An article in the WSJ discussed boomers who have Slash Careers.   These are folks who spend a good part of their free time pursuing a passion, while still working at a full-time professional job.

Some examples are a lawyer who does caricature portraits on weekends; a hotel manager who writes mysteries in his off hours; or an English professor who sells her summer travel photography through local galleries.

Another recent article called them Portfolio Professionals and a third used the term Eclectic Professionals. An example would be a teacher who spends the summer doing different jobs that reflect her personal interests or to gain experience in a different field.  And I know a man who is a stock broker by day and a Wine Expert who stages wine tastings several nights a week.

You don’t have to be a professional to have a Slash career.  A story in the Philadelphia Inquirer told of a local man who loves to make independent films and documentaries, but who works intermittently as a longshoreman on the docks to earn income to pay bills and put his daughter through college.

An acquaintance of mine is a very successful executive consultant who always dreamed of being in the opera.  Now she works part-time in the evenings as an extra for the local Opera Company, dressing up in fabulous costumes, wigs and make-up to strut and dance her way around the stage.

If you are daydreaming of doing something new and different to earn your living, you are certainly not alone.   And the need to create additional streams of income is growing for many.  There are very few rules anymore- feel free to start working on an old dream, a new dream, or that long-held, really big idea. Combining two disparate careers is definitely possible.   There are no limits to what you can do!

I’ve been holding conversations with groups of adults over 50 around the topic of what they are going to do in the next phase of their life, and I find a lot of people start their answer with the words, “I wish……”

For the most part, these are folks who have spent the last 30 years living in the same area, employed in the same career and working hard just to maintain the status quo of their lives.  They haven’t had the opportunity to try to make any major changes so they can’t quite imagine how to start.

At a presentation for The Transition Network here, author Carol Saline (Mothers and Daughters) talked about the many transitions of her life.  She suggested an approach for career and life decisions that reminds us that making successful changes or transitions requires taking action. She calls it FOOFY and I like her philosophy.

•    “Get your Foot in the door
•    When Opportunity knocks, just do it
•    When Opportunity doesn’t come calling, send out invitations
•    If you believe in something Fight for it
•    Just say Yes – never let the fear of failure hold you back!”

Wishing for a different life gets us nowhere until we start doing.

In a conversation over the weekend I discovered that an acquaintance previously served on the Board of an organization I would love to be associated with professionally.

I discovered this only because when she asked “what have you been up to?”,  I didn’t hesitate to state clearly what my immediate goals are.   If I had said that I was just “busy trying to build my business” the opportunity would have passed right by.

She offered to provide an introduction to some current board and staff members and suggested an approach to getting involved with them.

I need to polish my resume and pull together a proposal to present within a week or so and that’s going to require putting in some extra hours, but I can’t ignore this “knocking” on my door.

What have you found yourself wishing for lately?  It’s time to turn some of those thoughts into real concrete ideas and apply the FOOFY principles to your efforts.   Paying attention to opportunities and taking even small actions are the first steps to success.

Every one of the experts at these events is worth traveling a distance to hear, and all three events were about topics important to growing my business.

A trip to CT would allow me to see a group of old friends, and going to KS would mean finally meeting some cyber world friends in person.  I knew the least about the local event but I had committed to it first, and my intuition seemed to be telling me to stick with that decision.  I reluctantly did.

I know for sure that it was the least fun of the three, and from all reports I missed two other really inspiring events.  But that Saturday morning I had a V-8 for my business.

One of the hardest things about developing a new business idea is figuring out what it is you don’t know.  The only way you can do that is to put yourself out there in places where you can observe and learn and meet people who know what you don’t.

The speaker I listened to intently last Saturday not only knew lots of things that I didn’t, but he was eager to share and taught well.  And a couple of contacts I made there have resulted in networking connections to a group of service providers who are interested in hiring me to do training for their employees.

Yep, I chose the can of  V-8 instead of the fun, bubbly soda but my business will benefit.  I would have picked up great ideas at either of the other events also. You have to make choices some times – trust your instincts to tell you which ones are best.

On this particular evening, one of her topics was The Kitchen.   Instantly I remembered an incident from my childhood.   I was about six years old and had a 1950 style page-boy haircut.  Mother would keep my bangs trimmed in between trips to the beauty salon so on this day, she had put a pot of applesauce on the stove in a pressure cooker, and then sat me up on a stool and draped my shoulders with a towel.

As she was snipping away, the pot on the stove began to whistle as the steam built up inside (they are supposed to do that) but suddenly, something went wrong and the lid flew off and hot applesauce exploded all over the stove, walls and even the ceiling!  (They are not supposed to do that!)

Fortunately we were far enough away that we were not spattered but to a little girl it was a terrifying experience that I’ve never forgotten.  As a result, I have never used a pressure cooker and on two occasions when I encountered one on someone else’s stove, I quickly left the room.   I have assumed that they malfunction and are dangerous when in fact, although they have gone out of style, they were used successfully for decades on a regular basis.

I think all too often we made decisions based on incorrect assumptions.   For instance, many people assume that all small businesses are risky and often fail.  On the contrary, the SBA Advocacy office reported in 2004 that there were 24.7 million taxable business entities in the US and only 17,000 were large businesses.   And as we have recently found out, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.   And they take us with them.  Small businesses (less than 100 employees) are the heartbeat of our country.  With a good plan and determination anyone can create a successful small business.

Another assumption is that “proper education” and credentials are required to do things like teaching.  In fact, the Experience Corps is a program that finds way for people from all sorts of backgrounds and experience to share their knowledge and life skills with students in classrooms from kindergarten to high school.  A recent survey showed that students made 60% more progress with an Experience Corps tutor.

One I’ve heard a lot lately is, “I’m 63, nobody wants to hire me now.”  Wrong.  Numerous businesses realize that older workers are dependable, responsible and able to contribute wisdom that only comes with living through the decades of life. AARP    has a list of the top 100 companies who actively seek to hire older adults.   Being “too old” after 60 is an incorrect assumption in the 21st century.

Don’t miss an opportunity because you are assuming that you know all about it.  Ask….investigate….try it out…..don’t let past experience or outdated information stop you from discovering a bright new future.

My life was in pretty good order finally.

Comfortable, affordable place to live in a walking community
Proximity to my children, the grandkids and my Dad
Wonderful circle of fun, interesting and supportive friends
Good health and a relatively stress-free life
Work that challenges and excites me

That’s what I set out to create almost 10 years ago – it’s been a challenging journey and an exercise in learning and growing that I’m glad I embarked on.  And for the last year or so, I have been feeling very settled and happy with my lot in life.

But something was missing and I knew it but I wasn’t ready to work on that part yet.  I was still perfecting just being an authentic me – I couldn’t imagine another person’s place in this new life.

Ah, but the Universe conspires for our best interests  - we just fail to notice sometimes.

He is an acquaintance from 4 years ago -a connection that was lost - but call it what you will, Fate laughed and walked him right back into my life.   And this time I couldn’t’ help but pay attention.

I did an exercise with some friends a while back of describing my idea of a perfect soul mate complete with a physical description.  I really did think about what kind of person I would want to share my life with and described his traits, interests, talents and physical appearance.

You know that old adage, be careful what you wish for?   Well, if you doubt the power of setting intentions and visioning, I suggest you think again.  If you read that “letter to the universe” and met my “Sweetie” you would be astounded!

So I’m learning to adjust again.  Learning to set boundaries on my work hours to allow time to share part of my life.  Learning to juggle priorities to include kids, grandkids, a parent and a romance.  Learning to just let myself be in a moment and to focus on another person.      Lovely……

Of course I encouraged her since I know that she is organized, is better than most people at planning ahead, and is well disciplined when she wants to do something.   But I didn’t think about one aspect of her delightful personality.  She lives in New York because she is a high energy, fast-moving urban type of gal.

“I don’t know how you stand this!”  She sounded like an 8 on a scale of 10 for misery.  “How do I stand what?”  I asked.   “Staying at home alone all day….”    Oh, that.  I laughed out loud.  I had offered lots of advice on how to find jobs, had sent her several links for helpful websites, and was offering lots of cheerleading about how well she could do.  I mean, I am her proud mother, ok?

What I hadn’t done was clue her in to my “work at home” success tips.  Even though I don’t mind being at home alone, I do have to get out just like anyone else.  I plan my work in 3 -4 hour chunks and then take breaks to do other things like walking in the park, going to the gym, meeting friends for lunch, checking out the book store or library, and going to networking and professional events.   I also do a lot with friends in the evenings to balance my quiet days.   But I’m not sure even those tricks would help my sweet social child.

With lots of people looking for new ways to earn income, I know many are thinking of how great it would be to have a home-based business.  There are some great perks – no fancy wardrobe needed, time to exercise, ability to eat food that’s actually good for you, no sitting in traffic, etc.   But there are some requirements that need to be considered.

Here are some traits that matter:
1.    Are you self-motivated?
2.    Can you avoid distractions?
3.    Are you organized?
4.    Can you stay focused?
5.    Can you prioritize your to-do list?
6.    Are you good at managing time?
7.    Are you knowledgeable in technology?

But even if you are good at all of the above, if you are a people person who needs interaction with others, or prefer conversing with humans who will actually answer you instead of a cat who purrs regardless, working at home might not be your cup of tea.   Know thyself….   Try spending a couple of days alone working on your idea to see how it feels.

  His advice to work on just one thing until it’s done without multi-tasking can’t be repeated often enough.  His little gem of a book called The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essentials … in Work and in Life is an easy guidebook to a saner, less stressful life. 

  Babauta suggests lots of Zen Habits that can help us find a simple, common sense and quiet way to live and work.  Here are some of them for work:

     1. Set your 3 MITs (most important tasks) each morning. 

     2. Single-task   Focus your attention on only one thing 

     3. Zero Inbox - don’t even think about it first thing in the morning. 

     4. Process emails once a day - preferably around lunch-time.  

     5. Work while disconnected - turn off IM, Twitter, cell phone, email 

     7. Keep your desk uncluttered. 

     8. Clear and declutter one drawer, file or space for 15 min each day 

     9. Limit email answers to 5 sentences - write what you mean 

   10. Say no to commitments not on your important short list 

   11. Follow a morning routine - gratitude and meditation -5 minutes    

The very talented Leonie Allan at Goddess Guidebook has created a fun colorful poster you can print out and hang up (or download the desktop wallpaper) to keep you in a Zen frame of mind.   Visit her website to get it here  

If you are a creative personality who loves to help others, take it one step further and work with them to help them discover ways they can turn their interests into income.

My colleague, Valerie Young, is the Dreamer in Residence at Changing Course. She also is considered an expert on uncovering career options for people who want to do their own thing. Hercareer change advice has been cited around the world. She’s beenstudying creative career change and entrepreneurship for well over a decade now - devouring every book and seminar she could. But, along with being an avid learner, she’s also an educator.

Of course, the question you have to answer right now: Is this the right path for you?

Well, let’s talk about that. Let me ask you this… ~ Are you somebody who’s always clipping out articles for friends and acquaintances? Always turning other people on to resources and alternatives they never knew existed?

~ Are you a creative problem-solver?

~ Do you instinctively jump in to help others?

~ Do you find yourself constantly thinking up potential business
ideas?

If that describes you, then I bet people love talking with you… Maybe they even seek you out. And why wouldn’t they? After all, thinking about creative ways to make a living without a “job-job” is something that just, well… comes naturally to you I’ll bet.

If you’re interested in taking your passion of helping others find their calling, she’s just opened up her registration for her Outside the Job Box Career Expert Course.

In these economic times, there are many more people who are seeking alternatives ways to make a living
without a j-o-b. It’s become increasingly clear that the demand for people who are trained to help folks pursue creative entrepreneurial paths is greater than ever before.

If this appeals to you, you owe it to yourself to check it out.  Now is just as good a time as any to consider becoming an independent consultant.

Here’s the link to check out her course:

http://ChangingCourse.com/cmd.php?af=958047

Don’t delay! She started taking registrations earlier in the week. You really can create the life you really want. But it’s not going to happen without you taking action.

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me.