Transitions take time.

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Some of us have plenty of obvious reasons screaming at us for a change!

• Some may be in a job they can no longer stand….
• Many have found themselves without a job or a downsized career and feel they are just buying time….
• Some have realized they’ve been chasing something they no longer want and are looking for a different path….
• Most understand they they could be doing a better job prioritizing their life (some day soon)….

We might be at wit’s end…

Or maybe you’re not entirely sure why you feel motivated to seek a change but something is pulling you in this direction.  You might even feel guilty that you’re fortunate in almost every respect (you have a roof over your head, bills are getting paid and life might be moving along without a hitch). Yet, you’re uneasy and searching for “the next thing”.

I believe there are times our inner voice calls us to act…yet we don’t know what to do about it.  [Please don't call the guys with a straight jacket to pay me a visit....give me a moment or a few posts and I'll explain ]

Before you take any action, I believe you should invest the time and energy in yourself first.  Spending some quality time examining yourself is absolutely critical to designing a plan worth pursuing.

A Period of Self Discovery

I wish I had made this investment in myself 20 years ago.  My opportunity came while recovering from a major accident and I had nothing but TIME on my hands.  After 22 days in a coma, I spent the better part of 6 more months in a bed & wheelchair with the good fortune of my loving family, hundreds of books and a laptop.

Being blessed with time I was able to properly deal with what I believed was a life altering (and presumably career altering) event.  The lessons learned were amongst the most valuable in life and worth sharing.

But nothing came to me (that I can point to) from books, tapes or television.  The awareness of the necessity to change or alter the path you’re on comes from within each of us and may be different for each of us.

If you’re like me, you won’t easily succumb to any “touchy-feely” jargon.  Yet if you simply do your homework on yourself and discover what truly brings you peace…you will find your answer.

More to come….

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Now is the time to take action.

A Crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

The perfect storm holds the hidden benefit of justifying extraordinary actions.  Our employers, our organizations, our local-state-federal governments all recognize this and have used this as an opportunity to recalibrate budgets, future plans and aspirations.  It also calls each of us to do the same.

If you’ve read my earlier posts, you know I also treat a horrible accident as a watershed event in my own life as it facilitates a number of quantum changes in me (some still in process). It’s actually been the catalyst (or excuse) for virtually any change I wanted to make.

We can actually use this “Great Recession” as the excuse to change our lives!

Sure, we can change our careers.  Go back to school, follow our dream job (most of us don’t really know what that is), start  our own business or even re-create the one we have.  Just because the landscape has changed, it doesn’t mean we don’t have control over what we do about it.

We certainly are forced to recalibrate our living.  Financially, we are all coerced to justify our lifestyles. How great will things be in a few years if we are able to maintain our “new lifestyles” with so much less stress? Our energy applied to relationships and meaningful endeavors will certainly yield a more rewarding life.

This series of short postings are highlighting several compelling reasons to enact change in our lives.  We each have our own reasons, but I’ve not talked with a single individual that doesn’t agree change is needed.

In my small part of the world, I am already seeing the early signs that people are joining together recognizing this need for change and beginning to shape the next steps.  We inspire each other.

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It is inevitable that we all feel a bit separated & isolated after a period of shock.  In fact, I believe it is natural.

I’ve read, and heard of, so many divorces, broken relationships and career altering decisions after catastrophic events put such stress on people they simply shatter their preconceived assumptions.  I don’t for a minute want to minimize a truly catastrophic event, but I have witnessed a number of people that have (or are now) treating the loss of a job or downsized career as a catalyst for completely overhauling their assumptions.  I’m not sure it is all bad, but it can be if we’re not careful.

Keeping things in perspective is easier said than done, but we can help each other when we know we’re not alone.

Downsizing, unfortunately, doesn’t lend itself to team building or camaraderie.  Nor does it foster the beginning of closer relationships in the workplace.

The “I survived 2007, 8 or 9″ T-shirts simply don’t cut it.

As colleagues in an environment that has experienced shock, we must lead the positive change that we all know must occur (even if we don’t know exactly what to do).  It requires us to act — to communicate with one another (maybe for the first time).  It calls us to focus our attention on each other and put our egos behind us.

Putting all of our energy into improving the morale of those around us is the surest way of improving our own lot in life.

As a mentor, finding a way to serve the needs of someone else will strengthen the very network that is broken. You can make a difference in the life of someone else….and quite accidentally take one step closer to feeling what has been missing from your own experience.

We simply need more people serving those around us before we will heal this place.

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CNN Money.com article

‘Working twice as hard for half the money’

By Jessica Dickler, staff writer  January 25, 2010: 11:16 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Being out of work is taking a toll on job seekers. But even those with a job are getting fed up.

Layoffs, diminished benefits, pay cuts and extra workload burdens are finally pushing many disgruntled workers right out the door.

In a study by CareerBuilder, 24% of workers say they no longer feel loyal to their current employer and 19% plan to move to a new job this year.

Almost one-quarter of respondents surveyed by the Conference Board in a separate study said they didn’t expect to be at their current jobs within a year.

Since the recession took hold two years ago, only the threat of the unemployment line was keeping workers on the job. But as the economy shows signs of improvement, “people will start taking off in droves,” said Rusty Rueff, a career and workplace expert at Glassdoor.com.

Brent Q. hopes to be one of them. Q, who is 36 and works as a flight attendant at a major airline, has seen his pay and compensation cut 33% since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. At the same time, his hours have increased.

“We’re working twice as much than we’re supposed to be working for half the money,” he said of himself and his coworkers.

He has since gone back to school and graduated with an MBA, hoping to find work in arts administration and leave the airlines behind.

Despite his discontent, Q. says he will continue working at the airline until he receives a job offer. “I really can’t afford to quit, it’s a matter of grinning and bearing it until things turn around.”

“Workers feel like they took the brunt of the recession because companies had to do whatever they could to cut costs, and what they cut were programs that directly impacted employees,” explained Michael Erwin, a senior career adviser at CareerBuilder.

Now, with signs of improvement in the economy, employers should start thinking about worker retention, rather than cost cutting.

“Morale is in the toilet,” said Glassdoor’s Rueff. “Morale issues lead to productivity issues which lead to results issues.”

If employers do not communicate what employees can expect going forward in terms of reinstating salaries and benefits, then that’s going to cause a lot of friction, Rueff explained.

Joan Marie Verba, 56, couldn’t take another day with her former employer.

“I worked for a nationally advertised weight loss company. Our pay was basically minimum wage, with commissions for each client,” she said. “However, ever since the recession started, the number of clients diminished, which meant that the pay essentially was reduced to minimum wage.”

Plus, “they were cutting hours and the opportunities were just shrinking,” she said.

“I was just so frustrated, I had to make a change,” Verba said of her decision to quit in December.

She has since been looking for another job while taking additional classes in health coaching and working as an independent weight loss consultant.

But experts say employees need to keep their emotions in check and think twice about whether to jump ship without a back-up plan.

“It’s going to be even more competitive than it was last year,” Erwin said.

Workers should start thinking about their next move, update their resumes and build up networks. But quitting on the spot as a form of protest is not advisable considering the alternative of getting lost in a sea of job seekers competing for few openings.

“People who are in jobs need to think long and hard before they jump up and say that the grass is greener on the other side,” Rueff cautioned. “I don’t think they want to be out there on the street right now.” 

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There is a terrific metaphor in Lance Secretan’s book “Inspire!” that provides one of the best descriptions of many corporate workplaces I’ve seen.  I’m surprised I haven’t seen it in Dilbert!

We all know the term “copycat” as it applies to someone or something who imitates or adopts the behavior or practices of another.  Although it is cute when we are kids, it can be annoying later.  While imitation may be the best form of flattery, it can prove to be disastrous if we are following the WRONG behavior (even inadvertently).

The “copyfrog” label, however, combines this notion of imitation with the story of how a frog is boiled.

It seems that if you place a frog in HOT water it will immediately jump out.  However, if you place a frog in cool water and slowly heat it, the frog will stay until the water boils and it is too late to escape.

Lance Secretan lists one of the reasons we find it difficult to change is this copyfrog effect: …someone who is afraid to speak up for fear of ridicule or feeling alone, or appearing not to be a team player, even though many others may feel the same way, and are also afraid to speak out.  The result is that we copy the perceived (but not the real) beliefs of others — we copy others who are copying us.

Quite simply, by not jumping out of the water (or changing behavior) we are endorsing the status quo and ultimately leading to our collective demise.

If we model ourselves after those who have been successful (or appear to be so) rather than being authentic to our own souls it is easy to be trapped in denial when things turn bad.

Is it possible we have all been guilty of being a Copyfrog at one point or another in our lives?

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