Tag Archives: Career

“Be Honest In The Little Things”

Posted on by

0

“Be honest in the little things. Don’t cheat on your expense reports. Pay Social Security taxes on your nanny.”

I got this advice on my first day of law school, in my first class (Civil Procedure, or Civ Pro), from my first professor (Kent Syverud, now dean of Washington University Law School). This was August of 1990, several years before Zoe Baird withdrew as President Clinton’s nominee for attorney general after it was revealed that she failed to pay Social Security taxes on her nanny and chauffer.

The topic of honesty isn’t on the syllabus for Civ Pro. But as Professor Syverud told us that day, we’ll all be given chances to cheat, and if we practice honesty in the little things, chances are we won’t find ourselves being dishonest in the big things. And because every law student is required to take Civ Pro, he used his class to make sure we all heard that message in a setting that we’d remember.

Every time I fill out an expense report, Professor Syverud’s words come back to me. His message echoed in my mind again this week when two more multi-million dollar financial frauds and potential suicides (Russ Wasendorf of Peregrine Financial, and Aubrey Lee Price of Montgomery Bank & Trust) were revealed. How does anyone justify stealing from people who trust them, or live with themselves knowing that they’ve stolen millions of dollars from their clients?

I can’t say for sure, but my guess is that they started by being dishonest in the little things, and it grew from there. Maybe they never had a Professor Syverud in their lives. I feel very lucky that I did.

Path to Purpose Part 3: Execution

Posted on by

1

In Parts 1 and 2, we were inspired to take the path to purpose and we explored to find at least one target field to pursue. Now it’s time to execute our plan for continuing down the path. This is where the rubber hits the road, and many people sadly let their dreams fade away, sidelined by excuses and fears.

But not us! Pamela Mitchell is back to provide some much-needed guidance through her book, The Ten Laws of Career Reinvention. Here are three of those laws that will help in the execution stage of the path to purpose.

Law 5: You’ve Got the Tools in Your Toolbox

One myth of career reinvention is that our previous careers were a waste of time and effort. You’ll be happy to learn that, in reality, your current skills are portable to your new field. They simply need to be repurposed:

“Repurposing your old skills – identifying the ones you used in your old field and converting them for use in a new career – is part of the definition of reinvention. It sums up the basic strategy that will help you thrive in this era: Reinventors continually use the tools that are already in their toolbox in creative new ways to build and broaden opportunities.”

Make a list of your current duties and responsibilities, and those from prior jobs, and of your job successes. If you do volunteer work, include that also. Then break down your duties and successes into the skills it takes to perform them:

“If you’re thinking about what you’ve done only in terms of job function, your toolbox for reinvention will look pretty empty. When you start thinking about what you’ve done in terms of the skills it took to perform the tasks, you’ll see that you have plenty of tools at your disposal to help build a bridge to a new career.”

Once you’ve listed your skills, find out which ones are valued in your target field and compare them with what’s in your toolbox. For me, skills from my very first career (teaching) and volunteer work turned out to be key. Look at job listings in your area of interest and see what skills are prioritized:

“There will also be times when you analyze the tools in your toolbox and realize that you do need to add a few more. This usually happens when the case you make isn’t quite strong enough to convince your target to give you a shot. Now you will need to go a step further and gain experience or learn something new that adds another skill to your toolbox.”

New skills can be gained in a variety of ways. Online courses abound these days, including the New York Times Knowledge Network (which is how I learned about blogging). Volunteering in your target field is another great way to pick up the new tools you need (which is what I’m doing to pick up some additional skills that I’ll need for my Peace Corps assignment).

Law 8: They Won’t “Get” You Until You Speak Their Language

When your path to purpose involves moving into a new industry, it’s critical to learn the “language” that’s spoken there and reframe your background accordingly:

“This Law – learning to speak the language so that those in your new career understand you – is at the heart of the reinvention process. Don’t underestimate its importance. Since you are the one who wants a shot at something new, it’s up to you to be bilingual and help others understand what you have to offer.”

In Law 7, Mitchell explains the crucial step of meeting and talking with people in your prospective new field or, as she calls it, “speaking to a native.” There are plenty of resources for that these days, including Twitter, blogs and Google. (Hey, if semi-Amish me can do these things, anyone can.) Taking these steps allows you to learn not only the language but also the culture of your chosen field:

“Tossing off an impressive phrase or two won’t cut it. The Natives in your new career will immediately see through that ruse, because speaking a language is also about understanding the unspoken nuances associated with that world. It’s these nuances that help build rapport and solidify relationships; that help you ‘fit.’”

Once you know what skills are needed in your target field and you’ve learned to speak their language, it’s time to “redraft your resume or bio, describing your skills, talents, background, and accomplishments in the language of the new industry.” Mitchell’s book provides solid suggestions for converting a typical resumé into a Reinvention Resumé.

Law 9: It Takes The Time That It Takes

At the inspiration stage, T.D. Jakes cautioned against impatience on the path to purpose. Mitchell reminds us of this again during the execution stage:

“Reinvention takes the time it takes. Like trying to harvest a garden four weeks after planting the seeds, or inducing birth five months after conception instead of the usual nine, forcing an artificial timeline on a natural process courts disaster.”

Because the journey down the path to purpose isn’t an overnight trip, Mitchell advises building up a Reinvention Fund. That might mean, like it does for me, staying in your current job, downsizing and saving as much money as possible while taking steps on the side toward your new career. On many a morning, the only thing that gets me to work is knowing that it’s the source of cash for my Reinvention Fund.

To keep the momentum going, Mitchell suggests creating a list of tasks we can perform to help us move into our target field:

“Like most tactical plans, it begins with goals; I recommend setting monthly ones that are practical, realistic, and doable…. Don’t try to tackle the ‘big picture’ every day (e.g., goal for today: reinventing my career) – you’ll feel overwhelmed. Instead, pace yourself (e.g., goal for today: I’ll make three phone calls, write two letters, and find a new industry newsletter to read). Settiing smaller objectives will increase your chance of completing them.”

Put The Big Rocks In First

Once you’ve created your tactical plan, an indispensable resource for moving through your “to do” list in an effective fashion is Steven Covey’s book, First Things First. Here are some of the key lessons I gleaned from its pages:

  • Focus first on the most important tasks that can have the greatest positive impact. These are the “big rocks” that won’t fit in the jar of your life unless you put them in first, before you fill it up with smaller rocks and pebbles. A recent “big rock” for me was selling my condo. Not only did it increase my Reinvention Fund, but it gave me the financial freedom to pursue being a Peace Corps volunteer.
  • What are the smaller rocks and pebbles? Things that are far less important, or not really important at all. They may seem “urgent” at the time but don’t substitute the artificial high of an urgency or “busy-ness” fix keep you from the deep satisfaction of achieving a task or goal that truly matters. I nearly let a small rock (a previously scheduled home-service appointment) get in the way of a big rock (my first Peace Corps interview). Thanks to Covey, I knew the big rock had to go in first, so I called the small rock (i.e., the service provider) and rescheduled.
  • As you focus on a particular goal, be willing to suffer short-term imbalances in other areas of your life when your inner wisdom suggests that it’s necessary. For me, that means less time to work out and hang out with friends as I deal with moving and the Peace Corps process. I know I’ll rebalance soon and the temporary sacrifice is well worth it.

Finally, we have to be willing to revise our execution plans as things unfold, and let go of our attachment to a particular outcome. Case in point: When I was transitioning from law-firm practice to an in-house career, I set my sights on a particular job and was crushed when I didn’t get it. The employer? Lehman Brothers.

Like Katy Perry sings in “Firework”: “Maybe you’re reason why all the doors are closed, so you could open one that leads you to the perfect road.” If we follow our purpose and do the hard work to move down that perfect road, we will end up where we’re meant to go, even if the destination is different than we planned.

Path to Purpose Part 2: Exploration

Posted on by

3

Now that T.D. Jakes has provided inspiration, it’s time to do some exploration to find our passion and purpose and begin moving toward it. Pursuing life’s purpose may require reinventing ourselves – either a little or a lot – which can be done at any age and any stage of our careers. I’m doing it on the cusp of 50, more than 20 years into my career as a lawyer. That’s not to say it’s easy. Nothing worthwhile is. The key is to invest the time and energy necessary to develop a good reinvention plan. Pamela Mitchell can help.

In The Ten Laws of Career Reinvention, Mitchell provides strategies for exploring and navigating the full arc of career change between different fields. Mitchell developed her expertise in career reinvention through the school of hard knocks. She started working on Wall Street but quit when she realized she was bored to tears:

“The white shirts were blinding me, the cigar smoke was choking me, and the conversation was boring me. Enough with basis points. I wanted to talk about something else for a change.

(Could’ve written those sentences myself!) Mitchell transitioned to a successful, 15-year career in the entertainment industry before giving that up to become a life coach and launch The Reinvention Institute.

The Ten Laws of Career Reinvention “is about using vision and creative thinking to repurpose your skills and find new outlets for your abilities without having to depend on the job listings du jour.” The book is divided into ten lessons, with in-depth profiles of people who reinvented themselves in a new career, together with concrete advice and exercises to put each law into action. Here are three laws from Mitchell’s book that are part of the exploration stage.

Law 1: It Starts With A Vision For Your Life

Mitchell explains that you need a clear image of your desired life first, and you can then calculate backward to design career options that will deliver that life:

“Career reinvention starts with a vision for your life because careers and jobs are delivery devices for the kind of life you hope to lead. They are a conduit for becoming the kind of person you want to be, experiencing the things you want to experience, having the things you want to have. Happiness in your career is directly tied to how much your work brings richness to your world. In order to be truly happy, your career must serve your life, and not vice versa.”

I like how Stephen Covey describes the power of vision in his book, First Things First:

“Vision is the best manifestation of creative imagination and the primary motivation of human action. It’s the ability to see beyond our present reality, to create, to invent what does not yet exist, to become what we not yet are. It gives us the capacity to live out of our imagination instead of our memory.”

Creating a vision for your life is a critical step on the path to purpose. A fun online tool for creating your vision is Pinterest, a website that lets you create multiple virtual mood boards and “pin” images to them from across the Web. My vision took shape on a large white poster board from Target (after a particularly bad encounter with “Dragon Lady” at work). On side one, I wrote the elements of the kind of life I wanted to lead. On side two, I wrote action steps to take in the coming months to move toward that life. It sounds simple, but its effects have been profound. On my worst days, I tap into the vision I created and it pulls me forward.

Mitchell provides exercises to brainstorm career ideas and get your creative juices flowing, such as focusing on “flow” activities (things that make you lose track of time), “inexhaustible interests” (things that spark an unending sense of curiosity), and tasks you gravitate toward in your current career. She also emphasizes the importance of allowing yourself to change and go after your passion and purpose, giving yourself “a permission slip to pursue a different and bigger life.”

Law 3: Progress Begins When You Stop Making Excuses

People generate an endless stream of excuses to avoid the effort and risk of pursuing their life’s purpose:

“It’s simple, really. Excuses are a manifestation of fear. There are few guarantees in your reinvention journey, but this I promise you: You will come face-to-face on a regular basis with fear. …. Fear is a healthy sign that you are venturing beyond your comfort zone, which you must do repeatedly if you want to move closer to your goal.”

“Many people never muster the courage to begin a career reinvention, so deep is their terror. They continually reach for the bottle of excuses to dull the pain of their fear. But until you master this Law and break yourself of the excuse habit, progress will be intermittent, and lasting change will be elusive. The moment you move past your fear and give up your excuses, you leave the shadows of your life and swim into an ocean of opportunity.”

Mitchell supplies strategies and exercises to help us release our excuses, to feel the fear and pursue our reinvention anyway. The “excuses” I had to release center around the false belief that I should focus on provision (i.e., money) rather than purpose. It’s taken me a few years to realize that an expensive home and closets full of purses and shoes don’t mean much without a purpose-driven life..

Law 4: What You Seek Is On The Road Less Traveled

Once you’ve created your life’s vision, faced your fears and stopped making excuses, you’re ready to choose which paths to explore. As Mitchell emphasizes, it’s critical to think outside of the box and try something new, your own road less traveled:

“The old thinking was that the well-traveled path had to be ‘right’ and the alternatives were necessarily riskier. This no longer holds true. In practice, what you’ll usually find on the road less traveled is simply more opportunity. The less obvious path – in addition to possibly being a better fit – forces you to think outside the box and therefore generate new ideas.”

“Force yourself to look at and think about other careers that are far outside the ‘safe’ confines of your current box. Imagine what you might do elsewhere, in other environments or scenarios, just for the fun of it. If you’re in finance, visualize yourself running a wellness center; if you’re a lawyer, imagine yourself as a chef. The point of this mental exercise is to force you to look at connections in a new way, stimulating your creativity.”

Mitchell offers suggestions for identifying and exploring unobvious career options, and for guarding against voices (inside your own head or from friends and family) that want you to stay inside the box where they’re comfortable seeing you. For me, journaling has been another way to contemplate unique career options and to deal with the voices that whisper, “Stay in the box. It’s safe in there.” The more time we spend beyond our usual boundaries, the more new opportunities will open up to us.

Exploring Entrepreneurship

If your passion and purpose might involve having your own business, your exploration should also include The Entrepreneur Equation, by Carol Roth. This book lives up to its promises to help readers:

  • Understand what’s truly involved in running a business.
  • Define what a business is (as well as a “jobbie” and “job-business”) and the risks and benefits of each.
  • Evaluate your motivations behind your drive to start a business.
  • Assess if now is the right time to think about starting a business based on your finances, experience, obligations and other circumstances.
  • Gauge if your personality is well-suited for business ownership.
  • Measure potential risks and rewards of particular business opportunities and entrepreneurship in general.
  • Decide, based on these factors, if you should move forward with entrepreneurship or pursue a different possibility.

The Entrepreneur Equation and The Ten Laws of Career Reinvention have proven to be invaluable tools in the exploration phase of my career reinvention, and I hope they can serve that role for you as well. In Part 3 of Path to Purpose, we’ll move forward from inspiration and exploration to the execution stage of living life on purpose.

Lost and Found

Posted on by

2

This week, as I sort through and pack up my belongings to move to a smaller place, two things are happening: (1) I’m shedding boxes and bags full of stuff that’s no longer me (why in the world did I accumulate so many things relating to shoes??); and (2) I’m finding old beloved things that I had forgotten all about (so THAT’S where I put the watch my dad got when he retired!), and I’m bringing them back into my life. I’ve also been following T.D. Jakes’ advice to “move into a new room” that makes me “dream again, think again, read again, learn again, a room with people who make deposits and not just withdrawals in your life.” Part of moving into that new room is doing this blog. I’ve encountered some very kind and helpful people in this new room, including Kate MacNicol, who recently reminded me that I should be reading Writer’s Digest.

Writer’s Digest used to be a regular part of my life when I was working on my Masters in Editing and Publishing at the University of Cincinnati, back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth. (OK, there were no dinosaurs, but there were no iPhones or Kindles either.) I lost that part of me when I went to law school, like a cozy sweater I put in a storage box and lost track of. By directing me back to Writer’s Digest, Kate helped me remember how much I enjoyed focusing on the writing profession before I got sucked into the black hole of lawyerdom. Finding that part of me again feels pretty wonderful. So thanks, Kate, for being a rainbow in my moving clouds this week!

If you’re also in the midst of moving into a new room, keep at it! Your efforts will pay off if, like T.D. Jakes advises, you take baby steps, wait for the payback, and have courage to take risks. And if you see a chance to help someone who’s moving into the room where you already reside (like Kate did for me this week), seize the opportunity to be a rainbow in their clouds….

Path to Purpose Part 1: Inspiration

Posted on by

2

Finding and fulfilling your purpose — some might call it dharma — is what life is all about. Yet many people never find the path to purpose, or they get lost along the way, sidetracked by other things, or frozen in place by fear. This is part one of a three-part series, inspired by my dad, about the people and resources I’ve found to be excellent companions to get and keep you on the path to purpose. Part 1 is inspiration, followed by exploration, and finally execution.

As a German-Polish, recovering-Catholic Midwestian, I never expected an evangelistic southern preacher to inspire me to do the hard work necessary to fulfill my purpose in life. I basically equated the phrase “evangelical preacher” with Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, not exactly inspirational. And yet, that’s exactly what T.D. Jakes did through his appearances on Oprah Winfrey’s Life Class and Next Chapter, and his book called Reposition Yourself: Living Life Without Limits.

T.D. Jakes on Life Class

Jakes is pastor of The Potter’s House, a “mega church” in Dallas, Texas. While his talks are based on Bible stories, his messages resonate with all human beings, regardless of religious beliefs. Everyone will take something different away from listening to him speak. Here are the valuable messages I gained from listening to Jakes on Life Class:

  • If you’re not living your life on purpose, you’re just wasting time. (Guilty as charged.)
  • Passion and purpose are partners. (I hadn’t felt either as a driver in my life for quite some time.)
  • There’s nothing worse than working in an area where you have no passion, even if you have talent in that area. Talent and passion/purpose are not the same things. (Aha! I have talent for my current job, but no passion.)
  • If you’re the person in the room that everyone goes to for answers, it’s time to move into a new room! Go into a room that makes you dream again, think again, read again, learn again,  a room with people who make deposits and not just withdrawals in your life. (Definitely time for me to move into a new room.)
  • Move into the territory where you have passion, even if you’re not sure exactly what you want to do there. Do something you’ve never done before. Put yourself in an environment that’s conducive to where you want to go. (This is what I’ve started doing, and I can’t tell you how good and right it feels, like being born again.)
  • You may need to take baby steps, and wait for the payback. Don’t be impatient. (Still working on this one. Patience isn’t my strong suit.)
  • To live on purpose, you have to fully invest, and have courage to take risks. (So true!  Without courage to change, we can be stuck in the dreadful no-passion zone for life.)

Jakes on Repositioning Yourself

After watching Jakes on Life Class, I read his book called Reposition Yourself. One of the stories he writes about is that of  Jesus instructing Peter – after a long, hard and unsuccessful night of fishing – to go into more dangerous, deeper waters and try again. If my Catholic priest would’ve explained Bible stories like this, I would’ve gone to church every day and twice on Sundays:

“It’s interesting that Jesus tells Peter to ‘put out into deep water’ as if perhaps he has been casting in the shallows. Sometimes it’s easy for us to stay in the safety of shallow water, splashing and casting, wading and wandering around, without ever risking deeper water. We stay in our current position rather than asking for a promotion or applying elsewhere. We resign ourselves to our present relationship even after it’s clear to both parties that it’s going nowhere. The shallow water feels so much safer – we can both see and touch the bottom of the pool. But this apparent security also imposes limitations and keeps us moored in the safe harbor. Just as in Peter’s case, we often have to discover the hard way that the deeper water holds the fish!”

As Jakes explains, to get out into the deeper water and find the fish, you need the right crew on your boat:

“I challenge you to begin to design an environment that is conducive to where you are going. Most of us are stuck because we live in an environment that is based on where we have been. We may even cling to places from the past and ‘retro’ relationships that retard our progress. A healthy environment must include people who will support and encourage you, challenge and stimulate you. …. Do you have the right people around you for where you are going? Identify those who are navigationally right for you and build those relationships.”

Even if you’re monetarily successful, you can’t let that hold you back from going into the deep waters to pursue your purpose:

“Are you willing to humble yourself and do what’s required to attain your goals of success in all areas of your life? Will you allow yourself to act like a kid again, to think outside the box and to go beyond the socially acceptable behavior for someone of your stature? Too often we allow our success in life to hem us in and create a new set of limitations that really aren’t much different from the old ones, only with more expensive taste! We think that just because we can afford to wear an Armani suit and drive a Mercedes that we no longer need to look ahead and see where we need to be next. …. What does it matter what you have to show for your success if who you truly were meant to be remains hidden?”

Jakes’ words inspired me to start living my life on purpose, to take risks, and to move into a “new room” that’s conducive to where I want to go. If you’ve been casting in the shallows like me (and Peter) and need some inspiration to go into the deep waters, Jakes can help take you there, too.

The Art Of Happiness At Work

Posted on by

1

For the past few years, I’ve been in a state of sustained dreadfulness at work, since witnessing a friend and co-worker get callously fired and escorted out a week before Christmas. Despite repeatedly reminding myself that I’m lucky to have a job in this economic environment, I’ve grown increasingly unhappy and grumpy at work. And like many people these days, my ability to move elsewhere for a job is hampered by being a homeowner in today’s horrendous real estate market.

Practicing Compassion Instead Of Cashing In My 401(k)

Feeling trapped in a bad place, after a particularly bad day at the office (the kind when you contemplate quitting and cashing in your 401k), I implored the universe to help me: if there’s a lesson I’m meant to learn from this situation, please show me what it is. The next day, I ran across The Art Of Happiness At Work, by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, M.D.

The book contains important lessons about applying Buddhist philosophy to transform dissatisfaction with work in the Western world. The lesson I needed is that happiness at work doesn’t begin by finding a “nirvana” job free from tormentors and tyrants. It begins by turning inward and reshaping my own attitudes and outlook.

I had grown so disillusioned with how people are treated at the workplace that I had checked out as a human being. I was just doing the work expected of me and collecting a paycheck until I found an escape hatch. The Dalai Lama teaches that this is not the route to happiness:

“[I]f we are discussing happiness and satisfaction at work, like in all human activities, the human factor—how we relate to those around us, our coworkers, our customers, our boss—is of prime importance. And I think if we make a special effort to cultivate good relationships with people at work, get to know the other people, and bring our basic human qualities to the workplace, that can make a tremendous difference. Then, whatever kind of work we do, it can be a source of satisfaction. Then you look forward to going to work, and you are happier there. You think, Oh, I’m going to work to see my friends today!”

He emphasizes that “we should take special care to pay attention to the human relationships at work, how we interact with one another, and try to maintain basic human values, even at work…. Just basic human goodness. Be a good person, a kind person. Relate to others with warmth, human affection, with honest and sincerity. Compassion.”

Gee, That Sounds Familiar

The Dalai Lama’s co-author, Dr. Cutler (a psychiatrist), weaves real-life examples into The Art Of Happiness At Work to illustrate these points. One story from a senior editor at a publishing house really hit home:

“I have to start with the irritation I feel when I have to answer a nagging question from a co-worker. I have to appreciate that person as someone who also has a job to do and whose needs are at least as important, if not more so, than my own. Then I can take some satisfaction in the fact that because of my job I’ve been able to help clear someone else’s confusion….

“So then I can see the purpose of my job is really to help alleviate suffering. But it’s not easy to maintain. I slip into ‘burnout’ all the time. It’s a mind-training exercise that I have to engage in all the time. And crabbiness at work is the sign that I need to do it again, and again, until one day the feeling just comes naturally, spontaneously….”

What About The Tormentors And Tyrants?

Of course, training my mind to be more kind and compassionate doesn’t make the tormentors and tyrants disappear. But as the Dalai Lama explains, those individuals provide us with chances to improve ourselves:

“[T]here are some people who have an interest in spirituality, those people who are trying to train their minds, to cultivate spiritual values like compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness. Now, for those people, they may use these challenging situations as part of their spiritual practice, and view situations where there are conflicts with difficult co-workers as opportunities to practice these wonderful human qualities, to strengthen these spiritual values. I think it is a wonderful thing if one can use one’s place of work as a place of spiritual practice as well.”

Lasting Happiness 24/7

The Art Of Happiness At Work helped me see that I can’t have a happy life unless I relate to others with warmth, human affection, sincerity and compassion in my personal life and in my professional life: “When you appreciate the interconnected nature of all aspects of your life, then you will understand how various factors—such as your values, your attitudes, your emotional state—can all contribute to your sense of fulfillment at work, and to your satisfaction and happiness in life.” Practicing these seemingly simple lessons in recent weeks has had a transformative impact on my life, in and out of the workplace.

Does this mean that I plan to stay in my current job for the rest of my working life? No. But while I’m there, I’ll use the experience as a tool to reshape my outlook and attitudes, to integrate basic human values at the office, to reduce my anger and hostility and cultivate the opposing mental states of kindness, compassion, tolerance and forgiveness. In Dr. Cutler’s words, “true happiness may take longer to generate, and requires some effort, but it is this lasting happiness that can sustain us even under the most trying conditions of everyday life.”

You can get a copy of The Art of Happiness At Work on Amazon. It’s not currently available as an e-book, but I prefer to have a hard copy anyway. I keep it on my desk at work as a reminder of the important lessons it contains!