C a r e e r Z e n
by Larry Daly, 'The JOB DOC'
Chapter 3. Your Career In CONTEXT
You do not live in a vacuum. Everything you do is in the context of other people. You live and work in a contextual environment of concurrent contemporary events, large and small, local and global, all human - oriented.
It is essential to success in your career to know what is going on around you, in every possible field of human endeavor. Some events, such as most sports events, may be of interest and amusement and even profit to several thousand people, but are otherwise of very limited temporary local significance, hardly more than tv game show quiz value, superseded the next week by another new event, and thus of minor lasting real value to large numbers of people. Other events are of major and lasting significance, such as a war or invention that changes the lives of large numbers of people in deep and permanent ways. Know the difference.
Below is my list of categories of such events. Design your own list, if you prefer. Make 20 or more copies of it, and each week for the next 20 or more weeks note at least one event or advance or contribution of a person, of some major significant lasting value, that has happened in each category during that week. Ten words or less, and note the source, for follow - up. Bring these completed lists each week when we discuss your career. This exercise will help you learn to look around you, become aware of the big picture as well as details, to pay attention, and to understand the local and global contexts in which your own career is developing. Only then can you plan well.
What has happened this week in each of these fields?Now let's go from the global to the personal:(DATE: _______ WEEK of _______ to _______)
1. Advertising / marketing
2. Business / commerce / trade
3. Communication
4. Crime / law enforcement / penology / correction
5. Disasters / catastrophes / war
6. Economics / money / commerce
7. Education / knowledge / publishing
8. Entertainment / sports / tv / movies / drama / music / dance / art
9. Literature / journalism
10. History / archeology / anthropology / discovery
11. Humor / human greed and stupidity /
12. Inventions / new products, services
13. Law / lawmaking / politics
14. Government, national; state; local
15. Manufacturing / production
16. Medicine / psychology, -iatry
17. Natural sciences / biology /
18. Religion / philosophy
19. Science / math / . . .
20. Space / astronomic / extraterrestrial / solar / galaxy / universe
21. Technology / applied sciences
22. Travel / tourism / transportation
23. Work / labor / employment
(And at least 3 more areas or specialties of your choice:)
24. __________________
25. __________________
26. __________________Are you truly ready and prepared for a career?
Do you know yourself? Others? The world?
Do you even know what are all of the things you will need to study and know to be successful in your chosen career and in your own life?
Your Own Personal Inventory Learning List (PILL)
Now let's take a personal inventory and list ALL of the things you must learn, and, with each item on each list (we will start out with one general list, but eventually there will be several, as at each stage of your career), choose a class or course or otherwise how and where and when you can learn it.This will be a list all the things that you need to have, be, be able to do, and so forth, starting now, to become successful in the career you have chosen.
Design your list according to where you want to go and what you want to do in your life. Include also all of the general basic necessary things anyone needs for a good life.
For instance, everyone must be able to communicate, deal with others, work for a living, wear clothes, learn more faster and better, find a place to live, get themselves to work and home every day. Everyone must be able to use the phone and cell/digital phone and fax and computer and Internet and radio and tv and many other kinds of devices and tools vital in our daily lives. Everyone must know his culture, something about other cultures, and much more, to survive, to fit in, to prevail and succeed in today's increasingly diverse world.
Everyone must know how to shop, prepare food, remain in good health and take care of accidents and minor injuries and illnesses, know when something is wrong with him and what to do about it, how to use doctors and hospitals and HMOs and basic medical and health equipment and many other such details.
Everyone must know how to do basic banking and saving and money management, how to resist sales pitches and fast deals that will deplete his resources if not break him flat, how to control his own foolish impulses, restrain his wants, acknowledge his real needs, live within a budget, defer his dumber desires, resist peer pressure.
Everyone must know government and law, for we are all subject to it, and how to choose representatives and vote and know when to use logic or emotion, know when others will try to trigger our emotions for their profit or benefit.
These are only some of the many things we all have to know and be able to do before we choose and actually start working on a job or building a career or profession. Then we must learn much more for that purpose. Are you truly ready for a career?
The purpose of your own personal learning list is to organize all of those items, so you don't skip something valuable or important, or waste time and effort and your resources, and to plan how to learn, get, do each of these, in what order and degree, in what stages, etc.
In making out your own list, take nothing for granted, and get as complete and detailed as you possibly can. Then check off what you are and have and can do, and see what is left that you have to do in your life and your career, and toward your goals. Then check off each of these as you obtain, achieve, or complete it, over the coming months and years.
Dividing your list into several basic categories, such as the following, might be helpful: Earning; Business; Education; Personal Relationships; Money, Personal Economics; Technical and high Tech and Science; Communication arts; Art, Entertainment, Sports, Avocations; Health and Medical; Law, Crime and civic responsibility; Government, Political Arts; People Arts, Psychology; International & Travel; Culture, Sociology, Intercultural Arts; Planning, Goal Setting, Forecasting Futures; and so forth, as you see them all, in your life and your future.
Some specific things to know will often appear in more than one category. Using a cellular phone is also tech and communication, and people - arts.
Your order of importance and value may well differ from the above, but this is your list, and flexible, not carved in stone, so you must arrange it as you see fit, as long as everything you need to be, do, know, have, etc., is there in some logical (to you) place and order.
Some things are so complex and variable that they must be learned in stages, over time. Law, for instance, will need few or many stages, from intention of fairness and equality to the different kinds of law, from criminal and civic to medical and insurance and real estate and forensic and investment and business law, and so forth, as you feel it relates to your career, and will be needed in your life, as you progress through it. At the least you need to know enough not to break laws, to be able to deal with attorneys, and know if your lawyers are doing a good enough job for you. We Americans have no one book with all of our laws in it, distributed to every citizen each year as it changes, so we can not possibly know all of the laws that affect us every day. New York State alone has more than 55,000 pages of laws - how many more are there in the US? How many get taken off the books, to compensate for new ones? Do you know all of the laws affecting your life at this moment?
It's worse than that. Do you know all the new laws, too? Laws keep changing! And they can be interpreted differently. Local, appellate and Federal judges frequently dissent with each other. They say ignorance of the law is no excuse, but how can you and I possibly know and obey such a huge body of constantly changing and growing law, interpreted differently by all involved? Lawmakers keep making more laws, trying to catch up with reality and progress, a futile chase, but what's the alternative? So our lawyers, and many other people, have enormous power here, to exploit our ignorance, stupidity, laziness, and selfishness. Beware.
How will the following things affect you, and what can you do about them, if anything, and when, and how, in your life and your career? Taxes and other civic obligations; civic education; giving parties, entertaining; manners, diplomacy, courtesy, & civility, consideration; racial / ethnic situations; sensitivity & common sense; differences between working in the public sector versus in the private; parks, gardens, quiet spaces, quality of life; community interrelations; power and pervasiveness of the media as source of common knowledge and frames of reference; corporate information apparatus power over media, via ad revenue granting and withholding; environment; government programs, rights, agencies, departments, and how they can help you; poisons, tobacco, liquor; sales resistance; BS Analysis; insurance comparison (try to get actual contracts from several carriers and compare for what you want); moving (everyone will move several times in their lives), scams; leasing, renting apartments, buying houses, equipment; consumer rights & protection agencies, legislation; women's rules / men's rules, social and business codes; phoning tricks and traps; meeting, courting, mating, divorcing, relationship development, quick fixes, differing needs and expectations; and hundreds more important things.
How will you learn all these things? (Mark next to each one how best to learn it.) From peers; family; formal education, classes, courses, seminars, public or private, discovery, experience, thought, realization, teaching to others (must learn well to teach well), practice (learning by doing, trial & error); ongoing research, reading, trying, experimentation, media; accident, observing others, or other ways and sources? And when should you learn them? As needed, in advance, by accident, purposely; during normal activities; in practice; in emergency or crisis, or when? Which items on your Learning List need these whens and hows next to them? Put them in.
Can you defend a written thesis in a formal oral exam before a panel of superiors? Speak or perform in front of live audiences? Give speeches, presentations of written, graphic, and other forms of output and other oral work in front of video cameras? Can you act, control your body movement, be assertive, coach, teach, counsel, guide others, or do any of the many other things (if not these) that will be required in your chosen career five or ten years hence? Should you begin to prepare for and practice them now?
What else do you need to know, do, or whatever, to be successful at your career? Is it in your Learning List? If not, put it there.
Your personal and career success depends upon a very complete Personal Inventory Learning List (PILL). There are a lot of things to learn!
To see just how much you have to learn and do, let's do a list of 50 self - help questions, to see what you do and don't yet have, and help you develop your PILL, and then look at your career and life goals, to see where you want to go.
Then you can begin to plan and prepare for your career 'trip'.
50 Self - Help Questions
[Note: These are all from the questions and exercises I use in my private career coaching practice (212.876.5483) to help my clients. Now you, too, can use them to help you think more deeply, explore new ideas and ways of seeing yourself, your work, and your career, get you to see aspects of yourself you may not have paid much attention to, help you find new ways of thinking and doing things, and to spark action in areas most people ignore, but which may be of value to your career success. It is wasteful to have an ability and not know you have it, or not use it, if it can help you. As you find things you need but do not yet have, can't do yet, etc., add them to your Personal Inventory Learning List (PILL). Get pen and paper ready first, for making notes.]1 Are you fully aware that computer abilities are already absolutely necessary in the workplace today, and will be even more so in the future? Just as machines supplement and multiply the power of human muscles, so computers and electronic technology supplement and multiply the power of human mental capacities and access to knowledge, and increase our capabilities and potentials in both our business and personal life. You absolutely cannot expect any kind of Career success in your life without computer abilities and some technical knowledge. Are you now computer literate? And to what degree? If not, do you intend to become? When? How?
2 Do you own a PC? (Or Mac, but most businesses use a PC.) You can find lots of great jobs without, but it is harder and takes longer. Already, as of June 1998, 90% of the best employers, and over half of all employers, are now looking and advertising on the web first, for the best employees, before they even place their first newspaper "help wanted" ads about a job opening. For Career Success, you should own your own computer, be able to use it, and be on-line with an ISP (information access provider), or at least a service like AOL or CompuServe (but not Prodigy).
3 Does your PC have a modem? Is the modem fast enough? Do you have Internet / Web access? Who is your ISP or service? If not, do you intend to get? When? How? Have you shopped or selected a service or access provider? Do you need help selecting, setting up a system? Getting connected? Who do you know who can help you, or recommend someone?
4 Are you able to use your PC for writing, research, and communicating with other people? Are you literate enough to write a good letter or report or article with your computer (not just "how are you and the weather is fine")? How good is your literacy in general? How many books have you read this past year? Done any serious writing?
5 Are you an adult, able to make your own decisions? Or do you have to consult parents, guardians, spouse, or anyone else? If not, when will you become? How should you prepare for that time now?
6 Do you have at least three good friends, who truly care about you and your future, to act as your personal advisory and support team? These might be friends or close family or parents or guardians or spouse if married. Can they, or two to four other similarly career - minded adults, become your Career Support Team? How would you manage such a personal support team, if you had one?
7 Do you have the full support (or at least neutrality) of any others affected by your career? Any spouses, parents, children, siblings, and so forth, or who at least will not be in the way, blocking you, distracting you, disabling you? If not among these people, can you name at least three others who can advise, help, critique, drill you, otherwise help in developing your career? This kind of personal help is essential to your career success. If you are totally alone in the world, this lack can briefly be worked around, but relationships must be developed as soon as possible if you really want a career. All we do is in the context of other people.
8 Is your life steady enough right now so you can plan your time and activities? Can you plan some things as much as six months to a year ahead?
9 Who do you now know who can personally recommend you to employers? Who do you know who can give you good references? Who thinks you are worth helping, taking a chance on? Who do you know who knows a lot of people, or who is widely known by others, especially in the career field in which you are interested, who might call them about openings or raises or promotions for you? Who do you know who can pick up the phone or send a fax or write a letter and be in touch with the Chairman or President or CEO or Director of absolutely any company in America, and in most foreign nations, and get their full attention? I can, of course, and do it all the time for my clients, because there is hardly a firm in the world which is not seriously always looking for top people who does not know me, or know of me. Who else do you know who can do this for you?
10 Most of us know at least 200 other people, and many people know more than 300 to 400 others. Politicians and employers may personally know a thousand people, or more. Have you listed every person you know, with an estimate of how many people he or she might know, and ranked them by that number? Those will soon be the most important people in your life - are you studying them well?
11 In recommending or referring you for any position, your friend may be risking his own professional credibility, so he must know you well enough to be sure of what you are doing, and to be certain of the results, for both you and the employer. So, in addition to knowing how well you do your work, he will also want to know how you get along with people in major relationships such as work, social, with superiors, subordinates, equals, and even family. For most people, the biggest problem in life is other people. Everything we do, no matter what or where, is in the context of other people. That is a major given of civilization.
12 How good are your people skills? Do you have, and do you know, your own peopling faults? Do you know the major personality types? Are you able to evaluate a person's type quickly and accurately? Do you know which type you are and how types interact? Do you know how your type deals most successfully with each other type? If not, are you willing to work very hard at this difficult and complex subject?
13 How many more work years do you have? For instance, if you are 20 now, and expect to retire at 65, you have a 45 - year work life ahead. Take away your age from 65, as a round figure. What is it? ___ Do you want to waste all those years, or spend them miserable and poor, or use them to build and enjoy a good life?
14 Do you sincerely believe you could successfully and consistently perform the duties of at least a $50- to $60K - a - year position in your chosen career field, right now? Or the duties of a desired position one or two steps above you right now? Write out the title and describe the duties of that job, and the steps you have to go through, from your present position, to get that job. Of those duties, which will be the easiest ones and the hardest ones, for you, in your eyes? How well can you do those easiest and hardest duties right now? What do you have to do to gain all those abilities?
15 If you are not yet prepared for that job, or the ones between, are you ready, willing, and able to put in the time and work necessary to take courses and learn those things, so that you can actually do them and get that kind of career job? How much time can you actually devote to a personal self - improvement program, to make yourself worth more to yourself and to your employer? An hour or two a day? Three or four hours a day? A whole day a week? Two days a month? Or what? Choose a realistic number.
16 How long do you think such a learning and practice program might take? Three months? Six? A year? Write out a plan for such an education, step by step, what it might include, how long it might take, and what it might cost.
17 I'm not an employment agent. I don't get people jobs. But if I could somehow wave a magic wand, and put you into a job of your choice, or get you a raise or desired promotion, starting next Monday morning, to raise your present income another $20,000, what would that be, and what would it be worth to you, in dollars? I can't, but if I could, how much would you pay me for it? Most people would consider it a very good deal to pay $5,000 to $10,000 to raise their salaries another $20,000. Write down each of your career salary goals, and then put down how much money you are willing to invest to achieve each of those goals, and over how much time. That is the least amount that you should invest in yourself. You will not give it to me or anyone else, but spend it on books and courses and subscriptions and other self- improvements that will help you toward your career goals. You are not spending it, but using it, investing it, and very wisely. In fact, only the first year or so of that money will actually be your initial investment, because after that, you will be re-investing from the higher salary coming in from your first raises and promotions. You are playing with the house money, so to speak. And using OPM (Other People's Money) is almost the most fun there is, as well as being one of the smartest things you can do, in your whole career and life.
18 Next, can you afford the expense of books and other materials you'll need, which may cost as much as tuition, or more? If you must purchase several hundred dollars worth of books a year, or take a dozen special courses for a few hundred dollars each, maybe one or two a year, can you do it? Or, re-phrased, how could you spread those costs over your available income, in time? One course next month and another in six months? That way, anything is possible. It can be worked out, given enough time. (Hint: how many working years do you have to 65?) Another alternative is credit; or a mix of both, or private funding by a relative, or other source. Think it out. Can you do it? Of course you can. Re-phrased, how much can you do over how long a time and expense period? Make out a tentative self - investment education plan and schedule for the next ten years.
19 You've probably had good and bad bosses in the past. You will meet some difficult ones ahead. List all past bosses and note how you have gotten along with each, and especially the bad ones, those who talk at you instead of to you, or over you, or ignore you, or are unreasonable, and so forth. Some bosses can't tolerate difference of opinions, others want your support but won't support you, etc. Describe how you handled and dealt with each, what types they were, what mistakes you made, what you've learned, how you would do it better next time, and so on. Listing the good ones, note what you will emulate about or learn from each.
20 Are you socially adept or inept? How often do you attend civic or business or other functions or ceremonies? How do you feel and act at such events, and feel later? Do you know the social rules, social limits, and social fictions?
21 How are your social skills? How many social functions, parties, or dances do you attend each year? Do you own a tux / formal gown? Good business suits and quality casual wear for company functions and ceremonies and such? If you are invited to talk at a function, what would you wear? What do others wear when giving speeches? If the President of the corporation invites you to his country estate for the weekend, are you prepared? What would you take? What would you have to buy? How much would it all cost? How long would it take you to have that much money set aside for such a situation? Do you have a savings account, or a small personal emergency fund for such needs? How large should it be?
22 What social graces do you have? Do you play an instrument, or sing, dance, do magic tricks, recite poetry, know games, tell stories, entertain, otherwise participate at a party, so you will be invited back to future ones? Are you a valued and wanted guest? Can you entertain, give parties, plan events and functions? Do you know the protocols of introductions and planning seating by type, gender, status, age or other method? Have you ever? How often? What do parties cost? Can you afford to entertain? (Can you afford not to?) Or when would you be able to afford one? Could you host a press release function now? When? Do you know how to hire and direct a caterer, secure a site, hire a hall, contract entertainers, staff, utilities, preparation for and breakdown after the event, security, get licenses, permits, deal with unions, sanitation, power, and other essential services?
23 Do you have discrepancies between expectations and reality that could be reason for future problems or failures? How do you handle stress, anger, disappointment, rejection, etc.? How do you vent safely when your emotion builds up?
24 $50K to 60K a year is about basic for a serious career level job in 2000. To get to that level you must put in many hours and much hard work, but when you start earning that much your potential is proportionately greater. Your future is proportionately brighter, and raises come larger and faster. Can you handle that load? Are you healthy and durable enough to do the job or work you desire? Do you have any physical problems or needs that must be met, major accidents or illnesses in the past, allergies or disabilities or impediments that must be considered, anything else that would interfere with work, overtime, increase job stress, lead to major difficulty or failure in years ahead? Is eyesight, hearing, other abilities okay or to be corrected? If an employer may be hit with heavy insurance needs and costs in the foreseeable future, caused by your situation, would it be ethically necessary to disclose any such information to him in advance? If so, and you do not, are you risking serious legal consequences? Today the human resources people at every company ask about everything from hernias to drugs, smoking, marijuana, liquor use, or anything else, so be prepared. If you don't know how to present your best side and yet not over - represent yourself, do you have some things to learn? Have you friends with experience to guide you, or should you see a professional career coach? (If yes, my number is 212.876.5483.)
25 Same with personal history; they will ask you about your background, education, work experiences, marriage, whatever. Do you have a list of all of these details ready?
26 Can you speak publicly? Ever taken speech or other career - useful courses or lessons? Would you, if you had to? If it could definitely help you achieve your goal?
27 What books and periodicals have you read last week? This month? How many books have you read in the last year? Fiction or nonfiction? What titles or subjects? What do you like most? How good is your literacy? Do you write? Have you published anything? Would you like to? If you became an expert on something, would you write about it, teach it, help others learn it?
28 What volunteer work have you done recently? (Especially any benefits, non-profit, community or public service volunteer work.)
29 What local civic associations or other community benefit organizations are you a member of: Chamber of Commerce, Urban League, BBB, other? What state or national ones? How about international ones? How have you helped others recently, anyone else at all in any way? If not recently, when? Would doing so help your career?
30 What social, cultural, educational, or fraternal groups, or other associations do you belong to, or have belonged to in past?
31 What business, trade, professional, and other career - related groups?
32 What political, religious, sports, military, hobby, ethnic, anything else groups, clubs, organizations, associations?
33 What groups, clubs, organizations, associations, might it be best (and not best?) to join for future benefit in your chosen career and for achieving your career goals?
34 How can public relations and other personal promotion and good press items help you? How would you like the public, and your potential future clients, to perceive you? As a good guy or bad guy, or what? Have you ever heard of PR? How could good public relations exposure help you obtain or develop that image? What would it cost? What would it return to you in business and social and personal benefits? Do you need a little or much coaching here?
35 I don't want to take up too much of your time. Can you tell me the exact time there? Do you have good time management methods and skills?
36 Do you know, or since our last talk, have you decided or made any progress on deciding what career you want, and what work or specialty in it, at what level?
37 Have you ever had any talent or skill or aptitude or vocational or other occupational testing? SAT? ACT? How about psychological or personality tests? Have you been tested to find out your Briggs Meyer personality type, your Neuro - Linguistic type, or other personality tests? Any other specialty education or special purpose tests or other career counseling?
I do not, for the most part, believe that such tests have much correlation to real life career success, but sometimes they may be helpful, better than nothing. You may be able to use the results to help and guide you, impress others, and so on. (Can you pass the Mensa test?) Get the best professional people to administer them; any analyses and reports may be useful in your overall career picture and in planning for your particular abilities, aptitudes, needs and desires.38 How many corporate presidents, officers, board of director members, and other VIPs, elected persons, and other influential people, do you know personally? More importantly, how many such people know you personally? How many know your name and shake your hand in public? How many people do you know, total? How many must you know to be successful in your career? How many important people? With whom should you build connections and alliances, in order to help you get ahead? What can you do for them, or anyone, to make them want to meet and help you? Do you need coaching in building your personal People Files? Do you know how?
39 Are you the same as everyone else, or unique, truly different, special? If so, in what way? What do you consider your best three talents or abilities or other good points? What are your three worst things? Each of these can be changed if you want. List the characteristics that successful people have, and list those that failures have, and you will see for yourself that both groups have most things in common. Every one of those characteristics can be changed if you really want to do it enough. Posture, speech, habits, clothes, even looks, if you can afford the fees. Do you even know if you need help in any of these?
40 Do you have any role models? Who are they, and why, or what did you choose them for? What successful people would you choose for a role model, if you wanted them? Who are some of the people you admire? Make a list. Tell me why, and something about them each, and specifically what you admire about each.
41 How well do you think you know yourself? Do you want to know yourself better? Do you dare to find out everything about yourself? What changes do you think now that you would make in yourself if you could? What do you think you don't want to change, or can't?
42 How well do you truly know yourself? Are you process - oriented or result - oriented? Are you mesomorph, ectomorph, or endomorph? Which of the three major Neuro - Linguistic types (primarily visual, auditory or kinesthetic) are you? Do you know whether you are predominantly a right - brain or left - brain person? Which of the sixteen major Briggs - Myers Personality types are you, in most circumstances? Do you know how you react to each of the other types, and know how to balance instinctive reactions with practiced and rehearsed reactions, to get the best and most effective results with each other type? Do any of these, or any other kinds of personality or characteristics evaluation, have anything to do with career success? If so, should you learn about it? Should you know what you are, and how best to use those capacities or abilities, toward your goal? Should you know as much about yourself as possible so others don't use your faults against you? Can you face knowing your faults? Do you know the difference between real faults and those things you only believe are faults? Do some tall people hunch over to be seen as normal, and some short people become more aggressive to compensate? Do they really have to? Do you ever get over - defensive when criticized or critiqued? Are you willing to change yourself, if it would help you toward career success? Just how much? Make two lists: things you are willing to change, and things you are not willing to change about yourself.
43 Do you prefer to stand out, take chances when you believe you are right, or be careful, conservative, and fit in, give in on the little battles so you can win the war? Would you rather be wealthy and hated, or poor and respected and admired and loved? Are those things truly exclusive of each other? List your other personal preferences. You might also note what you are willing to give up to obtain or achieve each.
44 Do you prefer your day organized and smoothly running, or prefer surprise, challenge, change, lots of variety and action?
45 Do you prefer to be part of the action, or to just do your own job? Work in a team of people all doing something together, or work alone, or be over others, direct them, or be directed, or what?
46 How well do you know people? How good are your self - discipline, your patience, your negotiating skills, ability to arbitrate, at intervention or mediation or bargaining or otherwise dealing with others? How good are you at solving human problems? These days everything is not necessarily only adversarial (for one to gain means that the other must lose). Through strategic alliances and joint ventures and teamwork and other co-operative means, all parties can enlarge the pie so that all of them can get bigger slices (obtaining win - win results). How good are you at this kind of dealing? How are your teamwork and cooperation skills? How are your leadership skills, if put in charge of a team? Can you motivate others to excel, do better than they ever have before? Do you need practice at these things? Can you learn more about all of these? Do you want to learn more about these, and practice them in a secure and cooperative teamwork atmosphere with my other Career Coaching clients? (212.876.5483) Or would you rather try and fail in public and face humiliation and shame?
47 How much do you network? How often? When? Where? How well? How good are you at it? Could you get better at using networking for career gain? You know you need other people and networking and contact files, but do you actually do it? If not, why not? Don't know how? Lazy? Lack time? Patience? Self - discipline? Organization? Motivation? Do you want to? My number is 212.876.5483. How much time and money can you put into networking and building business or other necessary affiliations and relationships in the next year? How much should you? Any compunction about using others? Would it be fair if they used you also for their advancement, in turn? They will, when you have some kind of value to them. It is fair. It all balances out, in the end.
48 What mistakes have you made in the past week? Two weeks? Three weeks? Have you ever looked for patterns in the kinds of mistakes you make, or things you do right? We learn more from our mistakes than our successes. Life often teaches us valuable lessons. If we are smart, we are listening and watching ourselves, and we learn. If we are dumb, we ignore or resist these lessons, rationalize and defend our decisions, words, and actions, blame them on others and situations, and struggle to remain stupid, believing ourselves always right and already perfect, and especially this time. How often do you do that? What lessons has life taught you in the past week? Two weeks? Three weeks? What have you learned? Have you written them down to study for self - improvement? Is there any pattern? How clearly and openly and honestly can you look at yourself? What kind of mistakes does it seem that you generally or most often make? List them. What does that tell you that you should work on? What do you think is (or might be) the best way to work on that problem to solve it, and get a better score in that area? What is your personal success / failure ratio? Do you keep a diary? (If not, you absolutely must start one immediately, for this purpose, if for no other.) What does it look like you are most successful at, moderately good at, and least successful at? Do you have someone else who can impartially judge this, in case you are not sure, or need unbiased help? Is that what good friends are for? Do you have any friends that good and honest? Do you listen to them, respect their opinions and ideas? Do you need someone for that purpose? My number is 212.876.5483. What kind of education or training or experience or practice might help you get a better success / failure score? List the successes you have made in the past week. Past month. Past quarter or year. List the failures in same periods. Don't kid yourself or be nice here -- be honest, just as tough as you possibly can on yourself, so you know what to work on to improve. Nobody is perfect. Look at it this way: If you could pick the perfect partner, who would complement your weaknesses so that, as a two - person team, you could get a 100% score of successes, what would that person need to be like? Describe that person. List the qualifications and abilities he or she would need. That list is a very good indication of what you have to work on. You can't have or be all of these things to be perfect, but if you work on one or two of those areas for a year, different ones each year, for the next five years, you could probably double or triple your present effectiveness and success rate. If you need a personal target or personal goal, that's a good one to choose. You have a work life of how many years ahead? Enough to do or learn anything you want, taken in order, one step at a time. So, make out that list, and, as you hit each target, this month or next month or next year, or five years from now, cross it off, and go on to the next one. Work on just one or two at a time, the most valuable or important ones first, or the most possible, then the next most valuable, and so forth. You know this. Now, just do it. I'll help you, guide and coach you.
49 What do you believe some of your major career problems might be? Is there anything that needs immediate attention, that we might start work on first?
50 Have you ever taken acting classes, or coaching in posture, gestures, voice, public speaking, etc.? Should you? Where should you fit these in, in your schedule?
Wow! So many things to learn and do! It is a lot, isn't it? But we are going to do it step by step, so it can be done. Now let's begin to develop your PILL for this next year, next month, next week, etc.
End of the questionaire I give my clients, before I take them on. What have you learned from it?
End of Chapter Three
Click HERE to go to the Introduction
Click HERE to go to Table of Contents
Click HERE to go to Chapter 1 Your Career, your Life Work
Click HERE to go to Chapter 2 People Study
Click HERE to go to Chapter 3 Your Career in Context
Click HERE to go to Chapter 4 Setting Your Career and Life Goals
Click HERE to go to Chapter 5 Long Term Career Development
Click HERE to go to Chapter 6 Career Strategies and Tactics
Click HERE to go to Chapter 7 Realistic Expectations
Click HERE to go to Chapter 8 Your Personal Career Support Team
Click HERE to go to Chapter 9 Team Management; Research and Writing
Click HERE to go to Chapter 10 How to become an Expert
Click HERE to go to Chapter 11 Miscellaneous, and Executive Summary
Click HERE to go to Chapter 12 Your Personal Career Research Resources
Click HERE to go to Chapter 13 Those Awful People At Work Problems
Click HERE to go to Chapter 14 Assumptions and Expectations
Click HERE to go to Appendices
Click HERE to go to Bibliography
Click HERE to go to Index
Click HERE to go to Personal Career Coaching FAQ
Click HERE to return to my HomePage, to access COP and other documents
Careerists, please contact me directly to obtain your own personal printed copy of Career Zen, more complete and up to date, especially with the latest on Internet career information sources and research. Note that Career Zen is privately published, is only for my clients, and is not available in any bookstore or from any other source.
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