IKEA’s founder has been a natural salesman and innovator all his life. 90 years later, his core traits have carried him to great success – a great example of a man living his Life Blueprint®. What is within you that can carry you on to your success?
IKEA’s Billionaire Founder Turns 90: Here’s How He Built His Furniture Empire
Rather than staying locked into a career path because it’s what you studied for or said you would do, open yourself up to what really makes you happy! Read on to see how one young woman followed her heart, touched her community, and found herself on a whole new journey.
When changing directions, often all that’s needed is to find the entry point of your new path vs. having to map out the entire route. What happens after you take that leap of faith and you’re a few steps down the new path? In today’s article, we learn the answer from three clients who recently shared their thoughts on this question: How do you listen to your life? full article here
by Now What?® Coaching Founder, Laura Berman Fortgang
Why do you do what you do?
Have you asked yourself that lately? Does it matter? If you want to wake up full of energy, ready to tackle your day and excited about 
what’s waiting in the office, than yes, it matters.
Knowing why you do what you do and what it is that you uniquely contribute brings great satisfaction, clarity and direction. It also helps you feel that you are ‘on purpose’.
Ennui and frustration set in when there is no growth, no challenge and no meaning. Don’t let that happen to you.
The WHY?
Why do what you do? For yourself? For your family? To further a cause or a mission? To move the world to a better place? To amass wealth?
The ‘why’ is a great motivator. You’ve heard the expression ‘keep your eye on the prize’. The ‘why’ is the prize.
Some people do things to make others proud or to provide or to cause change. Others do things to appease, please or assuage guilt. Others still act out of revenge, envy or to prove something.
Whatever works for you will be fuel for your dreams, you’ll use, but it might be worth erring to the side of the more loving qualities if it’s purpose and meaning you want as the core of why you perform.
The WHO
Completing the picture of performing with purpose is understanding that what you do is not going to make you happy unless you can truly express who you are through it.
Each of us serves a function for the people we come across in our work and in our lives. Our choice becomes if we want to serve that function in a positive way or in a way that leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths. In other words, do you leave people better off or worse off after dealing with you over the course of a day?
Performing with purpose means seeking out opportunities to share that ‘magic dust’ that you exude and making it more and more a 
part of your daily existence.
How do you figure out what that is? Start asking people. Yes, seriously. Start asking people you trust and what positive effect, if any, you have on them. See where the answers start sounding the same and you will find critical mass building towards understanding your purpose.
Years ago, I worked with a very successful woman in telecom sales who was not having a very positive effect on the people around her. When made aware of her impact, she wanted to change. She wanted to leave people feeling better after being in contact with her. She made it her business to be encouraging and curious about other people. She continued to be successful in her sales numbers, but she also started being tapped for her marketing ideas. Within a few months, she made a full change to the marketing function and within a couple of years, her focus on performing with purpose led her to enter training and development and eventually getting trained as a certified coach. None of these changes were part of any career plan, but rather a plan to live from a sense of purpose. Her career path took her beyond any one she had dreamed for herself.
She had to figure it out for herself, but you can ask the people in your life and start doing more of what’s working. Performing with purpose will be satisfying, meaningful, fun and reap surprising rewards.
So what will it be? “Magic Dust” or everyday grind? Your choice.
by Now What?® Coaching Founder, Laura Berman Fortgang
We all know to say please and thank you and send those post-interview thank you notes. We all know that Thanksgiving is the tim
e to give thanks for all we have.
These are good habits and fruitful ones. However, there are more ways that gratitude can make life easier if you are in a transition in your life.
Lessons Learned
It’s easy to be bitter or get depressed when a lay off has occurred or money is tight or your life is in crisis for any reason. Robert Frost once said: “The easiest way out is through.” In my opinion, there is no better way to ‘get through’ than to find the good you can be grateful for even in the bad.
When we scan our past work, past bosses, past triumphs, and past losses, we need to unhook from the negatives and find what we can be grateful for. So if somebody was cruel or unfair, thanks goodness! They taught you to persevere. Or they taught you how to speak up or they taught you that you belong in an environment where you are appreciated.
Give thanks for lessons learned.
Skills Gained
Similarly, even the worst of scenarios can hold a gift inside of them. What skills did you gain? What resume nuggets can you add? What hard skill or soft skill learning did you take on?
None of these things can be taken away. They are yours to keep. Find gratitude for that.
Coming up in my professional life, there were certainly assignments I took on ‘just for the money’ that were not necessarily satisfying or life-affirming. Nonetheless, at the time, I got through them by being grateful for the income, certainly, but also for the tid-bits of industry knowledge they gave me. Thanks to the varied exposure, I can now carry on an intelligent business exchange in dozens of areas. Thank goodness for those less than ideal assignments.
Going deeper
Beyond pleasantries and etiquette is deep, deep gratitude. —Gratitude for the people who have shaped you along your way. Negative influences and positive, both call for gratitude. Whether they were grains of irritating sand polishing you into a pearl or they were fuel that rocketed you sky high, they have made you who are today.
Think of those that have influenced your career path. Think of those that believed in you when you did not believe in yourself. Think of the person who was selfless on your behalf and the one that was selfish and got you angry enough to learn how to stand up for yourself.
Whether it was a parent, co-worker, boss or stranger everyone has had a hand in your growth and for that, being truly grateful will reap its rewards. Being at peace with past relationships, keeps the new ones free from baggage. Appreciating those you crossed paths with makes for easy communication if you run into each other in other circles or find that you are to work together again.
Going deeper with your gratitude is not that selfless. It actually serves you very, very well.
So go forth and celebrate Thanksgiving. Rejoice at your holiday table and keep the gratitude going for a long, long time.
“Choose to see the world through grateful eyes. It will never look the same way again.” Doe Zantamata