When I was taking a course on technical theater (it fulfilled some weird requirement in college), one of the professors taught me how to really use a coin to make a decision. I recently shared it with a young friend trying to make decisions about her upcoming college life.
We’re all pretty familiar with flipping a coin to make a decision. Heads says we go to Tahiti for vacation, tails says stay home and go on a self-guided tour of the local museums. You flip the coin, look at which side is up, and the decision is made without you doing anything more than defining the two options.
For example, we flip the above coin, and it lands on heads. We mindlessly set up the vacation and decide it was fate’s decision.
What if, though, instead of just looking at this poor little piece of metal that has just been mercilessly thrown in the air because you refused to make a decision, you look at your own reaction to the result. When my professor first told me that, I thought he was crazy. I remember standing there thinking, ‘This will never work. It’s just a coin toss. What is there to react to?’ A moment later, the coin landed, and I found myself wishing it had landed on its other side. The professor smiled, “There’s your answer.”
Thinking about that coin from earlier, we look at it, and the first thought that runs through our mind is, “Yes, but the natural history museum is hosting that interesting symposium on religious archaeology.” At that moment, we know that while Tahiti would be fun, we really would rather spend our time elsewhere.
Somewhere deep down, we make even the decisions we think we don’t want to make. We know, before we flip that coin, how we want it to land, even if we aren’t fully aware of what we want. The act of flipping the coin and reacting to it just allows our subconscious to come forward and speak.
The ability to uncover what you really want is sometimes tricky, but always worth it in the end. When in doubt, listen to your subconscious!
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:07 AM EDT
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I couldn’t help myself. I was clearing out Bloglines over the weekend (aftert a week of barely reading anything while trying to adjust to my new work situation), and I discovered a few lists that were all interesting and worth a share.
Check them out!
Posted by Rebecca as Creativity, inspiration, and motivation, Entrepreneurship at 8:22 AM EDT
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Today, I’m just focusing on clearing old posts out of Bloglines. These two, both from Monster.com, are great for those in the process of hunting down a job!
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Link Dump at 7:41 AM EDT
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I’ve been sitting on this for a couple of weeks now, but I think there’s something to this! Research has uncovered six natural patterns of work. No one fits into just one of these natural roles. Personally, I think I spend a lot of my time bouncing betwen Concierge and Broker in my current job, and I know I’ve had to fill most of the other roles at some point in my professional life!
Think about your own work situation. Which roles do you often fill? Which ones do you sometimes fill? Are there any that don’t appeal to you, or that you never do but would like to try?
Posted by Rebecca as Work skills, Organizing at 8:24 AM EDT
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I’m always looking for ways to make things better around here, and the advice in this list of ten smart moves is a great place to focus!
For me, some of this list is fairly easy and makes sense. I already blog. I stay small and low key, allowing me to present my business more thoughtfully to a focused audience.
Some of it just doesn’t apply to me. Despite my wishes to find a business manager, I have no employee outside of myself (and the two people who occassionally do a little PR for me). I have no fax machine. My current office space suits me just fine, though. It works with my work style!
Some of it…well…maybe we should just ignore that…
Posted by Rebecca as Entrepreneurship at 7:36 AM EDT
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I somehow misplaced the link, but I read an article last week about using your job to help define your brand. Great read.It discussed using information from your past reviews to help define your personal brand.
It’s an interesting idea, if you’re anything like me and can’t figure out how or where to start on creating your brand. I’ve been wrestling with mine for roughly a year now, trying to figure out what I bring, who I am.
Looking over the reviews I do have, which come from my student teaching nearly ten years ago and my current job, I’m slowly starting to put together an interesting image of the person I have been, and seeing what has changed in that past decade. Not only is it an informative starting point, it’s really fun to look back over those old pink papers and remember that great bunch of kids I got to work with during my student teaching!
It’s really shaping my brand as a teacher, but I’m looking at how it applies to my life as a freelancer.
Posted by Rebecca as Marketing at 8:27 AM EDT
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When I was in high school, I had to take a leadership development class as part of being in JROTC. It was usually little more than a study hall, but occassionally, we read our book or discussed something sort of relevant to leadership development.
One of the few things I took away from that class was the four Cs of leadership: commitment, candor, competency, and courage.
They all made sense to my teenage brain. You had to be willing to stay with something, to see it through. You had to be honest, with yourself and with others about the situation: past, present, and future. You had to be competent (the area I think most leaders fall apart on). You had to brave to make the decision that was right, but unpopular.
Apparently, there are now six Cs of leadership: courage, creativtiy, compassion, caring, curiosity, consistency. I fail to see the difference between compassion and caring, just as I fail to see how commitment, candor, and competency all missed this list.
I do, however, think that in today’s society, all of these Cs really do combine into the makings of potentially great leadership.
Now if only “flexibility” fit into the Cs!
Found via the Innovation Weblog.
Posted by Rebecca as Leadership and management at 8:25 AM EDT
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I’ve been working on developing my own portfolio to share here for the past month or so. It’s been slowly developing, partially becasue i can’t decide how I want to present it, and partially because there’s just so much to present!
It’s important to maintain a portfolio and make it work for you in your job search, regardless of whether you are pursuing permanent, temporary, or freelance work. A portfolio can put your experience into concrete terms by showing what exactly you can do, and that is always a benefit!
A good portfolio should include: the most recent version of your resume, samples of your work (along with explanations of the work), and feedback and recommendations. Depending on your field, there may be other things that need to be in there as well, but a good basic portfolio should have the three listed items.
Focus your portfolio to highlight the strengths you bring to the table. It might be just the nudge needed to get you the job!
Inspired by this post from Monster.com
Posted by Rebecca as Changing careers at 8:18 AM EDT
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These days, it’s pretty much a given that nearly everybody is an expert in something. It doesn’t have to be anything earth-shattering, and can be quite inane, but everyone has that one (or eight) topic(s) that they could go on about for hours. They’re the person people go to for advice on that topic.
People can share their expertise now quite easily through the web, and some do. They start up websites. They blog. They participate in online communities with other people who are experts in the same, or a related, topic. They create lenses.
In short, they create this sphere of credibility around them by getting out there and talking to people about what they know. Being willing to share helps not only the people who find the information, but also helps to further build the expert as a solo business person, a team player in their own business, and helps buld a reputation for the person to assist them in the hiring process (Admit it, you know when you apply for certain jobs, you are Googled fairly quickly. I know for a fact that I am Googled with some regularity, thanks to my attempts to break into freelance writing!)
Inspired by this post on Lifehacker.
Posted by Rebecca as Changing careers, Freelancing, Entrepreneurship, Leadership and management, Marketing at 7:42 AM EDT
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In this time where it’s not uncommon to have a career that spans different industries as well as different jobs, you may think you can only package your skills for the industry you came from, or that the skills you learned in one industry won’t matter in another.Believe me, I’ve talked with a number of people who believe this, and they all honestly look at me baffled when I start demonstrating that they have skills that are marketable in other fields.
it’s important to remember that there are many skills you may pick up in one industry that will aid in your success in another. When I started considering other fields, I found it useful to make a list of every single skill I have and consider how it applied to the new field. It helped me reshape my resume when I was ready to start pursuing jobs.
Monster also offers this helpful article on determining your transferable skills.
Posted by Rebecca as Changing careers at 7:35 AM EDT
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