Give yourself the same career advice you would give your children
Stacy relayed her career dissatisfaction. She went through the motions at work. “I rotate between bored and anxious. When the work is routine, I’m bored. But when something is different – which means there is a problem – I get anxious.” Stacy’s children were teens and beginning to think about college-career issues. As she continued, […]
Career JOY
Let me start by distinguishing “happiness” versus “joyfulness”. Both are wonderful but happy-sad are part of the same continuum and both are viewed as transient: happy in one moment, sad in the next. The ups and downs of external events, such as a victory at work (promotion) followed by a defeat at work (bad review) […]
Could a boring career ruin your whole life?
Steven was one of the most interesting clients of Career Counseling Connecticut. He came to us in the rebuilding phase of his life. His girlfriend had gifted him a few sessions with us as a Christmas present. He came reluctantly and without much hope and then told me his story which I paraphrase: “I wasn’t […]
Are you a disengaged zombie at work?
I came across that term while reading Strech by Karie Willyerd and Barbara Mistick. Very good book. In relation to “disengaged zombies”, Gallup poll has cited the following: 30% of workers are engaged (and presumably happy) 20% are utterly miserable and another 50% are just going through the motions and classified as disengaged, I suppose […]
Career Change: How will I…?
The initial part of Keith’s career was a straight line. He worked in large organizations as an attorney. He was never happy but he was successful. Sometime in his late 30s, a friend of his who owned a business related to financial services for international services offered him a chance to buy the business. Keith […]
The Joy of Happy Work
Work as a mood enhancer. That’s crazy talk to many. I know. While an upbeat optimist by nature, I had somewhere in the range of 5 years of work as a mood deflator. The difference is life-changing. During those 5 years, my mood decreased because of work and also affected my non-work life. Sometime mid-Sundays, […]
The Important – But Not Urgent – Career Work
Stephen Covey of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People fame popularized a time management quadrant: Important-Urgent; Important Not-Urgent; Urgent-Not Important; Not Urgent-Not Important. While most will discover that not everything fits neatly into each box, there are distinct examples for each: Work your boss wants tomorrow – important-urgent Exploratory career work – important-not-urgent Busy Work/Most […]
Change Your Career Before Life Gets Complicated
I know a couple of guys who got married young, divorced, and happily remarried a few years later. They each have wonderful families and marriages that are 20 years plus. I also know several men and women who knew very early on that they were ill-suited to each other, but stuck it out for years […]
Playing Badly Well: Sign of a Good Career
Yesterday, I awoke from one of those nights that parents know well. One of my three children is sad – dealing with mean girls – and, as the adage says, parents are only as happy as the unhappiest of their children. So…. I didn’t sleep well, as in perhaps 4 hours. On days that I […]
If you are unhappy in your career or job, you cannot fool yourself.
In the late 1990s, I was “lost” in the career wilderness. I would try to convince myself that all was well. I would focus on the positive. Big reasons for happiness: I was in a high paying, prestigious profession. I would stretch to find little reasons, even if I didn’t really care about the reasons: […]