Career Makeover Wednesdays: Daycare Duty to Writer Extraordinaire

Love it. Love it. LOVE it!

Gina is starting to talk to other people in her profession (helloooo, networking) and is enjoying a positive response, not to mention building a supportive community that will pay dividends as she continues to fine tune her business. Also huge is the fact that Gina put down, on paper, where she can see it, a list of what she is good at. If you haven’t tried it, this truly is an amazing exercise, especially when stuck at a crossroads in your career, in life, or in Gina’s case, starting a new business.

Worries? Low confidence? Doubts? Thoughts of “Am I really cut out to do this?” All of these thoughts are totally, TOTALLY normal during times of change. However, the trick is to not dwell on what you might NOT accomplish, what bad things MIGHT happen, and what failures COULD lie ahead.

Instead, the trick is to change your thinking.

A great way to start is with the post-it note exercise: putting down on paper what you are good at, why you are valuable, what makes you unique, what you CAN do, etc. etc. Keeping this in front of you on a daily basis is even more powerful, for as your brain absorbs those words day after day….lo and behold you start changing how you act- and changing what travels through your brain.

Now that Gina has sampled different types of client projects (and different types of clients) and has gathered more information from professionals who have built careers in her desired field, Gina and I have begun preliminary conversations about the type of work she wants to focus on in order to fulfill an even greater goal when it comes to her new business: following her passion and writing about the subject matter she cares about most.

As an example, Gina was recently nominated as a Role Model and Virtual Mentor for Women and Girls from the Hot Mommas Project (www.hotmammasproject.org). Interestingly, Gina’s research on a client project led her to interviewing the "Chief Hot Momma" of this project, Kathy Korman Frey, at which point Kathy began following Gina on Twitter. When Kathy read about Gina’s career reinvention on www.trueprofessions.blogspot.com, she nominated Gina!

What was Gina’s response? Well, let’s use her exact words “Let me tell you, Ellen, when you ask what I want my career to look like, this is exactly it - to inspire others through the things I have learned and am doing. It is thrilling to me that I get the chance to do this!”

Wow- what can be better than that?

Career Makeover Wednesdays: Daycare Duty to Writer Extraordinaire

While Gina catches up on her workload - and her action items! - after handling a recent family emergency, I thought I would give some general pointers on goal setting.

Set SMART goals. Most of us know this acronym. Goals must be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Timely

If we don't set goals we can achieve in a reasonable time frame and enjoy not only the feeling of success that comes with meeting a goal but also the process of getting there, we are doomed to fail. Starting a business? Looking for a job? Longing to change careers? All three require careful thought and planning. Without a compass, we can't start our journey let alone reach our destination.

The surest way to meeting your established goal is...consistency. Let's take weight loss. If you've ever been on a diet, you know you have good days and bad days. Consistently following a reduced calorie menu, tracking your weight loss, and making adjustments when you reach plateaus are all part of the process in reaching your goal. It's the same thing with any goal you set for yourself: consistency is key. So in Gina's case, getting back into the swing of things after her family emergency and sharing the realizations that came from her time away from work are important ingredients to her continued success.

Revisit your goals and make adjustments. While starting out with SMART goals is a must, you also have to be flexible - and kind to yourself - along the way. Sometimes opportunities come our way that we didn't expect, or, life interrupts our plans. Perhaps you want to try out something new with your business that you hadn't thought of initially, or, an unexpected job opportunity comes knocking on your door that you hadn't considered. Making adjustments and course corrections when required are important.

While we wait to hear from Gina next week about her success with completing her action items along with the the dual challenge of catching up on client work, take some time to visit YOUR goals. Do you have clear goals? Do you have trouble sticking to your goals? What is holding you back from reaching your goals?

If you need help with goal setting, or, you would like more information on our training programs around goal setting, contact us at trueprofessions@gmail.com. We'd love to help!

Positive Psychology and Your Career

A week ago I started watching "This Emotional Life" on PBS. http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/. It included footage with celebrities discussing what makes them happy, studies with Buddhist monks to help further science by learning what happens to the brain during meditation and how we can retrain our brains (fascinating!!) to improve our health, and it also included an interesting segment on a man who had recently lost his job.

This part was interesting to me for many reasons: Bill took care of his infant son during the day while combing the internet and making calls. He was noticeably deterred and unhappy about the course his life had suddenly taken in terms of his job loss, and he was receiving assistance from a Positive Psychology Coach who had graduated from The University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Program http://www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/graduate/mapp.

While he clearly enjoyed being with his son, Bill spoke negatively about his situation, and seemed stressed and stuck much of the time they captured him on film. The coach's role was to not find work for him, review his resume, or teach him how to network more effectively, but rather she seemed to provide him with a different framework for how to live his life. A more positive one.

Bill's coach had him participate in an exercise that I thought I would share since it is one I often pass along to clients and friends and have used myself:

• Write down three things each day that went well, and list the reasons why they went well. You can also think of this as a gratitude list: jotting down three reasons each day why you are grateful. I suggest reviewing the things that went well at the end of every day as well as the beginning of each day, especially as they accumulate. And watch what happens.

Want to skip the waiting part? Here is an example from my past: I have participated in this exercise during both a career transition that took me several years to figure out, and during a very frustrating job search. It seemed each day was filled with uncertainty about where I would end up, from waiting by the phone for a recruiter to call me back to not knowing how in the world to get out of a career I did not find fulfilling. Throughout these two life experiences I learned to focus on the daily things that went WELL, since things like waiting and wanting someone to call me back were out of my control.

Bottom line: once I started to concentrate and reflect on the good things that happened during my day, I slowly noticed a shift in what I focused on and my days and my life - my livelihood even- became less overwhelming and the unknown became less anxiety-provoking, and a little more comfortable.

So go ahead- decide to be positive. I promise it will change how you think! Want more information on your personal strengths and happiness levels? Go to http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/questionnaires.aspx and get interesting and FREE information about YOU!

Pep Thoughts: Psyching Yourself Up

1. You may be in a job-searching rut.
2. You may be a clock watcher; wishing for the end of each day, intensely disliking your job, your boss, or both.
3. You may be taking on something new to further the career you already have or to move your career in a new direction (e.g. volunteering for more responsibilities so as to secure a promotion, joining a Toastmasters club to improve your public speaking skills, freelancing in order to change careers, or starting a new business)

What is the common denominator among all 3 scenarios?

While there is surely more than just one, I would like to bring fear into the light:

1. Fear stops us from hanging in there and keeping our eyes on the prize when jobs are hard to find or interviews keep slipping through our hands.
2. Fear stops us from embarking on the tough journey of self-discovery that leads to discovering what our true life calling is.
3. Fear can stop us from feeling confident in our talents and abilities when it counts, especially when we are trying something new that is out of our comfort zone.

Time for some "Pep Thoughts". What are they? Think someone giving you a pep talk but doing-it-yourself when fear shows its face. Here's how to fashion your own:

• Think of someone whose opinion you value tremendously. Someone who always gives you good advice. What would he/she say to you if you talked about the desperation that often comes with job hunting? Or the daunting journey of finding a new career? Or, when you are shaking in your boots trying to start a new business?


• Write down what this person would say. Then, add to it. You know yourself best. What do you need to remind yourself of when it comes to your talents? You know what you are good at. Now is the time to revisit that resume and remember all your accomplishments. If you're not happy with your resume, email us at trueprofessions@gmail.com and we will help you feel proud of it.


• Summarize these thoughts, whether in bullet point fashion or put it into a lengthier document. Whatever works.


• Put this in your wallet, paste it to the wall above your computer, put it in a desk drawer where you can easily access it every day, make it the first document you open when you turn on your computer....YOU GET THE DRIFT! The point is: look at it. And look at at it often.

The more you deliberately visit these "Pep Thoughts", the more ingrained they will become and the more they will help you psych yourself up to send out one more resume...take a career assessment to evaluate new careers....or simply go for it.

It's like that old saying "practice makes perfect". You have to do just that: practice. Practice thinking those thoughts but better yet, practice believing in yourself and all that you are capable of, casting nerves, frustration, and stress aside.

Remember that we all need someone on our side to help motivate us - why not let that be YOU?