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Jigsaw Puzzles For Grown Ups

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I love jigsaw puzzles. Not wooden ones mind you but people ones. What on earth is she on about I hear you cry. I love the jigsaw pierces that make up someone’s new career. You need to have all the pieces to create a picture of their future, you know what the pieces are but not what is on them at the outset.

You know there will be a certain number of pieces but you don’t know exactly how many as everyone is different.  First you create the border and then fill in the pieces, one by one. It is exciting seeing what picture emerges and it isn’t always what you think it might be when you start off.

The other day I even shocked myself when I came up with 21 career ideas for a client for how they could use their skills and interests, plus honour their values and motivations. They are now going great guns and their planning of their new business is getting off the ground really fast while they are working 4days a week – cunning plan.

If the only committee you are a member of is the escape committee, then read this inspiring example of a client who changed from & design and architecture to holidays around cheese.   

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs042/1102862873131/archive/1106787631322.html

 

Do You Love Your Job?

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You do? You’re kidding right? Oh you’re the one.

You see it’s a bit like relationships – there are lots of ‘all right ish’ ones but ones that are brilliant are as rare as a nesting osprey.

If you are a typical employee, if you have a job, you will be hanging onto to it for dear life like an aging footballer with a supermodel girlfriend.

 If you are fed up to the back teeth of your job, your boss or your employer, what can you do except grin and bear it? The behaviour of people who don’t like something but don’t know what to do about it easy to spot:

  1. You talk more behind your boss’ back than to their face
  2. You wake up on a Monday morning with lead weights in your shoes rather than a spring in your step
  3. Weekends and holidays feel like an oasis and you cling to them like a drowning man
  4. You get ill a lot because your body is being obliging to get you out of there
  5. You drink too much alcohol, shop to excess, eat comfort foot to excess and do drugs to distract yourself, or maybe all of them
  6. Soap opera storyline feel positively cheery compared to your lot

So what’s the alternative? Here are 3 options:

1)     Bump off your boss and steal their job

2)     Resign with no job to go to

3)     Download the Energise free report ‘Pain free career change’ as the first step to keep sane http://www.careerstrategies.co.uk/

From Fixed Grin To Wry Smile?

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Is your face aching from that fixed grin? That expression that says ‘I am happy to have a job, but I am sick of doing 3 jobs, having no pay rise, little feedback or praise and I would like to stuff it where the sun don’t shine?’

If so, smiling at these work signs will change your facial expression and give those face muscles a workout. Enjoy! 

“If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t people happy?”

“I don’t look busy because I did it right first time.”

“Work is like taking a sledge across the Arctic. Only the lead dog has a pleasant view”

“We believe in give and take here. I give my time and effort. They take my freedom and dignity.”

“Who says that nothing is impossible? There are people here who do it every day.”

“If at first you don’t succeed, delegate the job to someone else.”

“The beatings will continue until morale improves.”

If you designed your own work sign, what would be the caption? Do share.

Have you downloaded your free ‘Pain free career change report’ yet?

Click on this link to download it and look busy: http://www.careerstrategies.co.uk/

Have a laugh at our video on YouTube too – more free tips for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b8CFaOq6GY

Relationships Are Like Runner Beans

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If I forget or don’t make time to visit my allotment for a couple of days, the runner beans get too big and aren’t very nice, so they are wasted. If I visit more often and pick them, I am rewarded by delicious beans without strings attached. Not only that, but the more I pick, the more beans grow, so giving them a little attention means they are more productive.

People are like runner beans. They will reward you back if you give them time and attention. I think human beings have a fundamental need to be heard and thought about, but the ‘to do list’ can get in the way, especially with our mad busy lives.  Whether it’s employees, friends or family, we all need watering and tending.

Sometimes I put off phoning people because it feels like too much time with everything else I need to do. Every time I do phone, it feels good, I get an idea, give support and feel connected. If I don’t, I feel out of sorts,  disconnected and withdraw – a vicious rather than virtuous circle. Which ‘runner beans’ are you going to nurture today? If this post resonated wih you, you might enjoy our tweets on Twitter. Click on the link below and follow us on Twitter:

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/talentliberator

Cabin Fever And How To Cure It

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Do you find that there are certain tasks that you can procrastinate for England about rather than do? Would you rather pluck your nasal hair than do them? I am pretty decisive by nature, but there are a couple that get me dusting my light bulbs to avoid.

For me these are making prospect phone calls and creating proposals. I used to be a brand strategist in the communications industry who was kept in a darkened room and wheeled out for meetings to spout insights that would help the clients make more money. I am happy as Larry doing research and writing, but that other stuff, well I have to create the right conditions to get them done.

If you see a woman aged about 45 sitting hunched over a hot laptop on a long train route, think Stornaway to Penzance, or in a coffee shop long after the drink dregs have gone cold making prospect calls, that’ll be me. If I stayed at my home office, not only would I get severe cabin fever and start climbing the walls, these tasks would take ten times as long. What are your most creative avoidance strategies and least favourite tasks? Off to London to get on that yellow tube line.

At a career crossroads?  Download the FREE Energise “Pain free career change” report. Click on this link: http://www.careerstrategies.co.uk/

Do you feel too small to be effective? Mosquitos aren’t.

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I love this quote:

 “Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference has never tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in the room. “

Christie Todd Whitman

Sometimes it can feel difficult doing everything yourself being a small business, especially compared with big corporates. There’s no IT department to phone, you’re head of new business, marketing, accounts, office management and client servicing. And then there’s doing the work!  Last night there was a mosquito in my bedroom and I couldn’t see it before I turned off the light. I could hear it though!

This quote:

“Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference has never tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in the room. “ Christie Todd Whitman

inspires me keeps me going on difficult days!  Today the sun is shining, even if England’s World Cup football is over.

More and more of my clients want to make a difference, do you? If so, let’s have a chat. This client of mine Duncan Goose has made a huge difference. I helped him to escape from a job he hated and work out what he really wanted to do : http://www.onedifference.org/water

Off to buy some fly spray………..

Have a good day.

Rachel

Energise – The Talent Liberation Company

Career change, senior outplacement, executive coaching and employee engagement

+ 44 (0) 845 22 55 010

+ 44(0) 7973 911137 

rachel@liberateyourtalent.com

www.liberateyourtalent.com

Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/talentliberator

Linked in profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rachel-brushfield/0/143/66

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Fancy a day trip to avoid the budget news?

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Why not pop to Milton Keynes. Yes really. Not only does it have nearly as many roundabouts to get lost in as Swindon to distract you from capital gains increases, it also has an event on which will engage you. Forget champagne bars, this is the place to go. It ends on 30 June, so get your skates on. http://www.theartofengagement.co.uk

I find that many managers and leaders don’t ‘get’ employee engagement, despite the fact that there are a lot of fed up employees at the moment.  “How people feel affects how hard they work” is a very simple concept. The trouble is that there are a zillion factors that affect it, money being just 1.  The 5 year returns on average of organisations in the 3 Times Best companies to work for lists 2010 (Big, mid, small companies) outstrip those of the FTSE 100 firms more than 4 times; 15.5% compared with 3.5%, so maybe there is something in that soft fluffy engagement stuff after all? 

I don’t know about you, but as the average person spends around 80,000 hours at work in their lifetime, I want to enjoy my quota, especially as women in my family live until 98, so I’ll be about 88 when I retire at this rate.  What engages you at work and what disengages you?