleashing creativity," etc. You might identify one theme for your professional life and another for your personal life, or you might find one that feels relevant across the whole spectrum.

Creating a theme for your year turns your year into a "project." It creates a unifying theme for your positive change efforts. It helps you focus your energy in a common direction, rather than letting it fly off in all directions like that spinning firework.

Once you identify your common theme, you can start asking questions, like:

• What would help me align with that theme?
• What am I currently doing that is at odds with that theme?
• What new habits would help me develop that theme?
• What changes would help me move toward that theme?
• What do I need to learn to breathe life into that theme?
• What books can I read that have to do with that theme?
• Who can help me develop that theme? 
• What are some related topics that would support my mastery of this theme?

With a focused theme, the year becomes a space for you to take an immersion course in the theme you choose. It is a time for you to both learn everything you can about that theme and to practice putting it to work in the real world. 

Each year has the potential to be a learning labratory. You can design your "course curriculum" for the year by asking questions like the ones I mentioned above. 

What is your theme for the new year?

--

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

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst