Now What? Newsletter Articles

What’s a job? A means to make money performing tasks that you are capable of but may not necessarily fulfill you.

What’s a career? A series of jobs that reflect growth, mastery and contribution to one or many fields.

Those are my definitions for the sake of creating context.

Is it okay when your career becomes a job? I suppose that depends on what you want out of work. It’s a welcome relief for some people when their work hits a plateau. They don’t really have to climb anymore or prove anything to anyone. They can coast knowing that they still collect a satisfying paycheck and can give attention and time to other areas in their life.

To me, and the people I talk to daily about work, a career that becomes a job is a career that has stalled. Like the owner of a vehicle, a stalled mode of transport is a ruined day. We naturally want to get the engine working again.

As far as careers go, we don’t have to be in a constant flurry of ambition. Ambitions and motivations change with us as we mature and take on new priorities. However, I can say with confidence that not having career goals or a trajectory of growth within your job, can quickly lead to restlessness and dissatisfaction.

As Dan Pink points out in his book “Drive,” recent research shows that people are motivated at work when three things are present: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Today’s buzzword is engagement. We want to be engaged. Let’s explore how to attain each of these things as a way to keep our careers from becoming ‘just a job.’

Autonomy

Unless you work alone in a vacuum, complete autonomy is not likely, but being free to make your own decisions and reach benchmarks in your own way is critical to feeling good about work. Knowing that you are trusted feeds into feeling capable and provides enough autonomy for you to experience growth and satisfaction in your work.

A certain amount of accountability proves to help performance, while being micromanaged or needing approval for every move grossly reduces one’s creativity and life force. Like being chained to the floor, a lack of autonomy will quickly frustrate you.

Questions to consider:

How can I negotiate more autonomy if I don’t already have it?

Where do I need to build trust to have autonomy for myself or where can I give autonomy to others?

Which relationships need new parameters to work well in the context of autonomy?

Mastery

According to Malcolm Gladwell, mastery at something comes with 10,000 hours of application and practice.

It may not be conventional wisdom to think of work as something where you can harness mastery (unless you’re a craftsman or practitioner of some kind). However, it is feeling competent and seeing a path for growth that keeps work interesting.

Ask yourself:

Am I still learning?

Is there room for me to grow here?

What do I still want to master?,

has been the biggest source of growth for me in the last year or two? and

What do I want to do more of?

Purpose

For some, a paycheck is enough of a purpose behind working. Again, those are not the people I come across. The people I talk to want to feel like what they do matters. They want to know that they impact those around them. They want to know that their part of the greater enterprise makes things better in the world. I’m not necessarily talking about a high-calling type of altruism, but certainly, feeling like what you do makes a difference inside or outside the organization (or preferably both!) does count.

Questions to ponder:

Do my values match the ones my organization holds?,

I stand for what my boss stands for?,

I have to hide part of myself to do this work or can I be me?

and Do my talents get used in this work (or at least somewhere in my life?)

Am I doing what I’m built to do?

I’m biased. I don’t want your career to feel like a job. There are times when it’s appropriate as other parts of your life really need your attention. However, to feel alive and well, we need to keep learning and growing.

Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. They are worth the effort. They can redefine your work and your life. Do you want a job or would you like a career?

Let me know your thoughts. Please comment or send an email.

Is it realistic to believe you can love what you do?

I know that it is. There’s work destined for each of us the way people say there is a mate for everyone. We just have to find it.

On the other hand, everything we love eventually gets tested and we must decide whether to reinvent it or us.

Like any marriage or long term relationship, a career or job needs to be shaken up every now and then to keep it fresh, alive, fun, and engaging.

Loving your work will morph over time. Whether you’re a corporate employee, business owner, or artist, the following stages seem to apply.

First job – Like new love, the first job is exciting. Most exciting is that there is a paycheck! Your first significant income and everything is new. If it’s not a fit, you’ll find out fast and it’s possible you’ll outgrow it fast whether it was a mistake or not.

Readying to Soar—You’ve gotten promoted a couple of times. If you’re progressing as you like, and the work is still a challenge, work can still be your sweetheart.

Climbing—New challenges keep you growing but with more responsibility comes more headaches. The questioning may have already begun. Is this it? Can I really do this for the rest of my life? Can I find my way back to the love?

Plateau— You may continue to climb or you may have hit the plateau—can’t leave now, you think. You want your full retirement benefit or you are not financially prepared to leave work. Loving may be replaced by settling into living out the commitment

Legacy – At any age, you may have begun to think about what it is you want to leave behind. When you pull your head up from the daily grind and imagine creating something bigger than your immediate needs, the game changes.

Whether what you are creating is publicly acknowledged or silently taking place, the love grows as the impact spreads. Like a long-term couple looking at each other and realizing how much they’ve done, seen, or created together, your work at the legacy stage gives you a platform of appreciation that you can pay forward.

Post-Career Career—And then, there’s this unique opportunity to love your work. Trying something new or rekindling an old flame of work you love can bring an exciting rush.

If money is not the biggest concern, this can be the sweetest of stages as you shed the burden and engage the joy.

When your job becomes a ‘job’, it’s a call to get back to the love and find what will inspire you to re-engage. How will you re-connect? How do you build on the early love and bring it along as you evolve?

Can you and your work grow together at about the same rate in the same direction? That’s what keeps a long term relationship alive. Keeping your work in the ‘I love my job’ sphere means constantly grooming it so it doesn’t die on the vine.

Engage and grow. As we launch the 10^th anniversary edition of Now What? 90 Days to A New Life Direction, we offer many ways to support just that. Check out www.nowwhatcoaching.com

 

 

What if this year, we don’t start another 365-day cycle by pushing the marker of success further out? What if this year, we start the year looking at how far we’ve come instead of how far we have to go? What would that do to your results?

I just finished work with a Now What?® client who came to the process to find her way out of a restrictive work situation in a family business. She wanted to explore what else she might do with her life.

In less than four months, she had identified three areas of interest and had made tremendous inroads educating herself in all three. She networked her way into these fields by not being afraid to ask people to connect her to others who could enlighten her.

Not having that big of a network to begin with, this was an impressive feat.

As we approached the end of our sessions, she voiced her disappointment in herself for not having a new job in hand yet. I asked her to look at how far she had come.

Four months prior, she was miserable in her job, felt like a victim and could not see a way out. Now, she had grown a network in a very short period of time, had learned about the art world, the commercial real estate market, and start-up investing at a rapid pace.

It was only when she recognized her progress that the answer to her query hit her.   In our final session, she had the epiphany that she didn’t want to work in any of the three! Instead, she wanted to use her current job in her family’s business to keep her steady as she built her desired net worth through the three areas she was exploring.

There was no next job. It was just the next level of strategy on how to get where she wanted to go. She wants to reach a high personal net worth outside of her family business and she now sees she can do so without changing her job.

In this case, discovering the way to financial freedom via three areas that were of interest and fun, suddenly made the job not only bearable, but ultimately, a blessing.

The whole perspective shifted and yours can too. The key is to measure where you’ve come from.

As we step into 2015:

What can you give yourself credit for?, can you be grateful for?, can you celebrate?

and What can you mark as a milestone lesson whether due to crisis or victory?

Now, go to the gym and be grateful that you have a body that is healthy enough for exercise instead of beating yourself up for the five pounds you gained in the last two weeks.  Happy New Year!

Another end to another year. I thank you all for you readership and patronage in 2014 and look forward to what we might create together next year.

WISHING YOU A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY SEASON!

 

 

 

LBF and the Now What?® Authorized Facilitators

H-Holiness
O-Opulence
L–Light
I-Integrity
D-Disappointments
A-Attention
Y- Year-end Crunch

H is for Holiness
The season where Christmas, Hannukah and Kwanza are observed, brings our hearts to a quieter place. As our pulse slows, our capacity to feel increases, and if we can fill our hearts with the meaning of these holidays. What these holidays ask us to remember allows us to tap that place we might define as holy. No matter what we call it, in all of us lies an essence of goodness that when felt, I think we can agree is holy. Meet the holy in yourself and everyone you come in contact with.

O is for Opulence
We buy gifts, put out our best house wares, put on nice clothes and enjoy festive food. It’s a time where we live like Kings in relative degrees across our socio economic landscape. We also remember our fellow citizens who can’t tap that richness on their own so we give as we can to share in the wealth. Feel the opulence whether yours in grand or small.

L is for Light
All the holidays of the season include lights—candles on the menorah and on the Kwanzaa kinara, candles in church and lights on the pagan symbols of the Xmas tree and in modern times, all over our homes. As our family lights the menorah, I ask my family to share what they see as the spark of light in each other. they roll their eyes and hate when I’m ‘coachy’ but to hear them tell each other once a year
how they see the goodness in each other, goes a long way to making the holiday more than gift frenzy. Acknowledge the light.

I is for Integrity
Yes, integrity. As odd as it may sound, as we make decisions about spending during this season and whom we include on our card list or invitation roster, our integrity gets a workout. Are obligations out of integrity or in integrity? Just something to think about. Feel free to comment here to share your thoughts on this.

D is for Disappointments
The holidays are not all joy and laughter. It’s a time of sadness for a lot of people. It’s a time when we think about how we feel let down by family, friends or life in general. It’s a time where the longing for people who are passed or no longer a part of our lives can be acute. There may even be disappointments about people’s behavior as the gatherings increase and new flaws become apparent or old flaws flare up. Let’s face it, the holidays can be a bummer. That doesn’t mean they should be avoided, but simplifying them and making some changes about where and whom you gather with might help. And if you are one of the people who feels terribly alone I know only one antidote. Do something for someone who needs help more than you do.

A is for Attention
In our schizoid divided-attention world, the holidays give us a chance to put our attention on family and friends. Whether it’s for a short gathering or the holiday weekends, the non-workaholics can lay down their phones and care. Care. The people in your life just want you to care. Pay attention, listen, spend time together
and elevate your connection above the ordinary.

Y is for Year-End Crunch
Tax planning, year-end giving, gift shopping, work completion, parties to add to your schedule, kids’ concerts and events, and holiday prep make this month a stress bomb. What can you do? Not care, not go, bow out. But if not, my best advice is put a note in your calendar for October 2015 to start next year’s year-end chores.
Leave only what’s necessary for December. We know it’s coming every year . Why is it such a surprise?

My Wish for You
I hope you experience the best of what the holiday season can offer. May you use it to restore your soul and bring you into a New Year kinder and gentler with yourself and more aware of your ripple effect in the world.

Namaste