Have you ever had one of those rolling-on-the-floor, I-think-I'm-going-to-pee-my-pants fits of laughter and come out the other side feeling much better than before you started? Maybe you felt some stress peel away, or you just felt lighter. If so, you know the power of laughter to change both your perspective and the way your body physically feels. 

As part of my workhelping people create careers and lives for themselves that energize and inspire them, I'm always on the lookout for ways to improve our experience of the here and now. One of my favorites (though I haven't participated in it myself) is laughter yoga. 

Laughter yoga sounds faintly ridiculous, but research has shown that tapping into laughter has very real benefits. I came across a short video clip this morning featuring John Cleese that takes a look at laughter yoga in India. It's worth watching. 

Even if there are no laughter yoga groups in your area, it's worth keeping the benefits of laughter in mind. If you don't have enough laughter in your life, what can you do to bring more of it into the picture? Who makes you laugh? What makes you laugh? Go to a funny movie. 

Read a funny book. Go to comedycentral.com and find something that makes you guffaw. Make a commitment to yourself to bring more laughter into your life. Conduct a 30-day laughter experiment. Commit to consciously seeking out something every day that makes you laugh and see what effect it has. At worst, you'll get a few chuckles. At best, it could shift your entire outlook. 

[Hat tip to Tim at 360 Degree Self for the video link]

Welcome to this week's installment in the Your Life in Pictures series. In this series, you will find photos to use as a point of departure for self-exploration.

Q: What insights does this picture prompt about your career? Your life? 

[Click on the image to see it full-sized.]

It's been an eon or two since I posted a Five Friday Favorites post, but it feels like it's time to pick up the habit again. So here, in no particular order, are five of my favorite blog posts from this week.

Celebrate Your Succuess
PluginID

5 Ways to shake hands with yourself
HELLO, my name is Blog!

Frugality is a career tool
Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist

Work Happiness Tip - Keep Track of Your Mood
Work Happy Now!

Follow your spark, not that hollow feeling in your chest
Avocationist

Do you have a favorite blog post from the past week? Post a link in the comments for all of us to see.

Enjoy!

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Want a deceptively simple, yet powerful way to change your world? Join the Listen & Learn Revolution. When you do, you'll be taking your own personal step towards dissolving a culture of divisiveness and conflict.

The Listen & Learn Revolution is about jettisoning the need to be right when you encounter someone whose opinion or point of view differs from yours. Instead of clubbing them over the head with your opinion, take some time to engage them with a sense of curiosity. Explore why they believe what they do, not from a, "How the hell can you think that??" perspective, but from a desire to genuinely understand.

Here are some general principles underlying the Listen & Learn Revolution:

You won't change anyone's mind with a club

It might feel good to let that righteous indignation fly and try to prove just how stupid and wrong-headed their opinion is, but you'll rarely win any converts to your opinion that way. To the contrary, you're likely to cause them to dig their heels in even more. You're just building walls between you.

Instead of looking at every opinion that differs from yours as the starting point for an argument to prove you're right, try looking at it as a starting point for exploration. Accept the fact that you're unlikely to change their mind in a heated debate.

Too often we seem to see a differing opinion as a direct threat to our own beliefs. We succumb to a "best defense is a good offense" mentality and start to attack those differing beliefs.

Here's the reality. Someone else's beliefs have nothing to do with the validity, rightness, or justness of your beliefs. Zero. Zip. Nada. Not a damn thing. So there's nothing to defend against. There's no need to put up a wall or go on the attack. And that leaves you open to simply explore.

So often people are reluctant to open themselves to understanding another point of view because they mistake understanding for agreement. But the two are really apples and oranges. You can understand someone's perspective even while vehemently disagreeing.

Part of understanding comes from discovering why they think what they think. You and I (and anyone else) likely have different lenses through which we see the world. Those lenses have been created by our experiences, the beliefs and values we have been taught, etc.

When you have a picture of what someone else's lens looks like, their opinions start to make more sense in that context. You may still not agree with them, but it becomes easier to see how they can view the world that way.

If you ever want to guarantee that someone won't listen to your point of view, attack theirs. Nothing will put up the walls to communication faster. On the other hand, if you start asking questions - curious ones, not judgmental - often the conversation starts to come around to your point of view.

I recently had coffee with someone I went to high school with in Montana that I hadn't seen in years. He is avidly pro-gun, and I am most decidedly not. When he first mentioned something about it, I asked him more about it. We talked about his perspective on the gun issue for several minutes until he stopped and asked what I thought.

The gun question can be one of those terminally divisive issues, and we definitely came down on squarely opposite sides of it. But because we both approached it with curiosity about the other's perspective, we ended up having a really interesting, enjoyable conversation.

It's easy to get trapped in an ideological ghetto, surrounded by people who ditto your every thought and opinion. But just like in nature, a thriving mind ecology needs diversity. Opening yourself up to listening and understanding gives your mind more to work with. It gives you a fuller picture. It makes your valid opinions and beliefs stronger and weeds out the ones that aren't actually that solid.

This one is related to limiting yourself by not listening. The fact is, people you don't agree with just might have a point. That point might be the entirety of their opinion, or it might be a point of view springing from a piece of information you didn't have. Listening and learning opens the door to strengthening the breadth and depth of your knowledge.

Questions spotlight unsupported opinions

Let's face it, not everybody with a strong opinion actually has a good supporting argument to back it up. Sometimes a strong opinion is little more than a hollow echo of a soundbite they heard somewhere else. Asking interested, curious questions about why they think what they think will

This point isn't always comfortable, but it's usually true. There are countless gradations of color between black and white. When you listen and learn, you open yourself to a subtlety of understanding that is impossible when clinging to a rigid black and white view.

Take the Listen & Learn Revolution challenge: Find someone you don't agree with on some topic. It might be a family member, or a friend, or an acquaintance. Engage them in a conversation about the disputed topic and challenge yourself to simply listen and learn. Resist the urge to set them straight. Resist the inclination to counter their reasoning. Just ask questions and absorb it.

If you want to take it a step further, set a goal to have at least one listen & learn conversation every week with someone you don't agree with. The more you do it, the more naturally it starts to come. And the more naturally it starts to come, the more you naturally do it.

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Do you ever find yourself feeling stuck? You know you need to move forward, but somehow you've managed to sink your wheels into the mud and all momentum is lost. It can be a frustrating, draining experience.

In one of the herd of books I'm currently reading, The Power of Focus, I came across a great, simple idea to blast out of that stuckness. The authors described adventurer John Goddard's response when asked about overcoming roadblocks:

"When I get stuck, I restart myself by focusing on one goal I can finish in the next seven days - something simple. I don't think about anything else - that usually starts my momentum again."

I love that idea. For me, part of the challenge with getting bogged down is the inertia it creates. Stuck energy feeds stuck energy, and the cycle goes on ad nauseum.

Part of that bogged down inertia comes when my focus is too diffuse. Having something clearly defined to sink my teeth into helps me start taking action. With a 7-day goal, not only is it clearly defined, but there's a payoff within sight. The energy of both the progress and the payoff combines to break free of the self-perpetuating stuckness.

At the same time, giving it a time frame of seven days gives you enough time to engage in something substantial, something bigger than a box to tick on your to-do list. The sense of accomplishment there also feeds the forward momentum.

Try this: Do a brain dump of possible 7-day goals. What would you be able to accomplish in seven days that would energize you? What could you sink your teeth into that would start to energize you and get you moving? Pick one and start taking action. Let me know how it goes.

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Welcome to this week's installment in the Your Life in Pictures series. In this series, you will find photos to use as a point of departure for self-exploration.

Q: What insights does this picture prompt about your career? Your life?

[Click on the image to see it full-sized.]

Pictures have great potential for self-exploration, because they provide a point of departure for asking, "how does this apply to my own life?" There is no specific meaning to any of these pictures. They are simply here to give your brain/intuition/creative mind/etc. something to bounce off.

Your exploration could be intuitive and non-linear, or it could be a logical analysis of an idea the picture prompts.

Need help sparking your picture-based self-exploration? Try these questions.

More information on self-exploration using the Your Life in Pictures series.

Visit the Your Life in Pictures archive.

[photo by Curt Rosengren]

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Some people wake up and automatically see the world painted with possibility. Each day dawns with a rosy glow, packed chock full of potential. I wish I could say that I'm one of those people...but I'm not. In fact, sometimes I wake up and my attitude is positively dismal. I have to make a conscious effort to bring it around to a more positive direction (that's how I started my morning reading habit). 

A couple mornings ago as I was lying in bed, pondering the day ahead of me, and it occurred to me that, when I make a conscious effort to choose my perspective, I'm really standing at the crossroads and choosing which road I want to take in my new day.

The various flavors of perspective I can choose are endless, but they all boil down to two options. I can either look at the day through the lens of possibility, or I can look at it through the lens of fear.

I decided to make that one question a standard part of my morning. "Do I choose to see this day through the lens of possibility, or through the lens of fear?" Before I get out of bed, I spend a couple minutes looking at the day to come, the goals I have, the challenges I'm encountering, etc. and ask myself, "What would these look like through the lens of possibility?"

It's a simple exercise, takes no more than a couple minutes, and it's a great way to consciously choose the tenor of my day's experience.

Try this: For the next week, try spending two minutes when you wake up consciously choosing which road to take in your day. Explore how the road you choose impacts your experience.

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

For most of us Martin Luther King Day comes and goes, like so many potentially meaningful days, with no discernible impact on our lives.

This year, instead of just thinking, "Whoo-hoo! I have the day off," or "Hey, there's a sale at the mall," spend some time exploring one simple question. "What could this day mean to me?" You can do this with any special day, but since today is MLK Day, that's a good place to start.

Here are four steps to help you use today (or any meaningful day) as a catalyst for personal exploration and growth.

This exercise isn't about pondering what effect King had on the country, or why he deserves to be honored. It's about stepping back and taking a look at the messages the day has for you, and how that applies to your life. You'll be taking it out of the abstract and finding specific and personal meaning.

You might start exploring it from different angles. For example:

• What are the messages this day has for me?
• What about this day feels important?
• What do I admire about King?
• If I had three words to describe the essence of this holiday, what would they be?

As the resulting insights start to take shape, take it out of the abstract and into your life with step number two...

2. How does this relate to my life?

Let's say one of the things you admire most about King was both his vision. To apply that to your own life, you might ask, "OK, what is my vision? What am I working towards in my life that feels important and compelling? What do I really care about?"

This step is simply about taking stock, not judging what you find. Maybe you look at your life and realize, "Wow, I really don't have any vision that feels compelling to me." Rather than looking at that insight negatively, simply look at it as a potential doorway to change.

3. What action does this suggest?

Once you have insights about how it relates to you life, it's time to start moving towards using them for positive change. Let's say you realize that you're not satisfied with that lack of vision. If that's the case, you have a choice; either lose yourself in being dissatisfied, or use that clarity as the starting point for asking, "OK, what do I do about that?"

You might realize that you don't have clarity about what that vision might be. It's impossible to move towards a vision if you don't know what it is, so exploring that potential vision would be your first step. You might explore questions like, "What would I want my epitaph to say about me and the impact I had in this world? What inspires me? If I could make a difference with one thing in this world - based not on what "they" think is important, but on what has a significant positive charge for me - what would it be?"

Or you might realize that you have a vision already simmering, but you aren't taking any action on it. Your action exploration then might focus on brainstorming different steps you could take, large and small, to start moving towards it.

4. What is the first step, and when will I take it?

Finally, remember that none of the above two steps are anything more than abstract philosophizing if you don't actually choose a step and take it.

So there you have it. Four steps to turn any meaningful day into a catalyst for growth and discovery.

What could this day mean for you?

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

I often talk about the power of choice to create the life we want (see my posts on the power of the crossroads of possibility and creating your dreams one choice at a time). One of the ways I think of it is using choice as a tool to sculpt your life.

As a sculptor, you have two options. First, you can start with a vision of what you want to create and start removing what doesn't fit. That might be a toxic job, limiting habits, people who drag you down - whatever it is that is standing between you and your ultimate vision. Your efforts are aimed at a specific result.

You can use choice to remove what doesn't belong and reinforce what does. The first step to doing that is to be consciously aware of what is standing in the way and what reinforces your vision. Then you can consciously apply choice as a sculpting tool. For example, you might make a short list of ways that you get in your own way and commit to first noticing them, then to making different choices.

With the second option, you can follow the flow and discover where it takes you. As Michelangelo said, "The idea is there, locked inside, and all you have to do is remove the excess stone." You notice what doesn't belong and remove it, watch for what does belong, and let a life aligned with what energizes and inspires you emerge. 

The beauty of this is that we don't always know what's right for us until we find it. If you aim to create a sculpture based on a flawed and incomplete perspective of what you really want, the end result is bound to be just that, flawed and incomplete. Allowing yourself to discover what's locked inside the stone frees you to learn and grow. You can see each choice you are confronted with as an opportunity to move closer to the heart of it all.

Neither of these approaches are superior to the other. In fact, they're complementary. The first option gives you focus and direction. It gives you a goal to aim your efforts toward. But by itself, it risks being rigid, unable to adapt to hidden features within the stone.

The second option allows you to let go and flow naturally towards your best life. But by itself it runs the risk of meandering aimlessly, dabbling a little bit here and experimenting a little bit there. The focus and direction of the first approach helps channel the energy towards results. 

The two approaches can be used simultaneously, or you can tap into them one at a time. For example, you might let the sculpting flow naturally to help you get out of a rut created by basing your career decision on external expectations, or societal definitions of "success." Once you start to get clarity about what feels right, you can use the focused approach to give it form and substance. That alternating process is likely to continue throughout your life.

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Welcome to this week's installment in the Your Life in Pictures series. In this series, you will find photos to use as a point of departure for self-exploration.

Q: What insights does this picture prompt about your career? Your life?

[Click on the image to see it full-sized.]

Pictures have great potential for self-exploration, because they provide a point of departure for asking, "how does this apply to my own life?" There is no specific meaning to any of these pictures. They are simply here to give your brain/intuition/creative mind/etc. something to bounce off.

Your exploration could be intuitive and non-linear, or it could be a logical analysis of an idea the picture prompts.

Need help sparking your picture-based self-exploration? Try these questions.

More information on self-exploration using the Your Life in Pictures series.

Visit the Your Life in Pictures archive.

[photo by Curt Rosengren]

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Reading an interview today with Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest (a great book), I saw this exchange:

Q: If you were graduating from college today, what would you do with your life?

A: I would try to continue to learn every day and never stop my education. I would try not to get lured in by the trivial, the mundane, the commercial and the profane. I would spend as much time as possible outdoors. I would be sure that I would be able to sing, dance and draw. I would seek the most joyous way I could find to work on behalf of others. I would find mates who would want to join the effort, or whose efforts I could join. I would focus on an array of skills, and know how to work with my body just as much as my head. I wouldn't try to save the world; I would try to serve the world. I would read like crazy. I would avoid too much time on the Internet, but definitely be digitally literate.

As I read that, two things struck me. First, I love Hawken's answer. I looked at it and thought, "That's not just good advice for a new graduate. That's something for each of us to aspire to, starting today, wherever we are in our lives."

Second, it strikes me that the question has the potential to be a great way to explore the career and the life you want to create from here. Ask yourself, "If I were starting over today, what would I create?" Explore the answer across multiple fronts. What would be important to you? What would you aspire to?

When you are finished exploring that, ask yourself, "How well does my current life stack up against this? Where am I strong? Where could I use some work? Where are the opportunities to align myself more with what I would create if I were at the starting line today.

Here's the punch line. You ARE at the starting line today. Perhaps you're not starting over, but you are starting. And you have a choice. Either you coast into the future on autopilot, fueled by the momentum of the past, or you stop and say, "What do I want to create from here? What steps - even small ones - can I take to make that happen?"

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

So please indulge me a moment while I step away from the regularly scheduled programming and do a personal expression of gratitude to Sharon Rings, who has become one of my closest friends.

Most of what I write here is because I hope you will find it interesting or helpful. But I'm writing this post for more personal reasons. If you find it interesting, great! If not, rest assured it's only one post.

It all started with a kidney stone, strangely enough. Without going into over-share mode, I'll just say that a stricture (narrowing) in my urethra wouldn't allow the kidney stone to pass, shutting down my plumbing in the process. 

Sharon came into the picture by pure chance (or not, if you believe that there are no coincidences). We had had plans that night that I had to cancel because I had to go to the emergency room. As a result, I knew she wasn't busy. So when there were complications and they wanted to send me to a different emergency room to see a specialist, I called her and asked if she could take me.

Had we not had plans that night, I doubt it would have occurred to me to call her, as we didn't know each other especially well. We had only known each other for about a month, and she wasn't on my mental list people I would call if I was having trouble.

Thankfully, I did call her. The second emergency room visit was followed by a third in the middle of the night. Sharon had stuck around to make sure I was OK, so she took me to the hospital. By the time we left around 5 in the morning, I had a tube in through my abdomen into my bladder and a lot of pain pills.

Without going into detail here (I'm happy to share them, but I make the assumption that most people don't really want to know), I had experienced more pain in the previous 48 hours than I ever hope to again. The kidney stone, while excruciating, was nothing compared to the pain I experienced in my emergency room visits.

That was the start of a health adventure that ultimately culminated in surgery two months later (more details on that here). It was another month before I was finally up and functioning at close to normal capacity. During that entire time, Sharon was - and this is the only word I can think of that accurately reflects how I felt about it - my angel.

Moving was painful, and since I wasn't particularly mobile, I spent most of that time home-bound. I couldn't drive because the tube in my abdomen hurt if I tried. Sharon came to visit almost daily, though she lives half an hour (in good traffic) from here. She shopped for me. She came over and cooked big meals that would leave me with left-overs for days. She hung out and watched movies with me. She listened to my frustrations when they boiled over. She celebrated my tiny steps towards recovery ("Sharon, I walked up and down the stairs today!"). Her compassion was a big part of what got me through it all.

I occasionally tried to give her an out from doing so much for me. I knew that it took a lot of time and effort, and I didn't want her to overdo it and start to resent it. But she continued showing up at the same level, not because she felt obligated, but because she finds helping and giving to be such a rewarding and enriching experience. As she tells it, she got as much out of being able to take care of me as I did being on the receiving end.

She reached out and gave deeply to someone who, at least at first, she didn't really know all that well.  I feel incredibly blessed.

So Sharon, thank you for all you have done for me. You are truly my personal Person of the Year.

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

~ Anais Nin

Want to create a career and a life that energize and inspire you? Take this quote to heart. As I've written about many times here, the lens you look through determines the world you see. And the world you see determines your experience in life.

Part of that lens is made up of the stories you tell, positive or negative. As you look at the coming year, what stories are you telling about yourself, your life, and the world around you? How are they affecting the reality you create?

Over on the US News & World Report blog, I wrote a post exploring the question, What stories will you tell in 2010? As you look at what you want from the year to come, spend some time with that question. Examine which stories you are currently telling are setting the stage for happiness and success, and which ones are limiting you and dragging you down.

Ultimately, you are the storyteller in your own life. But in order to consciously weave that story, you have to be conscious of it. The first step is to ask, "What stories am I telling?" The second step is to ask, "What stories do I want to tell?"

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

The Occupational Adventure Guide takes you through a step-by-step process to create a career that energizes and inspires you. It's based on the model I developed to help my clients find work they love.

101 Ways to Get Wild About Work offers 101 bite-sized nuggets to help you inject more energy into your work.

What is it going to take to make 2010 an amazing year for you? There are many factors, of course, but one of the simplest and potentially most important is reading. The right book can literally change your life.

Looking at the books on my shelf, I thought, "If someone could only read three books in the coming year, which ones would I recommend? Which ones would plant the seeds for growth, positive change and success?"

Below are the three I came up with. I would also love to hear what three you would recommend, so leave a comment and let me know!

The Art of Possibility
by Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander

A sense of possibility is one of the most powerful assets you can have. The authors (a psychologist and the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra) combine their insights and offer a creative perspective on creating and enhancing that sense of possibility.

The Zanders' approach is based on two basic ideas. First, "It's all made up." That is, the way we look at the world - the story we tell - creates the reality of what we experience. And second, we can consciously change the way we look at the world, which changes our story, which changes our reality.

Love Is the Killer App
by Tim Sanders

I have often thought that this book should be mandatory reading for young people just starting out their careers (though it's 100% relevant whatever stage of your career you're at). Sanders' basic premise can be summed up with the idea that nice guys finish first. In the book, he outlines three basic components to being what he calls a lovecat.

Knowledge: Build your knowledge and then spread your knowledge. Look for ways that others can benefit from what you know.

Network: Build your network and then make connections. Look for connections you can make to the benefit of others in your network.

Compassion: This is what sets you apart from the automatons. This is the element of warmth and connection that allows you to create stronger, more compelling relationships with people.

Sanders offers up a picture of both how you can do it and how his ideas are based on a bottom-line reality.

Embracing Your Inner Critic
by Hal Stone & Sidra Stone

OK, raise your hand if you ever feel the bite of your inner critic's sharp tongue. We all have that nagging voice that is never happy with who we are, what we do, or how we do it. And for many of us, that inner critic is an enormous obstacle to creating a life that energizes and inspires us.

If that sounds oh-too-familiar, this book offers a great way to change that. Based on Hal and Sidra Stone's Voice Dialogue technique, Embracing Your Inner Critic takes a look at where that inner critic comes from, what role it serves, and how to transform your relationship with it.

One of the most valuable aspects of this book is the way it takes something abstract and intangible - that voice of self-flagellation that can be so ingrained that we mistake it for reality - and offers a concrete framework for recognizing it and diffusing its power. 

Imagine if 2010 marked the year you turned down the volume on your inner critic!

How about you? If I could only read three books in the coming year, which ones would you recommend?

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst