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Fear and change. How to keep your career edge.
Worry you’re losing your edge in your career? You’re not alone–there’s even an acronym for that: FOBO – Fear of Becoming Obsolete. Local bestselling author Debra Benton, in partnership with Kylie Write-Ford, tackle this topic in their newly-released book, “The Leadership Mind Switch.” Here are a few compelling data points to get you thinking in more progressive directions: “Every two days, we create as much information as we did from the dawn of man through 2003”, informs Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google. An attitude of, “We’ve always done things that way,” is digital Darwinism, and...
read moreMature workers and aging. What not to do in employment.
Twice in the last few weeks the world has reminded me of my chronological progression. At a local store, a clerk asked if I qualified for the senior discount, and flying home from Minneapolis, the TSA agent told me to keep my shoes on as a courtesy to their more mature flyers. And yes, as of yesterday, I do qualify for benefits for anyone 55 or over. Aging is concern for more mature workers, and now that I’ve officially joined that category, I’m asking myself, as objectively as possible, are these worries valid? I do find myself a bit slower when it comes to decision making lately. I’m not...
read moreCreating a Habit. Start this week with Bike to Work Day.
This coming Wednesday, Fort Collins celebrates one of my favorite days of the year: Bike to Work day. Been thinking about adding this to your life? Habit expert Christine Whelan offers these tips, to which I’ve added bike-to-work strategies: Start small and specific, such as riding to work on Mondays and Wednesdays. Determine what you’ll need to add and subtract to make room for this change. For instance, it will likely take you more time to bike than to drive. Over 50% of workers live within 10 miles of their workplace, a commute that will take an average of 40 minutes, as compared to 20...
read moreCooking Up Job Experiments!
A friend loaned me her copy of Julie & Julia. I’d seen the movie years ago, yet reading the book reminded me of the delight and value that can come from diving into a career experiment. A career experiment is a short-term, low-risk experience that exposes the experimenter to an aspect of a profession that intrigues them. Career experiments can help with career planning, and, in author Julie Powell’s case, to satisfy a craving. Powell had been fascinated with cooking and Julia Child for years. If you’re familiar with the story, you’ll recall that Powell challenged herself to cook all of...
read moreEating “frogs”. A strategy for getting more done daily.
Mark Twain once said that we should eat a live frog the first thing every morning, because that would likely be the worst experience of the day, and we would benefit from getting it over with right away. Motivational expert Brian Tracy picked up on this notion and recommends identifying and acting on your most distasteful tasks—a.k.a. “frogs”—daily. And here I sit, penning this column, with a few frogs of my own chirping from the sidelines, waiting to be dealt with. They have to do with making some important phone calls, and could result in flat-out rejection, so I’m dreading them a bit. But...
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