New Work Pioneers Reframe Success

April 30, 2010 by 11 Comments

Today’s post is the fourth in an emerging series, writing The Manifesto For New Work Pioneers. It looks at how, by redefining success for yourself, you can switch your whole relationship with work and life.

If you’re anything like me, you were schooled early about what “good” looked like: stellar qualifications; degrees from the best universities; blue chip company jobs; big job titles; mortgages attached to prestigious houses; marriage; children; cars; foreign holidays; and state-of-the-art gadgets.

With the list comes the implicit condition:  we’re OK people only IF we achieve these things.

As a New Work Pioneer, and in your quest for a different relationship with work you are choosing, however,  to see success through a different lens. As a result you’re opening yourself to new sources of personal growth and inspiration.

Single focus to whole life

Yes, success in work or business is important to you, but you’re understanding that sheer single-mindedness leaves you feeling incomplete.

You are giving yourself permission for other things to need their space too. What they are, and the priority and weight you give them, will be unique to you. Typically, however, they’ll include your own personal development, your close relationships, your children and your family, your friends, your health and well-being, and the interests that capture your imagination that have nothing or little to do with work. Whatever, you’re dropping your need to feel conflicted about them.

As I wrote in Revealed: Why New Work Pioneers REALLY Bother, you are aiming to give yourself the pleasure of life’s positive emotions by being present to a range of life experiences.

It’s not about balance for me. Rather it’s about harmony. New Work Pioneers are finding ways to allow different parts of themselves to coexist peaceably. This often means they’ll reset their expectations of themselves in certain areas in order to achieve just that. Perhaps they’ll choose to work less hours. Or to achieve a different level of work. At the same time, they’ll place more value on their non-work successes: the richness of their couple relationships; the closeness of their parenting; the level of personal energy and fitness they’re able to achieve and maintain.

What looks good to what feels right

As a New Work Pioneer, you are becoming less interested in gathering life’s badges. You’re questioning the real value of “things”. You’re realising that what glitters on the outside doesn’t necessarily make you feel sparkly inside. Not that there’s any harm in having possessions, but only if, you use Jen Smith’s phrase from earlier this week, they don’t possess you.

One person with whom I recently worked had set her sights on becoming a partner in a magic circle law firm. Like coveting a dress, she’d wanted to wear this accomplishment so that others could admire her in it. But the relentless drive for it was making her miserable. When she was able to see that her real goal in life was her own happiness, she revisited her need for the partner badge and decided that where she’d be most happy was as an excellent senior associate. This gave her time and space to see friends and to engage in other meaningful interests that gave her energy and made life feel well-lived.

Arbitrary standards to being your own personal best

Who defines our measures of success? More often than not they come from our society or from our family. They place value, for example, on steady jobs and senior positions and think that working flexibly or taking a more artistic, creative or entrepreneurial route is just a bit flaky. Their definitions serve the implicit purpose of keeping us all in our place.

Except, as a New Work Pioneer, you don’t want to be stuck in a place.

So, you’re unhooking yourself from the external noise. You’re figuring what your own “best” looks like and that’s what you’re giving yourself permission to achieve. So, your standard is not an absolute standard; it is your standard. And when you attain it, you allow yourself to say, “I did well here” and to feel fed by your achievements. This in turn boosts your sense not just of your uniqueness but of your personal worth.

Yes, New Work Pioneers are turning the whole concept of success on its head and experiencing the wider possibilities that that affords them.

So, manifesto readers, what do you think? What am I nailing here? What’s not quite resonating? What’s missing?

How are you reframing success for yourself and with what results?

Next Friday we’ll be talking about the challenges inherent in reframing success and how to creatively confront them. To automatically get the next update, feel free to subscribe.

Filed Under: Reinventing work, Work and life Tagged With: , , ,

Don’t Change Your Job – Change Your Mind

April 26, 2010 by 41 Comments

My friend – let’s call him Frank – was looking pretty despondent when I met him for coffee late last week. Slouched in his chair and completely absorbed by his BlackBerry, he was a shadow of the shit hot Business Consultant I knew him to be.

He’d told me that he didn’t have long, so I cut to the chase and asked him what was up. He minced around it for a few minutes and then shared that he wasn’t enjoying his job. As someone who has worked freelance for several years, he’d been asked by his current client to go on the payroll, something that he’d felt, nine months or so ago, would offer him security in the current economic doldrums.

Instead, as an employee, he was frustrated by the company’s cumbersome operating processes, and exhausted by its internal politics.

So much so that he was thinking of quitting. But strangely for him, because he’d got so caught up with the company machine, he’d lapsed a lot of his professional networking. This meant he had no other irons in the fire; no possible next assignments to go to or business opportunities pending.

And he couldn’t just leave. A wife who doesn’t work and two kids at school make sure that his earnings are well spent.

He felt trapped.

“So unusual for you,” I said. He smiled.

That began an interesting free flowing discussion about what really was causing his stuckness and how he could get his usual power back. We hit on four key ideas that I have his permission to share with you.

It’s an assignment

Frank told me that, in taking on an employment contract, he felt that he’d lost some of his freedom to operate.

“Was that the price you paid for taking a sense of security from them?” I asked him. He thought about it and then said that, yes, it was. He realised that, in particular, he’d felt obliged to buy into their 24/7 culture.

“Hence the BlackBerry?” I said. He nodded. He’d previously sworn he’d never use one.

“So, if you can’t change your job right now,” I asked him, “what can you change?”

He sat back in his chair. “I need to start seeing the job as an assignment. The company wanted me on the payroll because they conceptualised the engagement as needing to look like a permanent job. I had to be one of them. They needed to feel that I was tied in in some way. But I don’t have to think of it like that.

“Giving over to them my need for security was a mistake on my part. I need to take that back and start looking at myself as a freelancer again.”

Boss as client

“What would making that mindset shift enable you to do?” I asked him.

“Well, a key thing is that I’d start seeing my boss as my client again, and I’d engage with him in that way.”

“Hmmmmm.”

“Yes, I can see that I’ve become too concerned about what he thinks of me. I’m not as direct with him as I could be. I guess I’m frightened that it’ll jeopardise my longevity in this role.

“If I conceptualise him as my client, my relationship with him will change considerably. I’ll focus much more on my deliverables with him; I’ll contract with him around those and negotiate with him around budget numbers, timescales etc. I’ll be less concerned about his games.”

“Games?”

“Yeah, he delights in saying no to my recommendations and watching me get angry about that. Or in tinkering with what I’m doing. I need to run my show like I’m a consultant. I need to state my opinion and my advice really powerfully. I need to call his games. Crucially, I don’t need him to agree with me or like me. That’s his choice. Meanwhile, I do what I’ve contracted to do in an engaged way and keep moving.”

“And not attach yourself to the outcome?” I said.

“Correct,” he said.

WIIFM

As Frank spoke about focusing on the deliverables of the role, I offered him another thought. As well as thinking about what he needed to achieve for the job, he ought to consider what the job needed to deliver for him.

The What’s In It For Me factor.

“You’re saying I need personal goals that are broader than the job?” he said.

“Yes,” I said. “For example, you’re adding global business development experience to your skills portfolio here. You’re learning some stuff around how big companies use social media. What else do you need to walk away with at the end of this next period of time in order for it to have been of full value to you?”

He was thinking about this when I added, “And these need to be, not just work and business things but personal things too.”

“I need to get my networking back into action,” he said finally. “And I need to spend more time with my family. This damned CrackBerry has just taken over.”

With that, he took it and put it in his inside pocket, even with the LED flashing red.

Set an end date

“What else would help?” I asked him.

“I think I need to set an end date to what I’m doing now.”

“You mean you’ll leave then?” I said.

“No, not necessarily,” he said. “I may choose to do another ‘assignment’ with the same firm, depending on how things are looking. What I’d like to do, however, is to give myself a feeling of choice again. As I get back to me networking, things will open up for me. I may stay here, but I’ll do it from a stronger platform of opportunity.”

“Powerful,” I said.

“Indeed,” he said. He was smiling again and looking much more bouyant. I told him so and he nodded in agreement.

“Another coffee?” he asked.

“I thought you didn’t have much time,” I said.

“The job can wait,” he said.

These were four ideas, then, that helped Frank gets his groove back for work, without quitting his job or even feeling that he had to. Do you relate with any of Frank’s experience here? What ways have you helped yourself change your mind so you didn’t have to change your immediate work?

Filed Under: Reinventing work, Work and life Tagged With: , , ,

New Work Pioneers Answer A Call To Adventure

April 23, 2010 by 19 Comments

Today’s post is the third in an emerging series, writing The Manifesto For New Work Pioneers.

Last week we were talking about the desire for soul-felt joy that drives gutsy, professionals to challenge career norms. Today we’re looking at the kind of things that catalyse that desire; that may indeed bring it into existence for the first time. And how now offers a brilliant opportunity for those ready to respond to that call to adventure.

The Prompt

Every journey starts somewhere. Including the journey of your own life, and the decision to put yourself on the path of doing a different kind of work. Whatever “different” looks like to you.

I don’t know if you’ve ever come across a guy called Joseph Campbell, but he reckoned that all heroes are provoked into action by some event or other that interrupts the routine of what has been their life till then.

This call to adventure brings you to a choice point of which you may not have previously been aware.

Smart film makers and writers use this idea to draw you into the story. If you’ve seen Matrix, you’ll recall that Neo’s secret life as a hacker is interrupted when he gets a message on his computer screen. If you’ve read Harry Potter, you’ll remember the unexpected invitation that arrives while Harry’s still deep in his miserable existence with his aunt and uncle.

The same dynamic is alive in our own lives when our own call to adventure presents itself.

Catalysts

Experience tells me that the New Work Pioneer journey begins in one of three ways.

It can start of itself, driven by you. In this scenario, it simply occurs to you to want something different from your worklife, and to start feeling your energy mobilise around the idea of it.

I think here of clients who seek my support, already with a good picture of what they’re trying to bring about in their work and lives, looking for coaching to help them set themselves trail blazing.

It can be brought about by a force for good or bad. Positive examples? Consider the confirmed career batchelors who are knocked sideways when they unexpectedly fall in love. Suddenly the role, shape and form of work in their lives gets put in the spotlight. Similarly, I’ve seen the arrival of a new baby fundamentally challenge long held career and life “certainties” and put parents on the path of major work life reinvention.

Negative experiences? Well, there’s the example of a recent client whose business dried up during the recession. It forced him to confront that what he’d been doing hadn’t really been “him” in any case and to put himself on the path to creating his dream. Another, who’d geared himself for the stars in a partnership firm, ignored many of his own personal needs as he worked round the clock. His wake-up call came in the shape of a life-threatening illness, forcing him to look at his relationship with work in a new way.

Or, it can be brought about by something serendipitous. Financial pressures caused one unhappy client to feel stuck in what she was doing. Out of the blue, her husband was offered a much better job in a different location, allowing her the finances, time and space to begin following her dreams.

Accept the call. Or stagnate.

Whatever brings them there, New Work Pioneers have a moment in time which they must grab hold of.

A period of hesitancy is pretty normal. The whole thing can have an other-worldliness about it. Fears of losing control, going crazy or bankrupt, becoming the proverbial bag lady, doing something that fails from which they risk looking stupid, or not being able to honour personal and financial commitments reign supreme. But the need and impetus to change and its associated excitement and curiosity win through.

But not always. Sometimes, it’s all too difficult and the call to adventure is ignored or buried. In which case the pioneering spirit gets flattened.

Don’t let it happen to you!

Why now?

Until recent times, western society was characterised by hierarchy, leadership by a few, and servitude. Work was a key institution that reinforced this picture. We were expected to study hard, get a good job, enslave ourselves to one organisation, display loyalty, and play the game, in return for the patriarchal rewards of pay and benefits.

But times are changing. First, we just expect more from our lives now than was the case of generations before us. Second, leadership is morphing into something that’s more about personal authority and influence. We are finding that we can offer our own forms of leadership that have nothing to do with position. Third, we want to call the shots more now on what work we do and how we do it. And, as Scot Herrick said earlier this week, the pay check, of itself, doesn’t really cut it anymore.

You could say there’s a society-wide call to adventure going on!

And, of course, technology, the power of the internet, self-development books, blogs and the coaches that support them have never been more available. Meaning that those of you getting on board with your own journeys have a wealth of resource to support you.

So, if you are listening to your own call to adventure, have the will to make things different for yourself and are prepared to put it to the test, there never has been a better time.

Sound familiar to you, my manifesto reading friends? What call to action have you heeded in starting your New Work Pioneer’s journey? What calls might you be avoiding? What do you need to enable you to listen?

To avoid missing the next post in this series, make sure you subscribe here!

Filed Under: Reinventing work Tagged With: , , ,

The Challenges Of Doing What You Love And How To Overcome Them

April 19, 2010 by 39 Comments

Day 3: Genesis 37.19
Creative Commons License photo credit: thekmochs

Today I’m delighted to share this guest post by Ben Lumley. Ben is a Motivational Speaker and Trainer from the UK who writes about personal development at 6aliens.com. Why not connect with him on Twitter @6aliens or if you liked this article then why not subscribe to his RSS Feed?

It’s not easy doing what you love. In the beginning there are challenges that you don’t always expect and some can really knock you off your feet. But these are things you have to face because by dealing with them you’ll move closer to making your dream become reality.

The challenges below are all ones that I face today as work to create a future full of what I love to do.

Family and friends

One of the biggest and sometimes hardest challenges comes from your family and friends. Sometimes we expect those around us to fully support our dreams and ambitions but this isn’t always the case. Those close to us can in fact disagree with our choices and are happy to make that clear.

This can come from many things. Sometimes it can be because they fear that they will lose you while you’re out changing your future. Other times it can be through jealously because they don’t have the confidence to chase their dreams or have failed in the past and never gotten back on the horse.

I don’t think there are right or wrong ways to overcome this challenge. The solutions will be unique to each of us. All I can do is share the philosophy that I have. It’s simple really. I just keep pushing on towards my goals and keep trying to make my vision for the future come alive. True friends will stick out the ride whether they agree with you now or not. Family ultimately want what they perceive is best for you. When they can see that you’re doing what you love and it makes you happy, then they will come around.

Time

Another big challenge in doing what you love is the time it takes. Unless we chase our dreams from an early age, we usually have to manage work and life at the same time as trying to make a change. This can not only take a lot of time but also requires us to use the time we have to better effect.

If you’re coming home from work and then putting some time into what you love that’s time you could be spending with loved ones. I could quite easily spend every evening with my wife but then I wouldn’t have time to work on my goals for the future. It’s really about finding a balance while also helping those who are missing out on your time to see the potential benefits and opportunities your success will bring.

Sometimes when we’re doing what we love we have to make sacrifices in other areas of our lives in order to provide time to make the challenge. This is what we need to manage well to get the best of every opportunity.

Making the Jump

A common challenge faced by people who do what they love is making that jump from their old life to begin that new one. Taking the leap of faith that allows you to completely change your life can be a challenge in itself. It’s a massive step outside your comfort zone that many of us are terrified to make.

But this is the kicker. If you want to chase your dreams in life you need to bite the bullet and go for it. You need to stand up and be counted if you want them to come true. There is sadly no getting around it. You just need to be brave and go for it.

Sometimes the things we love to do bring their own challenges. They are challenges we all have to face however and do in fact make us stronger, just as all situations in life ultimately do.

Filed Under: Guest posts, Reinventing work, Thriving @ work Tagged With: ,

Revealed: Why New Work Pioneers REALLY Bother

April 16, 2010 by 37 Comments

I was pretty excited as I sat down at the Mac to write this, the second in an emerging series, creating The Manifesto For New Work Pioneers.

Why?

Because I’d decided to start by talking about what’s at the heart of my companion journeyfolks’ decision to break through old career rules.

Yes, they want more control over their lives.

Yes, they want to do more of what they love, inside and outside of work, more on their terms.

And, yes they want to create the kind of lifestyle of which their friends can be quietly envious.

But that’s not really, really what prompts them to take courage in both hands. No, the real driver is something deeper again. Yet something simpler too. It’s the wish to have not just a professionally successful career, but also to have a well-lived life.

They want to thrive and flourish, not just to survive.

In short, they want to give themselves the pleasure of being wholly alive.

A range of positive emotions distinguish the life experience they’re insistent on enabling:

Joy

They want to be have the presence of mind to be truly nurtured by what Tara Sophia Mohr called life’s move-you-to-tears moments. The just-bathed smell of a newborn; the cute silliness of lambs in spring; the vivid beauty of ocean fish swimming through coral; the touch of a lover’s skin, the bliss of carefree belly-laughter.

Interest

They want to have the energy to connect with other people and things in an involved and meaningful way. They want to feel engaged when their child insists on reading them the next chapter of Flesh of The Zombie; they want to be able to listen as a partner unpacks his day; they want to have the openness of mind when a colleague asks for input on a new business idea.

Contentment

They strive to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. They want to see the good in the present moment and beyond. They long to feel at ease in themselves and in the world. To hang out in a coffee shop on a rainy Tuesday and look with open eyes at how life goes on beyond work.

Gratitude

They want to recognise the value of things in their lives. They want to take time to appreciate and thank. To be able to say what is good. The colleague going the extra mile to get a report done. The bashed up, delicious cookies your kid made for you at school. The ongoing background presence of someone in your life you’d be lost without.

Love

They want to give love and they want to be loved back. They want to emotionally extend themselves to others for their own and for their close others’ benefit. They want to be awake to that burst-your-heart feeling that comes from the oneness of having someone special.

So much of the norm of human existence is focused on life’s darkness: fear, despair, anger, frustration. There’s a whole Western Cultural script running. “Don’t feel joy,” it says.

New Work Pioneers turn this on its head and live life through a positive lens. They’re no Pollyannas and they are not inauthentically confident and joyful. But they do adopt two fundamental practices that keep their emotional scales tipping in the right direction.

Mindfulness

They bring awareness to their everyday thoughts and interactions. They watch for when their first reaction is to go to a positive place, and when it is to respond negatively. They realise they have some choice over the balance of good and bad. On the whole, they choose good.

Permission

Hand in hand, they give themselves permission to do the kind of things that are the essence of life. They allow themselves to play, and in the process build their ability to experience joy.

They take the time to get off their own case long enough to explore other things and other people. Hence they whet their curiosity and build their sense of interest.

They allow themselves to savour things, using all of their senses. In the process, they build their contentment muscle.

Good news

As it turns out, this isn’t just fluffy, coaching talk. Psychologists have shown that people who live more of the positive emotions are more successful in life.

Fear and negativity close us down. Hope and positivity open us up and allow us to see things in a completely different way.

Which is terrific news for New Work Pioneers. Allowing themselves to have what they search for feeds and strengthens them. And so a virtuous cycle is created.

So, manifesto readers, what do you think? Have I captured the deep down reasons we all do it? What would you would add? What else needs to be said and recognised that’s missing here?

And, for you personally, what experiences can you share that capture the essence of why you are on the path of creating a different kind of work?

Filed Under: Reinventing work, Work and life Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Building A Blog Or Building A Business?

April 14, 2010 by 20 Comments

That’s been the question on my mind as I’ve done my April blog review.

As regular readers know, I have a process for reviewing my blog that is now becoming pretty well established. I share the results of it because, not only am I passionate about helping others navigate career and life change for themselves, but also I’m in the process of reinventing my own already reinvented work life and believe there’s value in being transparent about my own process here.

This month’s headlines:

  1. Most statistics are heading in the right direction
  2. Notably, the blog has had 41% more traffic this month versus last; which, although it’s down on the stonking 93% month on month increase in March, is still heading in the right direction.
  3. I achieved my ambition of writing and posting two posts per week.
  4. The number and quality of comments being left on posts continues to be strong.
  5. However, I’ve had no new paying clients via the blog for the second successive month, and
  6. My RSS subscriber numbers have stayed more or less steady month on month.

What’s helping?

Guest posts

The blog broke into the realms of guest posting this month, thanks to my lovely friend Jen Smith who shared her article, Paving Your Own Path.

Life Skills Magazine is an innovative online publication, now in its third month. Its founder, Ayo Olaniyan invited me to give them an article which I happily did.

Traffic spikes

I had fabulous traffic spikes around four articles during the month, all different. First, thank you Jen, your article drew terrific traffic. Then, my honest and perhaps a little controversial article Split Work-Life Personality? Join The Club! got good numbers. Next, my tongue in cheek post Here’s How Not To Differentiate Yourself As A Coach did well. As did Five Things That Help New Work Pioneers Make Real Change.

What’s curious about the posts that did better than those that did not is that they’re all a bit quirky and different in their own way. And, although blog business guru Michael Martine might disagree, I think their headlines are pretty good in blogging terms. All things that seem to be important to grabbing the reader’s attention.

Recognition

I’m super excited to share a number of things here. First, Scot Herrick, perhaps better know for his Cube Rules site, has just written a book which hits the shelves this May and asked me if I’d read an advanced copy and endorse it. It’s called I’ve Landed My Dream Job — Now What??. I think it’s going to be a great resource for New Work Pioneers who are choosing to work in a corporate context.

Second, A Different Kind of Work was named one of the Top 50 Human Resource Blogs by Business Resource Master.

Awesome!

What’s curious?

It’s interesting, four months into seriously running it, that the blog still isn’t bringing in more income. A telling analytic is the stationary numbers for my RSS subscriptions. I think if I want to be able to make more direct contact with people, that’s an interesting sign. Still, it’s too early in the blog’s life to get worried about this and all my instincts tell me that I’m putting good foundations down and I should just moving.

And that’s really where the question, am I Building A Blog Or Building A Business comes in. If it’s the former, I need to be doing more of what I’m currently doing and continue to watch my Google Analytics figures grow.

But, if it’s the latter, I need to listen to some of the cautionary signs I’m seeing and act accordingly.

I am, of course, choosing the latter. Listening is taking me back and having me ask myself some vital questions:

  • For whom am I writing and working? In other words, who is my market?
  • What problem is it that I am uniquely positioned to help them solve?
  • What are my business’s goals in bringing my offering to my market?
  • What strategies am I using to try to achieve my goals? Are they the right ones for my market?

Future growth directions

My early answers to the questions I’ve just posed above suggest a tweaking of what I’m doing here as opposed to any major overhaul.

I believe that, after months of waiting, I’m about to switch over to my new site design and Headway: important considerations in the whole marketing and SEO capability of my site.

In addition to RSS, I’m planning to add Aweber, or a similar email marketing tool to the site, so I can build further beyond what I’m doing here.

I’m also going to host more guest posts from people talking about their own experience of A Different Kind of Work, and was pleased to welcome Linda Wolf to the site this Monday with her beautifully written piece, Deviation From The Norm – My Different Kind Of Work. Next starring attraction, Ben Lumley from 6aliens is lined up for next week.

Part of my challenge, I believe, is that whilst there are a number of people in my target market who have switched on to reading and writing blogs and taking part in social media, there are others who have not. I need to find non online ways to reach them. I currently playing with ideas around how I can write for relevant newspapers and other publications. And wondering whether a book idea that I had relegated to next year needs to come higher up my agenda.

I’m also keen to do some stuff that bridges social media and in person work. With that in mind, I’m delighted that Nick Williams, of The Inspired Entrepreneur Club, and I are going to be interviewing at the end of this month with the intention of having reciprocal You Tube videos on our sites.

And I’m spending this week crafting the webinars and seminars I’ve spoken of before so that I can get hard products on my site for people to engage with.

Well, that’s it for this month, folks. If you have any thoughts, observations or reflections as you read this, I’d love to hear them!

Photo credit: Skye to the West Coast: Steven Durbin Photography

Filed Under: Reinventing work, Work and life Tagged With: , ,

Deviation From The Norm – My Different Kind Of Work

April 12, 2010 by 23 Comments

Today I’m delighted to welcome Linda Wolf. Linda writes Insanely Serene, a blog devoted to her passion for peace of mind and serenity. Through her blog, she offers practical suggestions for moving from low self-esteem to powerful self-confidence,  carved from honest and touching reference to her own, real experiences. Here she shares how personal crisis and search for meaning alchemized her own Different Kind of Work.

I love Christine’s blog for her amazing writing, and for the ideas she presents about the possibilities for stepping outside our family and societal expectations to find the work we love. I’m inspired by her work and am honored to be a part of her series on how others have found their way to express their purpose in life. Here is a little bit of my story.

I am a quiet non-conformist. Reserved by nature, I was a sensitive child and shy young adult. I appeared to be following the path laid out by generations of my hard-working family with its immigrant roots in early 20th century America: Get a good education, a respectable job/career, marry, have children, buy a home, save for retirement. I went to college and later earned a graduate degree, built a career in communications, and got engaged to a research scientist. Textbook, huh?

But wait! (Sound of needle on record album screeching to a halt.) From the beginning there were signs of unrest. As a kid, I withdrew into books and stories when I didn’t like the reality around me. I did not fit in to any of the accepted crowds in high school. I refused to cover up unpleasantness in my family, insisting on speaking up for truth. And I didn’t have a path. I felt the pressure of family expectations for success, but I did not know what I wanted to do or where I wanted to end up.

A Different Kind of Inner Work

Several factors combined to lead me in the direction of a different kind of inner work. As a youth, I felt that something was wrong, but I could not articulate what. Though there was much chaos, I also saw around me adults who modeled the behavior of seeking help and balance – never giving up on the idea of feeling better, despite the crush of difficulties in life.

Thus, my inner uneasiness joined forces with a drive to feel better – to seek resources at every turn, to be willing to try new things – anything to get out of depression and into feeling happier.

Seeking turned into a lifelong pattern. At the point of my engagement, I had finally broken free of depression, but I was lying to myself to be safe, not in love, in my relationship.

A crisis led me to break off the engagement and focus intense energy on myself. I had to dig out all of my character flaws, face them, and let them go. In the process, I got to really know myself – the person underneath all the societal pressures. And I discovered the joy of emotional and spiritual freedom that comes from self-honesty and taking responsibility for my life.

A Different Kind of Life Path

Although as a young adult I didn’t have a clear idea for my occupation, I did eventually find my way to my ideal skill set – communications, specifically writing. I built a career in writing within my field of interest – science and health. I was lucky enough to get dream jobs at environmental organizations, science museums, and communications agencies. For a long time I was satisfied with my professional track.

Over the last few years, however, I started to feel a tickle in the back of my mind…there was something more I wanted to do. I didn’t know exactly what, but it had to do with writing, and it had to do with the work I’d done getting to know myself. And I knew it meant stepping off the traditional path.

Being a cautious person, it’s taken me a long time to evolve this new direction. For a few years, all I did was think about it (as in, “I’d like to retire so I can do whatever I want to with my time!”). I got some clarity around wanting to do my own writing. For the next couple of years, I evolved a plan to transition from a full-time job to a schedule that would allow big chunks of time for writing.

For the last two years, I’ve been able to manage a schedule of part-time work and time devoted to my writing – and what I’m going to do with it. I’m stepping outside the norm. I’m learning that the most important thing is what I think, not what I think others think. It’s about having confidence in my inner voice, whether for my personal growth or my professional path.

Even with all this searching, I don’t know my final destination. But if I listen to my insides, I believe I’m on the right track; and I know these things:

  • I love to write and I’m good at it.
  • I have a passion for peace of mind – and for using personal development tools to keep my serenity in all situations that life throws at me.
  • I want to share my knowledge – how I’ve become my best self – because it helps me continue my inner work.
  • I love helping others find their way to their true selves.

My blog is a first step toward helping others. For the future, I have dreams of possibly publishing a book, teaching workshops, and working with individuals and groups. I will continue down my path, without knowing where it ends, because for now, it feels right. I trust the unfolding process and that I’ll know the next step when it’s time.

I welcome any suggestions from you, and would love to hear a little of your journey toward a different kind of work.

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Filed Under: Guest posts, Inner work, Reinventing work Tagged With: , , ,

Introducing The Manifesto For New Work Pioneers

April 9, 2010 by 24 Comments

Welcome to the first in an unfolding and to-be-developed series of posts, creating The Manifesto For New Work Pioneers. To kick off, I want to share three things:

  • My intention in writing The Manifesto
  • Some thoughts on how this process will run
  • Article headings that could shape some meaningful draft content and lead to some meaty conversation.

If this is the first time you’ve visited and are wondering what on earth all of this is about, read Why Pushing Through Is Not Always The Way To Get Ahead, to get caught up on the conversation.

My intention

I want, through this process, to create words, give voice, and bring collective energy to a phenomenon of our time.

It’s the one where gutsy, courageous professionals are daring NOT to be defined by career norms, and are instead choosing to create their very own relationship with work. Whatever “work” looks like to them.

I’m very aware of the organisational and institutional implications of this trend. AND my focus is on describing, assisting and enabling the vibrant idiosyncrasies of the very real individuals who are awake to this challenge.

I’m choosing to write this in an open way because that feels to be in keeping with the spirit of what’s required here. As CV Harquail eloquently said in her last comment:

“some manifestos are starting to feel ‘canned’. While I love the ChangeThis site and mission, and often find kindred souls and ideas there, I also sometimes feel like it’s more soapbox, less action. At worst, those manifestos are exhortations, not conversations that move us forward. All the more reason to see how you might transform the manifesto writing process as a community, building one.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

For me – and I guess for many of you – this is an experiment in not being defined by the implicit manifesto writing rules and daring to do something different. So, this process itself parallels what we’re talking about. Hence, it’s possible that there are some personal development insights ahead for all of us.

I hope so!

How’re we going do this?

What seems to have got the thumbs up from you is the idea that I post some thoughts in a blog-like way and those spark conversation through the comments section. Thanks to Eleanor “Give a Brick” Edwards, I now have threaded comments so you can all comment on one another’s comments too. When we’re conversationed out, I synthesise new thoughts and ideas that have emerged into the original post – or, indeed, completely re-write it as necessary! The ultimate aim is to create a collection of posts that will be developed into a PDF document for free download from this site.

A subsequent thought I had was to offer to reference all contributors in a separate section for that purpose. Which would allow you some recognition of your involvement, assuming you were happy with that?

Separately, let me know of anything else you need or want that would enable you to play your best part in the production process.

The Shape Of Things To Come?

So, here are the conversation points around which I’ve drafted headlines and written a little “abstract” of the content I imagine could go with them.

As you read this, I would ask you to do so with these questions in mind:

  • What really resonates for you here?
  • What’s not cutting it for you?
  • What’s missing, and how would you suggest we add it?

Call To Action

An inspiring introduction, talking about who New Work Pioneers are; what in the world, and in their own lives are prompting them to take an approach to work that’s outside of what has, till now, been considered the “norm”; and why now offers a brilliant opportunity for seizing the moment to consciously design their own work path.

The New Work Pioneer’s Holy Grail

A post that talks in detail about the biggest challenge for New Work Pioneers: acknowledging that they are choosing the path of the individual, and not the path of the herd; that they and they alone are in charge of their own destinies. What blinkers do they have to remove in order to see things this way? What fundamental principles and practices do they need to adopt to help them do so? How they empower themselves to think of their “deviance” in a positive way.

The Success Mindset of New Work Pioneers (and How To Cultivate It)

How New Work Pioneers are redefining for themselves what “success” looks and feels like, away from being about extrinsic things like big job titles, promotions, bonuses, corner offices, big salaries, and all the things that go with those things, towards being about achieving personal goals, maintaining good relationships with partners, friends, family. The New Work Pioneer’s relationship with money and wealth. The challenges of embracing this mindset in a world that values all things external. The shifts needed to bring this mindset alive for oneself and how to make them happen.

How New Work Pioneers Are Re-Writing The Old Career Rules

The inventiveness and genius that New Work Pioneers are using to really make work work for them. How they’re realising the solution to their initial career discomfort is not a ready-made one, but one for which they alone hold the answer. How, through an evolving understanding of themselve, their values and their passions, they are getting creative about carving out unique ways to honour that in their own lives. How they are finding ways to live within the “As Is” work model, but to do so on their terms.

The Hallmark Challenges Of New Work Pioneers (and How To Overcome Them)

An article that confronts the realities of the struggles that New Work Pioneers face in their quest to create a working life that really jives for them. The challenges of cutting free from all the internal and external beliefs and limitations that keep them from wholly manifesting the best of themselves. The challenges of living outside the norm, but being understood and being accepted by the mainstream. How these challenges can be reframed in ways that allow them to be overcome.

Here’s How New Work Pioneers Navigate Their Journeys

Recognising that the process of New Work Pioneers is not a wholly logical one, but one that also has an emotional, emergent aspect, that takes time to be wholly worked through and understood. The practices, tools and resources New Work Pioneers can use to positively support them through their journeys.

Okay, guys, so this is my starter for ten. My thinking from here is that, given your feedback on what I’ve written today, I’ll take one of these headings each Friday over the next weeks and we’ll work them through together.

What do you think? Over to you now – let the conversation begin!

Filed Under: Reinventing work, Work and life Tagged With: , , , , ,

How To Use The Turning Of The Seasons To Support Your Development

April 2, 2010 by 14 Comments

I don’t know about you, but for me the last three months have been pretty full-on. It has been a long and hard winter here in the UK, and I’ve felt as if I’ve been in a dark, if fun and productive, little cocoon.

It’s still biting cold. But driving back from the farmers’ market this morning, I could tell that spring is undeniably in the air. There are buds appearing on trees, lambs skipping in fields, and daffodils carpeting grass verges.

I’ve been looking forward to this UK Bank Holiday weekend as a chance to push back a little and have some well-earned rest. At the same time, I want to use the turning of the seasons as an opportunity both to acknowledge my gratitude for the one just leaving, and to anticipate the possibility in the one ahead. To experience things coming into being for me after a winter’s gestation. To feel myself at a point of further growth and potential. In short, to use it as a way of fostering my own and my business’s development.

The last months have been awesome and I feel really grateful for what they’ve given me. A chance to settle better into country life; the space to do the hard work to diversify my business so that it has more of a social media slant to it; the opportunity to form such incredible connections with people online who are making all of this such a joy.

At the same time I feel excited about what’s ahead. I have the prospect of building The Manifesto for New Work Pioneers, in collaboration with you, beginning just next week. And there are other irons in the fire too about possible speaking and other engagements that are going to help me connect on this and other themes that matter to professional people who are choosing to take a conscious approach to their working lives.

To flesh this out further, and get the full benefit of the spirit of the seasons’ handover, I’ve written myself a handful of self-coaching questions I’m going to be reflecting on over the weekend. As I haven’t yet come across virtual chocolate, I’d also like to offer them as my Easter gift to you. They won’t make you fat and they may even help you get yourself in a good mindset for the months ahead!

  • What has been gestating for you over the last three months?
  • What shoots of growth and change are you seeing in your life and in yourself as a result?
  • What has enabled this, and for what are you grateful?
  • How do you want things to grow and change for you from here?
  • What do you need to do, think and  feel to ensure that you give yourself the best chance of manifesting your picture in the way you want and deserve?

I’d love to hear whatever you have to share. Meantime, have a good Easter.

Filed Under: Self Development Tagged With: , , ,