Accelerate Your Search™ Now

You did it.  You made a mistake.  Now what?

Trust me, it is not the end of the world — even if you did something illegal, immoral or unethical (though, if this is the case, it will be a bumpier road ahead).  There is life after being fired.

This does not need to be the end of the road.  You are not the first person in the world to get fired.

First, sort out your emotions.  Take a breath.  Tell your family.  If there is something you need to address or apologize for, get it done.

This does not need drag you through the mud or scar you for life.

Second, if there is a behavior or attitude you need to address, decide if you want to address it or not.  Only you can do that.

Know that if you are an ogre who eats people for breakfast or you are the world’s cruelest boss, you have two clear choices:  1)  Find a job where it is OK to eat people and be cruel; or 2) Take an honest look at your behavior and the feedback you received.  Then decide — do I want to learn to alter my behavior or do I deem this behavior as acceptable.  And, by acceptable I mean it will not interfere with your life and future career plans.

Or if you’re thinking, “I am not an ogre, this was a minor infraction.  I was late for work again.  In fact, I am so mad I could spit nails because this is so unfair.  I can’t believe someone would fire me for this tiny thing.”

Again, you have two choices:  find a job where this “tiny thing” is acceptable or learn from what happened, alter your behavior and move forward.

I get it.  MOVING FORWARD MAY NOT BE EASY, but you can do it.

This may be a very emotional time.  Being without a job is tough.

Even if you lost your job through no fault of your own due to a layoff, there will be stress and emotional highs and lows.  I will say it again, and I do it with love and concern, this does not need to be the end of the world as you have known it.

There are many resources and services to help you.  If you want help, you can find it.

The resources and services from Career Centers, counselors and coaches abound.

My hope and prayer for you is simple:  

May you move forward quickly.  May you never stop believing in you.  And, may you never feel that you must walk this path alone.

Today, may you pause and not despair, may you see value in your unique gifts.

May you share your amazing talent and skills with your family, a new employer and the world.

May your career shine bright and may you light the world with your gifts, your work and your life.

You CAN find help no matter the reason you are seeking a new job– even if you were fired.  Your first step?  Decide you are ready to move forward.  Then take specific, consistent action and land a new job.

Do you have a question?  Post it below or contact me.

My wish for you is amazing abundance and success in the new year.  You possess everything you need to launch a fun, exciting and prosperous 2014!

Now, you might have a doubt or two.  We all do sometimes.  Turn all that doubt, fear and stress into belief, hope and absolute optimism.  Before you stop and say, “Forget it!” — remember your thoughts drive your beliefs, your beliefs drive your attitudes, your attitude drives your behaviors and your behaviors drive your results.  All results are impacted by your thoughts — your happiness, abundance, prosperity, who you are and how the world sees you.

If you don’t like your results, look at your thoughts first.  Your thoughts and your focus are the drivers of who you are and who you become.  Below is a four-step process to help you move forward with optimism:

1. Select one of your distressing thoughts.  For example, you made a call and the call was not returned.
2. Change the distressing thought into a successful thought, i.e., I placed a call and it was returned within 2 days.  Notice that finding successful thoughts is as simple as looking for the opposite.
3. For the next 24 hours repeat the success thought 7-9 times during the day.  You are on your way to changing your thoughts.
4. Repeat this practice for 21 days.  Yes, the average time to change a thought or a habit.  Warning:  it may take more than a few days before you repeat only the success thought.  The old distressing thought is a habit and you may repeat it before you check it and return to the success thought.  That is O.K. — just stay the course.

Change your thoughts, change your life.  May you have all the change and success you desire in the coming new year!

Have an amazing year!

“The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.” ~ Muhammad Ali

Do you view the world differently than you did 30 years ago?  How do you view your career differently than you did 30 years ago?

Sharing — and owning — your story and life is an amazing and profitable journey.  It is not, however, without risk, fear and bumps along the way.

One of the bumps we all encounter is the need to adjust, adapt or change our point of view.  How have you changed your point of view?  Is your identity still tied to your career?

When I hear someone tie their identity to a job, title, or even a job loss, I immediately flash back to my 20’s and my point of view at the time.  Also, I recall how I felt when I lost the job I thought I would have forever.  I understand these emotions on a very personal level.

I have never forgotten those feelings, nor the lessons I learned due to my point of view at the time.    However, I did not waste 30 years, I adjusted my world view.

One of the shifts in my view is that I now believe I am enough.  I have and can access all I need to be successful.  The super cool thing is that you do, too!

I believe, without a doubt, that each person on earth is given unique skills and talents and is able to find a job that sustains their lifestyle and utilizes their gifts and talents.

You can find a job in tough economic times.  You can do work you enjoy.  You can move past a job loss.  You are not dependent on a specific employer or the state of the economy for your success.

Seeing, sharing and owning who you are as a person (not just as an employee) creates an amazing career and life journey.  You will never see the world the same.

Do you feel like you are wasting time?  Do you need some help to land the job you want?  Contact me and let’s talk about how I might be able to help.

I guarantee shifting your view will accelerate your search and will keep you from wasting years of your life.

We make hundreds, maybe thousands, of choices every day — some critical and others not so much.  Grape jam or strawberry jam on toast is a choice.  Is it critical?  Generally not.

Confidence is also a choice.  A choice I put in the critical bucket.  The “critical bucket” holds the most important areas of your life, the areas where you need to make intentional, conscious and informed  choices — those that include your career and personal brand.

Confidence is that simple acceptance and certainty in your ability to succeed.  You can see and feel confidence.  Confidence has a clear, positive and powerful vibration.

Confidence is one of those qualities we admire when we see it.  It is that quality of self-assurance that we see from both afar and up close.  You see confidence, or the lack of it, as someone walks into a board room, onto a football field or even when a small child begins to peddle a bicycle down the sidewalk without training wheels.

Confidence is a mindset, a belief and an attitude.  For me, that mindset comes from doing what I believe is right.  It is also acquired by taking risks, learning, improving and graciously receiving feedback.

Sometimes confidence just shows up, but for me, at least at this point in my life, confidence is a choice.  This has not always been the case and there are still times when my confidence wanes — like when I try something new or dare to step out of outside of my comfort zone.

I understand the power of  personal branding on my personal and professional success, yet it was once a BIG struggle for me to have confidence in my own personal brand.

Clarity did not come as I thought it would.  As I grew and evolved as a person what once fit no longer did and that created an internal struggle for me.  The process was much like hanging out in the morning fog on a day when the fog never clears.  I struggled and wandered through the fog because I lacked the confidence to share my uniqueness with the world.

If I did that I would stand out — what if someone laughed or thought I was nutty?  What would that do to my career, my stable business, and my self-esteem?  I wasn’t sure I wanted my apple cart turned upside down.

Then, I lacked the confidence to share myself in a bold manner — for all the reasons above and the additional fear of ridicule.  Years ago in high school, I had dared to do be bold.  I was met with laughter and mocking from the very girls I considered to be my best friends.  When I reflect on that experience, the pain still pieces my heart.  So, what would be worse?  An upside-down apple cart or ridicule?  I voted for neither.  I was stuck — with no clarity and no confidence.

I had made the intentional choice to move in a direction.  I wanted to move on to a more satisfying, fulfilled and happy life.  Yet there it was – that one little ounce of doubt, showing up again.  Where did it come from?

Was it a look backward?  Was it my strong fear of ridicule or another past experience?  Did I fear failure or was it success?

Any thought could lead me to dwell upon that distraction.  After all, distractions and making excuses saved me from making a choice.  It saved me from taking action and moving on to either success or failure.  While I did not enjoy feeling in limbo, it was easy and held less risk.

That place of inaction became a place of comfort.  Fear, worry or concern shook my confidence just enough to send me back to my comfort zone — to the place of inaction.  I didn’t have the confidence to leverage who I was becoming and to share it with the world.

Rather than take action, I convinced myself I could do it own my own.  I used every excuse and then judged myself for the excuses.  I was not ready to step out and be confident in my ability to succeed.  The excuses and inaction allowed me to not select success.

It was very hard to ditch the “go it alone” attitude, to seek honest feedback, to engage an expert to help me and to choose to be successful.

It took me a long time to gain the necessary confidence and make the choice to pick up the phone and engage the expert I knew could help me.

So, I absolutely understand the excuses.  I know the fear of getting feedback — wanted or unwanted.  I, too, hear that little voice that begins to chatter and causes confidence to wane.  I answered no to the question, “Do you have the confidence to leverage what makes you unique ?” many, many times.  I did it all — wandered alone in the fog and plodded along for years hoping to sort it out  — before I got tired of holding success at bay and ditched my fear and finally said “yes” to success.

Post your comments below – what is holding you back from leveraging who you are and building a strong brand?

In the last post I shared what deepened my understanding of the importance of setting intentions.

If you have already set your intention for your next position, declared it publicly and are thinking and acting differently AND you are still struggling to land your next position — keep reading.

Several years ago we moved from Texas to New England.  In November!  It was the toughest winter of my life and I could not wait for spring to plant a lovely spring garden at our new home.  My simple desire for a garden and what I learned from that garden (heretofore referred to as “the adventure of my garden”) forced me to deal with thoughts and things I thought were dealt with — things I thought were in the past, but were not.

These same issues keep popping up for clients, so I decided it is time to share my experience in this blog.

OK, so the adventure of my garden . . . It was March and in my mind it was time to plant, but there was still snow everywhere.  How was I going to get my garden?

I started to ask questions about gardening in New England, got information and quickly rejected most of it.  Then April arrived and still no garden — I whined, fussed and got very frustrated.

Finally, I set the intention, used the information I gathered and planted the garden.  I got a few flowers and plants, but definitely not what I would call a garden.

Intention, information and action were not enough to produce a garden.  What was holding my garden back?  Maybe it was the bad weather.  Maybe I just needed more information.  After all, there was still snow in May — how could a garden grow in this harsh environment?

Surely, the lack of a full, lush garden was not because of me.  I decided the factors were out of my control and got increasingly frustrated.  Gardening in New England was just a bear!

For my clients this is just like updating their resume, researching job openings and getting an interview or two, but no job offers.

Do you see job searching as a bear?

Have you said the same things about your search that I said about my garden?

Have you given up because of things you believe are out of your control?

Is what’s holding you back really out of your control?  Really?

Join me next week as I share more of the “adventure in the garden . . . ”

Spring and the end of the first quarter are just around the corner!  In nature, the signs of the season are everywhere.  In New England the hints are subtle — just as they are in some businesses.

My years in New England have taught me something very interesting about intention — here, the advent of spring is declared publicly and loudly.

After the intention is set, it seems as if everyone in New England moves into spring mode.  People act and speak differently and choose different thoughts — all to ensure everyone knows spring is on the way.

There is clear, focused action.  Thoughts and deeds shift.  Spring coats appear.  This happens even if there are still piles of snow everywhere and you can’t yet see the brown ground.

During my first spring I was surprised by this ritual.  When inquiring about this interesting change, neighbors with puzzled looks advised,  “Unless you want winter to stay, you best focus on spring.  It’s just not healthy to keep thinking about winter and where we have been all these months.”  That year we were covered by some 140+ inches of snow and the ground was white for months.  However, the message sank in, and I quickly moved my focus to spring.  Now my intention shifts to ‘think spring’ each year by early March.

How does this relate to you transition?  Intention is important.  As is having a clear picture of what you want.  It is also critical to declare your intention publicly.

Have you set your intention for your new position?

Have you declared it publicly?

Your life and energy have forward movement.   Spring will come each year with or without the public declaration, yet the individuals who participate in the declaration have a clear picture of what they want spring to look like and think and act differently.

You may wind up stuck in ‘winter’ or ‘without your next position’ if you continue to think the same thoughts or fail to clearly articulate what you want from your next position.

Things are changing all around you.  If you want things to change in your job search you can’t continue to think the same thoughts and execute the in the same manner — you must think different thoughts.  Remember, the shift is not always comfortable.

Is it time you set your intention for a new job?

Is it time you started thinking and acting differently?

What will you do different this week?

Post a note below and share what you plan to do.

Oftentimes, it is easier to listen to the voices of doubt and sit still than it is to have the courage to listen to your REAL call to action and move forward with faith, completing what you really need to do.

Everyone desires success and wants life to be easy.  Me too!   I would love it if I could just wait by the phone or my Inbox and clients would come flooding in.  However, without continuous and innovative marketing and networking, I don’t land the job — and neither will you.

You can’t just keep fussing with your résumé of filling out online applications and expect someone to call you.  Unfortunately, time is not on your side.  Being out of work for a period of time does impact your value in the market.

If you are ready to stop making excuses and be back to work soon, it is time to take action!

Where to start?

First, you must BELIEVE!  Believe that results will come as a result of your actions.  Have faith that you are enough.  By nurturing and believing in your vision you become a magnet for success and prosperity.

Next, feel CONFIDENT in your values, skills and the job you perform.  Be aware of your doubts and negative feelings or you may miss out on available opportunities.

Then you must ACT!

Begin by assessing your network.  Take inventory of the people you know.  Do you need to grow and nurture your current network?  As in any business, inventory is an asset and impacts your bottom line.

Create a plan to connect and stay connected.  Who knows you?  Who likes you?  Who trusts you?  What is the best way to connect?  How will you stay connected?

Execute your plan.  Who will you call this week?  Pick up the phone.  Connect with people.  If you don’t have opportunities for a job in your pipeline you need to expand your network.

At the end of the day, stop listening to your doubts, decide what results you want and take action to achieve it!

“Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.” – Gandhi

Searching for your next position can be one of the toughest jobs you will ever hold.  Despite “positive thinking,” great marketing and all the resolve and determination you can muster, doubt can still seep in.  Go ahead, admit it, you’ve felt those doubts before, right?

All people have inner doubt at one time or another — maybe it happens when you reach for the phone or begin to compose an email.  You hear that little inner voice begin to chatter.  It says things like, “Why would this person be interested in hearing from me?” or “What will this person think of me?  I’m unemployed and begging for a job,” or even, “This person probably won’t even remember me!”  My “little voice” gets the loudest when I am marketing my services and communicating my value.  If the voice gets loud enough, I may even stop taking action.  Sound familiar?

How you ACT and interact with others is impacted by how you feel.  If you feel “less than” or doubt your skills and abilities it WILL show in your actions and interactions.  Each action (or inaction) directly impacts the results we achieve, the jobs for which we interview and consequently, our income and long-term success.

Let me share an example.  Have you seen people at networking events, walking the room, trying to meet EVERYONE?  They are stuffing their card into people’s hands, interrupting conversations and desperately trying to make something happen.  These actions are often driven by fear and will not garner the results the person is so desperately searching for.

Are you letting your doubts dictate your decisions and actions?  If so, pause and think about how you FEEL about your value, making connections and calling potential employers.  In times of doubt it is so important to continue to be bold and lean into the direction of positive change.

What would happen if you stopped listening to your doubts? 

What if you truly believed you are enough? 

What if you started to feel and act with positive expectation?

What would be different if, as Gandhi suggests in the quote above, you grow into the faith that you are enough and that connecting or re-connecting with each person will bring good things to you and to them?

You and I already know you have significant value to offer.  I also know that there are no accidents and that if you are considering the contact you should act on it!

What might change?  I know it takes a lot of courage to BELIEVE that you are enough, but results do occur when you lean into faith and take positive, proactive action.