Daisy Swan, now a contributor to Find Bliss Magazine! Read her article in the June 2013 issue, here… Believe in yourself to light the spark of excitement “There is no scientific answer for success. You can’t define it. You’ve simply got to live it and do it.” Anita Roddick, Founder, The Body Shop Lately, when I first open my eyes in the morning, I remember what day it is, and do a quick mental scan of what I have planned. Then, as I’m enjoying those final moments with my pillow and quilt, I feel the simultaneous pull of excitement to enter my day. by Daisy Swan Taking that action to step into the day isn’t always easy; it doesn’t always seem so inviting that we leap into it with a burning desire to make something of it. I’ve had mornings when, lacking in energy, I didn’t believe… Read More
Job Search
Stretching That Creativity Muscle
Guest Contributor for My L.A. Lifestyle Angelenos are a creative bunch, on the whole. We tend to be people who are a little daring — hard workers who like to play hard, too. And yet, I hear from clients all the time that they would like to have more creativity in their lives. Many of these people are suffering from an abundance of familiarity. Stretching ourselves to experience something new, creative, and visually beautiful…now that can really expand our being. I recently stretched myself by attending my first glass blowing class at Revolution Glass in El Segundo. I love the medium of glass and have a large collection of glass paperweights, so I was thrilled when I was given this class as a gift. Josh Gelfand, who owns, teaches, and creates at Revolution Glass, offers classes in glass blowing as well as studio time for… Read More
A Lesson from The Suns
Steve Nash has been an inspiration to me since the first time I saw him play, live, at the Staples Center years ago. I recently read a great article about him in Sports Illustrated. What struck me was Stoudemire’s statement here about how success on the court manifests — through creative vision and seeing. “When you have creative minds, you get involved in different sports, in different cultures, and it allows you to open up on the basketball court and just be yourself. Steve’s a heck of a soccer player. He’s one of those skateboard guys. For the most part, you want to be yourself. Being yourself allows you to play better, to have more fun. It opens up your spirit.” Take a moment to assess how open you are to what’s going on around you. What energy are you leaving on the table? How engaged are you in a… Read More
What's Fun Got to Do With It?
This past weekend I had the good fortune to attend an independently organized TED (Technology Entertainment Design) event in Manhattan Beach. TED is all about Ideas Worth Spreading; you can find more about this at TED.com. While I learned so much during this one day event, I’ve found myself talking about a particular presentation about play and fun and see how this ‘plays’ out in work – mine, my clients’, and my 13 year old son’s.
Michael Shore, VP of Worldwide Consumer Insights at Mattel Inc. presented valuable research about what fun means to a wide cross section of kids, summarizing this with 10 Expressions of Fun. I’ve been measuring my sense of fun against these. And, after presenting this list to my video playing obsessed son, understand more about what he gets from these games, and appreciate more what we’re all really after. In fact, fun is absolutely key to a satisfying career. Check yourself against these 10 Expressions of Fun. How much are these a part of your work and life?
Key to securing jobs in growing fields
Landing a Job of the Future Takes a Two-Track Mind Career Experts Say Positions in Growing Fields Will Require an In-Demand Degree Coupled With Skills in Emerging Trends By DIANA MIDDLETON If you’re gearing up for a job search now as an undergraduate or returning student, there are several bright spots where new jobs and promising career paths are expected to emerge in the next few years. Technology, health care and education will continue to be hot job sectors, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ outlook for job growth between 2008 and 2018. But those and other fields will yield new opportunities, and even some tried-and-true fields will bring some new jobs that will combine a variety of skill sets. The degrees employers say they’ll most look for include finance, engineering and computer science, says Andrea Koncz, employment-information manager at the National Association of Colleges and Employers. But to… Read More
An Email Exchange about Leadership
Last night I received this email. You’ll see my response below. I’d welcome comments. I suppose that what I’m about to ask you for is not your main area of expertise, but I’m going to ask anyway (as a starting point, if nothing else). Lately, I have been through much searching for answers regarding my life and work. Ultimately, I have come to the conclusion that the best first step for me to take would be finding the right company to work for. Toward that goal, I wonder if you can direct me to resources, ways, places or people who know more about companies’ cultures than just what they tell prospective investors? As a pointer, let me say that I currently work for a company whose ownership and management is arrogant, greedy, selfish, malicious, culturally limited, closed-minded, and would rather employ and promote their cronies who do barely-passable work than… Read More
Job Search Success: How They Did It
I’ve been collecting stories from clients and others to share how people are landing jobs even during these difficult days. We’ll keep updating this as they come in. “I feel really alive” Just wanted to check in and let you know how I am doing. School is fantastic! I am only about 7 weeks into the program and I love it. We are learning a lot of medical assisting techniques and information, and then on to the radiology portion of the program. I can give all kinds of injections and even draw blood already. I am going to try to pass the phlebotomy test for my license, and then I can start working in the medical field right away. I have never even said this before, but I love my life. Everything is very chaotic with school every day and then working in the afternoons, and then studying at night,… Read More
Ethically Right?
Knight Kiplinger of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance was queried in the October issue about the decision of a guy who accepted a job offer, was trained and became part of his team, only to quit when he received a better, higher paying job offer a month into his new job. Kiplinger said this was unethical and that the fellow should have told the company who offered him the higher paying ‘dream job’ that he was honored but unable to accept the position because he had started in his new job already. I’m curious what readers, both job seekers and those who have or do hire candidates, would think and do in this situation given the economic situation of the day. Hiring is a tricky business. Sometimes hiring managers aren’t able to move as quickly as they want to and a candidate ‘gets away’ before they can make their offer. This leaves… Read More
Is it time for you to be fired? Laid off?
More than one of my clients needs to be fired. OK, maybe just laid off. That would be ideal. One of my clients has been wanting to make a change in his life for years actually, but he’s so loyal to his employer that he just can’t seem to leave. We haven’t been working together on this for years — he’s come back to me a few times almost ready. Now there are so many good reasons to leave; he’s ready for more challenge, ready to develop new colleagues, get a different perspective on the world, more money would be fine but not necessary. Sometimes it’s just time to grow and learn more about everything. Now we’re laughing because there’s the possibility that he’ll be let go. And the fire under him would be lit and the energy ignited for change. I’m reading Po Bronson’s book, What Should I Do… Read More
Your Stimulus Plan
Wow. This has been some ride lately. If you’re reading this you may be looking for ways to cope with having been laid off, downsized, right sized, wrong sized, fired, or worried about all of the above happening to you. You may also be thinking ahead and trying to come up with proactive ways to approach your next moves in your career — Your Stimulus Plan. I’m with our President — we will recover from this chaos and more and new opportunities will appear. What does that statement do to you when you read that? Take a moment to notice. Are you skeptical? Too anxious and impatient to take a breath? Or do you brighten just a tiny bit? Any of these reactions will inform you of how your beliefs are affecting your actions, and therefore your outcomes. My previous post was about not engaging in job search… Read More
