Career Opportunities

The color red means something very special to human beings. It means danger, warning… it means to get your attention. We use red cards in soccer to denote a flagrant foul, red lights at intersections, railroad crossing and for the lights on our fire trucks. Red grabs our vision and our attention when we need it most. That said, many of us are ignoring the red flags that appear in our job search and career. Whether out of ignorance, fear or desperation, we don’t see the warning signs that should let us know, clearly, when a job, career or self-worth is in danger. If you continue to ignore these red flags, I can guarantee that you will suffer the, often harsh, consequences and find yourself wondering where it all went wrong. How much better it would be to recognize these red flags and avoid these bad situations before they do you harm.

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Go with your gut

The truth is, red flags of warning pop up in our life all the time. You notice someone driving erratically and you avoid them by choosing another way to work. Someone shows up at your door selling magazines, but something doesn’t feel quite right so you don’t open the door. An email arrives claiming a friend is stuck at Heathrow Airport without their wallet, but you check in with them before acting.

We are often following our gut in these situations. We can feel when something is not quite right. Still, in many cases, we ignore that feeling and act anyway. I know I have done it and I am sure it has happened to you as well. We ignore the red flag and we pay for it. I am asking you to trust your intuition more in general, but also especially when it comes to career choices. When we are participating in a job interview, contemplating job offers or developing our overall career, we have to take special notice when our intuition is sending us signals.

Passwords

The most recent red flag moment for careers appeared in the mainstream news over the last few weeks. It seems that there were companies requiring job candidates to give them their Facebook and other social media passwords so that the company could see what they were posting. While I am more than happy to let companies view anything I post publicly on the Internet, I am vehemently opposed to handing over my private password to anyone who asks. In fact, merely being asked for such information throws up a huge red flag in my mind. Why do they need it? What are they fishing for? What will they do with the password? Doesn’t this also violate the privacy of everyone of my online friends?

(You can find my comments and links to news and opinion stories regarding this password issue on the web site in a post entitled “Companies should never ask for your social media login info”)

Just say no!

When confronted with a choice like this my advice is to leave the interview as quickly and politely as possible and consider yourself lucky you discovered this issue BEFORE you started working there. A company has no right to ask you for this information and you should feel no obligation to comply. You will feel pressure, sometimes great pressure to comply. They may tell you that you cannot be considered for the job unless you provide the information. I liken this to nothing short of employment extortion.  Invasive policies like this — or asking for other prohibited information — has no place in any company. Even worse, it probably points to other bad policies that exist at the company, which you may only learn of once you start work. Don’t let them pressure you into doing something your gut, and your mind, knows is wrong.

Don’t ignore the red flags that are often waving right in front of your face. Not every company has practices that raise red flags. Go out and find another, better, place to work.  If you found this job, this opportunity, you can find another. You have the skills and knowledge you need. Find a company that respects that. Don’t be so desperate that you take whatever scraps are thrown your way. If you do, you are damaging your potential earnings, your resume and the complete career that you are trying to build. Red flags are there for a reason and they should be heeded when they arise. It is an important part of building the career you deserve.

***

What type of job or career are you looking for? I often talk to people who have no idea. They seem sure that they want something else, but they have not done the hard thinking about what the “else” might be. If you truly want to escape a job or career you hate, you need to think about what you might like to do, what skills you will need, if you will be required to move and a host of other issues before you can hope to make any progress. We all need a  goal before we can set our path to get there.

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Career Compass: Finding Your Career North by Douglas E. Welch

5100 Words

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What do you want, like and dislike?

First, you need to clearly investigate what you like and dislike about your current work or your overall career. In my eBook, “Career Compass: Finding Your Career North” I lay out how you might start to think about this. There are four areas where your current work might fall — Work you do today but don’t enjoy, work you don’t do today and don’t enjoy, work you do today and enjoy and work you don’t do but think you would enjoy.

If you take each aspect of your work — daily tasks, management, rewards, environment — and start plotting them into each of these quadrants, you might just discover something important. Often the reason we dislike a job is not about the whole job but rather about certain aspects of the job. There are also tasks that you would like to do as part of your job that you aren’t allowed to do or that aren’t seen as important.

You might find that you can alter your current job or career to match your needs without changing everything. You might find that you could transition to a job within your current company that better fits your wants, needs and desires. You can’t do this, though, unless you truly and deeply know what you want and need to be more fulfilled in your work life.

You can buy “Career Compass”, a 5100 word Amazon Kindle book using this link for $2.99.  It is readable on almost any device including your computer, iPhone/iPad, and Android phones and tablets using the free Kindle Software.

Small, defined, steps

Once you have a better idea about what you want out of your job and career you need to start plotting small, defined steps to develop that career. Maybe you need to do some research into the types of companies and organizations that could use your skills in new ways. Perhaps you need to get some more training or a certificate in a particular area of study. It is always a good idea to talk with someone who is currently working in your area of interest and see what they can tell you about the good and bad of their work. It is often hard to get a clear picture of a job from the outside. There are always those little quirks and problems that often only insiders know and understand.

Line up these small, defined, steps in your to-do list and start thinking about them every day. Make them part of your daily actions and thinking. Post them in a place where you can see them every day. Job and career changes don’t just happen. They require attention and work. That said, by breaking them down into small tasks, you can often accomplish much without feeling overburdened. Before too long you will start to see movement in your search

Even more, when we start taking action on our goals, opportunities often present themselves. Perhaps we ignored those opportunities in the past because we weren’t focused on the change we wanted to create or perhaps your action and initiative has caught the eye of someone who is looking for someone just like you. Action begets action, so get started today.

Have you really thought about what you want out of your job and career? Have you thought about what particular parts of your job you love or hate? Can this thought and knowledge lead you to the career you deserve? I think so. We have the ability to change our minds and our lives if we only listen to ourselves. Don’t feel trapped in your current position. Start taking those small steps today that can build the career you deserve in the future.

***

While it may seem a bit rude to say, we all do stupid things. It is a fact of human nature that there will be times when we do something that makes no sense at all. I do it. You do it. We all do it. That said, stupid things aren’t always simply stupid. Often we are just distracted, upset or angry and this leads us to do stupid things. Most importantly, once we recognize that we are all capable of doing stupid things, we can work harder to minimize those occurrences. This is how we learn and grow.

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Why we do “stupid things”

As you might realize based on the introduction, many of the stupid things we do aren’t really stupid at all. Truly stupid things would be those actions taken out of ignorance or lack of thought about the consequences. Sure, there might be a few of those things in your day, but for the average person, these are few and far between. It is far more likely that we do stupid things out of inattention, distraction or anger than actual stupidity.

It is easy to become distracted. How many of us have left our coffee cup, briefcase or other object on top of the car and then started to drive away? We weren’t being stupid. Something else was taking our full attention and we simply didn’t have the mental space for the smaller item. I think this is one of my own biggest reasons for doing stupid things. I become so focused on something else — usually something unimportant — I leave something where it shouldn’t be or forget to do something important.

We can get distracted for any number of reasons. Perhaps we are trying to juggle too many items. Maybe someone else is trying to talk to us about one thing when we should be actively concentrating on another. Perhaps we are worried or scared or not feeling well. Each of us has our own distractions and you will need to notice and learn from your own distraction triggers if you want to reduce the amount of stupid things you do.

The next most common reason we do stupid things is out of anger. We all have stories of friends who kicked the flat tire, punched a wall or did something else injurious because we were angry. Anger short circuits our thought processes and leads us to do things we might never do otherwise — slam doors, throw things, shout loudly and angrily. We almost always regret doing these actions moments later, but when we allow ourselves to be taken by the moment, we can do some amazingly stupid things. This is why the “count to 10” rule is so often advised when we are feeling angry. Simply counting to 10 can help us overcome the urge to lash out and let our thinking catch up to our actions.

How to do fewer stupid things

First, you must realize that all of us will do something stupid nearly every day. As I mentioned, it is simply part of the human condition. Our goal is not to try and eliminate ALL the stupid things we do, but rather do as few stupid things as possible. Trying to eliminate them all would probably cause you to go mad and, in some cases, insure that you do nothing at all, out of fear of making a mistake. You don’t want to drive yourself to inaction while trying to drive yourself away from distraction. You still have to live within the everyday world. Rather, you want to use a few simple tools to help you reduce the amount of stupid things to a low enough level that they really don’t have a major impact on your life.

First, you need to begin to better understand what distracts you and when you are most likely to be distracted. For some of us it is in the morning confusion and rush. For others, it might be in the car in traffic. For still others, it could be later in the evening when you are trying to get something accomplished. Think back over the last few weeks and try to remember when you did something stupid. Were you being distracted by something? Can you remember the situation or source of the distraction? How could you avoid such distractions in the future? Identifying those moments and bringing yourself back to focus can go a long way towards reducing your stupid things.

Next, learning to understand and control your anger is also extremely important. Some of us are more prone to it than others. I am pretty level headed at most times, but certain things can set me off into a downward anger spiral. It is very important for me to be aware of these triggers and do everything I can to avoid them, or minimize them when they occur. If you have similar feelings, paying more attention to this could greatly improve your work and your life. Sure, there are some things that will make you angry and some things that should make you angry, but you can’t let those feelings run away with you all the time.

We all do stupid things. That is simply part of being a human being. You shouldn’t hate yourself for them. What you can and should do is learn from your stupid moments and reduce their occurrence as much as you can. Even moving from two stupid things per day to one could make your life and your career much, much better.

***

Would you get an RFID chip implanted in your arm so you could access the company data center? Would you take a test that asks deeply personal questions with no perception of anonymity? Would you take a lie detector test? How about a drug test? If any of these scenarios sound frightening to you, you should start thinking about your response now, because everyone will be facing these decisions sooner than we might like. Is any job worth sacrificing your privacy?

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New from Career Opportunities Author, Douglas E Welch

Career Compass: Finding Your Career North

5,100 Words

Imagine if when you were born you were given a magical compass to lead you through your life. It would always show you the way. It would show you the right answers on tests, lead you to the right college and to the right course of study at that college. It would lead to your first job, your first (and maybe last) love and always show the path ahead. This isn’t some idle fantasy. We each have a compass to show us the way, if only we would take it out of our pocket and use it. This compass, of course, is our desire. Instead of a needle, it is a feeling, a pull, a tension — in some cases, an overwhelming flood of feeling that says “Yes, this is the way — this is the one — this is where you need to go!”

 

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In an odd moment of synchronicity I came across mentions of two of these issues this week and it reminded me of my own brushes with controversial techniques to try and divine who is a good employee. After a humiliating experience with a lie detector test when I applied for my first job, I will never take another lie detector test again. I have been exposed to company surveys where the proctor made obvious attempts to skew the results. I have taken the Meyers-Briggs Personality Profile Test. Still, more and more companies are trying to find the “magic bullet” that will solve all their employee problems and you will be faced with ever more intrusive methods.

Just say no!

So, how do you protect yourself against invasive tactics such as these? First, learn to say “No,” quickly and assuredly. You may decide later that the results will be protected or anonymized properly and change your mind, but your first response at any sign of concern should always be “No.” If you are feeling uncomfortable, this is a sign to beware. It is also a sign that others around are probably also uncomfortable. In some cases, you might not have enough information about the test or survey. In others, the questions being asked might seem too personal or outside the bounds of what any company should need to know.

There are good reasons for saying “No.” Once you have completed a test or survey, it is too late to withdraw that information. Regardless of whether you contest the results or the entire testing program later, you have offered up information that can never be regained. By refusing to take the test, you are protecting yourself in many different ways.

How are they being used?

In the case of one company, managers were “asked” to take the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Test. This test is usually given to people to detect mental illnesses and direct their treatment. It asks extremely personal questions about all aspects of a person’s life, including sex, religion, bodily functions and more. Despite the fact that some states have outlawed its use outside of the medical environment, some companies are still giving it to their employees. In most cases, companies can’t ask you about religion, martial status and race in job interviews, why should questions that are even more private be allowed after you are employed. (See Career-Op: Can you ask me that?, July 23, 1999, (http://welchwrite.com/dewelch/ce/ce990723.html) for more on that issue.)

I cannot imagine a worse situation to place yourself than providing deeply personal information to your employer. The mind boggles at the ways you could be abused and manipulated by unscrupulous management. Of course, you must be ready to accept the consequences of refusing. Companies may fire you or threaten you with dismissal. They may try to convince you of the test’s worth using specious arguments or even outright lies. Regardless of the consequences, though, you must stand your ground wherever and whenever possible. Otherwise, you must understand that this particular company will now have a certain amount of control over you that they might not have had before.

As for requiring RFID implants or other surgical alterations for employees, this is almost too repugnant to even consider. Violating human rights is bad enough, but violating the human body, for non-medical reasons, is inconceivable. I believe that this initial news story was more of a publicity stunt than anything else, but this doesn’t mean that some company won’t make a genuine attempt to enforce it in the near future.

There are lines to be drawn today in employee/employer relationships. Lines that we never thought would be crossed except in science fiction stories. Like science fiction, though, what were once just stories are becoming reality every day. While we have seen and enjoyed the benefits of the “good ideas” of science fiction such as space flight and computers, we must guard against those repugnant ideas that demean everyone involved. Just because something can be done, does not mean that it should be done. If you and other employees don’t draw a line in the sand, companies will increasingly overstep their bounds with impunity. Companies may be seeking out ways to find the “perfect” employee, but what they are really doing is finding new and innovative ways to violate basic human rights in the search for higher profitability.

Question of the week: Where do you draw the line on invasive employer behavior?

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How do you see the world? Do you see it like everyone else, or are your friends and family constantly telling you that you see the world in odd, different or even weird ways? Can you see danger where others see none — opportunity where others see only risk — something new where others see only the usual? If so, you have a big advantage in your life and your career.

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The ability to see in new and different ways has many advantages. First, it allows you to break out of any rut you might find yourself in. Where others might plod along in the same job year after year, once you sense your dissatisfaction, you’ll start looking for new opportunities right away. Others might feel trapped in their jobs, but you can see that there are always new opportunities out there just waiting to be discovered. While others might think that this is all there is to their lives, you can see that it can, and should be, better.

So why don’t others see the world as you do? What has happened in their lives to convince them that life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” as Thomas Hobbes wrote? For me, I see one overriding factor — cynicism.

While the original meaning of cynicism had many good traits, according to Dictionary.com, it’s curren  meanings include:like or characteristic of a cynic;  distrusting or disparaging the motives of others.showing contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality by one’s actions, especially by actions that exploit the scruples of others.bitterly or sneeringly distrustful, contemptuous, or pessimistic.

It is this distrust, this pessimism, this disbelief that leads others to stop looking for new opportunities. They start to see the world only as a dangerous place where everyone is out for their own good and nothing else. Since they have difficulty trusting others, they also have difficulty working with others, either one on one or in groups. This further isolates them and deepens their cynicism. Eventually, they have dug themselves such a deep hole they might not ever climb out.

For your own self preservation, learn to identify deep cynicism and, more importantly, learn how to avoid it. It is a trap in every sense of the word. It deludes us and traps us in a dark world of our own design. If you begin to feel trapped, you are . If you start to feel fearful and distrustful of others, it will only grow, if you let it. If you think that everyone is out to take direct and purposeful advantage of you, you will find those that will.

Cynicism is a large and important sign that you need to do something new, something active, something — else. Use this red flag of warning as a sign that you need to do some deep and hard thinking. You may need to get away for a while. You may need to find new people to engage with. You might need to change your location, your job, some of your friends. You need to do anything that shakes off cynicism and lets you see the world in new ways again.

If you are struggling with cynicism, it might seem hard to escape its grip, but we all have the power to do it. All we need is to see the light that surrounds us and focus less of the dark. There are people out there willing to help you. There are new opportunities waiting to be found. You are not trapped unless you believe you are. Remember what it is like to see the world differently and then see it that way again.You owe it to yourself and everyone around you to see, and be, the very best person that you can be. Imagine how the world would change if more people had the strength and support to stand up, break free of cynicism and do what they most desire.

Starting tomorrow morning, wake up and ask yourself “What does the world look like today?” Does it look the same as it always has or do you see something new on the horizon. Is it  another in the salt mines like the donkey boys from Pinocchio or is it “the beginning of a beautiful friendship?” Greet tomorrow like a good friend, and seek out the best friends you have around you. Sure, there are troubles in the world, but it is also filled with many who are eager to help you and work with you to make the world a better place.

***

“Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Alice in Wonderland.

The truth is, as Lewis Carol seemed to know, we often need to believe a great many impossible things every day of our life. Doctors once thought that disease was caused by “bad air” or lack of morality – astronomers thought the Earth was the center of the universe and scientists thought heavier objects fell faster than lighter ones. Knowledge is never static, but always in a state of becoming. Once you understand that, you can begin to explore what “impossible things” you need to be believing today.

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Cultivating Your Career Reputations

11,000 Words

While we often talk about one, monolithic, Reputation – with a capital R — I believe that there are a series of reputations that make up the whole. This book will focus on the combination of reputations that make up your one, overarching, Reputation. By examining each of these reputations in detail, I hope you will find specific areas where you can improve your work, your actions and your thoughts so that your overall professional reputation grows.

Why break your Reputation down into its constituent parts? It is often said that you can’t “do” projects, you can only do the individual tasks that make up the project and achieve the desired result. The same can be said for reputation. You don’t build your reputation as a whole, you cultivate the smaller reputations that create it. Each individual action builds your reputation in unique ways and each requires some thought as to how they relate to the whole.

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Question everything

If you really want to get your thought processes moving, questioning the “truths” of our time is a great way to start. Maybe viruses and spyware are a good thing. Perhaps managing spam email isn’t the best idea. Maybe faster isn’t better. The mind reels at the possibilities. The truth is, you never know what wrongheaded ideas you might be carrying around until someone points them out. Why not discover them yourself?

Start boosting your thinking today by questioning everything. Question whether the sky is blue or the Intel Core Duo chip is really what companies need. Question whether a GUI is really an improvement over a command-line interface. Question whether technology helps or hurts society. The more sacred the idea, the more profane your thoughts should be.

The goal of this exercise is to get you thinking beyond your average, everyday thoughts. Too often, we simply accept the “truths” of life without ever wondering if they really are true anymore. It can be mind-bending, but in an incredible useful way. Imagine how doctors felt when presented with the microbial theory of disease after hundreds of years controlling the bodily “humors.” What might have astronomers been thinking when a solar-centered universe solved all the problems of how the heaven’s moved? Remember, someone once thought that 64KB would be more than enough memory for any computer.

Maybe, maybe not

There are several ways of applying the concept of “impossible” things to your work and career. Do you often hear management or your co-workers explaining, “it has to be that way” or “we’ve always done it like that.” This is a clear sign that some deeper thinking needs to be done. Is there a form that everyone hates, but can’t seem to stop using? Why? Would the company fall apart? Dig deeper. Is this form still necessary or is it only an unconscious ritual from a long gone process?

Is your company expending tens of thousands of dollars on technology that really isn’t needed? Could entire servers be replaced by a simple, new procedure? Are you trying to automate your way out of a problem when human nature is really the culprit? You may laugh, but I can imagine that every one of you has faced just such a problem in your career. As high-tech workers we often believe in the ability of technology to solve any problem. We throw hardware and software at a problem when training, hiring and firing would be a better response. Perhaps we should be questioning this concept most of all.

If you want your career to flourish, you need to engage in a little impossible thinking. Too many ideas we carry with us today are out-dated, unconscious beliefs that may have served us well in the past, but now limit our thinking, our creativity and our productivity. Be like the Red Queen and start each morning by believing a few impossible things, or, at least, thinking about them. I am sure you will find that what you might think a fanciful exercise will become one of the most important aspects of your work. The greatest leaps in human history have come from those who dare to think the impossible and then find out they were true all along. What new horizons might you discover in your life and your career?

Question of the Week: What impossible things can you believe today about your life and your career?

***

“Where can I learn about X?” “How to do I do this in Word/Excel/Powerpoint?” “Can I find out more about Y?” These are questions I hear from people almost everyday. There is a great need for learning, for education, even if the current educational system is under attack from all sides. Blame it on the bad economy and the need to re-learn, re-train, re-invigorate your career, but learning — and its more formal cousin — education have never been more important to you, your life and your career.

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Cultivating Your Career Reputations

11,000 Words

While we often talk about one, monolithic, Reputation – with a capital R — I believe that there are a series of reputations that make up the whole. This book will focus on the combination of reputations that make up your one, overarching, Reputation. By examining each of these reputations in detail, I hope you will find specific areas where you can improve your work, your actions and your thoughts so that your overall professional reputation grows.

Why break your Reputation down into its constituent parts? It is often said that you can’t “do” projects, you can only do the individual tasks that make up the project and achieve the desired result. The same can be said for reputation. You don’t build your reputation as a whole, you cultivate the smaller reputations that create it. Each individual action builds your reputation in unique ways and each requires some thought as to how they relate to the whole.

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When I talk about learning and education, I am not necessarily telling you to go back to school or college. In my own life, I see education as something I do every day in every way. In recent years, I have watched my wife return to college and achieve her Masters and Doctorate degrees. I am amazed at how much work and dedication she put into the process, but I also realized that that path was not for me.

Instead, I am a self-directed learner. I follow whatever topic strikes my interest, often going “down the rabbit hole” on a particular topic and totally immersing myself in it. This works for me. It keeps me learning and allows me to see connections between what may otherwise seem to be totally unrelated areas of knowledge. The best part, though, is that it has never been easier in the history of man to be a self-directed learner. The Internet has brought  a wealth of information directly to our homes, computers and hands. Never before have we been able to access so much information so quickly and easily.

My Method

One important method I use to engage in lifetime learning is stopping. Whenever I am confronted with a word or topic I do not know, I stop, immediately and look it up. Maybe the word bifurcation pops up in a newspaper story or I see mention of the Teapot Dome scandal in something I am reading. For me, it is important that I stop and take a moment to learn a bit more before I move on with my reading or work. It may sound like an interruption in your work or day, but this style of “just-in-time” learning has helped me greatly over the years.

A few resources

So, where do I turn when I want to learn something new? Below are a few resources to start your own journey. These are my “go to” sources whenever any topic piques my interest.

Wikipedia

I know, I know. You hear all sorts of disparaging things about Wikipedia, but the truth is that it is a great source to start your learning. Wikipedia offers an overview of nearly any particular topic or area and might even include enough detail to answer your question. Sure, the more controversial topics can be a little contentious, but for your average areas of interest, it is a great place to start.

YouTube

I often hear that the joke that “everything is on YouTube” , but in some ways this is almost true. Want to learn how to format columns in MS Word? Done. See an old silent movie that is difficult to find otherwise? Done. Want to see a lecture on DNA/RNA replication? Done! Sure, the quality may vary from video to video and you might have to search for a while until you find the exact information you are looking for, but there is a host of great information to be found there.

New Learning Sites

Lately there have been an explosion of web sites dedicated to learning. Recently I was using Khan Academey’s algebra lessons to help my son, and I have watched videos on many topics there as well. Even established colleges are getting into the act including computer science classes  and more from Stanford University and MIT. Sites like Code Academy are enticing everyone to learn a little bit about the programming that surrounds our lives today. Finally, iTunes U is back in the news after Apple’s recent announcement about electronic textbooks. Revisiting iTunes U recently, I was amazed at the breadth of content available there. It isn’t all just computer science. There are classes on creative writing, art, history and just about any topic you can imagine.

In 2012 you truly have no reason or excuse to avoid learning something new every day. Sometimes you will be learning it for your career and sometimes you will be learning just because you want to learn. Regardless of the reason, lifetime learning will continue to be one of the largest factors in your success. Keep learning. Keep growing. Keep applying what you learn and your are on a clear path to the career you deserve.

***

Two week’s ago I called for “A Year of Action!” So now, what… I am guessing that is what many of you are thinking. You understand that action is important, but you are having trouble figuring out your next (or first) step. No need to fear. I have a host of action items for you. Hopefully one or more of them will spur you into action. As you might imagine, these have been my own action items over the last several years.

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Cultivating Your Career Reputations

11,000 Words

While we often talk about one, monolithic, Reputation – with a capital R — I believe that there are a series of reputations that make up the whole. This book will focus on the combination of reputations that make up your one, overarching, Reputation. By examining each of these reputations in detail, I hope you will find specific areas where you can improve your work, your actions and your thoughts so that your overall professional reputation grows.

Why break your Reputation down into its constituent parts? It is often said that you can’t “do” projects, you can only do the individual tasks that make up the project and achieve the desired result. The same can be said for reputation. You don’t build your reputation as a whole, you cultivate the smaller reputations that create it. Each individual action builds your reputation in unique ways and each requires some thought as to how they relate to the whole.

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Start a blog

We all have something unique to say. We all have unique experiences that make us an expert in something – cooking, computing, crafting, cars. You have heard me say before that an important part of any career is telling people “what you do and how well you do it.” Guess what? A blog is the #1 best way to share that expertise with others. Using Blogger.com or WordPress.com, you can have your blog online in about 5 minutes. Then you have a place to start showing people what you have to offer. Post your special ideas, your special knowledge, your special experiences and people will find you.

Publish a book!

Write a blog long enough and you are sure to have enough content for a book.   Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing makes it easy for anyone to produce an ebook that can be read on nearly any device – Kindle, Mac, PC, Android, iPhone, iPad and more. Why not take advantage of that? Do you have a piece of writing, long or short that you would like to share with the world? Get it into the Kindle Store and then start telling your friends, family and whoever else will listen. You don’t have to charge for the book. You can give it away as a freebie to introduce your writing to people, as a reward for reading your blog or as an incentive to sign up for your mailing list. You can also just do it for the fun of it. Heck, you never know, you might even make some money at it.

Take Photographs

Ever been on a photowalk? Think of it as a hike where the object is not miles travelled, but images captured. You, your friends, or even strangers, gather somewhere and start taking pictures. This can be an urban setting or out in the country, something traditionally picturesque or gritty, it doesn’t really matter.

The goal of a photowalk is to set aside an hour or so to “see” again. Photography forces us to slow down and pay attention to what is right in front of us. The    effects of this “seeing” spill over into other aspects of our lives. It shows how we can can pay more attention to everything we do — how to be present in the moment — instead of letting our mind dance over all the coulda, woulda, shoulda, thoughts in our heads.  And you can post your photos on your new blog!

Make Music

Over the years, music has become a passive activity. We sit and listen to others make music or their recordings instead of making music ourselves. A century ago, most everyone could play an instrument, sing a song or play the spoons along with others. I think that this is something that is greatly missing in today’s world. Making music feeds our analytical mind through the skill of reading music and discovering the mathematical patterns within, but it also feeds the soul. Making music is as different from listening to music as cooking is to watching a cooking show. Find a way to play music, by yourself or, even better, with others. It can open your mind in some amazing ways.

Make Money

Money is not the root of all evil. The actual quote is “The Love of Money is the root of all evil.” Money is important, but you may be ignoring ways of making money outside your regular job. I mentioned publishing a book above, but there are other ways, too. Maybe there is a product you can make and sell on eBay or Etsy.com? How about consulting with others about an area of your expertise? Maybe you could hold a class for your co-workers or the interested parents at your child’s school. There is a host of ways to make  some money and you might even find these tasks more rewarding, both personally and financially, than your current job. It doesn’t happen for everyone, but it is a possibility worth pursuing in the new year.
These are but a few action items that can jumpstart your year. Choose one of them, or any that jumped to mind while you read or listened to this column. Remember, the point is to take action — any action — to get you moving and keep you moving towards your career and life goals. Even the smallest step can get you started.

***

As I have over the last several years, I am choosing a theme for this year. In the past I have selected the words Visibility and Leadership as my annual watchwords. This year, though, it is time for a Year of Action. If you want to build the career you deserve, it is going to require a lot of action on your part — probably more action than you have ever accomplished previously in your life. For all of us, this should make for a very exciting 2012.

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Cultivating Your Career Reputations

11,000 Words

While we often talk about one, monolithic, Reputation – with a capital R — I believe that there are a series of reputations that make up the whole. This book will focus on the combination of reputations that make up your one, overarching, Reputation. By examining each of these reputations in detail, I hope you will find specific areas where you can improve your work, your actions and your thoughts so that your overall professional reputation grows.

Why break your Reputation down into its constituent parts? It is often said that you can’t “do” projects, you can only do the individual tasks that make up the project and achieve the desired result. The same can be said for reputation. You don’t build your reputation as a whole, you cultivate the smaller reputations that create it. Each individual action builds your reputation in unique ways and each requires some thought as to how they relate to the whole.

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Why is action so important? Action breaks through the inertia that often holds us back – “objects at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force”. This inertia freezes us in place, stuck, while the world speeds by us. Even worse, it is far too easy not to take action. All we have to do is sit there and the world will gladly move around us. Still, we can break free if we take even one, small, seemingly unimportant action. This movement frees us from the mire and gives us the advantage of the other side of inertia — “objects in motion will remain in motion.” Allowing even the smallest action to get the ball rolling and get us moving again.

Am I suggesting that you act out, on anything, without thinking about it or planning it? Yes!. The fact is, over-planning, over-thinking, over-fearing are just a symptom of inertia and therefore some of our biggest enemies. It is far more likely for us to be stuck in inertia than stuck by taking too many actions. Sure, you can move into an area where you are taking too many wild actions, but I have found this to be very, very rare. More often I see people stuck by the side of the road thinking about what their next action might be.

Standing still is easy. We can find hundreds of reasons why we shouldn’t do something with very little effort. What we need, though, is the one reason FOR doing something that allows us to take action and move forward. There is another name for this syndrome — analysis paralysis. We are figuratively paralyzed by the number of choices we have or, we are too afraid to act because we never think we have enough information to make a decision. For someone like you or I, this is career death. The world will speed by us and we will find ourselves so far behind we might never catch up.

What I suggest, as I often do, is a sense of balance. Balance your actions with your planning. Taking a lot of action requires a lot of planning, too. If you balance your action with your planning you will be much less likely to get stuck. You will always have the ball rolling even if you are not exactly sure which way it is headed. This can mean that you will sometimes be acting on an idea, a hunch, a gut feeling. You might feel you haven’t planned enough. That is okay. It is often in these unplanned actions that we find our greatest triumphs. We can’t always predict where our lives and careers are headed, so throwing in a bit of randomness might just expose us to something amazing and beyond our dreams.

How do you see if you are truly stuck? One easy method is to note how much you talk about actions and compare that to how often you actually take action? The Texans have a phrase for someone who talks big but doesn’t have much to show for it — “all hat and no cattle.” These people are pretending to be cowboys without the requisite cows. If you are honest with yourself, it is pretty easy to see when you are stuck in this cycle. It is just as easy to see when you are moving out of it. Make something happen, anything, and other things will begin to happen for you. Even a small movement from you can get the world turning again in your favor, if you let it.

Finally, your worst enemy in your action battle, other than yourself, are those people around you who are stuck themselves. Writers who are stuck hate writers who are working. Artists who are stuck hate other artists who are being productive. Even worse, they will do anything to make those writers and artists as unproductive as they are. They will attack you, your work and your actions. They will spread their pessimism and try to control you. Put as much distance between them and yourself as possible. Take your actions no matter what anyone might say and carefully consider the source of demeaning and angry words. They might just be jealous that they can’t be as productive as you are.

Starting today, think of ways of taking action this year. It doesn’t matter if these actions are big, small or in-between. It is the ACT OF TAKING ACTION that is most important. Some days you will find that taking the simple action of going for a walk might be the most productive, and healthful, thing you do all day. In that small action, though, are the seeds for more action, more movement, more opportunity and more success. Embrace action and all that it can do for you this year.

***

I am writing on New Year’s Eve here in Los Angeles as celebrations of the New Year have already started in other, distant parts of the globe. We will be attending a party tonight to bring in 2011 ourselves, as will many others. One big topic of discussion at all these celebrations will be New Year’s Resolutions. The beginning of the calendar year is always a good time to reflect on the past year and plan for the next, but I want you to think about this new year in a new way. This New Year, instead of making resolutions, make action items. Instead of trying to make things happen, make them happen. To quote Yoda from the Star Wars movies, “Do, or do not. There is no try!”

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The trouble with resolutions is they are a waffling way to approach change. There is already an assumed “try” in them and I think this is what allows us to abandon them so easily. There is also a bit too much thought and too little action involved in resolutions. We think and think on what we want to accomplish, but unless we take some direct action towards our goals they will always remain dreams.

Let’s look at how we could better form some resolutions that might actually lead to change in the New Year. Here is a big one that is on many people’s lists including my own — I resolve to lose weight. While that is a fine and admirable goal, I think it would be better to create some action items towards that goal.

1. I will walk 2 miles every day
2. I will eat 1 portion at meals instead of 2
3. I will stop eating fast food as a convenience

Here are direct, actionable items that can be reviewed and monitored each and every day. Ben Franklin kept a checklist of actions he wanted to take or avoid and then reviewed them at the end of each day, noting his success or failure. I used an online tracking tool, Joe’s Goals, (http://www.joesgoals.com/) for a while and this might be a good place to start. Constant, daily review of your action items is a great way of “doing” instead of just “trying.”

One important reminder, though. Your daily review is not designed to beat you up about not achieving your action items. We all slack on occasion. Life intervenes and takes us away from our goals. Take each day as it comes. Take pride on those days you do well, but only use the bad days to remind you to do better tomorrow. Change isn’t about guilt. Change is about accomplishment. Don’t let your action items and goal tracking be another guilt-inducing, mind-weighing stress creator in your life. That is counter productive and can be worse than doing nothing at all.

So, sit down today and start creating your own action items. Remember, action is the key word here. Each item should be phrased as actively as possible. I will do…, I will NOT do. I find that phrasing things in the positive also helps. Avoid too many NOTs. They create negative thoughts that are also counterproductive to achieving your goals. Try to keep things as positive as possible. Point out the behaviors you want to achieve rather than those you want to avoid.

As we launch in to the New Year, let’s all determine to pursue our lives actively. Let’s not “try” this year, let’s “do” as much as possible. I think you will find that this mindset will help you pursue change more directly and therefore the changes will last longer than any previous year.

Sharing your action items can help, too. Post your action items as comments to the blog or on the Career Opportunities Facebook Page. Let me know what changes you are going to accomplish in 2011. I am sure everyone would be interested in hearing them and maybe adopting a few of them as their own.

Wishing you great success in building the career you deserve in 2011…now let’s get started!

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