life@work

Working Less Actually Works

Hurrah! In my desperate online search for anything that could be construed as positive news related to employment issues, I found Sue Shellenbarger's article, "If You Need to Work Better, Maybe Try Working Less".

For the last year we've been hearing only about how people are either working all of the time, or not working at all. 

Now a four-year Harvard Business Review study that will be published in October reveals what many of us already know - taking breaks yields numerous on-the-job benefits.

Working all of the time has become a habit that is unsustainable for most people over a 40-year working career. Sure you can do it for a while, but over your entire career? I don't think so.

If you never learn how to take a Saturday off or leave before 9:00 pm, and if you never allow your staff to learn that they can live without you for a couple of days, you train yourself and everyone around you to expect nothing short of your constant attention and focus on your job. After a while, your performance, enthusiasm, relationships, and health will all suffer for it.

In her article, Shellenbarger shares how it's been for her to not do any work one weekend day each week. Although she says it was stressful at first, "my little test was forcing me to improve the way I work".

If you are working all of the time, what are your reasons? Is it an expectation woven into the culture of your workplace? Are you doing the jobs of three people? Is it something you believe a "star performer" does? Do you have nothing else going on in your life? 

Could you do well at your job without working all of the time?

For everyone out there who works constantly, what small space can you create for something different in your life?

photo by extranoise

Changing Careers: Research Before You Dismiss

At some point in our careers, most of us dream about doing something completely different. Those of us who want to do more than dream can quickly feel stymied and frustrated.

Many people I talk to who are thinking about making a significant career change feel alone in this pursuit. It seems to them that everyone else is happy enough toiling away at their current job, or have dismissed ideas of change because, "I can't afford it" or "I'm too old" or "What would I do, anyway?"

If you notice that you keep imagining yourself doing something else, you owe it to yourself to look at that carefully and give it due regard.

This doesn't mean you have to follow every whim. But if you pay attention to the truth in your gut and have the courage to research the possibilities, it could be one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself.

Why does it take courage to research? Because for a lot of folks, there are large psychological barriers to making a career change. We want to stay in our comfort zone (remember homeostasis from science class?) We are used to a certain income per month. The state of the economy seems like a good reason to hunker down. Certain people count on us to continue to be what we are. Facing risk is just plain scary.

When we quickly dismiss our ideas, we get to stay in our comfort zone. When we research, we may find a way to move forward, and we can feel pretty ambivalent about that.

But when you take your ideas seriously and take the time to research the possibilities - talking to people in the field, talking to companies and organizations and researching professional associations, salaries and job openings online - you can experience some relief from the persistent nagging in your gut that you've been ignoring. (Note: "Research" does not mean merely taking one person's opinion as the Gospel Truth).

Through research, you might discover a way to pursue what you want to do "on the side". You might decide that going back to school for a Master's degree is feasible after all. You might resolve once and for all that acting professionally was a pipe dream, and then be ready to put all your energy into something that is going to work for your life.

Doing the research isn't sexy, but it can lead to all kinds of options.

When I talk to a new client who is tentative about sharing her desire to go from, say real estate agent to kindergarten teacher, I've noticed she likes to hear about what changes other people are making. So here's a partial list of the recent changes that people I know professionally and personally have made:

• From mechanical engineeer to attorney to manager at a start-up specialty beverage company
• From college athletic coach to self-employed personal trainer
• From journalist to law school student
• From full-time instructional designer to contract instructional designer
• From laid off administrative employee to self employed retailer
• From technical writer to TV production
• From hi-tech manager to at-home parent
• From corporate training manager to self-employed consultant and professional speaker
• From working for corporations to working in two-person partnerships in law, management consultancy and architecture
• From full-time high school teacher to part-time curriculum designer
• From biotech marketing to self-employed chef-for-hire
• From community college dean to e-learning consultant and retiree

What's your gut nagging you about? What questions need to be answered so that you can do more of what you want to do?

What are you waiting for?

How Your Work Style Affects Your Career Happiness

Inspiration for today’s post comes from Jennifer Louden, an author whose books I have on my shelf and recommend to others, and the blogger behind LoudenMouth, on “cries and whispers on the creative life.”

In my blog about finding career happiness I often end up writing about career change. It’s true that sometimes in order to have our smiley faces on at work we need to move on to someplace or something else.

Other times if we’re honest about what work process and work style works best for us and have the guts to adhere to those most of the time, we can feel a whole lot better about our work.
Jennifer wrote Friday about what happens when she forgets, fights, denies or feels guilty about how she works best. (Hint: it’s no fun!) She offers this honest appraisal:

“The truth has knocked on my head, direct from my heart: I work best in a steady healthy way, days where writing and art and a sit-down lunch and time with my family and exercise is all wound together. And you know what, I mostly do that!”

Many of us have tried on all kinds of work style “hats” – the work-through-luncher, the frequent chatter, the in-late and out-late gal, the seat-of-your-pants planner, the crisis manager, the firefighter, the yogi, the triage nurse, etc.

But the work style hat that’s best for us is always going to be the one that fits the natural shape of our head.

We hear enough about how people feel they have to conform to a certain work style in order to survive at work. Often in corporate America this style is hard driving and obsessive.

I want to read more stories about people who know and accept their natural working style, set limits about how far out of that style they’re willing to go, and have found places where their style fits.

If this subject resonates with you, I’ve got a challenge for you: to shift from an uncomfortable work process to one that’s more natural for you without changing jobs.

This kind of change takes some guts. You may feel you’re going against the corporate cultural grain or are sticking your neck out.

Or maybe this kind of change would feel more internal -  to accept how you work best and get rid of the pressure you put on yourself to be a certain way that you're not.

But the rewards of working the way the that feels most natural to you are worth the initial queasy feelings. You’ll feel a whole lot better and be more productive.

Examples of changes clients of mine are working on (in collaboration with their managers!):

• Coming in earlier or later and staying earlier or later
• Working from home one day a week
• Exercising during lunch
• Checking email 3 times a day rather than 12
• Closing their office door (or figuratively closing their cube door) to control interruptions
• Working 3 long days instead of 5 regular days
• Stretching every hour
• Learning how not to accept every monkey that lands on their back
• Taking a walk outside for 5 minutes every 2 hours
• Taking a mental health day
• Delegating more projects more often
• Allowing at least an hour after hearing the facts before making major decisions
• Reserving 1 day a week with no email or computer work
• Taking a vacation that is at least 1 week long every year
• Arranging and attending fewer meetings
• Returning voice mails after hours
• Scheduling 15 minutes between appointments to avoid being late so often

Even if you make one small change every two months, you’re going to feel a significant difference.

If you decide to take on this challenge, email me and I’ll cheer you on!

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take a Break and See What Looks Different

These last three weeks for me were not about hanging out in the blogosphere.

I could say I was taking a vacation from blogging, but that would not be strictly true; I was covering things on the home front during a time of reduced child care while my husband was on a vacation visiting "the Mother Land" (Norway). That all led to time out from posting and reading other posts.

As I thought about getting back into the blogging groove I wondered how time away from the routine had affected my attitude about blogging and my level of blogging creativity (this whole endeavor is part journalism, part free-writing, part original thinking and part reporting, yet it's all creative).

And I also mused about how time away from any routine changes how we are once we are back in the routine, even if we weren't hanging out on a beach drinking big pineapple drinks during our time away.

When I was away from blogging I had the space to realize that even though it takes time to write frequent entries and even though it can sometimes feel like I have nothing interesting to write about, when it comes down to it I'm committed to continuing with this. I'm committed to writing helpful, fresh, interesting content for people who want career happiness. In other words, I missed blogging. I missed reading my usual blogs, and I missed the blogosphere in general.

It's kind of like when you watch your young children while they are asleep. They're so angelic, so peaceful, and you can so go on like a sap because they're so blissfully asleep and out of your hair. You've got the distance to see them differently than when they are awake and fighting over the last bowl of Rice Krispies.

If you're engaged in something aggravating career-wise, take a break (10 minutes, 10 days, 10 weeks, whatever is appropriate) and notice what (if anything) is different when you come back to it. Is your commitment to it less strong? Is your intuition about what to do about the aggravation speaking up (and are you listening?)

For example:

• You're having problems retooling your resume
• There's a person down the hall you can't stand
• You've been on 6 job interviews and haven't received an offer
• You've left several messages for someone about a job
• You can't think of anything to blog about (okay, that's mine!)

Stop what you're doing and do something else. Don't think about the issue while you're doing something else; just let it sit in the back of your mind.

Typically if we even recognize our struggle we tend to choose to continue to engage in that struggle, just with more vigor and speed. How often does that work? (That reminds me of the seemingly paradoxical idea of increasing productivity by quieting the mind, but that's a subject for another post, when I'm feeling more Zen).

Instead, take five and see what happens. Create some distance.

You may get the insight you need to approach your old challenge from a new angle.

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

Change Your Beliefs and Watch What Happens

Sometimes change is as much fun as the square dancing unit in 4th grade gym when you were paired with the geekiest boy (or girl) who had really sweaty hands.

That is to say, not much.

When it comes to finding career happiness, many folks focus on making external changes. They change where they work, what they do, and who they do it with. It can certainly be liberating to free yourself from a dysfunctional work environment, a high maintenance employee and a lousy commute.

But if you neglect assessing what internal changes you may need to make, you can find that you bring all your current problems along with you to the new gig.

It's kind of like that friend you have who has a habit of moving to a new company or city or state every so often to make a fresh start. The start is fresh until the same old stale problems catch up to him.

If you're continually getting results you don't want (in your career or some other segment of your life) you need to understand what beliefs you hold about this area. Your beliefs drive your behaviors which produce certain results. If you want new results, you'll need to adopt new behaviors and new beliefs.

To explore this idea more, get ready to ponder, and get a pen.

Think about a belief you have that is limiting you. What are the actions you take as a result of this belief? What results are you experiencing as a result of those actions?

Now imagine the results you want to experience. What behaviors would you have to engage in to experience those results? And what belief would drive those behaviors?

How different are the two beliefs? How far away do you feel from the "new" belief?

Stating a new belief and actually inhabiting it are two different things. Adopting the new belief so that it feels real requires practice.

• Catch yourself in the old behaviors.
• Stop and recognize the limiting belief that is driving those behaviors.
• Remember the new belief.
• Choose your behavior based on your awareness of those two different beliefs.
• Rinse and repeat 34,598 times.

This exercise was introduced to me by masterful coach Carole Jacoby. If you can't figure out what a limiting belief is, write down what results you are getting that you don't want, then work backwards through the behaviors and you'll uncover the underlying belief. If you want an MS Word template of this and more detailed instructions, email me at heather@dreambigcoaching.com.

If you keep bumping your head against the same wall, try this exercise! Frustrated with your team? Keep being told that you're too blunt with customers? Working 20 more hours a week than you want to be? Sobbing in the car on the freeway? (OK, maybe go talk to a professional if you're doing this...) try this exercise!

This is basically about training yourself to observe yourself in action and giving yourself the opportunity to choose differently.

It takes some diligence, but I guarantee you it'll be more fun than square dancing in gym class.

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com