Fulfillment: The “F” Word You Should Say Loudly and Often

Written by Anna Davda

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” —Steve Jobs

Most of us work 40 hours a week, and it's fair to say that some of us even work more than that. Further, when we're not working, we’re often thinking about work, or talking about work. With all this time spent on work, it becomes a big part of our identities. So, it’s especially sad to read statistics that up to 80% of people are dissatisfied with their work.

I’ve seen the discussions on this topic fall into 3 categories: idealistic, “how not to lose,” and resigned. Each is problematic.

The idealists continue to perpetuate the notion that we each have a “true calling”—all we have to do is find it. Sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Just find it! Unfortunately, this leaves most of us doggedly searching for something that we can’t control—if it even exists at all. In the meantime, we put tons of pressure on ourselves and make ourselves miserable in the process.

“How not to lose” focuses on what not to do (e.g. don’t focus just on the money). This is somewhat useful, but not enough to get us to where we need to be. Imagine if you tried to learn how to play a sport by only being told how not to lose, rather than how to win.

The resigned seem to have forfeited the game, believing that maybe work doesn’t have to be fulfilling at all. It’s just a means to an end, and life truly begins after 5pm on weekdays.

I’d like to offer my own approach—try bringing intention to your life and your career. Intention can help you make progress—whether you are looking for a job, are in a job you don’t like, or are in a job you do like but are not progressing at a rate you’d like to.

4 Steps To Become More Intentional In Your Career

1. Reflect.

First, find time to reflect. Reflection time should be time set aside, away from your phone, away from others, and preferably somewhere outside of your normal routine.

During this time, assess your values. What’s truly important to you? Is it family, financial success, time to pursue hobbies, helping others? You can find a list of values to consider here. Pick about five that are the most important to you, and rank them in order of importance. This will really help you for the inevitable point in your career where you’ll have to make a difficult choice that pits one value against another.

Now, think about your daily life. How much time do you actually spend on activities that reflect these values? Is there anything surprising about what you find? I recently did this exercise and discovered that though I value vision (setting vision and strategy, personally and professionally), I was doing very little of this at work because of my other responsibilities.  

2. Act.  

Talk with a trusted colleague, a mentor, a friend or partner, and eventually, your manager. Discussing what you’ve found in your reflection can help your manager understand the ways you want to have impact, and the skills you want to develop. This will allow the two of you to have an honest conversation about what’s possible in your current position. My manager and I had a conversation about my desire to spend more time setting vision and strategy for my team, and found a way to adjust my other responsibilities to make time for this.

3. Remember & Revisit Regularly.

This sounds simple, but it’s far from it.  A couple of years ago, I took on a challenging project. I knew the learning curve would be steep and that the project would take long hours and hard work. I intentionally stepped into this project after considering my values, and noting that at that point in time, my value for challenge and learning was exceeding my value of work-life balance. After revisiting my values, I realized I was willing to give a little on work-life balance to get more challenge and learning.  

4. Reassess periodically.

Reflection is not something you do only once. Set a regular schedule—at least once a year, or a few times a year is even better. A few months into the project I described above, I found myself getting frustrated when I worked late, almost resenting the project. I sat down to reflect, and realized that my values were still the same, and if I weren’t working late, I would have wanted to spend those extra hours learning and challenging myself somehow anyway. I immediately felt better, but it took reflection for me to realize that I was, in fact, exactly where I wanted to be at that moment.

My passion for intention is what drove me and two colleagues from Google to create our own business around helping others bring intention to their career. We coined our own word for the business: Intentify. To us, Intentify is a verb meaning ‘to bring intention to, to make or become intentional’.  

I'd love to hear from you in the comments: What will you do next to Intentify your career?

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About Anna Davda

Anna Davda is a Leadership & Diversity Learning Programs Manager at Google, and co-founder of Intentify.  In addition to her passion for being intentional, she’s passionate about running, yoga, meditation, travel, and serving her community.

I Was Called a Millennial at Work…

Written by Melissa Anzman Last week, I hit my ceiling for drama tolerance at a company I’ve been working with. Over the past several months, I tried troubleshooting, I asked for guidance, I talked to all of the people I could to get some traction, I elevated my concerns, I did… everything to improve the situation. And absolutely nothing changed.

This is pretty typical at a large organization, we’ve all experienced it. But what I finally realized, was this was simply the company’s culture. I talked with a few people who were having issues in other areas, and they agreed – they felt like they were screaming from the roof tops and no one cared except for them.

And that’s when my limit was reached. I knew that it was not going to be a long-term “culture” fit for me – it wasn’t worth the consulting dollars, the fun projects, the connections, etc. I couldn’t get over a culture that…

… doesn’t say thank you to their hard-working employees

… doesn’t take action when there are serious issues

… doesn’t prioritize people over (insert many things here: path of least resistance, how it’s always been done, etc.)

So I let them know that it was time for me to move on. And that’s when things got super weird.

The head person wasn’t made aware of my decision (she is a key stakeholder) for a week after the discussion. I went an entire week with radio silence, reinforcing my impression that as a worker bee, I wasn’t valued and my concerns continued to multiply. I had had an entire week of stewing, reinforcing my outlook on the situation, basically being done.

But what shocked me even more, was what happened when she found out. I got a phone call – which was very nice, and very kind things were said, but there was one comment that stuck out for me. The response to me outlining in a very professional manner, what the issues were:

“I want to share your experience with the other leaders. We all need to do a better job at learning how to manage Millennials.”

Um, WHAT?!

There are so many things wrong with that statement I don’t even know where to start. How about the fact that I’m barely considered a Millennial? Or perhaps that instead of acknowledging the culture or issues, creating a blanket statement to sweep the issues under? Or what about all of the hard work, time and effort, I’ve put into my career to get me to the place I was in? Why am I being “stereotyped” into an entire generation at work?!

Why is this being labeled as a millennial problem?

I’m not sure if I’ve ever been more offended at work through a conversation. And trust me, I’ve had some zingers thrown my way in the past. It was insulting because we are all so much more than our generation indicators – and I can’t imagine this same scenario being said about a Baby Boomer.

Part of what’s so frustrating with this experience, and likely similar experiences that you are having in the workplace every day, is that managers really don’t know how to “manage” the new workforce. They don’t get it and by extension, they don't get us. So everything becomes a generational problem instead of a culture problem; or a work distribution problem; a communication issue; or simply, a bad fit.

This is where the good stuff, but hard work, happens. It’s up to us, whether we identify as Millennials or not, to start educating the people we work with and reinforce that we are more than a generalization. “We” may have some odd quirks that Gen X’ers or Baby Boomers didn’t have, but trust me – “they” had their own quirks too when they entered the workforce.

Instead of accepting the stereotype or brushing off situations as a Millennial issue, let’s use each of those opportunities as a learning moment for the other person, and reinforce our humanity in the process.

Have you been called out as a Millennial at work? Tell us more in the comments below!

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About Melissa

Melissa Anzman is the creator of Launch Your Job  where she equips ambitious leaders with practical ways to grow their career. She is the author of two books: How to Land a Job and Stop Hating Your Job. Follow her @MelissaAnzman.

5 Secrets to Living a Significant Life

Written by Paul Angone Why do some people live a life full of significance, impact, and meaning – basically a life of their dreams?

While the rest live a ho-hum life – full of potential, but with no real purpose?

For the last 10 + years,  I've searched for the answers to those two questions. On this journey I've done years of research, wrote hundreds of blog posts, published two books, traveled the nation speaking, completed a master's degree, and interviewed countless influencers. And if I boiled down the secrets to living a significant life down to five things, here's what they would be:

5 Secrets to Living a Significant Life

1. Master the small, daily, underrated core habits.

Sometimes I think we view people who are truly successful as somewhat mythical beings who must have some big secret that has produced a short-cut to success.

The more I study and speak to successful people, the more I've realized:

Successful people's profound secret of success is that they don't have a profound secret. They aren't searching for that big, secret shortcut. No, they are focused on mastering the small.

Their life consists of discipline within crucial core habits that add to their life, instead of drain it.

Examples like: Getting up early. Exercising. Eating healthy, identifying the foods that drain them and removing those from their diet. Then as well, not eating too much.

Mastering the small core habits can make a big difference.

Our bodies are our gardens – our wills are our gardeners.” – William Shakespeare

Studies are showing that consistently exercising actually can increase your IQ, specifically creating "an increase in the irisin molecule levels in the blood which activate genes involved in learning and memory."

Don't get me wrong, I don't write this while at my standing desk, pumping out the article while wrapping up a half-marathon on my treadmill below. Discipline in the daily is not always my forte.

Yet, for the last year I've made a more consistent effort, especially when it comes to eating smart, and I can't tell you how big of a difference it's made in my energy, performance, and mental health.

Simply not over-eating at lunch and slipping into a carb-comma at your desk at 1:30, can give you two more productive hours a day for an extra ten hours a week.

Crush your day by being consistent at the core elements that can make or break your day.

2. Have goals that are built and based off what I call your unique Signature Sauce

Mastering the core habits is so much easier when you have a vision and goals that you're working towards. Then your discipline and hard-work has context, purpose, and a point.

You're not mastering your day as an exercise in discipline, you're mastering your day so that you can exercise your purpose.

I'm realizing more and more that when I'm feeling the most anxious in my life it's because I don't have any clear, identifiable goals.

People who are living a significant life, their goals aren't created out of context either. They create goals as a culmination of who they are, what they believe, what they're good at, where they want to go, and most importantly, why they know it's important.

Too many of us focus all our time trying to figure out what we're going to do and how we're going to do it, instead of first truly understanding "Why" we feel and think it's important.

The more you know your why, the more flexible and adaptable you're going to be in your what and how.

Defining, refining, owning and honing your unique Signature Sauce becomes a framework where your passion, purpose, and career collide, which is why I'm creating a new online course to help you uncover your Signature Sauce.

Remember: the greatest danger you face in the world today is that you're replaceable...Your only salvation is to mine your uniqueness, to combine various skills that set you apart. No one can do what you do. That's your endgame." - Paul Graham

3. Do "Relationshipping" really well

Stop networking like a machine. Start relationshipping like a person. That's what successful people do well.

Too often networking is about us, our needs and pain points that we're trying to alleviate. When "relationshipping" is about authentically building relationships not just when you "need" them.

Relationships aren't a means to an end, relationships are the meaning.

4. Care more about learning than you do about your ego

Want to know a simple test on whether or not you care more about learning than you do about your ego --  How do you receive feedback?

Honestly, receiving feedback graciously hasn't always been a strength of mine. Still isn't.

But more and more I'm realizing if you're able to receive constructive feedback from a boss, parent, spouse, or teacher and then implement what's needed to do it better the next time, you care more about learning than your ego.

If the moment you smell feedback you attack it like an angry buffalo charging a tourist who has ventured too close, then your ego (and the insecurities it's protecting) is probably a little too sharp.

If your ego keeps charging at everyone who tries to help, then people are going to stop helping.

5. Care more about learning than you do about the possibility of failing.

Want to know a simple test on whether or not you care more about learning than you do about the possibility of failing -- when you're given a big project does the enormity of it make you excited?

Or do you start visualizing the end outcome and become overwhelmed with fear that you're not going to be able to accomplish it?

Does pursuing your dreams feel overwhelming? That means you're onto something BIG. If it didn't feel out of reach, why would you stretch?

People who are living a meaningful life care way more about learning and failing forward, than they do about the fear of looking stupid. The frustration of being complacent and comfortable far outweighs the fear of failure.

As I write in my new book All Groan Up: Searching For Self, Faith, and a Freaking Job!

"Fear makes self-preservation a top priority. It makes "don't get hurt" the rule to live by. But our instinct for self-preservation will get us killed–a long, slow death. We'll sit there enduring drips of water on our forehead, one after another, day after day, until we snap and throw our computer through our boss's window and wear nothing else but Hawaiian shirts for a month. And I mean nothing else."

I'd love to hear from you in the comments on this article:

Which one of these secrets of living a significant life resonate with you the most?

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About Paul Angone

Paul Angone is the author of All Groan Up: Searching For Self, Faith, and a Freaking Job!, 101 Secrets for your Twenties and the creator of AllGroanUp.com, a place for those asking "what now?" Snag his free ebook on the 10 Key Ingredients to Finding Your Signature Sauce and follow him at @PaulAngone.

Two Questions that Guided My Journey from Poverty to Yale

Written by Davis Nguyen

I will always be grateful for my mother, who raised my little brother and me without a man in the house, who taught us to value our education despite never finishing elementary school herself, and who never let being paralyzed stop her from caring for her two sons. My mother made living on food stamps and growing up in one of poorest and crime-ridden communities in Atlanta a bit more bearable.

When I walked the halls of my high school, I saw pregnant girls barely 16 bragging about their delivery dates and young men boasting about how many classes they had skipped or the easy money they made the night before. These weren’t the types of lives I wanted for my mother, my brother, or myself.

Knowing the circumstances of my upbringing, no one would have predicted when I was born that, two months from now, I would be graduating from Yale with a 3.9 GPA with no debt.

My journey from living in poverty to graduating from Yale didn’t require me to be a genius or to have access to anything others didn’t. My journey began each morning by asking myself two questions anyone else could.

Two Questions That Guided My Journey From Poverty to Yale

1. What kind of life do I want for myself?

Asking myself this reminded me of my goal to graduate at the top of my high school class, attend a top university, and one day give my mother and brother a better life. My answer gave me a purpose, a reason to wake up every morning despite the environment I was living in. As the famous psychologist and Holocaust survivor, Victor Frankl, wrote, “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”

2. Is what I’m doing today going to get me closer to the life I want? If not, why am I doing it?

Asking this reminded me to keep on the path I set for myself when the temptation to stray was all around me. Even poverty could not take away my power to wake up every morning and decide what I wanted to do with my day.

Asking these two questions every morning, even if I woke up with no electricity, motivated me to avoid the choices I saw others make around me while working towards building the life I wanted.

Pain is temporary, regret is forever 

Every day, these two questions pushed me to study a bit more for the SAT when others were getting into bed, to wake up and work on my admissions essays when others were still asleep, and to apply for one more scholarship despite already being rejected by over 180 others.

On the days I felt stuck, when my SAT scores showed no improvement, when my essays were trashed, and scholarship foundations would continue to reject me, those two questions reminded me to keep going on my path. Those two questions reminded me that my pain and agony were temporary, but if I quit, I would live with regret forever. Instead of stopping, each day I got closer and closer to my goal.

Eventually, studying while my friends were at the movies, waking up while my peers were still in bed, and knowing the type of person I wanted to be while others didn’t, paid off. In March of 2011, I was accepted to Yale and Harvard and earned scholarships to graduate debt-free from both.

You might not have the money, the social connections, or the physical ability today to take 100 steps every day to creating the life you want, but just the fact that you are reading this right now means that you have the power to take at least one. And that is one step closer than you were yesterday.

I'd love to hear from you in the comments: What type of life do you want for yourself? What is one thing you can do today to get closer to achieving this life?

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About Davis

Davis (@IamDavisNguyen) graduated from Yale University in 2015. He currently lives in San Francisco and works at Bain & Company. When he’s not helping CEOs transform their companies, he is helping recent graduates figure out the type of life they want for themselves and helping them get there.

Systems Ninja Live 5-Day Course: Starts Monday!

Written by Jenny Blake

As the lull of summer starts to wear off, we enter our September Sprint: the final crazy months of 2015. Work tends to reach a frenetic pace in September and October before slowing down again for the holidays. If you are starting to feel overwhelmed, or like you are the bottleneck preventing your business from moving forward, have no fear! Your systems guru is here. :)

Some of the questions I get asked most often from solopreneurs include:

• What tools should I use for this upcoming product/launch/book/project?
• I have all the tools, but how should I organize my process for creating the project?
• How do you keep up with the latest technology? How do you stay on top of everything?
• Who should I hire, and where can I find them? What do you actually delegate, and how?

Simply telling you what apps to use (as I have done with my free Toolkit and 30+ templates) is a bit futile in terms of ensuring long-term success. It is like giving you a fish—it feeds you for a day, but not a lifetime in an ever-changing technology landscape, given that tools and best practices so quickly become out-of-date.

What you really need is a deep-dive on how to think about systems in the first place. To do that, and address the questions above along with any other systems related quandaries you may have, I am opening up my business kimono in a five-day Systems Ninja course.

I will be teaching you how to think smarter—how to teach yourself to fish—for long-term systems success.

Here is what we will cover:

I will customize the content each day based on what you are most interested in learning, but here is an outline of topics I will start each day's session with:

• Day 1: Bottlenecks—Identifying and busting barriers in your business.

• Day 2: Delegating—What do you need to let go of? Learn why delegation is one of the most important things you can do for your life and business, and how to figure out what to delegate in the first place.

• Day 3: Hiring—What are you optimizing for? We will cover how to get the right team in place so you can focus your energy on what is most important to you, and the work that only you can do.

• Day 4: Investigating & Launching—How to use stress as an opportunity to improve your systems to alleviate stress and help creativity flow. I will also share the most helpful tools for planning and executing a launch of any kind.

• Day 5: Deciding—Dismantle big decision roadblocks & Open Q&A: Sometimes what holds us back isn't systems, but uncertainty. Learn how to take a scientific approach to reach a decision on any big conundrum you might be facing. And if you have any final systems questions about your projects and business, today is your day to fire away!

The Format:

• Each call will be 60 minutes via live Google Hangout
• I’ll spend the first 30 minutes on instruction, then open up the second half of the call for coaching or Q&A around your specific situation: including tool recommendations and troubleshooting tips
• You can submit questions the day before in case you’re unable to make the call live
• Each session will be recorded.
• Each day’s workshop will come with a template or worksheet
• The course will be hosted through Ruzuku, which means you can return to the materials at any time

Registration (and Early Bird Discount):

• When: The course runs for five days from September 14 through September 18
• What time: Live workshops are 3pm to 4pm ET each day (they will be recorded in case you can’t make it)
• Cost: I have extended the early bird rate of $129 until midnight Thursday 9/10; after that it is $179
• Enroll: Click here to sign-up! 

Momentum: September Enrollment Open

The Systems Ninja course is free if you join Momentum—my private community for side-hustlers and solopreneurs, where you will get ongoing access to all of my current and future courses, tools and templates.

Doors for Momentum enrollment are open again—for the second (and final) time this year—and close on September 30.

We have about 80 awesome solopreneurs and side hustlers in the crew now, and I have loved working with them to bring the community to life these last five months. I have personally found it so helpful for tracking quarterly focus areas, sharing successes, and asking for feedback on important projects.

Click here to learn more and enroll »

Private coaching with me is currently $1,500/month, and I am only taking on a handful of clients as I work on the book.

With Momentum, you will get access to the JB Kitchen Sink: all my tools, templates, courses and resources, as well as live monthly workshops with me and other experts, the ability to ask me anything, sign-up for private 1:1 office hours calls, and collaborate with others by joining mastermind groups and asking for feedback from the group anytime.

Momentum costs just over $1/day, billed quarterly, with a full money-back guarantee if you look around and don’t like what you see.

When you sign up, you will get instant access to every course I have ever created ($500 value) and these awesome bonuses:

• Free access to my upcoming live 5-day Systems Ninja Course ($129): This  course will help you audit your current systems set-up, figure out what your biggest bottlenecks are, bust through sticky decisions, and delegate more effectively.

• A private live webinar on Oct 1 with Dan Blank on How to Take Back Your Creative Time. Dan will be sharing 3 simple actions for making creativity a priority, how to tackle big challenges using simple habits, and how to take back hours of time.

• 130+ Item Momentum Launch Checklist, detailing every single step that transformed Momentum from an idea to a reality. Get an inside look at exactly how Marisol and I built Momentum over the last six months, with checklist sections for platform selection and set-up, content creation, sales materials, launch week breakdown, ongoing communications, and more.

• Detailed overview of the 21+ tools that we used to execute the launch and build the community site. You will get a complete breakdown of what we used and how in the following categories: Workflow, Momentum Safari Course, Countdown & Sales Pages, Logo & Design, Payment, Registration, Referrals, and Community Platform.

I look forward to working with you for Systems Ninja, Momentum, or both!

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the author of Life After College and the forthcoming book The Pivot Method. She is a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business. Today you can find her here on this blog (in its 8th year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Networking Systems for Introverts and Busy People (Part 1)

Written by Jenny Blake

Networking. I know, I know. The word itself makes you shudder. Me too.

My blogs are the most public thing about me; I’m a closet introvert, preferring to spend vast amounts of time alone. I live alone, I work from home, and to recharge there is nothing I love more than reading in the morning, and doing handstands in the park in the afternoon. Alone!

That said, I enjoy great conversation as much as anyone and try to schedule a handful of coffees, lunches and dinners each week, along with group fitness classes like yoga and pilates. But overall, engaging with others usually initiates my 1:4 recovery ratio—for every one hour I spend connecting, I like to give three or four back to myself with privacy and quiet.

Why am I telling you this? Because in spite of my reclusive ways, I love people! I really do.

I love working with coaching clients one-on-one, I love the private Momentum community, and I love teaching and public speaking. Building high-quality, authentic relationships are the foundation of my business, and the reason I am now celebrating over four years as a solopreneur.

Today’s post kicks off a three-part series on the systems and strategies I use to stay sane when building relationships.

Whether you’re introverted, busy, or introverted and busy, this series will teach you how to build friendships that benefit you and others, without being sleazy, cheesy, or obnoxious.

A Note on Mindset

“Networking” title aside, the purpose of all this is really about making new friends, specifically of the professional variety. I don’t network with people I wouldn’t want to hang out with in real life.

My key philosophies on relationship-building are generosity, and quality over quantity.

I can’t stand being on the receiving end of someone’s “spray and pray” campaign, where I can see that I am just one target in a vast strategic effort for them to get somewhere or get something.

So don’t do that either! The year is now half over; now is a great time to spend a little time reflecting on who you want to meet and connect with over the next four months, and how.

People-Related Goals and Preferences

Identify your preferred approach to building relationships for where you are at this point in your life and career by answering the following questions:

• Who: What types of people do you want to connect with? Anyone specific in mind? Brainstorm a few exciting options for each of the following categories:
  • Friends (local, global)
  • Business/Career (local, global)
  • Groups (professional, recreational, fitness)
• What: What are your goals? What can you give? What are you hoping to receive? (Support, advice, friendship, etc.)
• Where: Do you prefer to meet in person, over the phone, or connect through social media?
• When: What time of day and what types of events do you most enjoy talking with others?
• How Often: What is your natural, enjoyable limit within a given week of meeting/connecting with new people? Socializing with friends?
• Recharge: What helps you decompress after social interactions?

Networking is never about how many people you can reach, but about being smart and strategic with your time and energy.

Upcoming Webinar: Connect with Influencers

I’m excited to be co-hosting a live webinar with John Corcoran on How to Cold Email Any VIP on August 26 at 3pm ET.

John will cover the 5 things you must do if you want your emails to be read and responded to by VIPs you admire, how to go from getting your email opened to building a genuine relationship, and how to go from relationship-building to generating income. John will also share 5 of his best email templates you can use to connect with the VIPs you want to meet.

Sign-up and download the free workbook here!

Stay tuned for Part Two, where I’ll share how to create routines around reaching out to others.

This article was sponsored by University of Phoenix.  I’m a compensated contributor, but all thoughts and ideas are my own.

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the author of Life After College and the forthcoming book The Pivot Method. She is a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business. Today you can find her here on this blog (in its 8th year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Joseph Campbell: What is Your Sacred Place?

Written by Jenny Blake

Greetings from Ubud, Bali, where I'm living for the month of January . . . sadly for just a few more days! For the logistics of planning a trip here, check out The Nuts and Bolts of Living in Bali for a Month.

I knew I felt like an iPhone on red battery when I arrived, but had no idea just how deep that "red" feeling actually went. I couldn't even bear to crack open my laptop for the first week — I felt a crazy-strong pull to take a break from all obligations and rediscover the 50,000 foot perspective on my life and work. After all, that 50,000 foot view isn't just some static object to behold, it is a constant evolution full of new surprises and insights.

Although I intended on making this a "workcation," for the majority of the trip (outside of coaching calls and light task maintenance) I ended up putting many projects on hold. Instead I focused on fully recharging through yoga, meditation, sunshine, healthy food, and great conversations with fellow travelers.

In doing all that, at first I felt a bit self-indulgent. Is it hedonistic of me to base every day solely around my own health and happiness? But now, almost one month later, I can categorically say no.

I am a better person when I am recharged. I am happier, I am more creative, I am a better listener, I smile more, and I have more love to give. I can only imagine the ripple effect this has on the hundreds of tiny interactions I have each day, online and off. Imagine what would be possible for our communities and the world if we were all even just 10 percent more connected to our best, most "charged" selves?

In a recent post on JB.me (Life Origami: Can You Delight in the Slow Unfolding?) I quoted Joseph Campbell — one of my favorite authors — who is an expert on mythology, legend and culture (1904-1987). You may already be familiar with his Hero's Journey archetype, but there's so much more of Campbell to know and love, as I recently discovered reading the text of his in-depth 1985 interview with Bill Moyers in The Power of Myth.

Although Campbell's advice to "follow your bliss" has become a common colloquialism, many people find the advice overwhelming. What if you don't know what your passion is? What if it changes from season to season? No doubt it will.

Campbell nonetheless implores all of us to carve out a path for our bliss, to fight for it, no matter how small our success at first. Below are some of my favorite excerpts on how (and why) to do this.

Joseph Campbell on How to Find Your Bliss

What does it mean to have a sacred place?

“This is an absolute necessity for anybody today. You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen."

What happens when you don't follow your bliss?

"Our life has become so economic and practical in its orientation that, as you get older, the claims of the moment upon you are so great, you hardly know where the hell you are, or what it is you intended. You are always doing something that is required of you. Where is your bliss station? You have to try to find it.

. . . That's the man who never followed his bliss. You may have a success in life, but then just think of it — what kind of life was it? what good was it — you've never done the thing you wanted to do in all your life. I always tell my students, go where your body and soul want to go. When you have the feeling, then stay with it, and don't let anyone throw you off."

Moyers: What happens when you follow your bliss?

"In the Middle Ages, a favorite image that occurs in many, many contexts is the wheel of fortune. There's the hub of the wheel, and there is the revolving rim of the wheel. For example, if you are attached to the rim of the wheel of fortune, you will be either above going down or at the bottom coming up. But if you are at the hub, you are in the same place all the time. That is the sense of the marriage vow — I take you in health or sickness, in wealth or poverty: going up or going down. But I take you as my center, and you are my bliss, not the wealth that you might bring me, not the social prestige, but you. That is following your bliss."

What if you don't know where to start?

"Sit in a room and read—and read and read. And read the right books by the right people. Your mind is brought onto that level, and you have a nice, mild, slow-burning rapture all the time. This realization of life can be a constant realization in your living. When you find an author who really grabs you, read everything he has done. Don’t say, 'Oh, I want to know what So-and-so did'—and don’t bother at all with the bestseller list. Just read what this one author has to give you. And then you can go read what he had read. And the world opens up in a way that is consistent with a certain point of view.”

What if you haven't found your life's bigger purpose, passion or mission? No matter. Start with daily life:

“We are having experiences all the time which may on occasion render some sense of this, a little intuition of where your bliss is. Grab it. No one can tell you what it is going to be. You have to learn to recognize your own depth.”

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the author of Life After College and the forthcoming book The Pivot Method. She is a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business. Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

How Do You Know When to Trust Your Gut?

Written by Jenny Blake

Have you ever had a gut instinct that rocked you to the core? You're in a job or a relationship, and you start getting a physical sense that it is time to make a change. These instincts often start as quiet whispers, and can be confusing and disorienting if we don't yet know what to do with them. And if you don't listen to the whisper, get ready: it will likely deliver a very uncomfortable WHACK instead.

Wake up! Our gut says. Listen to me!   

Maybe you feel it as a pit in your belly. A lump in your throat. A flutter in your heart. But what does it mean? If we go straight to problem-solving with our brain, we might miss the true meaning.

Your Gut Has a Brain

Or more accurately, it is a brain.

According to the fascinating book mBraining: 

• You have a complex and intelligent brain in your gut that contains over 500 million neurons and has the equivalent size and complexity of a cat's brain.
• The majority of nerves connecting the heart and gut brains to the head flow upwards. 90 percent of vagal nerve fibers communicate the state of our system to the head brain. Only ten percent provide communication signaling in the other direction from head to heart and gut brains.
• Over 95 percent of the serotonin used throughout the body and brain is made in the gut.
• Your gut brain exhibits plasticity and can learn, form memories, take on new behaviors, and grow new neurons.
• The gut brain is primal. It develops both evolutionarily and in the womb before the heart and head brains.

"The gut brain is the core of your deepest self . . . your subconscious sense of who you are and who you are not. It's also the intelligence that is at work dealing with all core identity-based issues and motivations such as needs for safety, protection, maintaining boundaries, and what you will physically or psychologically internalize or reject. Your enteric brain is primal to who you are."

—mBraining: Using Your Multiple Brains to Do Cool Stuff

Knock, Knock. Who's There? Your Gut, But I Can't Talk.

Our gut doesn't have the verbal sophistication that our head-brain does.

Our gut works on hunches; a hypothesis that something isn't right or there's an opportunity ahead, and it's up to us to suss out what that knock on the door of our consciousness really means, and what to do about it. We are left to interpret the meaning of the message, and then figure out how to take deliberate action.

That's why gut instincts can be terrifying sometimes. We may know it is time to act—to leave the job or the relationship, to move cities, to have a hard conversation, or to face a truth within ourselves—and yet the action itself takes tremendous courage.

Often our first reaction is refusal. Noooooo. No. It can't be that. I'm not ready for that. I can't possibly do that. I don't have the strength to face that head on.

But unfortunately we can't just stuff feelings back into the inconvenient box they came from. As the mBraining book explains, our gut is the defender of our boundaries and core identity, both critical to our health and happiness.

How Do You Know When to Trust Your Gut?

You can't always know with 100% certainty. Trusting your gut is like building a muscle—it takes time and practice. Another analogy might be taming a horse: you have to form a relationship with your gut instincts, and building that trust takes time.

If you're currently wrestling with an intuitive hunch or hit, here are some questions that help me:

How many times has your gut instinct been wrong?

That's not a loaded or leading question. Think back across the major decisions of your life: when you really took the time to get quiet and listen deep, then took action no matter how hard it felt, what percentage of the time did those gut instincts serve you well? In my case, it's 99%.

But in the rare instance that your gut was wrong, examine it: what could you have done differently? How might it inform future action? It is likely is that your gut instinct was on track, but the action you took may not have been exactly on track. That's okay! It's how you learn, and you can always correct course as you go.

What has more potential downside, taking the risk or staying in place?

Would your gut be speaking up if the answer was to keep things exactly as they are? In his book Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder, Nassim Taleb defines his term for risk work taking, those with high optionality: "The property of asymmetric upside (preferably unlimited) with correspondingly limited downside (preferably tiny)." See my related JB.me post, Which Risks are Worth Taking? 

Or maybe you just need to frame the question differently:

What small next step would help alleviate this uncomfortable feeling?

Sometimes it's not about the big leaps or endings, but rather speaking your truth in a direct and honest conversation. Notice the spectrum of actions you could take: look for small steps within your comfort or stretch zone, without sending you into the panic zone of paralyzing anxiety and fear.

Is taking this action creating "clean" pain or "dirty" pain?

Certain actions are incredibly difficult and make your stomach flip, but you know that it's a "clean" pain—a necessary step for you to move on and live your best life. "Dirty" pain is dishonoring yourself. It's when you hurt because you are actively ignoring what is in your own best interest, in a way that is damaging and stressful to your well-being.

Tools for Getting Quiet

Exercise, talking to friends, and writing have always helped me, but the biggest difference in truly hearing my gut (not just my neurotic monkey mind) came from starting a meditation practice. I know, I know—I used to roll my eyes every time I read something like that too. But it really can be as simple as sitting with your eyes closed for five minutes before you start your day.

Check out the Lucent App I co-founded for help facilitating self-awareness and focus each morning—very simple meditation might just be the game-changer for you that it has been for me.

I wrote in a newsletter earlier this year that chaos is a doorway to opportunity. My dad often reminds me that's where the best art, music, and writing comes from anyway! Let the message be your muse. 

I'd love to hear from you in the comments:

How about you: how do you "hear" your gut? When do you know it's time to act on the information you pick up?

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the bestselling author of Life After College, a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.

Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Speak Like a Pro: Free Virtual Conference

Written by Jenny Blake

Public speaking doesn’t have to be a fate worse than death (nor does it have to give you hives, as often used to happen to me). That’s why I set out to find what the top experts in storytelling, body language and behavior change had to say on the subject.

Earlier this year I recorded 25 interviews with experts and thought-leaders for a virtual conference on how to Speak Like a Pro. It was an honor to connect with some of the authors and speakers I most admire; we talked about how to engage audiences, practice effectively, and connect with an audience of any size.

By the end of this conference, you'll learn: 

• How to structure a presentation effectively to enact positive behavior change
• The brain science behind how to practice your delivery to nail your content without notes
• Physiological tips for calming nerves on the big day
• Pointers for delivering a speech in an engaging, concise manner
• How to build a strong reputation and profitable business as a professional speaker

Here’s a 3-minute video overview:

Sign-Up and Share

Reserve your free ticket here!

I’d love your help spreading the word too . . . here are a few click-to-tweets if you’re willing 

[Tweet This] Public speaking doesn’t have to be a fate worse than death—free virtual conference on Speaking Like a Pro: http://bit.ly/SpeakLikeAProConf

[Tweet This] 25 top speakers weigh in on calming nerves, practicing effectively, and influencing an audience of any size: http://bit.ly/SpeakLikeAProConf

[Tweet This] Want to learn how to Speak Like a Pro? @jenny_blake interviews 25 experts for a free virtual conference in August: http://bit.ly/SpeakLikeAProConf

[Tweet This] Speak Like a Pro virtual conference with @Jenny_Blake starts Aug. 25! Get your free ticket here: http://bit.ly/SpeakLikeAProConf

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the bestselling author of Life After College, a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.

Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Stuck? Here's How to Pivot Your Career (Video)

Written by Jenny Blake Once just relegated to the mid-life crisis, inexplicable tumult became socially acceptable in one's twenties too; in 2007, Alexandra Robbins coined the term “quarterlife crisis” as a rite of passage at the ripe old age of 25.

In a world filled with economic uncertainty, one in which technology continues to transform our lives at warp speed, this "crisis" state will only become more common. But instead of supporting millennials through this massive shift, for most of this decade the mainstream press has taken to berating us for being “the entitled generation” and for “wanting too much.”

As recently as this past weekend (!!) an op ed writer in The New York Times got my blood boiling with an article that concluded with the following statement:

“It is unlikely we will ever see another generation that is as self-obsessed and feckless as the millennials, yet still feels so undeservedly entitled to the keys to the kingdom.”

By calling these career aspirations a crisis, and even shaming and blaming millennials for being unsure of how to add meaning in a volatile economy, we are missing a huge opportunity to embrace the learning and insight that can result from deliberately shifting our focus and optimizing for growth and greater contribution.

So let's stop seeing it as a crisis, and start seeing these career pivots as part of our new reality, one that we must all embrace moving forward. In the video below, I share my new framework for becoming more agile within your life and career.

How to Pivot Your Career: A Conversation with Kevin Kermes

Free Webinar: Find Your Dream Job

If you're ready to take the next steps in your own career pivot but aren't quite sure where to start, check out Ramit Sethi's Dream Job course. He is hosting a free webinar on August 14 on Cracking the Code: How to land "hidden" jobs and build a career you love. Ramit usually doesn't record his webinars, so definitely make it live if you can!

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the bestselling author of Life After College, a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.

Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Behind-the-Business: Hot Off the JB Pivot Press

Written by Jenny Blake I have a slightly embarrassing confession: I went to bed last night while it was still light out! Although I felt a bit guilty for "wasting" incredible NYC weather and the European feel of sidewalk dining and twilight mingling, I was wiped out. June has been a pretty insane month for me—all great projects that I'm deeply energized by—but somehow they converged to happen all at once!

Now is the time for ample sleep and EmergenC so that I don't get sick while I wrap up the big push for my book proposal, Lucent (now in iTunes!!), and SpringUps (the hydroponic urban farming start-up I joined). More on each below, modified from updates I shared on the JennyBlake.me blog last week.

Life After College turns 9 years old this December*—thank you for being here, for reading and following along with my crazy solopreneurial adventures, and for supporting the entire team of writers whose genius I am fortunate to share here week after week: standing ovation for Melissa, Paul, Rebecca, Marisol and Davis!

*We are also looking for partners! We are going to be opening up one sponsorship opportunity per quarter, available to highly curated partners who have products and services we really believe in. If your company might be interested in this opportunity, get in touch and we'll send along our Media Kit.

Proposal for Book #2: The Human Pivot (working title)

My agent gave The Human Pivot proposal a green light! Read more about this in my Behind the Business newsletter—I'm revising the proposal and sample chapter as we speak so that we can submit to publishers later this month (with a big push after Labor Day). Start sending good juju for publishers to fight over who gets the rights to it. :) The crazy thing about the publishing timeline is that even with submitting now, the book probably wouldn't be out until January 2016!

I recently talked about pivoting with Charlie Poznek of Boomer Business Owner on a podcast called Learn How to Pivot Strategically as a Lifestyle Entrepreneur (embedded below). For those who prefer reading, download PDF of the Transcript.

I was also honored to be featured on Thomas Frank's College Info Geek podcast on Building the Skill of Adaptability. Thomas is a longtime LAC reader (5 years!!) and in this episode we talk about getting organized, staying open to opportunity, and the process behind my recent pivots.

Lucent Meditation App—Now in iTunes!!

Lucent, the meditation app company I co-founded, officially launched last week! We've been working on the app for 9 months now, and I have to say it's worth the wait—it is gorgeous! And fun — it makes a 5-minute morning meditation sticky and social, even if you have zero experience with meditation.

This is a beta version—we initially planned on testing our "Minimum Viable Product" (MVP in Silicon Valley parlance) with a small group of friends and family, but that group has grown to 350+ people! We're grateful for the support and patience as we build from something very simple to start, then evolve with early users' feedback to make the app more sophisticated over time. Over 200 people have downloaded the app so far the help us test this initial version, and we've loved hearing from people who meditated for the first time thanks to Lucent.

Where to learn more and stay in touch:

• Sign-up here to get behind-the-scenes Lucent updates and be part of future meditation challenges.
• Check out our brand new website!
• For beginner meditation tips and articles follow @LucentApp on Twitter and check out today's post on JennyBlake.me: Are you Meditation Curious? Try our 4-Day Challenge
• Click here to download the Lucent Meditation Getting Started Guide

Business Strategist Pivot: SpringUps Director of Operations

Although I still have a small set of 1:1 clients, I've pivoted from my usual business strategy coaching to take a hands-on consulting role as Director of Operations with SpringUps, an urban farming start-up in Red Hook, Brooklyn. It's a part-time role (~10 hours per week) that kicked off in June; I'm handling all of our internal systems and organization (weee!), brand strategy and website, communications, and community.

From the moment I met the co-founders John & Christian earlier this year, I was blown away by their vision, crazy smarts, and work ethic. And I couldn't help but chime in with my two cents over casual conversation! I love their big plans to revolutionize year-round local pesticide-free produce in New York City, and am honored and very excited to now be officially on board as the other third of the SpringUps brain!

After all these years of doing business coaching 1:1, I'm having so much fun digging in and getting my hands dirty again (farming pun intended!) as we build a big business like this from the ground up. Christian and John were formerly coffee and cotton traders in the open outcry pits on Wall Street, so we're all loving the big learning curve of pivoting to a new industry and making a positive impact on the broader community.

Where to learn more and stay in touch:

• Check out the recently launched SpringUps website!
• Would love for you to give our SpringUps Facebook page a "like" so we can keep you updated on crop giveaways (we bribe with basil!), recipes, and healthy living articles
• You can also subscribe to our insider's newsletter here
• Follow us on Twitter @SpringUpsLLC

Whew! That's it for now . . .

I hope you all have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend!

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the bestselling author of Life After College, a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.

Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Big Joy Comes in Suprisingly Small Boxes

Written by Jenny Blake It's so easy to fall into the trap of pinning our happiness to the piñata of far-off big wins. THE job, THE monthly income target, THE ONE.

Attaching to these big happiness hypotheses as the route to joy is a bit like buying a lottery ticket every day. Oftentimes even when we get what we want, we are surprised by how it actually feels.

And eventually, often shocking quickly, we return to that pining state for The Next Big Thing. The Buddhists call this Samsara—the cycle of death and rebirth that befalls attaching to things in the material world.

Every new experience comes with its own joys and its own challenges.

Some experiences (like break-ups) feel like all challenge, no joy. But there is deep joy and heart-opening to be found in the cracks of sadness. And sometimes the best surprises in life are ones you couldn't have predicted or invented in your wildest dreams.

Like any motivated, future-oriented planner, it's so easy for me to pine for the "big" things I don't yet have.

But when I really slow down and look at my life, it's the small quiet moments that bring me the most joy.

It's fresh air, talking with my family, taking a great yoga class, walking outside through the streets of New York, sitting at the park with friends, watching dogs amble down the street, and working on companies and ideas I am passionate about.

I was talking with friends last night about the even smaller life minutiae like doing dishes and making the bed. I see these tasks as a sign of respect to my future self: "Hi Future Self! You're going to head to the sink tomorrow morning to make your tea. I'll leave it clean for you." Even if only by 1%, I'm a teeny bit happier in the midst of my morning fog when I don't have to clean up yesterday's mess. Clean sink, clean mind.

Introducing the Lucent Meditation App

One project I'm thrilled to be working on (with an incredible team) is a new app for people who describe themselves as "meditation curious" — you've heard about the many benefits of meditation, but aren't quite sure how to start.

Starting a meditation practice last year (after YEARS of resisting it) is one of the things that has made the biggest impact on my overall sense of equanimity, joy and self-awareness. Even just five minutes helps me feel like I'm recharging the battery of my brain back up to 100%.

Lucent facilitates a short 5-minute morning ritual that emphasizes emotional analytics and strategic action. We're going to be launching a beta version soon and would love for you to be part of our 4-day meditation challenge pilot!

If you're interested, you can sign-up here.

I'd love to hear from you in the comments:

What are the smallest moments that bring you the most joy? 

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the bestselling author of Life After College, a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.

Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Find Your Dream Job: Free Webinar with Ramit Sethi

Written by Jenny Blake Have you hit a ceiling in your career but have no clue what to do about it? Career confusion can feel like a car stuck in a puddle of mud—grinding, screeching and spinning our wheels without making any forward progress. It can be maddening, particularly since work uncertainty often provokes our biggest fears around getting our most fundamental needs met of food, clothing and shelter.

Find Your Dream Job with Ramit Sethi

For those of you who are looking for more in your career but are unsure of where to start, Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You to Be Rich has a great program on how to find a job you love. 

I rarely promote other people’s courses on this blog, but Ramit's Find Your Dream Job program happens to be one that I recommend all the time to clients, friends and readers.

With everything from big picture strategy to brass-tacks tactics for implementation, I’ve had friends complete it with great success, and many have appreciated the high-level guidance as well as nitty-gritty tips.

For example: exact road-tested subject lines that have been proven to yield the highest LinkedIn response when asking for a networking call or coffee date.

How to Finally Find a Job You Love — Webinar Overview

*Edit: The webinar has passed, but be sure to sign up here to get tons of free content and advice from Ramit, as well as exclusive updates on upcoming webinars and programs.

Ramit is a New York Times best-selling author and personal finance advisor. His webinar will be next Wednesday, May 28 at 9 pm ET (it will not be recorded, so make it live if you can).

Here’s the description from Ramit:

We can all imagine what a Dream Job would be like -- one where you’re excited to get to work, where you don’t watch the clock, and where you’re respected (and paid) for your contributions.

Funny how many think of a Dream Job as something “those people” get, and we resign ourselves to a lifetime of drudgery… when a few weeks of work could change everything for the rest of our lives.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t feel like anybody prepared me for how to find out what I love and turn that into a real career.

Our parents never taught us -- back then, you took a job and stuck with it until retirement. Career centers focused on perfecting the font size and margins on your resume.

In a 1-night only live presentation, I will show you how to avoid the common traps holding you back from your Dream Job, plus specific, actionable strategies that will put you ahead of 99% of people making career moves.

Register here to receive your personal invitation.

Hope to see you there!

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the bestselling author of Life After College, a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.

Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Why I hate the question, "Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?"

Written by Jenny Blake

"That which you can plan is too small for you to live." —Unknown

I cringe — absolutely cringe — every time I hear the question, "So . . . where do you see yourself in five years?" Any of you who have recently graduated or launched a big project are probably already inundated (and completely overwhelmed) by its cousin, "So . . . what's next?!"

We start to think there is something wrong with us if we don't know the answer.

I'm all for taking the long-term view when it comes to saving money, health, and other core values. But when it comes to career, I believe mid-life and quarter-life crises are relics of the past: our generation can expect to pivot every few years.

So let's stop seeing it as a crisis and stop putting so much pressure on ourselves (and others) to know what the future holds! According to Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling On Happiness, our brains are actually terrible at predicting what will make us happy in the future anyway.

Yes, this does mean leaning in to uncertainty and fear — and for those who prefer a cookie-cutter ladder or template, you may want to stop reading. This rally cry is for people who don't want to know exactly where they see themselves in five years.

Friends, family and job interviewers ask this question with the best of intentions, but I think it is absolute nonsense. Who the hell knows?! And those of us who think we know are often in for a rude awakening.

I used to know . . . and you know what happened?

That false sense of certainty bit me in the ass when my plans changed. I had a great job, a condo, and a car paid in full. But instead of continuing right along the train track I had set-up toward the American Dream of a house, kids, dog and husband, I took a little (okay big) detour: I quit my job, moved to New York City and started my own business.

I will hit three crazy years of solopreneurship in July. Five years ago I would have said you were utterly delusional if you told me this would be my new reality! It hasn't been easy, but it has been incredibly rewarding.

Why Five Years is Way Too Far to Plan Details

• Did you know that every single cell in our body regenerates every seven years? [1]
• And that the iPhone didn't even EXIST seven years ago? [2]
• Social Media related jobs hardly existed in the form they do today five years ago
• Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first African-American president just over five years ago [3]
• And on a slightly longer timeframe but just as important, here's one of my favorite sayings from a visit to the Wat Umong temple during my time in Bali and Thailand last year:

Here's My Workaround . . . What's Yours?

These days when I answer, I either tell people what I'm really excited about at the moment, or I'll tell them how I want to feel in five years (much like Danielle LaPorte's Core Desired Feelings approach): happy, engaged, grateful, healthy, like I am living a life of meaning and making an impact in the lives of others.

Honestly? I will be blessed just to keep doing this work, and to have my health and the health of my family — anything else is icing on the cake.

How about you? What's your answer to the dreaded 5-Year Plan Question?

Video: College Students Scared Straight Prank

On the subject of career pressure hilarity, you have to watch this Buzzfeed video -- discovered by Kelli and her workshop crew at the UC Davis Career Advising conference that I was grateful to keynote for recently!

[youtube id="NWWCpuqV4c0"]

About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the bestselling author of Life After College, a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.

Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Order from Chaos: What Tarzan, Steve Martin and SNL Can Teach Us About Change

Written by Jenny Blake

My next big life after Life After College research area is something I'm calling The Human Pivot — how to successfully and strategically manage change even when all you feel is chaos.

I've talked about thinking about your career like a caveman and the fight-or-flight response that happens when we threaten our own job security by contemplating change, how to create a safe environment for exploration, and how to pivot (not 180) to build on your existing assets (strengths, experiences, network) to make a strategic leap in a new direction. (Take a full guided tour of these posts here)

With this new lens, I've come across some great material from big thinkers around the web that I'm excited to share with you today!

The key unifying themes are:

• Do not start from scratch.
• Strategically draw upon your current environment to build a bridge toward what is next.
• Just as they say, "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have" do the same with your skillset: build for the job you want, not just the job you have.
• Passion is not the aim; it comes as a result of being "so good they can't ignore you" (Cal Newport's fantastic book named after a Steve Martin quote)

Think of Your Career Like Tarzan

The image above is from a great post from Derek Sivers on how he thinks about career change:

"Remember how Tarzan swings through the jungle? He doesn't let go of the previous vine until the next vine is supporting his weight.

So my advice is: Change careers like Tarzan. Don't let go of the old one until the new one is supporting you.

And make sure you don't lose momentum."

—Derek Sivers, Change Careers Like Tarzan

Build a Bridge Toward What's Next

I also loved this related quote from Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels in a recent New York Magazine interview:

What do you say when a cast member comes to you and says she or he wants to leave to do movies?

The advice I give most often is, build a bridge to the next thing. When it’s solid enough, walk across it. Don’t go because somebody promised you this or somebody promised you that. You’re a star on SNL. That does not automatically mean you’ll be a star in everything else you touch. I just saw Ana Gasteyer downstairs. You see her in Wicked—that’s where she wanted to be, and she got there. I think when Will Ferrell left, he’d already had three movies that worked. Kristen did Bridesmaids. It was the biggest hit ever that summer. Then she came back and did another season. That’s Kristen.

—Lorne Michaels, New York Magazine

Be So Good They Can't Ignore You

As I mentioned above, Cal Newport has a fantastic MUST-READ book on the subject of why "follow your passion" is terrible advice and how "skills trump passion in finding the work you love."

The book title borrows from Steve Martin's bestselling memoir Born Standing Up. Martin says:

"Nobody ever takes note of [my advice], because it's not the answer they want to hear. What they want to hear is 'Here's how you get an agent, here's how you write a script,' . . . but I always say, 'Be so good they can't ignore you.'"

—Steve Martin, Born Standing Up

What bridges are you building?

Today I want you to think about not just what you want, but the actual stepping stones that you need to build (or the branches you need to grab onto) as you step or swing from Point A to Point B.

How can you become so good they can't ignore you? How can you serve so meaningfully and powerfully that people can't help but ask for more?

This may sound painfully obvious.

But I speak for myself when I say that in the throes of change last year, one of the biggest mistakes I made was to ignore what I had already created, what was already working. I had my eyes so far to the mysterious future that I lost sight of the very bridges and branches that were going to carry me there.

It wasn't until I doubled-back and looked at what was already right under my nose — my strengths, assets, network, and community — that I could unlock a clear, compelling path forward.

What about you:

What bridges are you already building? What gaps might you need to fill-in to get where you want to go?

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Life After College Coaching

Speaking of making major career change happen and finding meaningful work, a friendly reminder that I've partnered up with an amazing coach and friend, Rebecca Fraser-Thill — a Bates College psychology professor and founder of Working Self — to launch a Spring coaching program for anyone looking to make a major career change (and we've still got a few spots open!).

If you are unsure about what you want to do next, what your strengths and values are, and how to harness them into energizing and meaningful work, then look no further! We're here to help. Even once you do know what you want to do (or at least what industry you want to work in), you may feel lost on the practical next steps of how to actually get there.

Together we have over 20 years combined experience working with twenty-somethings. Both of us care deeply about helping clients find meaningful, thrilling work (and lives to match), and work collaboratively on every step of the coaching processes we’ve each refined over the years. When you sign-up to work with one of us, you’re actually getting the shared wisdom and mastermind power of both!

If you are interested, you can learn more about how our coaching works here, and click here to apply.

If we think we might be a fit for working together, one of us will reply to schedule a complimentary 30-minute get-to-know you call to go over your goals, the program details, and answer any questions. No matter what, you'll leave the call with greater clarity and a handful of resources to move you forward.

---

About Jenny

Jenny Blake is a bestselling author of Life After College, a career and business coach and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.

Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Two Free Workshops Next Week! Get Promoted + Pivot Your Career

Written by Jenny Blake Hi All! I'm excited to announce two free classes coming up next week for the LAC community. If you're staring down a big career transition or specifically aiming to get promoted, we've got just the recipes you need — practical, tactical hands-on steps and tools. Would you expect anything less? :) I've included more information on each below.

Get Promoted: The Nitty Gritty Details from an HR Insider

Workshop Leader: Melissa Anzman Date/Time: Tuesday, March 11th at 12pm ET Cost: Free! Link to Register

Moving up the ladder used to accurately describe the way you navigated a company. Just 15 years ago, the standard formula to calculate promotions centered around how many years you had been at the company combined with your tenure in the position. In other words, how much time you’ve sat your butt in the same seat.

That’s not the case any longer for 95% of the workforce. Thankfully for high performers, the formula components have shifted to focus more on capability, output, potential, and results, instead of just time. But with this shift, the way to GET PROMOTED has changed significantly as well.

With so many different components driving promotion decisions, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. So let’s change that, shall we?

In this free webinar, you're going to learn all about the promotion life-cycle -- the steps and process to get promoted. Soup-to-nuts promotion, baby. Not just high-level stuff, but the nitty gritty details of what happens and how candidates are considered.

Specifically, you will learn where you can influence the promotion process so your name will be part of the conversation next time around.

Ten Big Ideas to Pivot Your Career (in partnership with en*theos)

Workshop Leader: Jenny Blake Date/Time: Thursday, March 13th at 3pm ET Cost: Free! Link to Watch Live (no need to register in advance)

I've joined forces with the en*theos Academy for Optimal Living to offer a free monthly class for their community (and mine!). First up is 10 Big Ideas for How to Pivot Your Career:

Do you ever feel tired, overworked, burned out or unfulfilled? Are you staring wistfully out the window wishing you could do something about it, if only you could find the courage? Or has life suddenly hit you with a “cosmic 2x4”1 that is forcing you to take stock of where you are now and where you want to go?

Just about all of us have had the rug-pulled-out-from-under-us feeling at one time or another, and whether it’s triggered by health, wealth, relationships or career (or a tsunami of all of the above), the process for moving through that period of intense transition can feel lonely, confusing, and at times debilitating.

Although it can be intensely uncomfortable to realize you’re bumping up against a career or life ceiling, it is actually a golden opportunity — a pivotal and critical time in life — to harness the call to adventure within you and honor your human drive for creativity, growth and meaning.

In this workshop I will be teaching a live step-by-step process for how to pivot your career by building on what’s already working as you shift in exciting new directions. Check out my free Top 10 Big Ideas and join us live next Thursday.

I look forward to "seeing" you then!

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Life After College Coaching — 10 Spots Available for Spring

Speaking of making major career changes and carving a path toward meaningful work, I've partnered up with an amazing coach Rebecca Fraser-Thill — a Bates College psychology professor and founder of Working Self — to launch a Spring coaching program for twenty-somethings. We are now accepting applications for our program that kicks off in April.

If you are unsure about what you want to do next, what your strengths and values are, and how to harness them into energizing and meaningful work, then look no further! We're here to help. Even once you do know what you want to do (or at least what industry you want to work in), you may feel lost on the practical next steps of how to actually get there.

About our Coaching Program 

Together we have over 20 years combined experience working with twenty-somethings. Both of us care deeply about helping clients find meaningful, thrilling work (and lives to match), and work collaboratively on every step of the coaching processes we’ve each refined over the years. When you sign-up to work with one of us, you’re actually getting the shared wisdom and mastermind power of both!

If you are interested, you can learn more about how our coaching works here, and click here to apply.

If we think we might be a fit for working together, one of us will reply to schedule a complimentary 30-minute get-to-know you call to go over your goals, the program details, and answer any questions. No matter what, you'll leave the call with greater clarity and a handful of resources to move you forward.

We look forward to hearing from you!

---

About Jenny

Jenny Blake is a bestselling author of Life After College, a career and business coach and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.

Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Who is in your Network Orbit?

Written by Jenny Blake

This image from a recent issue of the New York Times Magazine got me thinking: if we are each a solar system all our own, who is in our network's orbital pull? Will they be there when we need them most?

The infographic above was actually much larger in print—a two page spread—detailing all of Hillary Clinton's clusters of supporters, friends, and colleagues. I couldn't find the full image online, so pardon the shoddy magazine tear-out shot (click to enlarge):

The article, Planet Hillary, asks:

"The gravitational pull of a possible 2016 campaign is bringing all the old Clinton characters into her orbit. Can she make the stars align, or will chaos prevail?"

The same question could be asked of your next big leap: when you're ready to transition, will the stars align? What can you do to proactively create order out of connection chaos?

Connections are Currency

I often work with coaching clients who want to make a major career move — last month I shared a template for reaching out to your network, but the first question is: who is in your orbit in the first place?

Nurturing and intentionally growing your network are incredibly important focus areas no matter what stage you're at in your career. The following exercise is inspired by this article, and one I will surely use for myself and coaching clients moving forward!

Mind Map Your Network

1. Grab a blank sheet of paper and put a circle with your name in the middle.
2. Draw "planets" for each of the existing categories of your network. Some examples might include: friends, family, classmates and professors, professional mentors, co-workers, and people you admire.
3. Are you missing any major categories? If so, add that category in a dotted line. For example, when I started writing Life After College I created an entire network of authors — people who I admired who I reached out to for 30-minute calls.
4. Review each of your major buckets: are there individual people you want to add? Are there any existing contacts that it might be time to reach back out to?
5. Make a plan. How will you reach the new people you would like to add? Set concrete action steps for the next month. If it's not a specific person, it might be a category-related action item, like "start attending entrepreneur events," or "join a local social sports team."

I'd love to hear from you in the comments:

What are the major categories of your network's solar system? Any new areas you will focus on building this year?

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Life After College Coaching — 10 Spots Available for Spring

With graduation-season fast-approaching, many of you may feel like you're staring out into a universe of chaos. 

You are unsure about what you want to do next, what your strengths and values are, and how to harness them into energizing and meaningful work. Even once you do know what you want to do (or at least what industry you want to work in), you may feel lost on the practical next steps of how to actually make it happen.

Look no further! I've partnered up with an amazing coach and friend, Rebecca Fraser-Thill — a Bates College psychology professor and founder of Working Self — to launch a Spring coaching program for recent grads. We will be accepting 10 applicants for our program that kicks off in April.

Together we have over 20 years combined experience working with twenty-somethings. Both of us care deeply about helping clients find meaningful, thrilling work (and lives to match), and work collaboratively on every step of the coaching processes we’ve each refined over the years. When you sign-up to work with one of us, you’re actually getting the shared wisdom and mastermind power of both!

If you are interested, you can learn more about how our coaching works here, and click here to apply.

If we think we might be a fit for working together, one of us will reply to schedule a complimentary 30-minute get-to-know you call to go over your goals, the program details, and answer any questions. No matter what, you'll leave the call with greater clarity and a handful of resources to move you forward.

We look forward to hearing from you!

---

About Jenny

Jenny Blake is a bestselling author of Life After College, a career and business coach and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.

Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

The Team Grows! Introducing Marisol & Davis

As Life After College enters it's seventh year of blog life, I'm excited to expand the team a bit further this year, but with very focused, intentional growth. Not to be confused with other mega career hubs with dozens of contributors, Life After College is still a small family . . . hand-picked with love! Last year I brought on Paul and Melissa, who knocked it outta the park with posts like 7 Habits of Highly Miserable 20-Somethings and Success in Different Shades; this year we add two more awesome team members to help with Content & Community Management.

Introducing Marisol and Davis!

I'm thrilled to introduce you to Marisol and Davis, two Yale seniors who hosted me for a Masters Tea on campus back in November. They're brilliant, passionate, motivated, and both long-time LAC readers. One thing led to another, and now they'll be helping to shepherd Life After College into it's next phase!

Melissa, Paul and I ("the alumni") will continue writing once a month from our - ahem - more seasoned 30-something perspective, and Marisol and Davis ("the senior class") will bring in a fresh perspective for recent grads.

A few more updates: Newsletters & RSS

• We've revamped the LAC Newsletter to be a short curated list of our recent posts and favorite career, money, and happiness content from around the web. View the most recent issue here and hit "subscribe" in the upper left if you're interested.

• The LAC RSS feed has recently been updated; click here to add the feed if it's not in your reader (I use Feedly).

• If you're specifically interested in my life and work updates, those have officially moved over to the JennyBlake.me behind-the-business newsletter, where I'll be talking about business, creativity, entrepreneurship, career change, travel and ninja-level systems and tools. 

And now, a little more about each of our new team members . . . 

About Davis Nguyen

Davis Nguyen

Rejection is a hobby . . . at least if you’re Davis Nguyen. He believes that rejection and failure are just normal parts of life, but they should never paralyze you from pursuing your goals. Davis is not timid about cold-emailing people he admires for advice, asking for a discount at the Supermarket, or approaching strangers to ask them to “pick a card.” Because you never know who might say “yes."

Each rejection is a step towards success. Davis received over 200 scholarship rejections while applying for college, but along the way, he also earned enough “yeses” that are allowing him to graduate debt-free.

In 2013, he joined the Quiet Revolution with Susan Cain, his hero and role model, and her business partner to change how the world views introversion; incidentally, Susan and Davis met after a cold-email exchange.

Davis dreams of being a bestselling author, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and GQ cover model (the last one being the most important…obviously). In his free time, Davis enjoys going to the gym, reading his weight in books, having long meals with friends, watching romantic comedies, traveling, learning new card tricks, playing poker, and of course, seeing how many new ways he can be rejected.

Davis writes about improving social confidence at Speak for the Meek. You can reach him at davis.duong.nguyen [at] gmail.com or by following him on Twitter @speakforthemeek.

About Marisol Dahl

Marisol Dahl

Marisol is currently a Sociology and Education Studies major at Yale University. A longtime New Yorker, she is interested in pursuing a career in education and child advocacy.

Marisol is a board member of the Leadership Institute at Yale, acting as director of a leadership education program for undergraduates. She is also a proud member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, serving as the 2013 Zeta Xi chapter treasurer and as the 2014 Vice President of Organization.

Marisol started her blog in 2011 as a way to document her college years and beyond. When not running around campus and catching up with her school reading, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading dystopian fiction and volunteering in her community.

She can be reached on Twitter at @marisoldahl.

A Video Hello from Both

Their 4-minute video hello gave me a big smile — don't miss the bloopers starting around 2:50!

[youtube id="DHp1I6zJklY"]

Please help give Marisol and Davis a warm welcome to the LAC Team!

In the Midst of a Major Career Change? Modify this Email Template and Send it to Your Network

Anyone who has made a major career change knows it can be an overwhelming, frustrating, long-haul process. It will challenge you to be bold, to ask for help, to wade through the mud in your mind as you navigate your way toward a more fulfilling future. Many of my coaching clients come to me when they've hit a ceiling in their career and are ready to make a big change. But how?! they ask, afriad that it won't be possible.

HOW can be a daunting word if asked to early in the process. Besides, as many of you long-time readers know, in Jenny Blake Land: there's a template for that.

Enter The Network Email Mad Lib Template

This isn't about cheesy networking or making a land-grab for contacts on LinkedIn.

First, it's absolutely critical to get clear on what you want, and what you bring to the table. If you're stuck, start by approaching your career like a caveman. Then move on to the Plan Your Next Career Move template and the Job Interview One Sheeter (the latter alone has been downloaded 20K times and helped many a reader land a new gig!).

Once you know what qualities of your ideal job or client would float your boat AND what strengths and superpowers make you stand out, it's time to let your inner circle know.

Today's template is about making a very clear, direct statement about what you're looking for so that others in your network can help keep their eyes and ears open for you. Even if they don't have an opening, they may hear of something a few weeks down the line.

Here's how to use it:

1. Personalize the Network Email Mad Lib Template to send to your existing network when you’re ready to put the word out about what you’re looking for. Keep it as concise and specific as possible.

2. Double-and-triple check: Make sure you double-check that all red {FILL INs} are removed.

3. Ask for feedback: Have a few trusted friends read it over for grammar, clarity and impact. Would they hire you? Make sure your talking points are specific and differentiate you from the pack — if you're not sure what your particular strengths are, this is where your close friends can provide great outside perspective.

4. Send! Put your email address in the TO field and make sure you put your recipients in the BCC field so that they don’t get spammed if someone hits “reply all.”

Like this template? I'd be grateful for you to share the love!

[click to tweet] Making a major career change? Modify @jenny_blake’s Network Email Mad-Lib Template and send it to your network: http://bit.ly/networkmadlib

I'd love to hear from you in the comments:

What strategies have helped you reach out to your network in the midst of a career change? 

The Big New Years Blind Spot You Might Be Missing (and How to Fix it)

Written by Jenny Blake The Big Ol' Blindspot you might be missing is not about how to set better resolutions, how to stick to them, or even how to ditch them.

It's that you might be glossing over the one thing most likely to help you feel happier and more successful: building on what is already working.

Build On Your STRENGTHS

“From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to our shortcomings than to our strengths.” ―Tom Rath, StrengthsFinder 2.0

It's so easy to fall down the rabbit-hole of what isn't working in our lives, particularly this time of year. What we suck at, the habits we are failing at, and the big promises we want to make to ourselves to correct some area of lack in our lives. Find a job! Find a mate! Lose some weight!

When working with my brand strategist Adam on JennyBlake.me, we often returned to the idea that the best ideas result from an expression of who you already are.

So instead of trying to incrementally mitigate your weaknesses, how can you bust a grand slam out of the ballpark with your biggest strengths? 

Research shows that building upon existing talents, strengths and marketable skills provides much more leverage than marginally improving on weaknesses. As Tom Rath says:

“When we're able to put most of our energy into developing our natural talents, extraordinary room for growth exists. So, a revision to the 'You-can-be-anything-you-want-to-be' maxim might be more accurate: You cannot be anything you want to be—but you can be a lot more of who you already are.

The most successful people start with dominant talent—and then add skills, knowledge, and practice to the mix. When they do this, the raw talent actually serves as a multiplier.”

―Tom Rath, StrengthsFinder 2.0

Hustle & Flow

As I shared over on JennyBlake.me last week, my word of the year is (Hustle &) Flow.

After an often-confusing year with change so intense it was sometimes debilitating, I'm also choosing to re-focus on what is already working in my life and business. An excerpt from that post:

After a year of Alignment — the precision, structure, daily habits of meditation, yoga and not drinking — I’m declaring this the year of FLOW. 

The surrender, movement and momentum of Flow, but — lest you think I’ve fallen off the woo-woo reservation — served up with a healthy side of hustle.

Grit and grace. Focus and release. Strategy and surrender. Effort and ease.

If you want to become full, let yourself be empty. If you want to be reborn, let yourself die. If you want to be given everything, give everything up. —Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

(Click here to keep reading Hustle & Flow)

Your Turn . . .

Before you go any further trying to fix what's broken, I want you to take an Inventory of Awesome.

Make a list of 25 things in your life that ARE working: habits, strengths, talents, creative ideas, even people and relationships. Now circle just one or two that, if you were to focus on elevating those through education, focus and practice, would take you from good to DAYUM I'm great!

See? That wasn't so hard. And you might even find a much greater sense of excitement and motivation by doing this exercise and narrowing it down to strengths you're jazzed about.

I'd love to hear from you in the comments: 

Resolutions, Schmezolutions. What strengths will you build on in 2014?