To Survive Eonomic Tough Times:Choosing Fulfillment and Action over Fear and Avoidance.

“And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”  Nelson Mandela

Is it your choice or the organization’s whether you get a pink slip or not? Is this the question that is drip, dripping on your mind and keeping you awake at night? 

Keep Head Down to Save Your Job– Good or Bad Strategy?

 

“Things do not Change. We Change.” Henry David Thoreau  

 

 

I hear over and over again from colleagues and beleaguered workers that the best way to survive this global economic crisis is to “ keep your head down”. I want to present a different point of view. If you are keeping your head down and just trying to do your work, hoping that this strategy will keep the “wolves away from the door”, you may be taking the wrong path.

Part 3: Career Survival Issues–What to I want to be?

 

From the time we were about seven years old (the age of reason) most of us are asked –what do you want to do when you grow up. Fireman, policeman, doctor, lawyer, basketball player, etc. are some of the answers I presented based on limited life experiences. How about you? What were your answers? What does it say about your dreams for meaningful work? 

Dreams die hard and life experiences open up new options and interests. Yet the planning is haphazard and many times is based on other people’s dream for you. Parents want the best for their children and sometimes try to live their lives through their offspring’s. Maybe you have lived your life trying to fulfill the expectations of others. And the questions still remain–WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE? WHAT WOULD “MEANINGFUL WORK” LOOK LIKE?

Part 2 Careers: Understanding Career Anchors and Exploring Options

“I was constantly astonished by the extraordinary dreams of ordinary people.”  Studs Turkel

 

You graduate from college and the pressure is on to get a job.  Many opportunities are presented and you jump into a stream that seems promising and challenging. A few months or years later you say to yourself “OH! what an error I made I do not like this work or the people I am doing it with”.  This now seems like the wrong stream to be swimming in but how do you get out and find the right one?  Is this an exceptional case or just classic cognitive dissonance where choices made seem less appealing than alternatives left behind.