Love Your Work
Here is a piece that I wrote this week in an answer to a blog I wrote before called This is your career. I wanted to show the two perspectives between passion and satisfaction. I hope you like it!
This is a guided email-based program designed to help you make significant progress in your career over the span of a 90 days.
Through a series of emails, tasks and resources, you will gain clarity, develop skills, and take action towards your career goals.
You’ll receive an email every 3 days sharing tips, strategies and insights into developing your career and changing jobs.
You can also follow on YouTube if you prefer to watch videos — or both! The choice is yours!
We can all shy away from solving complex problems because they require effort and time. What's more, is they can often lead to feelings of failure and rejection if our solutions don't go well. Having said that, it's worth considering the upsides of complex problem solving and how it can progress our careers
How do you convey the value of your work and how your efforts are having a positive impact on your company/organisation?
Here are a couple of useful ways to understand what you have achieved and what you have contributed. They should primarily be used for acknowledging your own efforts, but could also be used for having respectful and professional conversations with your manager.
They should not be used in a moment of conflict or as any form of threat. That would be counterproductive - at least in my opinion.
Should you do an MBA? Well that depends on what you’re hoping to get out of it. In this video, I’ll discuss 5 of the main reasons people decide to undertake such a big commitment and some points on how to figure out if it’s the right next step for you.
The ultimate question is: will this help you achieve your end goal? (a new job, more knowledge etc.?)
Here is the Article I mention in the video:
4 Things That Set Successful CEOs Apart: https://hbr.org/2017/05/what-sets-successful-ceos-apart#:~:text=to%20high%20performance.-,The%20Findings,proactively%2C%20and%20they%20deliver%20reliably.
What type of jobs are you looking for? And where are the best places to search for them? I can tell you that most people find searching for jobs online to be a confusing and time-consuming process. So here are a few tips to get you started on the right foot.
What’s your plan for 2020? Have you got a clear vision in your head? For me, that’s always the first part. If I don’t know what I’m trying to achieve, it’s impossible for me to make a plan around that. So the first thing to do is review the various goals you’d like to achieve (e.g. career, relationship, financial, health, adventure, contribution) and create a vision board
Job hunting can be frustrating. You might not get any good responses, you might not get any good feedback, and it might take longer than you’d hoped. So it's important to have a systematic approach to the job hunt. The template below will allow you to keep track of the applications you send and allow you to follow up in a professional manner.
Thank you for taking the time to review my application for this role. I know these decisions are often tricky and the most likely reason I didn't get an interview is that there were other candidates who were more suitable, which I completely understand.
Also, I really appreciate you following up to let me know I haven't been successful, even though I'm sure you're busy - so thanks for that.
'Lincoln told a story to an audience of generals and admirals about a man who had approached him for a high-ranking government appointment. First, the man asked if he might be made a foreign minister. Upon being turned down, the man asked for a more modest position. Upon being turned down again, he asked for a job as a low-level customs officer. Finding he could not get even that, he finally just asked for an old pair of trousers. Ah, Lincoln laughed as he concluded the story, "it is well to be humble”. '
From The Daily Stoic, by Ryan Holiday
Not being good enough. There, I said it.
It also comes in many iterations as well, e.g. not smart/educated enough; not fast enough; not successful enough; not rich enough, or poor enough (depending on your group) etc.
I've been pondering on this one for a while now as it concerns a huge amount of people that I meet (and of course myself!) - I'm human after all. 'What's the answer? What's the solution?'
I don't know. But here are some thoughts on it: