I’m now being “NAGged” by the ProNagger every morning to get me moving on my goal to create a membership site.

Not long after that #ideaparty, no fewer than 4 different free presentations on how to get a membership up and running literally fell in my lap. I’ve listened to 2 so far and am anticipating the big 4-day teleseminar coming up soon.

So this is REALLY new to me – that is actively asking for support (my success team & ProNagger) – and actually seeing it develop into something really cool.

Stay tuned – I’ll announce it here. If you want to be notified by email, sign up here.

Here are the criteria for a good enough job:

1. Doesn’t require more than 40 hours a week.
2. Short commute.
3. Non-toxic environment (i.e. micro-managers, negative co-workers, stressful culture).
4. No take-home work. Leave it when you leave the building.
5. Pays well. Insurance and a retirement plan are also good bonuses.

This “isn’t your dream job; it’s the one that funds your dreams.” (Barbara Sher, Refuse to Choose p. 136).

Stay tuned for a few examples and suggestions on how to find this “Good Enough Job.”

*Image by Kriss Szkurlatowski

1. Move in the direction of your dream
   Just because you don’t know exactly what to do next doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something. Feeling your way along is still making progress. So–decide to do something. You’ll know after you do it whether it was right. If it wasn’t, you can make another move. Make it a practice to fail forward. Keep a list of all your ideas. Whenever you feel stuck, re-read the list and choose one idea for action.
2. Ask and you shall receive
   I’ve garnered a wealth of other people’s wisdom just by asking. After locating the contact information for an author or publisher, I craft an e-mail with the subject line “Requesting a courtesy.” I ask if he or she would be willing to spend a few minutes talking with an aspiring writer, and I offer to pay for the call. It has never failed to elicit a positive response.
3. Be open to the possibilities
   Warning — wild ideas will come to mind! Don’t dismiss them out of hand. Because I was self-publishing my book, Living a Life of Significance, I assumed I would have to bear the entire cost of the project. After all, wasn’t that why they called it self-publishing? Just then a wild idea raised its goofy head. I pitched a kind of “joint venture” to a colleague with similar interests. He had access to funds to pay the book designer — not an insignificant sum. This infusion of cash freed up some dollars to invest in marketing the book.
4. Ask “what if?” to transform your thinking
   Who knows what may develop if you spend a little time asking yourself the question, “What if…?” As I began working on my book, I asked myself, “What if I could create a book customers would want to buy in quantities of 25, 50 or more, instead of just one at a time?” That led to the concept of selling my book to organizations and offering to customize the covers to include the organization’s name. The books could then be used as gifts and relationship-building tools. It worked! My goal is to create a continuing series of books, which organizations can purchase each year.

Originally published at Write Directions

photo by Linden Laserna

• Don’t try to dodge the recession with Grad School: Some of us scanners/eclectics/renaissance souls already know this – but there are those of us (count me in as one of ‘em) that think Grad School is a really good thing. Turns out unless you’re independently wealthy and going for self-enrichment, Grad School isn’t such a brilliant idea.
• Along with that, Seven Reasons why Graduate School is Outdated is a good read too. As I said before, unless you’ve got the cash and nothing else to do with your time, skip it.


photo by woodsy (http://www.sxc.hu/profile/woodsy)

• Another way of getting things done: Mark Forester’s AutoFocus System. Although I’ve yet to put it into practice (I’ve made my initial list), it seems like a low-stress way to get things done. You essentially write a huge to-do list, scan it and pick the one thing that jumps out at you. If you finish the task, cross it off. If not – add it to the end and cross the original entry off. Watch the video for the system in action. Looks like a good way for more intuitive eclectics to get their sh*t done.
• I know that with all the productivity blather going on ’round the internets, it’s hard not to get caught up in it all. Johnathan at The Illuminated Mind writes a pointed article called “Why Trying to be Productive is a Huge Waste of Time” shows why productivity and time management ends up doing the opposite of what it intended (killing time instead of giving us more time to be productive).

That’s all for now. Have a fantastic weekend!!

Barbara Sher is the author of many books on pursuing your dreams. Most of them are found in the Alternating Current Store. Be sure to check out her message boards at Barbarasher.com as well. Lots of people to talk to, commiserate with and get ideas flowing.

There are also a few other things especially for scanners on her site including Idea Party teleclasses, her radio show on BlogTalkRadio, and even a downloadable teleclass. One thing I encourage all scanners to do is to get in touch with other scanners either in your area or online through Facebook, Twitter, message boards or other social media outlets.

As Barbara says “isolation is the dream-killer, not your attitude.”

Pundits like me are constantly talking about Facebook, Twitter, blogs and humor sites, not to mention old standbys like e-mail and IM. One gets the impression that we should be “following” these things all day long, and many do. So when does the work get done?

Those who can control their attention and not get sidetracked by the blabbing on the social media networks (not to mention every phone call, email and “urgent” task) are the ones with the power. As he states later on in the article, the one who is most productive isn’t the gal who spends 12 hours at the office “multi-tasking,” but the one who’s working “six hours a day with total focus.”

No one is discounting hard work, but hard work at everything but the most important tasks (work, your goals, dreams, etc) doesn’t lead to much.

I definitely need to find a way to focus my own attention. I get sidetracked by just about everything: my blogs, Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, my RSS feeds, email. It’s no wonder I leave everything to the last minute and never seem to get anywhere. There have been Tweets and blog posts about selecting a few words or a phrase to be a sort of guiding thought for the year. I think at least one of mine will be Attention or Focus. Maybe both.

Times sidetracked by a shiny new Tweet, Plurk or other web dealie while writing this blog post: 5

You can now download Barbara Sher’s book Wishcraft for free as a PDF. It’s split up chapter by chapter, and contains all the original text. And if your first language is Portugese, you’re in luck too – there’s a translation just for you.

So you now don’t have the money excuse to start on your dreams! Go download it now.

Barbara Sher cries bull. You don’t have to change yourself first before you can go after a dream. All you need is a kick in the ass. And since you probably can’t do that on your own, you should probably find a few other dream builders to help you on your way. Accountability is a big reason why we do stuff. We did our homework because we’d get a bad grade otherwise.We go to work because we’d get fired if we don’t, and we probably need the money.

That’s where her quote “Isolation is a dream killer” comes in. The main point in her book Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want is to gather a group of like-minded individuals, those who are pursuing their dreams as well, and keep each other accountable. These are, in Barbara Sher’s world, called Success Teams. Surround yourself with those who are interested in your dream (and you in theirs) and you can do just about anything.

I’ve been listening to a seminar called “Making Dreams Happen” and all I have to say is that I *love* Barbara’s look on things. I’m notoriously self-deprecating and have a really below-average sense of self-worth. But when I believe in something, when it means food on the table or none, and when I have people checking up on me, I do things. I did fantastic in school because bad grades were a very good negative reinforcement technique. I finish work-related projects because if I don’t, I don’t get paid (and I feel like a big jerk for flaking).

If positive thinking and stuff of that ilk do you good, then by all means do it. But Positive Thinking never got me anywhere because when I fail, I feel like even more of a worm than I already do. I can accomplish stuff even if I feel like crap, hate my body, and wake up grumbling… Because when I have the right people by my side, it works.

Now time to find my success team…

I’ll forgo the apologies and just say that my typical scanner/renaissance soul self tugged me in a different direction and time for blogging has been short.

Here’s a new Reading List to keep you entertained for a while… Visit these folks & subscribe to their blogs, too – they always deliver thoughtful and entertaining posts!

Darren is a creative guy who runs a blog called !maginality. One of his most recent posts, How to be Creative on Demand has a few quick tips on how to get your creative juices flowing when you don’t have much of a choice.

I’m really liking the new direction Merlin Mann is taking on his blog 43Folders. His post called Photography, and the Tolerance for Courageous Sucking reminds us that in order to get at the really good stuff we KNOW is within us, we have to wade through the crap that comes before. Don’t be afraid to suck. It does pay off.

Lastly, a new (to me) blog has some great interviews with folks in creative careers as well as other resources for “Empowering Creative People” called LifeDev. They’re also looking for guest bloggers.

Although I haven’t unpacked everything she has available on her site (including a free newsletter and e-book called “How to Work When, Where, and How You Want”) it looks like she has a wealth of great information for people who want to escape working on someone else’s schedule and create her or his own. In the coming weeks I’ll be reading through her site and reviewing some of the resources, including the free e-book.