He or she who gets hired is not necessarily the one who can do that job best; but, the one who knows the most about how to get hired.

-Richard Lathrop, Who’s Hiring Who?

Know then thyself,

Do not the Market scan

Until you’ve surveyed all You are,

Then you will have your plan.

-Alexander Pope (as paraphrased by Richard Nelson Bolles in the incredible What Color is Your Parachute?)

3 reasons the list below is not helpful.

Compared to actually reading the book.

1. It doesn’t focus on the really, really, really valuable part of What Color is Your Parachute? – The Flower Exercise. Know thyself, someone said. But how? Believe it or not, Richard Nelson Bolles explains, in a way that is completely accessible and not at all condescending, how we can know ourselves better. Nearly half of the book consists of simple exercises or questions to ask oneself.  My experience with the book allowed me to realize, or at the very least define, my skills, values, and preferences. Even further, it helped me communicate them to others.
2. It isn’t nearly as gentle and encouraging as What Color is Your Parachute? I really, really love Mr. Bolles. If you buy his book, you will too.
3. It is too gentle and encouraging. You won’t find a job by reading 25 tips. It might help, but it also might prolong bad habits and prevent you from doing the life-changing work of introspection and goal-setting. Bolles advises you to treat job-hunting as a full-time job. Me, I give you a list.

Read more…

BOOKS, What Color is Your Parachute?, fighting fear, meeting goals dream job, dream right

How the bible of career-hunting guides helped this non-believer

These days a lot of people are asking themselves, “How do I find a job?”

Simple:
Get a copy of What Color is Your Parachute?.
Buy it. Take it out from your library.

Richard Nelson Bolles has been writing and rewriting this perennially best -selling career and job hunting guide since 1970.

Last August, after an expected promotion became an unexpected (and indefinite) vacation, I decided to accept this sudden influx of free time (and unemployment checks) and use it to seek out my dream job.

What Color is Your Parachute?, even the 1990′s version at my local library, changed my life. And I haven’t even read the whole thing.

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Big Questions: What is my purpose?, What Color is Your Parachute?, fighting fear, meeting goals dream job, dream right

4 Dreams in 6-12 Months

Good Advice, Bad Jargon from the Author of The 4-hour Workweek

Timothy Ferriss - making up words, making people jealous.

I don’t like some words. They feel embarrassing when you say them out loud – dietary supplement, self-help, interfacing, mingle. I can’t say or even write these words without cringing. Dreamlining is one of them.

It shouldn’t be legal to take any two words and slam them together…

Dreamlining, which I will henceforth refer to as DL, is a concept in Timothy Ferriss’s The 4-hour Workweek. DL has gotten a lot of tread on the internets and it is not because of the cool name.

Obviously, as you can infer from the two original words which were so rudely stuck together, DL is about putting a timeline to your dreams. Carpe diem plays a big part here, the recommendation being either a six-month or one-year timeline.

DL is also about putting a dollar sign on your dreams.

By doing a little math, you can bring that dream out of fantasy land, chop it up into little chunks, and start working on it today. Read more…

Big Questions: What is my purpose?, creating habits, how to make a decision, meeting goals dream right

How can life’s difficulties be so confusing when they can be summed up so easily?

There are are only two problems in life, (1) you know what you want, and you don’t know how to get it; and/or (2) you don’t know what you want.

- Steven Snyder, quoted by David Allen, p.251 of the incredible Getting Things Done.

I love this quote because if you begin to think about it, you begin to think about the Big Picture. Yet it is so simple. David Allen, the author of the famous Getting Things Done, goes a little farther, asserting that the solution to life’s two problems is simply:

1. Make it up.
2. Make it happen.

This makes me cringe a little, because making things up and making things happen can be incredibly complicated.

I’d rather not issue an imperative. Instead, I like to look at the questions that Mr. Snyder’s wonderful quote evokes:

1. What do you want?
2. What are you doing to get it?

Read more…

Big Questions: What is my purpose?, communing with the universe, how to make a decision, meeting goals dream right

Commit publicly to your goals. Instantly create forces that will both push and pull you towards accomplishment

What did you promise these guys?

Imagine shame.

Awful, isn’t it – something you want to avoid. For me, shame is the worst. It’s like I’m a broken machine, beyond hope of repair.

Now visualize success.

Listen to it, taste it, feel it. This should feel good.

I ask you to take a look at these two states of being to get a sense of their ability to motivate. Behaviorist psychologists explain our actions as either reward-seeking or punishment-avoiding. They have proven that the carrot and stick are highly effective. (If you want to increase your writing habit using negative conditioning, check out Write or Die).

When you tell all your friends, acquaintances, and readers that you have set a goal, you are activating the dynamic tension between your desire to accomplish that goal and your dread of having to tell everyone that you failed.

If your a people-pleaser, like me, publicly committing to your goals is probably the number one method of getting them done. I quit drinking this way…twice. (I started drinking when I was no longer around anyone who had heard me make the public commitment.)

My Public Announcement

I set my Gmail to autorespond.

Here is what it says:

I won’t be checking my email until January 4th. I am scrambling to launch my website, dreamingright.com, before I start my new job.

I hope I don’t let you down!

creating habits, meeting goals, productivity tips dream right