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Tag: connection

5 steps to new job opportunities

Looking for a job?
You’ve made your first mistake. As cliché as it sounds, you won’t find it if you’re looking for it. Instead, make moves to create the position of your dreams (a place you feel valued and valuable, projects you’re interested in, opportunities that benefit from your talents, people you admire).
1. Skip small talk and have real conversations.
Schedule twenty-minute informational calls (or coffees) with people you respect to learn more about their work. Ask about the good, bad, and ugly bits of their industry. Then, find parallel roles in different fields and ask those individuals how they tackle similar challenges. Meaningful conversations build meaningful relationships.
And say thank you. You never know when your paths may cross. I’ve met strangers in Shanghai I’ve introduced to entrepreneurs in California. Your rolodex is one of your most prized commodities.
2. Know thyself.
What’s your anchor? You need something grounding you, a general direction you’re heading. It doesn’t need to be entirely specific, but you need a fencepost to harness your efforts (think of a laser beam vs. diffused light; concentrated anything is stronger and more effective).
Find a quiet place to relax with a cup of coffee and honestly assess what makes you miserable, what you’re good at, what you’d like to be doing, and what you can’t live without. Reserve an afternoon — or a week — to pay close attention to moments your heart flutters. Is it anxiety, excitement, or both?
3. Are you hunting or fishing?
You can look for freelance work or you can start writing articles about topics you’re passionate about. You can ask for job openings or you can volunteer a few hours of pro-bono consulting and evaluate a company’s needs. You can ask for references or you can send role models invitations to lectures that pertain to their projects.
By placing yourself in environments that highlight your strengths, you will attract opportunities and connections that are right for you. Just because you don’t have a job doesn’t mean you can’t start cultivating something great.
4. Walk with confidence. 
Unemployment doesn’t mean you’re less of a person. When you’re feeling down and out, it shows. Pay attention to your posture and the way you walk. If you’ve completed Steps 1-3, do so confidently, with your head high.
You have skills, you have talents; flaunt them. Your childhood, your struggles, your unique lessons and experiences all contribute to what makes you uniquely valuable. Make a list of your areas of expertise and fold it into your wallet if you’re needing an extra boost. 
5. Open windows and doors and screens and welcome everyone over for tea.
If you can reframe “unemployment” as an opportunity, you’re on your way to gold. Imagine yourself as a traveler, an adventurer. There will be ups and downs, exhilaration and disappointment. Open up to all of it. It’s too easy to focus on one thing and dwell; you’ll think yourself into a frenzy, or worse yet, paralyze yourself from action. Force your anxieties to adopt a wider perspective and welcome whatever comes your way, regardless of form. If you allow it, your journey may surprise you.

Ben Franklin was an impresario.

Ben Franklin was 21 when he first gathered friends and thought leaders for drinks and dinner on Friday nights. Invitees included poets and laborers, academics and politicians. The cohort was a motley one, but they shared one thing: a desire to improve themselves and their communities.

In his autobiography, Franklin laid out basic terms for these dinners:

“…every member, in his turn, should produce one or more queries on any point of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy, to be discuss’d by the company; and once in three months produce and read an essay of his own writing, on any subject he pleased.

Our debates were to be under the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute or desire of victory; and to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were after some time made contraband, and prohibited under small pecuniary penalties.”

Each meeting followed a set format, a series of business and personal questions acting as a springboard for conversation and creation. Volunteer fire-fighters, night watchmen, and a public hospital emerged from these discussions. In hopes Franklin’s questions might inspire you, I’ve included a few here:

  • Have you met with any thing in the author you last read, remarkable, or suitable…particularly in history, morality, poetry, physics, travels, mechanic arts, or other parts of knowledge?
  • What new story have you lately heard agreeable for telling in conversation?
  • Hath any citizen in your knowledge failed in his business and what have you heard of the cause?
  • Have you heard of any citizen’s thriving well and by what means?
  • Do you know of any fellow citizen, who has lately done a worthy action, deserving praise and imitation?
  • Do you think of any thing at present, in which our group may be serviceable to mankind, to their country, to their friends, or to themselves?
  • Do you know of any deserving young beginner, whom it lies in the power of our group in any way to encourage?
  • Have you lately observed any defect in the laws, of which it would be proper to move the legislature an amendment? Do you know of any beneficial law that is wanting?
  • Have you lately observed any encroachment on the just liberties of the people?
  • Is there any man whose friendship you want, and which our group, or any of our members, can procure for you?
  • Have you lately heard any member’s character attacked and how have you defended it?
  • In what manner can we assist you in any of your honorable designs?
  • Have you any weighty affair in hand in which you think our advice may be of service?
  • What benefits have you lately received from any man not present?
  • Do you love truth for truth’s sake and will you endeavor impartially to find and receive it yourself and communicate it to others?

There are men and women everywhere who are committed to asking questions, doing good, and improving themselves and their communities. Find them. Bring them together. Our world will be better for it.

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”  -Ben Franklin

The best moments of my life began with a plane

I started writing a post titled “The Best Moments of My Life Began With Getting on a Plane.”
I was thinking about my first memory of travel, the second I knew I had a lifelong relationship with foreign places. I was a young girl visiting my father’s family in Holland, and I was standing in the produce section of a local market with my aunt. The vivid green of the vegetables and the neat rows of roots picked from the ground were like nothing I had seen in the aisles of King Soopers in Longmont, Colorado. I couldn’t understand a word of what anyone was saying, and a poppy Dutch radio station competed for my attention. I was enthralled. Even as I stepped outside, the light seemed to cast vibrant shadows on the sidewalk.
A summer volunteering at a Thai orphanage. The kids’ humble generosity sends me home with a profound appreciation of resources and privilege. A year as a psychology student in New Zealand. Thrust into an entirely new education system and a beautiful landscape to explore, I learn more about responsibility and individuality as I turn 20 in the Southern Hemisphere. A research grant affording me the opportunity to backpack Europe. An ongoing affair with Manhattan — continually discovering more about myself and people dear to me. And, of course, Nepal.
Looking closely, these experiences aren’t about an aircraft. Their significance comes from a reunion with mystery and uncertainty. Seeing the universe with fresh eyes. It isn’t about a place. It’s about confidence and connection with strangers; empathy and compassion and duty as a world citizen.
You don’t need to buy a ticket to experience something amazing. You can step towards the unknown and take risks to connect with strangers in your world.

The people in your life will make or break you.

It doesn’t matter if you’re running a business or trying to finish your degree. The people you surround yourself with have the power to dramatically influence your life. Their habits, what they think about themselves, whether or not they view the world as a place of abundance or scarcity — all of these things will impact you.

When I first began as a social worker in the South Bronx, I noticed not much was different from the people I worked with on probation in Colorado. Except one major thing: community resources and social support.

If you’re trying to do something great, you need great people around you. You want people who push you to do and be your best, who encourage you to take leaps when those who should most definitely NOT be in your inner circle are telling you otherwise.

Whether you’re raising a family, designing a product, fundraising, solving a company-wide problem or quitting, your closest relationships should support you in being 110% authentically you.

Everyone deserves a dream team. Yes, there are certain factors beyond your control when it comes to success and achieving goals; however, the people you spend the majority of your time with aren’t one of them. Take special care as you find your company.

A call could change your life

I can guarantee it WILL change the life of others.

For the next 48 hours, I’m offering a special incentive. Those who donate a minimum of $100 to the Light Campaign will receive a free one hour phone session with yours truly.

Things we can talk about:

You can stalk my LinkedIn profile to see other skills and endorsements I’ve received from clients I’ve worked with.

At the risk of sounding like a marketer, I will tell you this IS a special offer, worth far more in value. You have the opportunity to help yourself, help a community, and feel good about it.

You have until Friday, March 7 at 2pm EST to take advantage. I can’t guarantee I’ll do this again, but I thought it would be a fun way to get the solar project the help it needs. To get started, pledge a minimum of $100 on the indiegogo page, and you’ll be contacted for scheduling. Your free call is good through April 8, 2014, so let’s get moving.

I hope to speak with many of you.

I stopped trying.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around this, as it is completely counterintuitive to me.

The moment I stopped trying and quit everything is when things became clear.

I’m not saying I don’t have challenges and that life is always easy, but my day-to-day isn’t filled with as much strife. There’s less struggle as I move about the world.

I think of how difficult momentum seemed in the past. Once I landed back into the grooves of authenticity, people began to take notice. It’s then that I raised money for a few scholarships, attracted over 30k views on Medium, and found myself speaking on HuffPost (look at 13:30).

I’m not doing anything drastically different. I’m simply living my life by letting passion lead the way.

I’m wondering if this principle has worked for you, too.

What if WORKING HARD didn’t equal SUCCESS? What if you stepped out of the car, allowed your excitement to take the wheel, and put frustration, anxiety, and white-knuckle-decision-making in the backseat? What if by relaxing, you allowed your “best self” to emerge?

If you’re having to work really hard to make something right, I’m wondering if it’s right in the first place.

Tweet me. I want to hear what you think.