A New Approach in 2010: Adapt and Thrive

It’s been a tumultuous couple of months since my “perm” job ended. I’d been suffering lately from that malady, so common to the financially displaced that I am “just not making progress.” I took a little time yesterday and this morning to take stock of where I’m making some progress, and it was worth doing.

Question to readers: “When was the last time you took a few moments to identify the areas where you’ve been making progress? What did you discover?” Comment on your discoveries.

Spending: I’ve reduced my spending in pretty much all areas, including food and fuel. I haven’t been doing without, just being more efficient and avoiding wasteful habits. I’ve almost stopped using my credit cards, and use either debit or cash. I drive less, and when I do drive I try to accomplish a few things at once. I walk to the nearby gym, even in bad weather. Shopping closer to nature at the grocery store had been healthier and cheaper. It’s helping my wallet and my well-being.

Health: I slip here and there, but the trips to the gym are more regular. I still have work to do, but I have to remember that I wasn’t exercising at all a year ago. My weight has only dropped a little, but my general fitness is improved in areas like cardio, strength and flexibility. I track my visits to the gym. I’ve been cooking a lot more, and also healthier. My diet is more balanced now, with a big reduction in carb intake, a large increase in steamed vegetables and whole grains and the move away from anything with refined flour or sugars. I don’t keep beer in the house now. I’m on the right track.

Wealth: Could be better, but I am holding my own for now. My main clients have rolled back on their training needs, but I am still booking some work. I may need to ramp up the photography business to make up for it. I’m working on that. I’ve made some strides toward branding my businesses: teaching, writing and photography. My logo is done, and the next step is to get back with my web designer to re-launch Creativist.com. More to come on this, hopefully soon.

Attitude: I struggle from time to time, but the core of who I am is strong. I know what to do, and I know how to do it. When necessary, I’ve been strongly focused on the work and haven’t caved into the desire to take it easy. I don’t dwell on the negative. When I catch myself indulging in negative self-talk, I consciously and immediately turn it around, do something different, scan through some motivational material or meditate on what it bothering me. In conversation with strangers, I focus on the positive and don’t participate in negativity about the economy, government, etc… I take a proactive approach to managing my attitude every day.

TIWIKE: It feels like you don’t create the circumstances in your life. That’s both true and not. There are some things that are truly out of your control, for example a layoff, accidental injuries, etc… But how you react to circumstances is completely within your control. Your reaction is based on your attitude, which is also completely within your control. You can manage your attitude, and therefore; your life.

Rather than adding too much more of my own ideas around attitude, I decided to include a pretty long quote of the day. It’s a great one from Charles Swindoll, and I‘ve re-read it several times. I hope you enjoy it.

Question to readers: Do you have a favorite quote about attitude? Send it in as a comment!

Resources:  Here’s a small collection of quotes about Attitude. It isn’t where the Swindoll quote came from.
http://www.quotegarden.com/attitude.html

Quote of the day: “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”
Charles R Swindoll

Sometimes Tragedy Puts Our Challenges into Perspective

I went to New Orleans as one of 250,000 American Red Cross volunteers when hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated that region in 2005.  It was an unforgettable experience that has allowed me during challenging times to put many things into perspective.  Seeing the devastation in Haiti brought my thoughts back to New Orleans and to the terrible conditions that people were cast into as a result of back-to-back severe hurricanes in that delta region.  I looked at my few photos, and sat for a moment just to think about it. 

The house parked on the car

At the disaster site, I gave out food and water, and hugged a lot of people in tears.  I heard a lot of very sad stories.  I also heard people say that they were just glad to be alive.  And I met hundreds of people who, like me, were willing to drop everything and help.  It was truly the most diverse group I have ever met, with one exception; they were all volunteers helping people they didn’t know.

So today, I am once again sobered by the crises that people are sometimes called upon to endure: the loss of loved ones and neighbors, the destruction of beloved family homes, the devastation to businesses and subsequent loss of income in one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries.  It is truly a sad day for the world.

These events remind me that regardless of my own challenges with financial growth in this current economic malaise, I’m doing just fine.

TIWIKE:  It’s easy to forget how good you have it.  Chances are you’re safe, relatively healthy, getting clean water and food each day, and have clean clothes on your back. Chances are that if you’re reading my blog you’re not only literate, but technically literate.  You have a working, thinking mind; the basis for so many things.  It’s likely that you’re in a pretty good position to leverage what you have and what you know into financial abundance.  Not so for many. 

On your toughest days, remember that in the scheme of things, you’re probably better off than many others around you.  It doesn’t make your problems go away, but it does help to give you a fresh look at yourself and your situation and feel confident that it will all be good in the end.

Resources:

Here is the Wiki on Haiti.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti>

Here is a place you can go to find out about how to help the affected people in Haiti right now.  If you can, I encourage you to help with funding.  If you can’t, I urge you to consider volunteering in some way that is possible for you.

<Google’s Haiti Relief page>

Quote of the Day:

“Be of service. Whether you make yourself available to a friend or co-worker, or you make time every month to do volunteer work, there is nothing that harvests more of a feeling of empowerment than being of service to someone in need. “
Gillian Anderson

“Is it really Friday?”: Fighting to Stay Focused Without a Schedule

“The days all start to blend together.  I found myself wondering what day it was all the time.  I was losing some of my sharpness.  I took over the job of taking my son to school, and it gave me something to anchor to.”  My former colleague confirmed that he had been suffering from the same malady as I, in my call with him yesterday. 

The madness and unpredictability of the holiday season has thrown me off my schedule, and while it was acceptable at the time it was supposed to be temporary.  Getting a cold on Christmas kept me down for more than a week, and mostly indoors.  I haven’t had any client meetings, training deliveries or photoshoots in a few weeks.  Visits from my daughters had been interrupted.  Sickness has kept me from the gym.  I’ve been staying up later.  All recipes for drifting off-course.

Today is Friday.  On Wednesday, I actually felt disoriented first thing in the morning.  I wasn’t sure what day of the week it was, though strangely I knew the date.  I felt sluggish, and actually a little dizzy for a moment.  I’m still getting over a cold, and I had just woken up.  But this felt somehow different.  I suddenly realized that I was drifting.   That moment of clarity pushed me to action.

After getting some important communication done in the morning I packed my laptop, loaded with the course I’m writing for my demo and headed over to the coffee shop at Borders.  It was a nice day for a New England winter, and the drive was pleasant.  The café inside was about half-full of a diverse community.  Some were solo, like me, and were working on laptops.  Others were reading. Some were listening to music.  All were drinking coffee.  I got a coffee and sat down.  For the next two hours, I worked studiously and very creatively on my presentation.  Before I left, I looked for a book that had been recommended to me by a LinkedIn colleague.  They didn’t have it in the store, but the helpful young woman at the desk pointed me to another book that turned out to be extremely valuable for different reasons.  (More on that in a future post.)

I liked the experience so much that I went back again yesterday.  The place was crowded and noisy.  The young woman sitting next to me was on the phone with a female friend.  She was on a laptop, and using the free wireless.  They were talking about a man they both knew.  They were talking about what this guy, and also the two of them were posting on FaceBook and tweeting on Twitter.  “Did you see what he just wrote?”  More chat.  “Look what I wrote back.”  Chat.  “Wait until he sees this!”  Hmm.  Realtime phone chat about realtime web chat…for about 45 minutes.  I was distracted.  This trip wasn’t as productive, and I left a little disappointed, but I felt as if I’d returned to the world of the living, and that was enough value all by itself.

TIWIKE:  It’s easy to drift off course when you’re not tied to a schedule.  In a conversation earlier this week, a veteran soloist friend of mine joked that her husband used to ask her, “what did you do all day?”  She couldn’t explain the situation to him.  Then he was out of work and off of a schedule for a few months.  Suddenly it was clear.  The day feels full of activity, and suddenly you look at the clock and the day is done.  You may wonder what the heck filled all of those hours.  It’s a challenge.

When working in an organization, you get tied to their schedule.  There are office hours, meetings and deadlines to keep you in line.  You might get tired of that structure over time.  There is a benefit to it, though, especially if you tend to get easily distracted or you’re not naturally disciplined.  Nobody is calling cadence for you when you’re solo.  Rather than being part of the pack, you’re more of a scout.  There is nobody looking over your shoulder, and possibly nobody to answer to. 

Over my five layoffs, the lag time between ending employment and getting really engaged in a revenue search has decreased from six months to six hours.  I’ve learned that as soon as I realize that I may be drifting off-course a little, I need to make a course correction immediately, not “next week.”   I’ve eliminated the lag time.  As a revenue seeker, you won’t have the luxury of lag time.  There is already enough of that built into the situation, as you’re waiting for clients, HR reps, hiring managers and others to get back to you.  They don’t share your sense of urgency.  You are responsible for maintaining your own sense of urgency and order so you don’t add to the lag time.

If you find yourself dragging, lagging or drifting, find a way to regain your footing.  Set a schedule using activities that you can use to punctuate your day.  Use your alarm clock.  Eat meals at generally the same times.  Use the calendar on your computer to block time for predictable activities in addition to the conference calls and appointments that will occur as part of your solo work or job search.  Get out of the home office for a change of scenery, a sense of belonging to the world and maybe a jolt to your creativity.  It’s up to you to stay on track.

Reader Question (new): When you’re solo, how do you keep yourself focused?

Resources: 

Char has a great list of tips here for staying on track.
http://casualkeystrokes.com/8-work-at-home-time-management-strategies/

Wondering where there is a cyber café near you?  What if you’re trekking?
http://www.cybercafes.com/

Here is a link to the store locator on the Border’s site.  I love books, coffee and free WiFi
http://www.borders.com/online/store/LocatorView

Quote of the Day:“Stand up, be bold, be strong.  Take the whole responsibility on your shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny.  All the strength and succor you want is within yourselves.  Therefore, make your own future.“
Swami Vivekananda

Baby, it’s Cold Outside: Surviving the Economic Winter

Yesterday was a busy day of catching up with recruiters that I haven’t been in touch with for some time.  I was surprised to see how many of them were no longer with the firms they were employed with only a year ago.  Some seem to have become soloists, a couple had moved on to new staffing employers, and others seem to have taken jobs completely outside the staffing profession.  The staffing industry is taking a hit along with many other industries in this generally bleak economy. 

I spoke to one person who had been active with her own firm, and had employed a few people as well.  She had to shut down the operation when the economy crashed.  Now she is unhappily working outside her field in a job that isn’t at all suited for her.  When she closed her business, her former employees could collect unemployment but she couldn’t; a grim truth for small, independent business owners.  As we closed our conversation, she said that she’d “keep an eye out” for jobs or projects that might be good for me.  She was surprised when I offered to look into something for her with a client of mine, who might be looking for a recruiter.

One of the recruiters I spoke to was fairly upbeat, and after catching up a bit said that she had seen something recently that may be a fit for me on the project side.  She was generally positive about the market, which still offered opportunity in my field and geographic area.  As we closed our conversation, she thanked me for a great conversation, and said, “So many people I talk to every day are ‘doom and gloom’.”  Yeah, I can see how that would happen.  It’s tough out there, and a lot of people are in a lot of pain.  I am hoping not to be one of them.

In my own professional world, my conversation with my client yesterday was a bit discouraging.  They’re putting a hold on the work right now, and will let me know at the end of the week exactly what that means.  Hmm.  On the flip side, my demo class for a prospective client had evolved from a 20 minute demo to a full 90 minute class.  That’s in two weeks.  I have a lot of work to do!

On the personal side, I’m recovering somewhat from this cold now, and it’s about time.  I have to get out of here, having been mostly cooped up since the day after Christmas.  I’ve got the food situation under control, but I’ve been physically inactive for too long.  I’m feeling mushy.  My sleep pattern is getting messed up.  By the end of the week, I need to be out of the funk and back on my game.

TIWIKE: 

Times are tough, no doubt.  This is the worst economic weather since the Great Depression back in the 30’s.  Contrary to the occasional bluster, it is decidedly not as bad.  I added a link for you to compare those times with these.  But let’s face it, they’re bad for many people, and maybe for you.

You’ll run into a lot of folks in your networking travels who are struggling, as you may also be and want to talk about it.  Let them.  Listen with all the respect that you should.  For your part, be generally positive.  There is no reason not to be.  This is not the Great Depression.  By the end of last year we were looking at about 11% unemployment, which also indicates an 89% employment rate!  And for those of us who are able to live with a high level of ambiguity, there is still a lot of project and freelance work out there if we can connect with the right people.  More importantly, how would you have the person you’re networking with remember their last conversation with you?

And while you’re networking, help people.  Networking is either a two-way street or a dead-end.  People in your network will remember those who offered to help them, too.  There is no promise of success, only a willingness to do what we can.  During times like these, we are all in this together.  Link up.  Give a hand.  Help your brother and sister who need a break just like you do.

This blog is written for people who are out on their own, either by chance or by choice, who are struggling to get by and stay sane.  Watch for signs of getting a little cabin fever, especially if you have been out of a full-time work routine for awhile.  If your eating, drinking, sleep, exercise, social or work patterns are drifting, do something about it.  Get out for a couple of hours.  Go to the library, bookstore, museum, coffee shop, etc.  If you can, take a laptop and work somewhere else for a few hours.  The doldrums of winter can be especially challenging.  It’s up to you stay in control and overcome those challenges.

Resources: 

Here are some facts about the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
<http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/04/12_great-depression.html>

Here is an article released by the government in 2001, predicting job growth through 2010.  Umm, yeah, about that…
<http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2001/11/art4full.pdf>

Here are the 2009 unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.
<http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm>

Freelancer Magazine has some suggestions for alternative places to work.
<http://www.freelancermagazine.com/6-alternative-work-spaces-to-the-home-office/>

Quote of the Day:

“History never looks like history when you are living through it.“
John W. Gardner

The Party is Over, but Getting Back to Work Ain’t Bad

Ah, the party is over. There are things to clean up, others to throw away, and some to move back into storage until I start the process all over again next year. Trying to get back into the groove can be… trying. Feels a little like starting your car in deep winter after a few days of neglect. Pretty slow to turn over. Rough idle for awhile. But eventually the oil moves through the warming engine and things are looking good. By the end of the week, my motivation engine will be warmed up and the holiday season will be a memory.

That fresh start as a new calendar hangs on the wall in my office is a welcome sight. 2008 and 2009 were good years for me, and there is every reason to believe that 2010 will be just as good, if not better. Aside from the last few days of a cold, I’m feeling great and much more in control of my diet. As I get better, the trips to the gym will resume and that activity will be back on track. My efforts at exercise were steadily improving as last year was ending, and I’ll continue the effort.

This will be an active week, and I welcome it. I’ve been in touch with one of my recruiters already, and have a phone call planned for tomorrow. I will contact the other 4 this week. These are follow-ups, and meant to keep me close to the job market. I have a phone call with a client this morning to talk about scheduling. On the writing side, I will be talking to my publisher friend to learn the basics about being published. Finally, I will start serious planning with the photography business. I have some ideas that may put me into a position to make that a steady revenue stream. It’s all good.

Awoke to the alarm this morning, had a shower, made a hot, healthy breakfast, took care of some personal e-mail and was working by 9. It feels good to be back on a regular schedule again, and working toward goals.

TIWIKE: The holiday season seems to take on a life of its own, as you take care of a mountain of additional tasks, get pulled in many different directions and thrown off your schedule. Over the years, I would slack off a great deal during the last few weeks of the year, and then spend the first few weeks of the New Year beating myself up about it. That had two negative effects: I enjoyed the holidays less, and was slower to recover from them. Neither were good or necessary. I’ve found that making peace with the probability that I will get less done professionally during the holidays has made the season more enjoyable. In addition, avoiding negative feelings about it has allowed me to slip right back into my schedule more quickly and enjoy the confidence and productivity that it brings.

This is a good time to look over the last couple of years at a very high level and consider them within the framework of your relationships with family and friends, your health and finances. Chances are that things were good overall in at least one of these categories. Celebrate that. Anticipate more of it. If there are areas where you would like to see change, this is a natural time to consider them, and some high-level goals that would bring what you desire into your life. It’s important to keep that first, important step separate all related planning. Take some time to consider what you want, at a very high level. Once you feel confident that you can clearly imagine and articulate what you want, it will be time to take the next step. More on that later.

Resources:

This is a great article about being more effective working in your home office.
<http://creativebriefing.com/13-ways-to-liven-up-your-work-at-home-routine/>

Quote of the Day: (new)
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” Henry David Thoreau