For the most complete post, summary, scripts, and quote cards, see here:
http://milewalk.com/mwblog/11-reasons-make-bad-job-changing-decisions
For the FREE DOWNLOAD of THE ONE-PAGE GUIDE and FULL TRANSCRIPT, click here:
Like this episode? Please share it via social media and review it on iTunes! I can keep this blog and all future podcasts and videos ad-free and sponsor-free ONLY because you share my work! Please share or subscribe to my podcast and YouTube channel too!
Want more advanced material? Join the milewalk Academy and grab some of the free offerings that support the instruction in this post!
Thanks,
Andy
For the most complete post, summary, scripts, and quote cards, see here:
http://milewalk.com/mwblog/11-reasons-make-bad-job-changing-decisions
Do you feel you continue to make poor career choices? Are you confused why you make awful job-changing decisions?
There are obviously many factors that contribute to your decisions and decision-making abilities, but there are essentially 11 reasons you make bad job-changing decisions.
Below are the summary and highlights from the original podcast. I’ve included a handy, free decision-making checklist to ensure you’re in order. If you like this material, keep an eye out for an upcoming free video and live workshop on transforming your career I’ll be conducting starting October 27, 2016. All my Tips for Work and Life® blog subscribers will be alerted as we get closer.
INCOMPLETE INFORMATION
You didn’t gather enough information.
How many times have you thought if I’d only have known that then? There are usually two issues here. It’s likely your inventory of questions or topic areas to investigate was incomplete. Additionally, you probably didn’t dig deep enough (even if you had a complete inventory of questions.)
Overcome this issue by creating an exhaustive list of questions to ensure you’re covering everything. Make sure to keep asking “Why?” until you can’t ask “Why?” anymore. There is no friendlier, joint three-letter word complete sentence I can think of when it comes to your decision-making prowess.
For the really ambitious, there is loads (I mean loads) of insight on decision-making in my award-winning book The Hiring Prophecies: Psychology Behind Recruiting Successful Employees. You can get an entire digital experience, including the eBook, audio and guides for free here.
You had more options but didn’t know it.
You were lazy when it came to investigating all your options. Make sure to think creatively and exhaust all avenues.
INCORRECT INFORMATION
You’re looking where you shouldn’t be (or placing too much weight on the wrong information).
Social Media Sites, LinkedIn, and Corporate Sites (Glassdoor, Vault, Wetfeet) are filled with angriness (mostly). Don’t place too much weight on information where the deck is stacked. Overcome this issue by keeping all you intake in its proper context. And, make sure to do you own investigation before you’re willing to take someone else’s (especially a stranger’s) word for it. This is, after all, your career.
You expect good advice from someone who doesn’t have all the information.
Here’s a scenario. You’ve just given five minutes worth of your (own) bias-filled information to people (a mentor, confidant, co-worker, spouse or whomever) and asked them for advice. If this needs further explaining, go back to You Didn’t Gather Enough Information. They’re now you.
MOTIVES
You weren’t clear (with yourself) on your (own) motives.
Remember your whys! When people go through a lengthy (interviewing) process, for some reason they forget the reasons why they started the process. They also tend to abandon or minimize their (happiness) criteria in favor of the shiny bells and toys the employer has placed in front of them.
You were driven by someone else’s motives.
Don’t do it for your parents, friends, coworkers, spouse, or anyone else. You’ll resent them. This is your life!
FEAR
You fear loss.
You’re worried you’ll lose what you already have (your reputation, easy commute, a job you can do in your sleep, your friendships with coworkers, etc.) Make sure to keep your outlook balanced. You’re gaining much too.
You fear hardship.
Boo hoo this new job will be hard. You’re not sure you’re up for the challenge. Chances are, if a company wants to hire you, you’re qualified and will kick butt if you put some effort into it!
OVERCONFIDENCE
You’re bravado makes you senseless.
Overconfidence stems from many sources, but for our purposes assume it comes from your lack of correct or complete information. Just make sure to investigate wholly and you’ll be in great shape. (P.S. Do not mistake overconfidence for confidence.)
BIASES
You have the status-quo bias.
You have a strong preference to keep your life as-is! You also think any change is a loss of what you currently have instead of a gain for the better. Do not focusing solely on what you’re losing or place greater emphasis than is necessary.
You have the sunk-cost bias.
You’re placing too much weight on time you’ve spent and what you’ve accumulated (something you’ve built, any labor of love, memories, etc.). You need to remove your emotional attachment and rechannel it. One of the easiest way’s to do this is ask yourself, “If I wasn’t currently working here, would this job, or the new one, align better to my criteria?”
Bam. There they are. Eleven nasty ones. I always love to hear from you. What are reasons you think you or others have made poor job-changing decisions?
Like this episode? Please share it via social media and review it on iTunes! I can keep this blog and all future podcasts and videos ad-free and sponsor-free ONLY because you share my work! Please share or subscribe to my podcast and YouTube channel too!
Want more advanced material? Join the milewalk Academy and grab some of the free offerings that support the instruction in this post!
Thanks!
Andy
For the most complete post, summary, scripts, and quote cards, see here:
http://milewalk.com/mwblog/9-fastest-ways-awesome-at-your-craft
For those who want to be truly awesome at what “they do,” I’m going to give you my formula for accelerating your career or your life or whatever you want to catapult. Here are the 9 fastest ways to be awesome at your craft based on what I’ve seen works!
Below are the highlights from the podcast. For a more complete explanation of each area, listen here. It’s also available on any major podcast platform.
First, I’m going to assume you actually want to practice your craft. It sounds silly, but most people who reach out to me are miserable, stuck, or a host of other undesirable feelings.
Let’s assume you chose your path correctly. If you haven’t, check out the First Thing To Do When You Want To Change Careers before proceeding.
Let’s roll…
Adjust your attitude. Optimism is something you manufacture from your attitude. Inspiration is something someone else manufactures from your optimism. Your ability to think without limits will help you create those incredible achievements. It’s also what will inspire the others around. See Unlock Your True Potential With These Three Keys.
Identify the most important capabilities. If you simply practice the “how to” do something, you won’t be able to reach the truly elevated heights. Everyone has purchased the “How To Manual.” You need to know what makes the greatest the greatest. Example: Don’t just learn how to sell. Learn psychology. Learn storytelling. Know the sequence people need to hear things so they can understand how your product or service with help them. Be sincere.
Build a Franken-Mentor. I don’t think any one person, as a mentor, will help you reach phenomenal heights. Build yourself a collection of people—live or online—who can help you build your capabilities. I study four people (Burchard, Walker, Hyatt, McLaren). They help me with high performance, product launching, personal platform building, and membership site management respectively. None of these people do anything related to career management or hiring (my areas of expertise). They support the capabilities I need to learn and master.
Train like heck. See the four gents I mentioned above? I’ve spent nearly 500 hours over the past two years studying their material. That’s purchasing their training material, watching and studying it, reviewing their blogs, and so forth. If you use the 2,000 work hours per year rule of thumb (for the average 9-to-5-er), that’s an additional 12.5% training I added to ensure I know what I’m doing.
Practice. Perfectly. You will make permanent what you practice. Make sure you know what makes something perfect before you make it permanent. There are two ways to go wrong here. First, you can practice poorly. Second, you can practice the wrong things.
Choose (or find) the best people to be around. You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Choose wisely. I’m speaking about actual live people who you see and exchange ideas and banter.
Spend lots of time with Google and YouTube. There is absolutely no excuse why you can’t learn something you want to know. I had no idea how to set up a podcast. I had no idea how to use a DSLR camera before I needed to use one. I knew nothing about lighting. I knew nothing about email marketing. The point isn’t, “I’m great.” The point is, I knew nothing!
Get the right tools. There are so many tools to help you become awesome! They can be organizational tools, research tools, and so on. I recorded this podcast away from office using a cool Sennheiser ClipMic Digital (powered by Apogee) microphone connected directly to my iPhone. It was a new toy I found by accident because I was Googling and YouTubing ways to hook up my Sennheiser Lavalier Microphone. Now I can record these little beauties on the road! It’s also awesome for getting fantastic quality when you’re live on Facebook.
Listen: Listen to the world. Listen to your customers. Don’t ever listen to your competition unless you want to create the same products or services they’re creating. Your greatest opportunities will be found in the sounds of other people's complaints. Solve their problems and you're their hero.
As always, I’d love to hear from you: What are your greatest tricks or steps to becoming awesome?
Like this episode? Please share it via social media and review it on iTunes! I can keep this blog and all future podcasts and videos ad-free and sponsor-free ONLY because you share my work! Please share or subscribe to my podcast and YouTube channel too!
Want more advanced material? Join the milewalk Academy and grab some of the free offerings that support the instruction in this post!
Thanks,
Andy
Get full post, summary, audio, quote cards, and more at:
http://milewalk.com/mwblog/how-visualize-way-success
SUMMARY
Have you ever felt like you were driving through your life or your career with the emergency brake on? It feels as if no matter how hard you work at something, you’re simply not progressing as quickly as you’d like?
Today, I want to talk about a daily exercise I’ve practiced religiously—visualization. And, provide some insight into how to visualize your way to success. Five minutes of this every day will improve your life dramatically.
When did that gray hair and eye wrinkle show up?
I never notice my face change from day to day. Only when I look at pictures from a few years back can I see the transformation.
Much of your life is like this. Your career is like this. Your marriage can be like this.
While most people prefer to slow the aging process, many want to accelerate their lives and careers. Much like the unnoticeable change with age, your progress from day to day becomes imperceptible.
Oftentimes, you’ll feel better about your advancements if you take time to look back at where you were one, three, and five years ago. That’ll help your psyche a bit.
I’m sure many of you are like me. You feel where you’ve been is history. You care more about getting where you’re going—and you want to get there is a hurry!
First Step: Before you look forward, take a deep breath and spend a few moments realizing (yes—realizing) how far you’ve come and all you’ve accomplished. In fact, spend a few minutes every day doing this.
What’s the best way to get from where I am to where I want to go?
There are few key principles to understand to help you quickly get from where you are to where you want to go:
Identify. The first is you’ll get where you’re going faster if you know where you want to go. It also helps to know where you are. Don’t laugh. Most people are in a much better starting position than they realize.
Love. The second is you’ll make greater leaps in life by doing small things you love than doing big things you don’t. You need to enjoy yourself each day because your passion and optimism will fuel getting things done. Most importantly, don’t let what you can do stop you from doing what you were meant to do!
Believe. The third is you need to believe you can get there and be unafraid to jump in! At least once a day, I think about this fantastic quote from American Naturalist and Essayist John Burroughs. He said, “Leap, and the net will appear.” (If you’re really ambitious, check out The Art of Seeing Things: Essays by John Burroughs and You’ll See it When You Believe it by Wayne Dyer.) You believe it. Then it happens. It’s never the other way around.
Where’s the 5-minute thing you promised me? I’m in a hurry…
Okay antsy pants. Visualize yourself at your end-state even though you don’t know how to get there.
Imagine yourself at your “destination.” What’s it like? How does it feel? How does it sound? What will the end-state allow you to do?
Imagine this for five minutes. It’s okay to dream, but you’re more likely creating a reality.
“Five minutes” means you can do this in the shower, on the train, or wherever. It’s best to do it in a quiet location.
This visual of you in all your glory will have pull power—it’ll feel like it’s pulling you toward it. In actuality, you’ll be pushing yourself toward it one step at a time.
There are really only two steps required for the greatest level of success: the next step and the extra step. You simply need to know what you need to do next to move toward your destination. Putting a little extra effort along the way will separate you from the masses who are unwilling to do that.
One fantastic resource to help you visualize your future is Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want. It’s a great book by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy. I hope you enjoy it.
Like this episode? Please share it via social media and review it on YouTube on iTunes! I can keep this blog and all future videos and podcasts ad-free and sponsor-free ONLY because you share my work! Please share or subscribe to my podcast and YouTube channel too!
Want more advanced material? Join the milewalk Academy and grab some of the free offerings that support the instruction in this post!
Thanks!
Andy