MaXIMIze - Overall Well-Being - Service

As you may or may not know, I've been working on a new book, tentatively titled Find Your Passion, Live Your Bliss. Well, after reading a recent e-mail from Brian Johnson, founder of en*theos, I have modified that to Giving Service, Finding Bliss.

Brian's message is that e-mail, which introduced the Craftsman mindset as espoused by Cal Newport in his book So Good They Can't Ignore You, is that you find your bliss by creating value, by providing service.

A quote from Cal Newport's book goes like this:

"Whereas the craftsman mindset focuses on what you can offer the world, the passion mindset focuses on what the world can offer you."

Brian also asks the question, "How can you serve more profoundly?"

One of the reasons I am happy and content in my current job is that I feel like I am truly serving the people I work for and with to the best of my ability. Coming home at the end of the day tired because I've done my job well is a much different feeling that coming home drained due to office politics and the feeling you can never do anything right and/or what we do doesn't serve the right purpose, or any purpose at all.

So, my question to you is, "How are you serving profoundly?"

If you are not serving profoundly, what can you do to change that right here, right now so you can move down the path to living your best life now?

Next week, we will finish out the month by exploring the myth of multitasking.

Until next time, Namaste!

MaXIMIze - Career - Why Do You Want to Leave Your Current Position?

A friend of my dear friend discussed this in his blog a while back, and it seemed appropriate to address this month here, since we are focused on careers.

While I don't know that it is an allowable question in an interview in the public sector, it is something to consider when you are looking for that next position, particularly to ensure you are looking to move for the right reasons and not *just* for higher pay, bigger glory, or you really can't stand your current co-workers. These are all extrinsic reasons for doing something. To be successful in the long run, we need to stay focused on the intrinsic reasons.

When seeking to answer the question of why you are looking to leave your current position - particularly to answer it for yourself - consider the following:

How your current position does or does not fit in with your personal value system.

Whether or not your current position is aligned with your passion - the underlying drive that lights your fire and illuminates your path.

If perhaps - as I have in my current position - you've reached the summit of what you can truly accomplish in that position and are looking for your next mountain.

These are all intrinsic reasons for looking to move on.

Another one is seeing a need to be filled and believing you can fill it. That's how I ended up being a program and project manager for four years working a program I still believe in, even though I support a completely different project these days.

So, if you are looking to move to another position - or just, really, to leave the one you're currently in - I challenge you to consider, REALLY consider, why so you can answer the question "Why do you want to leave your current position?" - at least for yourself.

If you need coaching on how to take the Five Whys process and use it to really get at the heart of career change or change in other areas of your life, please contact me.

Until next time, Namaste!

MaXIMIze - Career - Passion or Glory?

For whatever reason the song Eye of the Tiger by the band Survivor was stuck in my head earlier this week. There is a line that goes, "…you trade your passion for glory…"

This clicked with discussions a dear friend has been having with his management over the last year or so - they are focused on the glory of what his finishing a certain project could/should/will mean. They are missing the fact that he is looking for the passion lacking in his current situation, and that their search for glory is draining him, causing burn out and frustration, and could lead ultimately to disengagement. And they have seen it before with other employees on other projects, yet they seem to not learn the lessons of the past.

Glory is external and fleeting; passion is internal and lasting.

Glory is for the benefit of others.

Passion is for the benefit of you.

Passion fuels you; glory drains you, for it is using your talents to fuel others, not yourself.

So, are you living a life of passion, or are you fading from glory?

Until next time, Namaste!

MaXIMIze - Career - Find Your Next Mountain

Wow! I look over my posts from last year on the topic of careers and I don't know how I can top those!

Sort of fits the theme of this post - Find Your Next Mountain.

I think we've all been there (and if you haven't, you will)…that time and space where you feel you've hit the pinnacle of the job you're currently in. For me, that was in the months following my last performance appraisal, when I got the highest rating we can get in our appraisal system - a 1 - out of a scale of 5, with 3 being fully successful. When we did our mid-year reviews a month or so ago, I realized that I had hit a pinnacle and the saying followed soon after that - Find Your Next Mountain.

I spoke with a co-worker in the the elevator this morning - he hasn't got to the summit of his mountain yet. How could I tell? Because his job hasn't settled into a flow yet. Yes, when you hit that Zen flow in your current position, where everything just comes together and feels easy or right, it's time to find your next mountain.

At least, that is one time - one good time - to find your next mountain.

A not-so-good time is when you are going through the opposite - trying to support something you feel you truly cannot support anymore. When the other players are just too frustrating, and management may or may not be waking up to this not being a good thing, and/or it just compromises your value system to the breaking point - and, burn out is setting in.

This is a time to do two things - take a serious sabbatical and find your next mountain.

It's easier to find your next mountain when your job has become flow.

It is much harder when you feel like you are continually fighting the current and get to a point where you wonder if it's anything really worth fighting for anymore.

When you are exhausted from fighting the current in this way, you really need to find a way to pull back and reconnect with what makes you feel alive again. You need to find your passion, your purpose in life again.

Our careers take so much of our lives and are our physical - monetarily - support for our lives, and we need to be fulfilled in them, otherwise we live a half-life instead of a full one.

The best job is the one that doesn't feel like work. It feels like purpose. It feels like focus. It feels like, well, passion. And it gives us bliss.

If our jobs, our careers aren't doing that, it's time to find a new one.

Question to ponder for the week - if you could do any job in the world, what would you do and why?

Until next time, Namaste!

MaXIMIze - Reflections and the New Year

Hard to believe that this begins the 4th year of posting this blog for me. When I began the first iteration of this blog, I had a goal of helping others as I continued to grow myself. Less than a month after I started blogging, my life went into a tailspin - I got a promotion to a job I really wanted, but that in the end was much more challenging than I realized it would be, and my then-husband told me he wanted a divorce. Writing this blog and keeping focused on healing and growing myself kept me going through that first tumultuous year.

The process of writing the blog posts that y'all read - some of you on a very faithful basis! - continually proves that it is truly about progress not perfection. I look back over the past three years and see the progress I have made and it is amazing! I now have a great job that I love and a man in my life who truly accepts me as I am - two very rare gifts indeed! I am blessed with family who came together for the Christmas holiday and there was no drama - lots of noise with three grandchildren under the age of 7 of course, but no drama!

Are there still ripples from stones I've dropped in the pond in the past? Are there still weeds in the garden to be pulled? Of course there are! But the ripples are getting fewer and weaker and the weeds are becoming sparser. It took time to get to the point I was at and it takes time to get to the point I want to get to now. So I'm enjoying the learning and growth I'm experiencing along the journey as I make progress down my path.

The growth of this blog from a mere 25 entries that first year to the 49 entries in 2014 - and the compilation of some of those posts from 2012 and 2013 into my book titled Take Your Life in Your Arms and Kiss It! - is also proof of the progress I've made, particularly since becoming a Certified Professional Coach in 2013.

Organization helps too…I had themes for every month and topics for every week in 2014, and I have the same for 2015!

For the rest of January, we will be talking about Passion and Persistence.

In February, we will discuss Optimism versus Pessimism, Abundance versus Lack, and what truly is your motivation.

We'll start March off with the Seeds We Sow and Unintended Consequences, and review what our current satisfaction levels are in the areas of health, finances, career, relationships, spiritual well-being, and overall well-being.

For April through September, we will focus on each of those six areas, one per month, much like we did with last year's posts.

In October, we will look at what we have harvested this year, and why.

November is our month of Gratitude, and December ends our year with Celebration!

If you have been with me as a long-time loyal reader - Thank You for your support and welcome back for another year!

If you are a new reader, Welcome, and please read the previous years' posts to glean more goodness for your life!

Until next week then, Namaste!

MaXIMIze - Overall Well-Being - Harmony and Sync

You know that feeling when all the stars in heaven align and life is grand? It's a great feeling!

That's what harmony and sync is - being in harmony, being in sync, moving smoothly and living your best live now.

All the tools I've shared with you over the past nine months, when used properly, will help you sing in harmony and move in sync with living your best life now.

Proper use is the key - to ensure your entire well-being is at its highest level, all other areas of your life need to be at their highest level too. Otherwise you get out of sync, lose the harmony, and life gets choppy.

When you are truly pursuing your passion, your highest purpose, you will receive what you ask for and doors will open upon your knock. That is harmony and sync.

If this is not happening in your life, perhaps you need to review all areas of your live to see what is missing where so you can get back on track.

Just like musical instruments and cars need to be tuned in order to play right and run smoothly, so too does your life. Check in and make sure your goals are in alignment with your passion, your true mission in life.

When you are in harmony and sync with living your best life now, work isn't drudgery - it's fulfilling and energizing; relationships are lively and loving; you glow with inner health and beauty; your money flows as it should; and you are at peace with your spiritual self.

Life is Grand!

Next time we'll discuss Balance - until then, Namaste!

MaXIMIze - Career - Follow Your Passion, Find Your Bliss

When you focus on doing the things you do well, that bring you joy, you find your bliss.

When you focus on doing the things that bring fire into your life, you find your passion.

When you focus on all the above, you follow your passion and find your bliss.

I've written on this topic before, and will likely write on it again since part of my passion is helping others be the best they can be, and that means helping them follow their passion and find their bliss.

Is what you're doing right now feeding the fire inside? If not, you may like your work, but it still feels like a job rather than a vocation.

For some questions to consider while you're looking for your passion, see my post from December of last year on my previous blog page. 

You can even create a Manifestation Board that shows concrete images and words connected to that which makes you feel alive, that which feeds your fire.

Here is a quote from The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand to consider:

"Why do they always teach us that it is easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves. It's the hardest thing in the world - to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage."

Do you have the courage to follow your passion and find your bliss?

Or are you content to live a lukewarm life?

The choice, as always, is yours.

Here are the links to my previous posts on the subject of passion and bliss:

More Questions To Consider

Finding Your Passion

Find Your Passion

Next week, we will discuss taking charge of your career.

Until then, Namaste!