Archives for Career Success
Innovation Gets Better With Age: Why is This So Hard To Believe?
Does a 65-year-old have significantly more innovation potential than a 25-year-old? My Generation X daughter, who sometimes must teach me a new tech shortcut twice (okay, maybe four times) would answer boldly and quickly, “No way.” Older is slower. So how could her mother possibly be better at new thinking and fresh ideas than, say, […]
Why Your Career Path Should Have No End
Life expectancy is ballooning, but really, who’s paying attention? I wasn’t, and the results were a transition that could have been better navigated. Entering my third act of life, I ended up confused in a swamp land of outdated information, no great “how-to” bestseller as a guide and social benchmarks that just didn’t fit anymore. […]
Experts Identify Extreme Workers’ Ultimate Success Tool - “Get Away from the Job”
Fast Company Magazine’s 2012 two-part series on Generation Flux was their best – intoxicating and evil at the same time - in the last five years. Robert Safian, an author and the magazine’s editor, challenged every conventional thought left in your brain about how to be a successful and survival in the present state of […]
Oh the Things You’ll Learn! Three Notable Sabbatical Books
We can learn a lot from the story line, “sabbatical idea to departure.” But, the story of what happens next provides the best information to help us to look closer at our own ideas about taking time out from work Who doesn’t want answers to these questions: Just how did those teenage daughters like being […]
The Purpose-Driven Sabbatical: New Approach to Achieve the Happy Factor
Without purpose, a sabbatical won’t make you happy. I’ve interviewed many individuals who thought all they needed to do was negotiate the time away, arrange for their work to get done, and instruct the tech department to dissolve temporary access to their email. Then, totally disconnected from work life, the grand experience of their sabbatical […]
Working Harder and Harder to Achieve Less and Less. How Ya Doin’ With That?
Driving home from a recent business dinner, I struggled to figure out just how my three smiling dinner companions processed the current business environment with such remarks as “turning the corner,” “looking better than ever,” “full of promise,” and, (the corker), “my best year ever.” All three highly educated, high achieving business owners seemed out […]
Obsessed with Goals? Might Explain Why There’s No Sabbatical in View for You
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, written by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter, outlines 20 habits to break to become even more successful. With an average of 4.5 stars from 288 Amazon readers, the book deserves your attention. The 20 habits include clinging to the past, making excuses and winning too much. Goldsmith is “corporate America’s […]
The After-Pregnant Pause: Is Calling Your Time Out a “Parent Sabbatical” Smart – or Not?
Who knew to call time out raising your kids a “parenting sabbatical”? Seems this touted option elicits opinionated responses from moms of the world. In her column yesterday for the New York Times, Overcoming a “Planned” Sabbatical, Lisa Belkin features Barbara Hannan Grufferman’s suggestions for re-entering the workforce after taking time out to have a family. Ms. […]
Attention Skills Gone to Pot: What Did You Expect From Your Connected, Crazy Life?
Thomas Metzinger, a philosopher, argues that the Internet isn’t changing the way we think, but it is attacking our finite commodity of “attention.” Feeling strongly about our “attention management,” the philosopher worries. “Attention is a finite commodity and absolutely essential to living a good life,” he laments. Given that, you and I won’t be living our […]
Name Your Sacrifices for Work Bliss
Stephen Sondheim, the “the master lyricist of our generation” 80 years old and would forgo love to write lyrics. How does a genius think? How does he approach work? As a prolific, high-achieving performer, does he ever want to stop working? Does he have a life? All the answers are in Sondheim’s new book (the first […]
The Power of Purpose and What’s Coming: A Workplace Revolution, Says Daniel Pink
Want to join a revolution that’s coming? No marches or petitions necessary. All you have to do is blow out your birthday candles and start thinking about how you can live a better life. In his latest book Drive, best-selling author Daniel Pink describes the upcoming force to be reckoned with as demographically driven. Every 13 […]
Lost Confidence in Your Drumbeat? Kid Rock Inspires
Sunday night’s American Music Award show’s performances were replete with an underlying competition for the most fire, undulating loud acoustics, vampy outfits, and creative mechanisms for suspending singers. It was repetitive and a little boring until the curtain went up and three men seated on stools with a backlit stage simply did their thing. Dressed in jeans […]
Was Our Trip Career Suicide?
Let me be clear, I do not think that this is the case at all, but now that we are back in Philly, in the midst of a full-time job search, during the worst recession of our lives, the market (employers and clients) have yet to make a definitive call on the matter. So I […]
Google’s Response to its Brain Drain. And What Will Your Employer Do?
Last week’s news about Google fighting off Facebook and other fast-growing internet firms in the war for talent is a glimpse into the future as well as a substantial morale lift if you’re feeling stuck or looking for a brighter future. Now hear this! You really can get a job somewhere else - if not […]
When Love for Your Career is Dying
Often the best outcome of the sabbatical experience is returning to your job uplifted, energized and recommitted. At the core of this payoff is re-discovering true passion. For it is passion that fuels creativity and energy, propelling us forward with a sense of purpose and self-identity. Admitting we have lost passion for our work isn’t […]
Five Easy Steps to Wreck Your Life
Wrecking one’s life isn’t all that difficult. Coaching sessions with top-notch executives – talented, smart and good at what they do - reveal an extraordinary gift for giving momentum to the wrecking ball of life. But once in a while, a leader has a come-to-Jesus meeting … with himself or herself (and perhaps a coach) to […]
The Rules of Woo: Wow Customers, Create Success and Live the Life You Want
Aspiring, newly minted and experienced entrepreneurs rejoice! This week I happily devoured a second smart and engaging book to help us lead the life we want. In my last post, I ditched Tony Robbins for Chris Guillebeau. (That was so easy!) Gurgling about the inspirational messages in Guillebeau’s book, “The ART of Non-Conformity: Set Your, Own Rules, Live the Life You Want and […]
Becoming Remarkable: Follow Chris Guillebeau - At Any Age
AARP would do well to pay Chris Guillebeau big bucks to be a spokesperson for their 50-something crowd. Chris won’t be eligible to join AARP for about 20 years, but so what? His writing is sharp, his message has guts, and his passion is contagious. Chris Guillebeau has strong opinions about life, work and travel. […]
Difference Between People Happy in Life and Those Unhappy? Advice From a Super Smart Shrink
Presented as “deep thoughts” for 2010 graduates who are poised to make decisions and take action about their lives, this conversation between CBS Sunday Morning contributor Ben Stein and his shrink is astounding and crystal clear. No matter what date is on your diploma, read it. It could change the direction of your life. Ben Stein’s segment […]
Multitudes Sing “Take This Job and Shove It.” Then What?
Johnny Paycheck’s 1977 hit went platinum. Don’t know what tune you’re humming, but the research tells us that Paycheck’s song is on the lips of many: Better not try to stand in my way, As I’m walking out the door. Take this job and shove it. I ain’t working here no more. In February, the number of […]
Eat, Pray, Love and Julia: Her Teeth and Her Perpetual Happiness
Julia Roberts grew up in Smyrna, Georgia. Since I was part of the school system that raised her (I was a middle school counselor for 10 years), I can say that she never knew a moneyed lifestyle. There was no affluent side of Smyrna at that time (and I don’t think there is now.) Watching […]