Wouldn’t that be a great experience to have at work?

To get to the point of passion, you may first have to break away from your comfort zone.  Think about it, rarely are you breathless when you’re comfortable.  That should be your first clue.

Get up, get out and try something.

-bizrighter

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

-by Marianne Williamson

I dreamed that I was fired, so I didn’t bother to get out of bed.
— Don’t be surprised if your dream turns out to be reality pretty soon.

I was trying to get my gun back from the police.
— Better just let this person take the day off work without argument. Or buy Kevlar vests in bulk.

I forgot to set my clock back for the end of Daylight Saving Time.
— Then you would have come in an hour early, you idiot.

I had to go audition for “American Idol.”
— OK, I know we all want to be the next Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood, but you’re not even as good as William Hung. Trust me.

While rowing across the river to work, I got lost in the fog.
— It’s like” The Perfect Storm” for getting out of work.

I blew my nose so hard, my back gave out.
— This guy watched his 3-year-old stick marbles up his nose and thought, “Hey, that looks like fun!”

 The key for a company to have a competitive advantage: take care of your employees.  A satisfied worker is going to provide that world class service your customers expect.  It’s time managers stop managing for performance and manage motivation.  What do your employees want?  What would make them happy?  Find that out and grow your bottom line. 

 bizrighter

I heard Oprah say this once and it struck my core.  I, like many others, left college with these ideologies of what my career was going to be.  Hmmm.  Ten years later, I discovered what it was I was supposed to be doing with my life.  I found my passion while sitting behind a desk at a bank staring at client’s accounts looking for opportunities to bring in new assets.  I was so far off the path that I didn’t even know where to start the journey to my dreams.  So, I picked up the phone book.  I called people who were living the lives I was supposed to live and started asking them questions.  When I had an idea of the requirements and I had assessed my skills, I started making moves.  Within six months I had acquired mentors, created a network and brought my family on board.  I volunteered my time in the beginning, foregoing pay, just to get experience (and confirmation that I was on the right track).  Now, five years later, I have a completely different resume and I am only a few steps away from total fulfillment at work.  I did it the Oprah way – I dedicated myself to my dreams even while I was miles away from them.  It will require work but it is necessary to live the life you were designed to live.  Do something, everyday.  It may include making a phone call to get information or to connect; it may be reading a website or doing homework because you’ve decided you need more schooling.  It does not matter how big or how small the task, do it for you.

It is imperative that you make smart decisions about the work you do.  The day is gone that workers were hired and worked for the same company until they retired.  We are not that generation and companies are not that committed.  Arguably, competition has made that lifestyle obsolete.  The game is changing constantly.  In the beginning, to be employable one had only to graduate from high school and now college degrees are needed to get a potential employer to even return your phone call.  The standards are increasing and the legions of people applying for the same job are insane.  You have to be smart, determined and persistent these days.  The internet has shifted the job hunt.  I’ve heard some say that finding a new job is a job.  Therefore, you have plan and research your way into your next position.  Take the time while you’re employed to map out your desirable career.  There is an exercise that suggests you write down your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes and your ideal work environment.  It goes on to ask participants to think about their dreams and what they want to accomplish in life.  It may seem silly but it is a powerful thing.  Why is it we hate work so much?  Could it be that we haven’t spent the time to line these things up with who we are.  Many of us get our identity from what we do for a living.  If nothing else, we’ll spend about 88,000 hours of our life working.  Take a couple hours at least and figure out what you want your work to look like.

Day Seven: Do Something everyday to get you closer to your dreams

So here’s the cycle.  You start off life with whatever your parents gave you.  At some point, you start working and you earn your own money.  We begin the life of consumers and we consume.  We partner with people and our interests are multiplied so we work more and start earning more money.  Countless books have been written on personal finance so I will spare you the common rhetoric.  You know you have to work.  People are counting on you and your responsibilities are your responsibilities.  Regardless of the work environment, be professional.  Your misery has to be managed and your attitude needs to be capped.  It is unfair for us to make the workplace worse by infecting it with grief.  So please don’t get to the point where security is called over and you’re being walked out the door.  When you leave to find a better work environment, it should be on your terms at the time you determine.

Day Six: Don’t Move until you’ve thought it out all the way.

 I have yet to work for a company that didn’t have some kind of contest going that was meant to improve morale (and sometimes performance).  In an effort to engage employees and show them some perks, department heads create these challenges for their staff.  Well, what keeps us from setting up our own goals?  If your work life is something you dread but you’ve determined that you need to stick to it for whatever reason, set a work goal.  Maybe you’ve had some level of success in an area but there has been some measurement that has eluded you that you can aim for.  Maybe there has been a relationship with a coworker that has hindered your work that you can examine.  There could be an account that you’ve tried to land or a customer service goal you find interesting.  The fun thing about this goal is that it’s one you set for yourself.  It is not mandated by anyone else and it can be as serious or as silly as you want it to be.  If you’ve been in the pits about work, there are chances that your attendance or tardiness has become an issue.  Well, set a goal that you will be attentive and on time for the next 30 days.  Do this thing for you, and not for anybody else.  In this, you keep your power and you are working for yourself!  It should be a personal challenge and doesn’t need to be shared because the goal is not that you be recognized.  The power lies in the fact that you took a bad situation and made use of it for your gain. 

Day Five: Learning to Maintain