Not because I use their deodorant. I don’t. It’s way too manly for me.

I’m angry at Mitchum because they are glorifying the Puritanical work ethic with a new contest that they have, The Hardest Working _______ in America. They ask people to submit videos of themselves working super hard. You might be the hardest working cattle rancher, baker, coach, florist, physical therapist. These don’t even have to be physical laborers. For example, they include a woman who’s a web entrepreneur.

I believe it’s possible to get creative and work smarter and enjoy your life and livelihood much, much more. And I’ll share some ideas about doing that so that you get to imagine them for yourself. But please, if you take anything away from what I’m sharing, it’s that you do not have to kill yourself at work.

So really: What is so right and so virtuous about working so hard? Granted, some of the people that Mitchum’s showing clearly love their work. And I applaud that. But not at the expense of overall well-being. Too many hours at work is just plain draining. In Mitchum’s contest, some of the participants clearly look like they are “slugging it out.” Many of the people they show in their promotional video must be working so hard that they have no time for exercise, because they are quite overweight. Sorry, but that’s no good for your body, mind, or spirit. Can all of these folks truly be happy? I doubt it.

Why must we glorify knocking ourselves out at work? Americans seem to have an obsession with working hard, demonstrating our strength, and just plain working our noses to the grindstone and running ourselves into the ground.

I know a thing or two about pushing myself to work hard. Back in the mid 1990s, I was a management consultant. My colleagues and I seemed to think that it was completely normal to work 80 hours a week. I was expected to bill a minimum of 50 hours each week. So when I worked 100 hour work weeks, which did on occasion, I’d be exhausted, but it was like I earned a badge of courage. Secretly, I was downright ecstatic when I only had to work 60 hours a week, but I also felt guilty, like I wasn’t contributing my share.

Rare was the day at work when my shoulders did not ache. I simply attributed that pain to sitting at the computer for six to ten hours a day.  Nausea and digestive pains were my frequent companions, and their impact seemed more forceful when I was staffed on a project out of town.  At the time, I simply rationalized the intestinal aches away by assuming they were caused by eating hotel and restaurant food, instead of my own home-cooked meals.


About three years into my time in management consulting, I was involved in a car accident. As I drove home from San Francisco International Airport, returning from a client engagement in Southern California, I was rear-ended by a drunk driver.  Although the accident was not serious, I started getting painful migraine headaches immediately afterwards.  My doctor wanted to run diagnostic tests, but I would not allow it.  I was determined to show how tough I could be.  I was not going to let mere headaches keep me from working on what I thought was an extremely important client project, one that seemed to assure me a promotion!  Then, two weeks after the car accident, I passed out in front of a group of clients.  The pain in my head was overwhelming, so I literally fainted while making a presentation. The project team took me to the hospital to check my health.

I ignored the migraine symptoms, continuing to push through them so that I secure a promotion, even if I was conflicted about moving ahead at the firm.  To my project team and to myself, I pretended. I acted as if I was fine.  Fortunately, when I received a doctor’s orders to take a month off from work to relax and recuperate, the managing partner of my office insisted that I follow his professional guidance.

Deep down, I felt torn. On the one hand, I wanted to demonstrate to my project team that I was as strong as everyone else, and that I could fit into the workaholic culture by continuing to work.  Yet on the other hand, I also wished I could simply find work that was more fun, or that I could even stop working for a period.

I ultimately took the medical leave, and I’m so thankful I did. I got back in touch with my body. I got clear that I wanted to work less and enjoy more. And since then, I’ve always found ways to do that, including ways that make plenty of money, thank goodness.

So, how do YOU do work that fits, and not knock yourself out in the process?

(1) Talk to people who are doing work that they love. Ask them what they love about their work. Ask them how they got into it. Listen to their journey. Almost no one goes from frustration to freedom overnight. It’s a process. Find out how people talk to themselves, how they overcame obstacles, how they motivated themselves. Take what works for you and leave the rest.

(2) Read Tim Ferris’ book, The Four Hour Work Week. This book is a game changer. It sounds absurd, especially if you’ve been working more than 40 hours a week. But stick with it. He has great ideas for how to make work as much fun and easy as possible. He has ideas both for making your current job easier, and for launching a product that you can sit back and watch make money. Ah, passive income!

(3) Read a recent article from Bloomberg/Businessweek about Working on the Waterfront. Yes, people really do work at the beach. If a serious business publication is giving you ideas on how to get a tan while you work, why not investigate? Or do you really want to sit in your cubicle day after day, turning pastier white by the second?

Seriously, though, I’m committed to helping people find ease, engagement, and enrichment from their work. What are YOU going to do to find those qualities in your work?

Working well,

Susan

Are you fed up with your work?

Well, you’re not alone! Have you noticed that other people around you just want to throw in the towel at work?

I say “ARGH!” (Not very articulate…just ultra frustrating!)

World at Work recently reported on a study by The Conference Board:
The report, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. households conducted for The Conference Board by TNS, found that only 45% of those surveyed said they are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61.1% in 1987, the first year in which the survey was conducted.

“While one in 10 Americans is now unemployed, their working compatriots of all ages and incomes continue to grow increasingly unhappy,” says Lynn Franco, director of the Consumer Research Center of The Conference Board. “Through both economic boom and bust during the past two decades, our job satisfaction numbers have shown a consistent downward trend.”

So, what’s causing this frustration with work? My answer may surprise you.

I don’t think it’s just that we have crummy managers and unattractive offices. It’s not just that tasks can be boring.

The big reason I believe job satisfaction tends to be low:  We give our control for our careers over to other people.

I talk to hundreds of people about their work every month. And when I ask them, “How did you come to be doing the work you’re doing?” I hear over and over again:

• I fell into my work
• I stumbled into my work
• Someone (my boss, my parent, my spouse) told me I should do my work
• Someone told me I shouldn’t do the thing I really love
• I figured that if I did what I love, I’d be a starving… (you fill in the blank…artist, musician, chef, etc.) so I just gave in and did something to pay the bills

Are you guilty of one of these? I was. My first week of college at the University of Arizona, I called home (a collect call, on the dorm’s hallway payphone) to my father and told him that I’d declared a major.  “What did you declare?” my dad asked.  “Psychology!” I exclaimed, breathlessly excited. I knew my passion. I’d be studying it.

Then came the silence. I waited. And waited. And waited for my father to say something. “Dad? Dad? Are you still there?” I begged to know, panicked about his lack of enthusiasm.

“Susan, you’ll never make any money until you get to the PhD level.”

Those words were sufficiently frightening to me, at the tender age of 18, to send me in a new academic direction. I studied Economics and Marketing. I sacrificed my passion for money. I did that for most of my career. And slowly but surely, the life energy was draining out of me, until finally, in 2001, I decided that I didn’t want to be a 70 year-old woman before I studied my first love. I wasn’t 100% sure what I’d do with my studies, but my heart was calling to me.

We so often leave our hearts out of our decisions about our careers. This is a recipe for disappointment. Work will ultimately become a dirty four-letter word if your heart’s not in it.

What can you do about increasing your job satisfaction?

1. Take back control. Instead of surrendering your control to well-meaning friends, co-workers, managers, spouses, family members, listen to your heart.

Ask your heart:

• What are you needing more of?
• What are you hungry for?
• What do you truly want to express to the world?

Be patient. If you’ve not listened to your heart in a long time, it may be shy or reluctant to share. Or, it may be itching to talk to you. Get a journal and write down whatever comes. Trust your heart. Listen to your gut. Then, put your mind in the service of your heart (and your gut, and all your inner wisdom, even in your little pinky toes).

2.  Take baby steps. Most of us try to make change too quickly, honestly. I know, I know, we feel like we’ve gotta have that new job now. Or we have to make everything all better in one felt swoop.

I would ask you:  What’s ONE thing you could try out doing differently this week? Here are some ideas for first steps:

• Frustrating colleagues? Plan a conversation to clear the air and start fresh. Put it on the calendar. Then prepare by reading about a subject like Marshall Goldsmith’s non-violent communication so you have a model for communicating effectively.
• Angry manager? Read a great book like Douglas Stone & Bruce Patton’s Difficult Conversations so you know how to talk to your manager. Find something to do to let go of the anger, like taking a walk or writing in a private journal.
• Ugly office? Bring in a vase and fresh flowers. Put up a photo that pleases you.
• Unreasonable deadlines? Prioritize all of your projects, so you know what’s most important.Write a workplan and discuss it with your manager. If you can show that you’d need to work an incredible number of hours, look for solutions to eliminate or shorten steps, delegate portions, or create time-off after you put in a big push of work.
• Massive bureaucracies? Find experts in your organization who’ve mastered the art of getting things done – take them to lunch and pick their brains, so you learn how to do it.
• Never-ending meetings? Suggest trying out stand-up meetings as leader Bob Schoultz suggests. Most people will go faster if they’re not sitting down.

3. Believe that great work is possible. Many of us block ourselves with expressions like “work sucks” and “well, this is as good as it gets” or “I can just suffer through this.” Do you really want work that fits you? Then I believe you must craft your “work from within,” for if you do not believe, deep within yourself, that this is possible, you will sabatoge your possibilities for great work.

Great work is not just an idea. When you have great work, you embody it. So take charge, and follow your heart. Let it set your direction. And then ask your mind to help you move in that new, heart-felt direction.

With care,

Dr. Susan Bernstein
Life/Work Transition Expert
www.WorkFromWithin.com

PS – Do you really, truly want work that fits for you?

What are you doing to create it?

I’ve got a great new 7-week webinar series, “Don’t Look for a Job! Create a ROLE That Truly Fits for You” that I’m offering on Wednesday nights from April 7 to May 19, 2010. Check it out at http://www.workfromwithin.com/calendar/rolethatfitswebinar/

Go ahead and get a taste! Sign up for a free preview call to learn more about that webinar. The free call is on Wednesday, March 3, 6-7 pm Pacific. Get all the details at  http://www.workfromwithin.com/calendar/rolethatfitswebinar/#1

If you hate your job, do you toss yourself out of a window?

Um, hopefully not.

But that’s been happening in Europe at companies like France Telecom, Renault, and Peugeot, according a recent Economist magazine article. This is not good. It’s very, very bad. And the problem is not just confined to Europe. That same article goes on to cite two sets of findings that highlight a similar dissatisfaction with work in the U.S.

“A survey by the Centre for Work-Life Policy, an American consultancy, found that between June 2007 and December 2008 the proportion of employees who professed loyalty to their employers slumped from 95% to 39%; the number voicing trust in them fell from 79% to 22%.”

“A more recent survey by DDI, another American consultancy, found that more than half of respondents described their job as “stagnant”, meaning that they had nothing interesting to do and little hope of promotion. Half of these “stagnators” planned to look for another job as soon as the economy improved.”

My own opinion is that it’s not just the current economic climate that’s been creating this intense dissatisfaction with work. The problem of employee frustration has been mushrooming over time. Since at least 1994, when I took a class with Professor Homa Bahrami at the Haas School of Business, which was then entitled “Managing Knowledge Professionals.” Even then, we were talking about the ultra-mobility of the workforce, and the writing was on the proverbial wall, making it all-too-clear that employment was becoming more and more tenuous.

And now, those who survive layoffs have at least two issues to contend with: (1) constant fears of losing their jobs and (2) the added burden of taking on the work of their former colleagues. From what I hear from clients and other career coaches is that the stress level in companies is boiling out of control.

If you’re an employee, your company asks you to be very loyal. And yet employers are creating less and less certainty about employment contracts. Work becomes psychologically taxing if you don’t know how long you’ll be in the game. How do you decide where to live? Or what purchases to make, if your income could be pulled in an instant?

It appears that companies are going even more in the direction of temporarily contracting employees. That’s more and more the case for C-level executives. Business Week reports that to avoid making bad hiring decisions, companies are turning to tryouts of a few weeks to a few months. I’d heard about this trend just a few weeks ago, when I was on a panel at the Haas School of Business with Lauren Doliva, who is one of the world’s leading recruiters, with Heidrick & Struggles.

What is the answer? More and more, it is to rely on yourself, and create and share your own assets, and build your own network, so you’re “ultra portable.” So, how do you do that?

(1) Rely on yourself: This is mental shift. It’s all-too-easy to become reliant on companies, especially when they offer attractive perks, like gourmet meals and on-site mega workout facilities. But really, you need to see yourself as moveable, changeable, adaptable to new environments. Value yourself for your own skills, not just for the brand-name of your current company.

(2) Create your own assets: Right now, it’s more important than ever to create a distinguishable skill-set. In other words, this is a terrible time to be a generalist, and especially a general manager. Be a problem solver. Be crystal clear about what pains you help to ease, what emergencies you clean up, and find the organizations facing those issues. For example, while you might call yourself a finance manager, if you describe what you do as watching the bottom line and knowing how to increase revenues and decrease costs, you’ll have more ears tuning in to you.  Those assets ought to include knowledge capital that you’ve accumulated, based on your experiences and research (formal and informal).

(3) Share your assets. Once you’ve built up some expertise in an area (give yourself credit for what you DO know), it’s important to share your perspectives. That’s easy enough to do in a blog, but you’ll want to share your ideas with people who can decide to hire you, so be sure to get out to industry meetings and offer to speak on topics where you have knowledge.

(4) Cultivate your network: No longer can you rely on your company to take care of you for the long run. That contract’s been gone for many years. But you could be let go in an instant. So, in addition to networking within your company, be sure to meet people in your industry and your functional area. Joining and participating in groups on LinkedIn is one way to do this. Another is to attend industry conferences and professional associations. You might even be amazed that Meetup.com can connect you with interesting professionals at interesting events.

It’s also a great idea to talk to your friends who are contractors and consultants, because you’re likely to become one — eventually. Ask them how they built and promoted their expertise. Discover how they get their gigs. Find out how they deal with uneven income streams.

You may also find that people who contract and consult actually like their work better, because they have greater creativity, freedom, and mobility.

What are YOU doing to create work that truly fits for you?

Susan

Dr. Susan Bernstein
Life/Work Transition Expert
www.WorkFromWithin.com

Fortunately for me, I was able to stay positive and motivated because I had a phone call already planned with Kyra Cavanaugh, from Life Meets Work. We set up a time this morning to talk about what's happening in the economy, and why we think that there's actually a lot to be happy about and how people can stay positive and upbeat, even when the Dow is down.

We've had so much fun talking with each other over the few months that we've been acquainted, and realized we had a ton of inspiration and education to share.  So we planned to record a friendly conversation to share with our readers (now, listeners). 

I hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed sharing our ideas, which include:

• Opening up to new job possibilities, so you don't get locked in by your industry or function
• Finding flexible work options (Kyra reminds us that those are more attractive than ever)
• Doing what's important to keep your job or get a new one
• Ways to do contract work
• The positive good that's being created in our current economy
• The need for cooperation and community, instead of competition

We'd both love you to post your comments. This creates community, fosters conversation, and lets us know what else we can provide for you.

Happy listening!
Susan

Dr. Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author
www.WorkFromWithin.com
Work From Within, LLC

It’s a big deal for a mom to decide to go back to work,

 All working moms, in my opinion, should be given a paid day off a week, because boy, do they work hard!

So, moms re-entering the workforce need all the support they can get.  And I want to share an information-packed video for all working moms who may be outside the San Francisco Bay Area who missed the View from the Bay show with LinkedIn PR Manager Krista Canfield, who spoke about what to do if you’re a mom who’s going seeking new work:

• Begin your hunt at least six months before you want to start work
• Update your skills and talents, if necessary, with courses
• Be a news hound
• Give your resume a facelift (you can learn to do this masterfully through the Job Search Gym)
• Do your homework on salaries (Use salary.com and payscale.com)
• Reconnect and rebuild your business network (of course, LinkedIn is amazing for this!)
• Feel confident in your dress
• Tap into local resources, like your state’s department of labor office, and of course, blogs!

Happy hunting to all you amazing moms!
Dr. Susan

Dr. Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author

www.WorkFromWithin.com

Work From Within, LLC

PS – I’m very happy to be newly-officially-affiliated with YourOnRamp as one of their featured career coaches — take a peek!

And, boy, when I used to work in a big office, I ate a lot of really junkie but yummy foods.  My favorite?  Oooh, when I worked for Accenture, our reception area was stocked with all of the flavors of those decadent

Lindt Lindor Balls.  In the morning, in lieu of coffee, I would eye one of those colorful
individually wrapped Lindor Balls
in their chocolate shell and go crazy selecting the smooth, creamy filling.  Would it be dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, hazelnut, or peanut butter? 

After lunch, another treat. 

Around 4 pm, when my blood sugar was low and tension was high, I would “sneak” yet another luscious morsel.  Mmm, mmm, mmm.  I didn’t really care what the receptionists thought of me.  I needed it.  I was working so hard…I felt entitled.

Eventually, those goodies turned to baddies, when they showed up around my waist.  Not pretty.

I now weigh about 15 pounds less than when I worked in the corporate world, and part of that has to do with a better diet.  I prepare almost all of my own foods, particularly because I love to cook (thanks to a mom who’s a true gourmet) and partly because I like to know what’s in my food.

Well, now my father sends me this article from The Economist about the effects of nutrition on cognition.  In other words, eating to feed your brain.  Our brains are busy.  Right now, aside from really using my leg muscles training for my first century biking ride (other muscles, too, of course), my brain is definitely the next most-used muscle (OK, yeah, I know,it’s not a muscle).

Here are some interesting finding related to eating to care for your brain:

• Folic-acid supplements can help those
  between 50 and 70 years old ward off the cognitive decline that
  accompanies aging
• People should eat more antioxidants. Vitamin E, for example, which is found in vegetable oils, nuts and
  green leafy vegetables, has been linked (in mice) with the retention of
  memory into old age, and also with longer life.
• The brain is very susceptible to oxidative
  damage. The brain consumes a lot of energy, and the reactions that release
  this energy also generate oxidising chemicals. Moreover, brain tissue
  contains a great deal of oxidizable material, particularly in the fatty
  membranes surrounding nerve cells.

  That suggests, among other things, the value of a diet rich in berries. These have been shown to have strong antioxidant effects.

 So, when you’re at the office, or working in any capacity, here’s what I suggest you can do:

• Bring a Tupperware (or other container) of blueberries.  Yummy, low-calorie, dense and satisfying AND good for your brain.
• In summertime, do my brother’s favorite trick.  At home, prepare grapes as mini-popsicles.  Take grapes off the bunch, and wash them.  Put wax paper on a flat tray, and arrange the grapes in a single layer on the tray.  Then, pop them in the freezer for a few hours.  Yummy treat.  Tote them to your office in a mini-ice chest, and then pop them in the office freezer. The grapes will be crunchy, cold, and sweet.  They wake you up and are definitely better for you than a candy bar. 
• Choose a salad for lunch, with tuna or salad.  Good taste, good omega-3s, and filling.

This will power up your day, and leave you with less around your waist and more in mind.

Happy healthy eating — it’s just what this doctor orders!!  
Susan

Dr. Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author

www.WorkFromWithin.com

Work From Within, LLC

Today, I felt such a pull, so in the flow, so inspired to write.  Why?  It was the final session, at least for a while, with a dear client, who's allowed me to share his name.  Jeff Kennedy blends his care and concern for people and companies facing employment issues (think performance reviews, promotions, dealing with difficult managers, setting up HR processes…and much more) with the deep experience managing HR for Fortune 200s and the legal expertise to know what he's really talking about with a JD from UC Davis School of Law and practice as a California Employment Attorney. 

Standing at a career crossroads, as all of my clients do, Jeff came to me as he was trying to decide "what's next" because his last job didn't turn out the way he'd planned.  It turned out that we could use the dissatisfaction to uncover Jeff's deeper desires.  I find Jeff incredibly sharp, organized, empathetic, and strategic.  For him, the corporate world often left him compromising his values and ideals, morphing himself to be something he's not, or having to hide the issues about which he's passionate, which include standing up for the rights of individual employees. 

Well, in our work together, Jeff gained clarity — he wanted to go solo.  That was not immediately clear when we started.  Like many people at a crossroads, confusion was prevalent, and kept him churning and worrying and wondering — and basically up in his head. 

Four months later, he's already got clients, just through word-of-mouth, and now he's consumed, among other things, with getting a website up.  Wow!  He let himself envision life in this new solo work, it felt good to him, and the energy just started to flow…and keeps building. 

Jeff inspires me — he reminds me what's possible when we start expressing what we really want to express — and stop holding back.  From a mind-body point of view, when we squash our self-expression, the result is depression.  But when we express, we free up the energy inside of us to find more of what we really want.  To take a corporate job would have held Jeff back from his bigger energies, the voice that wanted to emerge.

No, he's not a trust fund baby, and, like the rest of us, he has financial concerns.  But, he's also in the flow, letting himself follow his interests, and he's already starting to get paid to do what he loves.  And, since I've also been walking a similar path for a few years, I know that he's got more riches ahead of him as he invests in what he appreciates — his own talents.  Yes, folks, it's possible to do what you love and get paid. 

Jeff truly inspires me.  He wanted to share with me, during this last session today, a poem by Mary Oliver, that he'd heard from another one of his teachers.  What a kind and warm soul Jeff is for taking the time to read this to me.  His gesture and these words poems touched me so deeply that I had to share the poem with you…

Thank you, Jeff, for being willing to take your own journey, with the hills and valleys, the beautiful scenery, and, yes, the frustrations, too.  Thank you for allowing me to do what I love, which has been to help you listen to your own voice, your own needs, and support you along the way.  I know that you will help people and support them in meaningful ways.  You are already doing that.

Blessings to all who walk the courageous path of change, saving your own lives…and in doing so, inspiring and touching the lives of others.

Wishing you inspiration for your journey,
Susan

Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author

www.WorkFromWithin.com

Work From Within, LLC

Are you one of these people?  Or would you like to be?

Recently, I felt a pang to connect with people who, like me, have crossed over from a life in Corporate America to doing work that’s more meaningful.  So, I posted a question on LinkedIn (one of my favorite tools for making meaningful connections) looking for such kindred folks, and heard back from a number of people, including Sumya Ojakli. 

Sumya is a branding maven with a wealth
of branding experiences from places like Snowball.com and GoldenBooks Family
Entertainment. She’s the person who
helped re-introduce Pat the Bunny to the world, infusing “emotional branding” into
this sweet character. Much like me, Sumya reassessed
and simplified her own life. She’s currently running her own
company, Evolution and Strategy, helping individuals and companies to
brand themselves more effectively in today’s changing marketplace.

Between us, Sumya and I know plenty of corporate folks who’ve ditched the cubicle, the
office building, and the “grind” of corporate life made major transitions.  Some have become massage
therapists, Reiki practitioners, psychotherapists, shamans, or naturopaths. 

According to Sumya, there are five types of people who are
making major career changes related to the healing or helping arts. Looking at the world this way helps me to understand some of the phenomena I am seeing in the world.  I thought you, my genteel readers, might be going through career changes yourselves, and might gain some insights by looking at these categories.  I’ll start with posting about one today, and then go through four more types over the next few days.

(1) MAXXED OUT:  Professionals who are
wanting to make a change in their lives, because things
have gotten to be “too
much.” They are traveling too much
and working too much. Often, their health
is not good, and they experience breakdowns in their bodily systems. Along their road back to health, they meet a
practitioner who empowers themselves to do the curing for themselves. These professionals are indebted to the healing
practice they have discovered. So they
want to bring the cure to others and spread the word.

Some of these professionals pare down their
work and practice their new-found healing on the side. Others leave their prior career to do healing
full-time. Sumya sees this trend
particularly among lawyers, many of whom leave large firms to start their own
firms, discover that’s still stressful, and decide to change direction. Sumya told me of a lawyer who became an
acupuncturist. For this woman, the
switch to even a very basic law practice was too much. She sold her apartment, pared down her life,
and is much happier. Makes sense.

From Sumya’s view, professionals are the toughest sale and
hardest to make the career transition. Often,
self-fulfillment means walking away from their former profession, which can
feel like letting go of what seems to be a safety net and a life preserver. But, as I know, when your career is killing
you, you often have no choice but to let go of what looks safe to take the new
path. That’s certainly been my story.

From what I’ve learned from coaching professionals, making
this sort of radical career change takes place slowly. If this life path compels you, and tugs at
your heart, then you put one foot in front of the other long enough, making
little changes, until you’re finally in a new life. You might first take a sabbatical, or do
part-time work. You might take a class
that leads you to a new interest, and pursue that interest in parallel with a
new, easier job. These are just a few
paths. Success in the new life rarely
comes overnight, but rarely is success defined as it used to be. After running around on airplanes, staying in
meetings until all hours of the night, and slaving over projects that
ultimately get killed, having time to yourself feels like success. Being able to see friends feels like
success. Taking a mid-day walk — as
Sumya does — feels like success.

At the same time, money generally feels less important. Whoa, Nelly, not unimportant. Just not acquired for its own sake. In the
“old” life, money was acquired “to be safe,” and now, you recognize that safety
comes from having your own inner assets and using them. Often, professionals start paring down, getting
rid of possessions (not everything!) that feel unnecessary.  Discovering and becoming involved with the simplicity movement can bring camaraderie and ease.  Money coaching can also help to reveal and heal underlying issues with inner and outer prosperity.

Do you relate to this type?

If you’ve made the transition already, what helped you navigate the changes? If you’re in the midst of making this kind of change, what’s your experience? And if you’re contemplating this type of change but feel stuck, what holds you in place?

What questions do you have about this type of change?  I’ll do my best to respond…I’d love to help you find work and a life that truly fits for you.  And, more on the other four "types" of meaning-filled career changers in the next two editions…stay tuned!

Constantly in change,
Susan

Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author

www.WorkFromWithin.com

Work From Within, LLC

Yes, Valentine’s Day is this week.  But that’s not the only reason. 

You see, I want to fundamentally change the conversation about work, so that work is seen in a much more positive, uplifting light. 

I
think "work" has a bad rap.  A negative connotation.  For many people,
"work" is a dirty four-letter word. 

Is that true for you?

Work, labor, job, career, or vocation.  Take your pick.  If these words conjure up images of toiling and feeling miserable, it’s time for a change.  Just think how much more positive the world would be if people
loved their work. How would your life change if you were doing work
you love? 

Khalil Gibran wrote, "Work is love made visible."  What did he mean by this? 

As I see it, he meant that if we are to spend our waking hours in a
pursuit, it ought to lift our hearts.  Great work has the capacity to
connect to us to our passions.  With work that we love, we fall into
that state that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls "flow," being focused and energized and totally immersed in what we are doing.  What activities put you in the that state?  You know, when you’re absorbed, totally present to the reality right in front of you, and full of energy?  Isn’t that just a lot like being in love? 

While you are busy buying chocolates and roses for your sweetie this
Valentine’s Day, I also encourage you to check in with your own heart
about work.  When you think about your career, do you feel
heavy-hearted or light-hearted? 

If you find yourself feeling heavy-hearted about work, take a moment to ask yourself…

• Does my definition of work allow for ease, fun, joy, abundance,
  and prosperity — all at the same time?  (If not, I encourage you to
  change the way you view work!)
• Does my current working environment support me in expressing
  what’s important to me? (If not, how might you make changes so that
  you’re moving in the direction of your heart’s desire?)
• What would I need to shift to in order to make work more an expression of what I love and care about? (And how can you take just one teeny weeny step in that direction?)

Our world needs passionate people who are alive and on fire about their
work.  What small action can you take this Valentine’s Day to
contribute your love in your work?

Lovingly yours,
Susan

Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author

www.WorkFromWithin.com

Work From Within, LLC

Why do it alone? Please, I think you’ll feel better with some vocational
guidance counsel. Enjoy this Monty Python
skit before you start the search.  If nothing else, you’ll enjoy a good laugh!

And, let me assure you, what you see in this hilarious sketch is not what it’s like
to work with the vast majority of career coaches!

But here’s a quiz for those of you thinking about a career switch. See how much you know about getting guidance
for you career. Watch the video first. Then, see if you can find at least four mistakes the chartered
accountant made in his career change, and four good things he did to benefit himself and his career change.

(1) MISTAKE: He let the
so-called “experts” advise him about which job in life he was best suited for. Yep, most of us will fall for interviews by
experts and aptitude tests. This is a
great example of giving away your power. You really do have the answers within
you about the direction that will suit you, if you’re willing to stop and
listen to yourself.

MEGA MISTAKE: The
poor chartered accountant also was looking for “the” job, instead of looking
for the general direction to move in next. You would get pretty caught up think there’s some ideal to pursue. Such thinking often closes off otherwise fine
options. He’d be better off opening up
possibilities.

(2) GOOD MOVE: Smart
career changer– standing what he wants! When the vocational guidance
counselor told him that the ideal profession for him was “chartered accountancy,”
he was clearly ticked off. He let his
energy rip! “I want something exciting
that will let me live!” Yes, yes, yes,
that’s what we all want. And he was
willing to state it boldly.

BONUS POINTS: He
ranted and raved about how his current accountancy work was “dull, dull, dull…so
desperately dull, tedious, and boring.” Getting
out your frustration about your current work can be really positive. Even anger about a crummy job, when channeled
properly, can get you mobilized for action, instead of sitting around doing nothing. 

(3) MISTAKE: Oooh, boy the chartered accountant let an
expert say bad things about him. Not
helpful. The vocational guidance
counselor gives a personality run-down to our poor chap, a veritable feast of
negative labels, “The report says that you are an extremely dull person”…and he
goes on to call the job seeker “unimaginative, irrepressibly drab and awful.” Aaak! That should have been a clue to run for the hills, and get away from the
negativity. (Besides, the accountant
seems sooo much more alive than the guidance counselor…maybe the guidance
counselor needs to start doing accountancy!)

(4) GOOD MOVE: Our
accountant friend stands up for himself, again! (He doesn’t tell the counselor to "buzz off," so maybe he’s just British and polite).  He says he wants a “new job, new life, new meaning to my existence.” Yes, yes, yes. And he deserves it. So do you! More and more people are standing up and demanding this from their
lives, and finding ways to make it happen. It’s a matter of listening to your interests, your passions….your
energy!

(5) GOOD MOVE: Boldly expressing desire!  The
dapper accountant, when asked, “Have you any idea what you want to do?” replies
that he wants to do “Lion taming!” Full
force, unabashed. He wants to go for
it. Such energy and excitement helps him get clear, even if he’s bound for some other work before taming lions.  The drab, dull vocational counselor
tells him, “It’s a bit of a jump” and suggests he should work his way there via
banking. Well, OK, sometimes it’s good
to get some experience before making a huge move. But really, the guidance counselor put the
k’bosh on the accountant’s energy. Shame on him!

(6) MISTAKE: Not knowing about the job.  OK, so
when asked about his qualifications for lion taming,

“I have a hat” is probably
not going to cut it. Even if that is a
neon hat from Harrod’s (I’d love to see that one!). And then, it appears our friend the job
seeker is a bit confused. Um, he’s got
the lion mixed up for an anteater. A little different, wouldn’t you say?

This is an instance where a VocationVacations
experience would let our job seeker test drive his dream job. I’ll check in with Brian Kurth and see if
they’re adding lion tamer to their new VocationVacations. It’s pretty amazing to be able to try out being
an Alpaca Rancher or a Shoe Designer (hey, I helped a Vocationer who has become
a shoe designer himself!) or a Wine Maker.

(7) GOOD MOVE. One step at a time.  Once
he learns more about what lion taming involves, our job changer accepts the
idea of making the transition “via easy stages.” Probably for the best. We don’t want him to get clawed to pieces,
eh?

(8) MISTAKE:  Getting paralyzed into inaction.  Our man
didn’t let the vocational guidance counselor contact someone in banking to make
a contact, even though he described banking as “Travel! Excitement, Decisions! Thrills!” He quashes his excitement too early, because it’s a “big decision” and
goodness gracious, he wouldn’t want to “jump into it too quickly.” A phone call to discuss it? No obligation? Just some networking? This is an instance where I am absolutely drawn
to want to help the dear accountant. Time
for teaching him some tools and techniques for working with faulty beliefs, and
for powering up his attitude. Maybe it’s time for him to start using The Secret  in his career!

So, how’d you do on the quiz? I hope you aced it!   

And, if you’d like to avoid these mistakes in your job search, I welcome you to get in touch.   

Happy job hunting,

Susan

Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author

www.WorkFromWithin.com

Work From Within, LLC

PS – A big thanks to Drew Schnierow an amazing artist and fellow 5Rhythms dancer, for telling me about  this
hysterical video!