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You Are What You Think?

Consider this: Your world is created as you wish it to be. If you believe that you are a victim of circumstance, then you will always be a “victim”. There is a benefit to being victimized. You will always have people around you who will support you and feel sorry for you. That is comforting. Now consider this: What would happen if you weren’t a victim? What would your life be like if you grabbed it by the throat and shook the living daylights out of it?

The quality of decisions affects the quality of Life

You are where you are because of the choices you’ve made in your life. If you wish the future to be better than the past, you need to make better choices. Are you swimming in debt? How does that make you feel?

I’ve been there and it doesn’t feel good. However, help is just around the corner. You just need to make the decision to act. It’s tough to take the first step to recovery and that’s exactly what it is, recovery. If you make the choice to act, you will persevere. How is your life? Are worldly things smothering it? Are you able to stand out from the crowd? How much television do you watch during a day? Do you read? Are you happy with the way things are going? How’s the job?

Start a new day in a new way!

Each day the sun rises. It doesn’t know about your life, it does what it is supposed to do each day. Imagine if the sun was like you? Would it rise and create a world of beauty? You have a choice, and only you can make the choice, as to what type of day it will be. If you wish for negative things, expect them ‘cause they’re coming.

If you wish for a day full of excitement and challenge, it will be given to you. YOU make the call. As a racehorse is trained to bolt when the gates open, you have to adjust your thinking so you are ready to face the day when the alarm sounds.

Confrontation is good.

There is a better life waiting. You have to make the toughest choice of your life by confronting the issues that bother you. Are people around you telling you things that you don’t want to hear? Listen to them. They are trying to help.

The same principle applies to issues that you find uncomfortable. These issues exist so you can succeed and master THEM, not the other way around.

So, if you are a creation of your past, what will you do to make the future brighter?

Try this: Sit at the table with a pad of paper and a pencil. Now, write your name on the paper. Did you do it? How difficult was that? I know it seems foolish, but I’m getting to a point. You were able to make a decision to write your name on the paper. What’s stopping you from attacking a greater problem? It really is a simple thing to do.

The difference between the two things is that there was no consequence in writing your name on the paper. The fear of consequence will stop you from solving problems. But the funny thing is, not doing something automatically makes the consequence worse. It’s nature’s way. Now, write down the thing that is bothering you most.

O.K. so far? Good. Now, write down the first thing that you can do to get you started on the path that will correct the problem. Keep going. That wasn’t as hard as you thought, right? What will you do next?

Do something good for you. Choose an area of life and demand of yourself that you get it under control. When you sit down to eat, you don’t gulp the whole plate down, you take a little bit at a time and chew it. So, start small and keep chewing away. Only you can do this and you’ll do great.

Stop Thinking and Start Doing

You want to find a satisfying career, and you're doing all the right things to make it happen: career tests, introspection, research, informational interviews and more. But your hard work hasn't produced any results. You're still stuck.

As it turns out, there's a sensible explanation: Most people who don't know what career to pursue "can't figure it out in their heads, with a workbook or by introspecting about their past jobs," says Herminia Ibarra, author of Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career and professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD, an international business school in Fontainebleau, France.

Ibarra is just one of several career-development experts who say the traditional approach to choosing a career -- learning about yourself, seeing what career opportunities exist in the world of work and then trying to match yourself with the right option –- has one major flaw: For many people, it just doesn't work.

"If you don't want a career, spend time planning it," says San Francisco career counselor Kathleen Mitchell, who works both in private practice and on the career-development staff at City College of San Francisco.

Don't Think So Much

The pressure of determining what to do with your life can be paralyzing, says John Krumboltz, a professor of education and psychology at Stanford University, and coauthor with Al Levin of Luck Is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career.

"It's hard enough to figure out what I'm going to do this afternoon," Krumboltz says. "If I have to figure out the rest of my life immediately -- now that's pressure. And that shuts many people down."

How should you approach choosing a new career? You may be better off using what Mitchell calls a "planned happenstance" strategy. This entails taking small actions that are likely to lead to career insights and opportunities (the planned part) and then seeing where those insights and opportunities lead you (the happenstance part).

Think and plan a little less, but do a lot more. Experiment a bit using strategies like these:

• Sample Different Career Options: Volunteer for a nonprofit organization whose cause is important to you. Try a few temp assignments or freelance projects that will expose you to new people doing new activities. Take a part-time internship in a new industry to see what the work is like.

  The more you test new career options on a smaller, less-risky scale, the more you'll learn about career opportunities, Ibarra says. You'll have a greater chance of discovering that one of them is a good fit for you.

• Talk to People Outside Your Circle: The people you're closest to might unknowingly limit you when you're trying to chart a new career path. If you're an accountant, for example, the people around you might tell you to simply look for another accounting job. At best, they might advise you to seek another job that involves number crunching.
  
  

  "You need to find different people to talk to," Mitchell says. "Find people who are willing to hear you out and move you toward your vision without reaching conclusions too quickly."

• Focus on Job Activities, Not Job Titles: In their book, Krumboltz and Levin tell of a woman who decided she wanted to be an art director for an advertising agency. She became so intent on landing that exact job that she turned down several offers to do similar work at other companies. The result: She remained stuck.
  
  

  "The notion of declaring an occupational goal can give you tunnel vision and prevent you from selecting alternatives you might hear about along the way," Krumboltz says. Focus on the job activities and conditions you're looking for rather than a specific job title.

Of course, thinking and planning both have their place in the process, Mitchell says.

"Just don't get caught up in the planning," she stresses. "Don't feel every step needs to be laid out before you move ahead. Begin with any idea rather than the perfect idea."

In doing so, she says, you'll create your career along the way -- without having to know exactly where you're going ahead of time.