One of the issues that is clear to me when it comes to career resilience is that we need to build our connections to other people. Humans are social creatures, built for attachment and primed from birth to connect with others, and the more isolated and alone we feel, the more fragile and rigid we become. Caring for and being cared for by other people is critical to our emotional and mental well-being.  Typically when we talk about our connections in a career sense, we use the term "networks" to describe the people we are connecting to. We talk about living in a "networked world" and how it's the quality of our networks and the people in them that will help us be successful in our careers.  The problem I'm having with this, though, is that the term "network" carries many connotations that I think get in the way of building resilience. Maybe it's me, but networks feel very transactional, focused on whether not you are "bringing value" to a relationship. We want to network with people who have power or authority or influence, people who can bring us something that will help us be successful. Networks have us thinking about the WIFFM--what's in it for me?--and that's hardly a recipe for resilience.  I also find the term "network" to be very mechanistic, making us feel like cogs in a machine. It calls to mind computer networks, which are simply collections of nameless, faceless machines harnessed together to accomplish some larger task. There's enough in the world that makes us feel that way. Why do we have to talk about relationships like they are machines too?  I think I might not be alone in my concern about networks as I find that the one thing that most job seekers seem to consistently resist is the idea of "networking." They know on some deep level that networks and networking don't carry the same relationship ideals that really resonate with us as human beings.  As someone who believes that "words create worlds," (an appreciative inquiry concept), I think we need to think differently about the relationships we are building in our lives, focusing not on building "networks," but on building circles of connection.    Why Circles? As human beings, we have a deep, primal relationship to the circle. It is a universal symbol, found in all cultures. From our earliest days, we have gathered in circles around the campfire to receive protection from the dangers of the dark and we have used circles in our spiritual and community practices to represent inclusivity, connection and belonging.  Circles represent sanctuary--those who are in the circle receive protection from and provide protection to those who are gathered with them.  This sense of safety and containment is critical to developing our resilience because it strengthens the sense of attachment we feel to other people and our sense of safety so we can relax and trust.  Circles also represent inclusivity and wholeness. Whenever we see the symbol of a circle, we are drawn to enter it. It is inviting and suggests that we come closer to experience its warmth.  While networks carry a connotation of information and messages carrying ever outward, circles close the loop. They emphasize the cyclical nature of life and experience and remind us that "what goes around, comes around." What we put into the circle will eventually cycle back to us.  Circles can be small, with just a few people, or large. They can intersect (think Venn diagrams), interlock or be completely separate. We can have a few circles or many circles. If our goal is resilience, though, it's the circles that will provide us with the support and nurturing we need. For me, thinking about expanding and building my circles feels far more energizing and supportive of resilience than does the idea of "building my networks." Circles resonate at a very deep, emotional level, and connecting for resilience is about creating those deeer connections.   What about you? How does the idea of building a circle compare to building a network?  

  Awhile back, I wrote about the value of having a career journal and discussed some of the ways that I used my own journal. I'm a huge proponent of reflective practice and a journal is a critical tool for that work. A lot of people think of journaling as a "nice to do," but as Harvard researcher Teresa Amabile has found, a career journal, especially for anyone who does creative work, is really more of a "must have." It becomes a tool not only for managing what's going on today, but for thinking about the future and gaining perspective on the past.  The video above is a synoposis of what Amible and her colleagues have found in their research on keeping a daily work diary. (Hat tip to Idealist.org for the find, btw) They identified four key benefits: Celebrating small wins, which helps people see overall progress in their work. Much of resilience is about seeing the positive, so celebrating small wins is a way to do that. (see more about the Power of Small Wins here)  Planning next steps. If you don't make the progress you wanted to, your journal can be a place for thinking through and planning next steps. What do you want to try tomorrow? What could you do differently?  Nurturing personal growth. This is HUGE for developing resilience because it's a way for you to work through challenges and problems and to find your own inner strength and resources. You can see patterns of behavior or reactions you may want to work on. You can also re-frame experiences so that you gain new perspectives and insights into what happened.  Cultivating patience. This is also big for resilience, which requires persistence in developing new habits. And you can see that in the past, you were able to solve various problems or issues, even on days that may have been worse than today.  The video is definitely worth watching. The examples and discussion offer even deeper insight into how people are able to use a journaling practice to stay in touch with themselves and their deepest and most personal goals and values, even in very turbulent, rough times. You may also want to check out this HBR post on Amabile's research into journaling.  I admit that there are days--even weeks--when my journaling suffers. I will write sporadically or not at all. But I inevitably return to my journal, often when things begin to feel unmanageable. I need to find a way back into the work and into my motivation for doing it and my journal is one of my most reliable practices for making this happen.  I've also found in working with the idea of resilience that journaling is one of the best ways to support the four key patterns of Clarifying, Connecting, Creating and Coping. It's a tool that can help you reflect on your experiences and gain insight into which patterns might need shoring up or just some attention for you to keep making progress.  For more resources and information on keeping a career journal, check out my earlier post on the topic. Also see how to use career stepping stones for a longer perspective on your career activities. 

Last week, one of the women I've been working with in a Career Club sent me an email asking me about what it was like when I first started working for myself--was I as freaked out about self-employment as she is now by a stretch position she'll soon be taking on. At the end of her email, she asked me this:   What I want to know is, how long does it take to turn into the person who actually 'feels' comfortable, confident, and competent on the inside, rather than the person who believes they are a fraud in these three categories, and taking a new setting hour by hour and hoping they don't get discovered in their inept-ness.   I love when people ask me questions like this, because they force me to think about my own experiences in new ways, to find my own resilience which isn't always an easy thing to do. Here's what I wrote back to her: Let me answer the easy questions first. When I started my business, it did feel like a risk of sorts, but it also felt like something I HAD to do. It was the only way I could find to pursue work that to me felt interesting and meaningful. What felt riskier (or at least more soul-crushing to me) was continuing to do work that didn't build on my strengths or feel very useful in the world. I just got to a point where the risk of stagnation and burnout seemed greater than the risk of starting my own business.    I was fortunate in that I didn't have to deal with a ton of financial risk in the process. I started my business when I did in part because we could live on my ex-husband's salary at the time. It took me a couple of years to get to the point where my net profit replaced the salary we'd lost, but we were OK with that because we'd sized our life to be OK with one salary. So I was more fortunate than a lot of people who, on top of everything else, must take a financial risk.    But those aren't answers to your real question. Your real question is did I feel like a fraud inside and, if so, how did I get over it?    Here's the thing. There are days when I feel very good about myself professionally and then other days when I feel like I don't know what the hell I'm doing at all--a complete, inept imposter.  The days when I feel confident, competent and comfortable are gifts.  I can do things to encourage the gift to come more often, but I can't control it all the way. I can only try to create the fertile ground for the gifts of grace and ease to come to me.    So to create more "good" days, I try to focus on what is going well, not on what is screwed up. I try to focus on bringing out my strengths and using them, rather than thinking about my weaknesses and trying to "fix" them. I try to see myself as someone who is learning all the time and sometimes learning means being uncomfortable and challenged and "out of your league," so what can I learn from those moments about myself? I try to surround myself with people who are positive and supportive and nurturing and to limit my time with people who are negative and who drain me of my energy. And I try to work with problems and issues that really engage me on an emotional level so that I'm able to keep myself going, even if I'm not feeling good about myself just because the problems themselves need to be solved.    I also try to share with people when I'm feeling out of my league--to say "I'm not sure what to do here and it makes me feel stupid and incompetent to say this." Ninety nine times out of 100, people will melt when you say this. Everyone can relate.    Notice how often I say "try" in all this though, because I'm not always successful in doing any of those things. So then I'll have a day or a series of days where I feel like I'm a big failure or I'm having no positive impact in the world or I'm pushing things that other people don't really want. That's when it helps me to go back through my journals (journaling is HUGE, HUGE, HUGE in all of this) and see the times when I was down like this before and then the next day, something clicked and I was changed back into confidence. I see that my fear and anxiety about myself is a fleeting thing and that this too will pass.    You are embarking on a big journey and it's been awhile since you worked outside the home, so it's not surprising that you're feeling anxious and concerned. You're going to make mistakes at first--that's part of learning. You're going to feel like you're a fraud because you haven't been a nurse before--it isn't a full part of your identity yet. Accept that. Don't fight it. Don't beat yourself up. Just try to stay with it and and your emotions and give yourself kudos for every small win.    My last bit of advice is to "fake it till you make it." When I have to do things that feel really uncomfortable and out of my league, I spend some time doing grounding/centering exercises, I set my intention for how I want things to go, and then I just go in and pretend that I'm someone else making it happen. I don't put my "real" self out there--I put on a mask. Most of the time that takes me far enough into it for me to then see that it's working and I experience the real success that I wanted. Faking it is one of the best things you can do in those circumstances.    Now my question for all of you--How do you deal with feeling like an imposter? 

  In the past few weeks, I've had occasion to email several people who are unemployed. Some had emailed me for advice or connections. Others had participated in live events with me and I'd followed up by emailing them some resources they'd requested. A few wanted me to review their resumes or cover letters.  In each case, I took the time to craft a helpful response, including links to relevant information. Some took me only 5 minutes to respond, but several required up to 30 minutes, including reviewing materials and providing specific feedback.  I emailed these off and then.  .  . crickets.  No thank you. No "I appreciate you taking the time to look at this." Not even a "got it." Just silence. Only one of two things can be going on here, neither of which is good for the job search.  First, it's possible that they haven't checked their email and therefore don't know I've sent this information. However, since the vast majority of employers are using email to stay in contact with folks, not checking your email when you're looking for a job is a HUGE problem. The race is going to the swift, my friends, so if you aren't on top of the emails in your inbox then someone else is going to get that job ahead of you.  The second possibility is, in some ways, more disturbing. They may have received the email and simply not thanked me for my time. They got what they wanted, now on to the next thing.  This is what's wrong with the world right now, especially when it comes to connecting--this idea that human interaction is all about you. It's not. It's about me, too.  I love helping people--it's what I do. But when I'm not even acknowledged for these efforts, it makes me much less likely to help you the next time you ask for something from me. And if this is how you're treating other people, then maybe that's contributing to the fact that you're still unemployed. Job search these days is about connections and if you aren't contributing to the circle then you're using up all the goodwill that could be helping you find another job.  Relationships are not transactions, where we simply extract from them what we need and then move on to the next person. They are reciprocal--two-way, where each does for the other. I know that it's scary and hard and frustrating to look for a job right now, but that doesn't mean that you should wallow in it. You have to give back too. I promise that it will make you feel better. And those you thank will want to help again.  The best thing you can do for your job search is to THANK PEOPLE FOR THEIR HELP. It costs you nothing (except a little time) and it goes a long way toward strengthening the connections you need right now. 

  For the past several months, I've been meeting weekly with unemployed job seekers to help them find new jobs. I give them feedback on their resumes, do practice interviews with them and show them the best ways to find out about job leads, etc. I also coach them on setting and keeping weekly job search goals.  As we go through this process together and I observe what's happening, what's beginning to emerge for me is the need for people to get clear with themselves about why they aren't taking certain actions. Is it because they lack skill? Or is it because they lack will? Initially, the participants in my groups weren't making progress because they lacked skill. For example, they didn't know how to interview effectively, so they needed information, practice and feedback to develop those capabilities. They weren't sure about the activities that would give them the most bang for their buck (like networking) so they needed to learn better strategies for making connections and building relationships.  But at a certain point, we are no longer talking about lacking key knowledge or skill. We are now talking about lacking the will to actually implement the steps they know need to be taken. We can do all the education in the world, but if the will to actually change behavior isn't there, then there's no point.  I bring this up because I think that skill vs. will applies to all of us in thinking about changes we want to make in our lives and careers. Sometimes we can get hung up on gathering more information, needing to become more "skilled" when really our problem is that we lack the will to just start DOING things.  Here's an example from my own life. I need to get more organized and more structured in my schedule. I can see the many things I'm not accomplishing because I'm undisciplined in my approach to my work, wanting to just let the creativity flow. So I've spent a lot of time reading about various productivity systems, looking at blog posts and newsletters on the topic. There's no shortage of information to help me develop the skill.  But at this point, my lack of progress in doing anything about it is more about my WILL to change. All this research and "skill-building" I'm doing helps me avoid the issue of my lack of will to alter my behaviors. Rather than focusing on the skill, I need to focus on developing (or discovering) my will.  One strategy I'm trying to find my will is doing some journaling about what my work life will look like once I get all these productivity improvements going--envisioning that perfect future as a way of inspiring myself to move forward. This has proven powerful in other realms for me, so I'm thinking it will help here.  I've also decided to go back to my own advice--to do some 30-day trials where I try to stick with one or two productivity strategies for a month and see how they go. I'm planning to journal about the experience as well. I'm hoping that by experimenting and experiencing the change I want to create, even on a very small level, that will help me build my will. The journaling will be a way for me to see progress, further inspiring me to continue.  It might be helpful for you, too, to look at areas of your life where you want to make change and where you feel like you aren't seeing the progress you want. Is it because you are trying to "build skill" before you make changes or is it because you lack the will to just do it? If it's lack of will, then all the skill-building in the world isn't going to make you actually change. You need to focus on finding the will to propel yourself forward. 

"The standard you walk past is the standard you accept." --Lt. Gen. David Morrison, Australian Army Chief As I continue to hear stories about how dysfunctional many workplaces are, how workers are poorly treated by both managers and colleagues, the video above really struck a chord for me. In it, Lt. General David Morrison is talking about how sexual abuse and aggression toward women is unacceptable in the Australian Army. And then he says this: "The standard you walk past is the standard you accept."  Wow. That's absolutely right. And I'm forced to ask how many of us simply accept poor treatment without saying a word? How many of us see a manager or colleague treating a co-worker poorly and keep our mouths shut? How often do we just accept management policies that put workers last because we fear for our jobs?    Every time we accept poor treatment in the workplace, every time we let ourselves or others be treated poorly without speaking up, we are communicating that this standard is acceptable. That it's OK to be dysfunctional. Is that really the message we want to send?  Even if  something doesn't impact you directly, it still impacts you because it creates a culture where poor treatment of workers becomes part of the norm. And eventually, this will come back to bite you too.  Of course, this advice isn't just for work, either. It's for all aspects of our lives. There are many places where we may remain silent for fear of "causing a hassle," or appearing to be "difficult." But in doing so, we collude in creating a world where poor behavior is acceptable. Is that what we want to do? Think carefully about what you are allowing to happen around you. Walking past it is just another way of condoning it.  As long as we accept poor treatment of ourselves and others, we are creating a world where bad behavior is the norm. 

The other day, a friend shared with me one of those infographics that talks about "demand jobs"--in this case, it's jobs that require little work experience. This is what it looks like. (Note, I'm going to use US information for this discussion, but the principles are generally the same, regardless of where you live) I see these lists all the time and they make me crazy because they often give people bad information about what's really going on in the job market and cause them to make some unfortunate decisions as a result. I especially see this with career changers and young people trying to figure out what to major in when they go to college.  Taking Apart the Data The next time you see a list like this, here's what you need to do.  1. Look at the data source--where are they getting the information from?  In the US, most of the time, these lists of "high demand" occupations are culled from US Department of Labor occupational data. This means a few things: The information is generalized--it covers the entire country. But just because a job is "in demand" in California, doesn't mean you'll find employment in that occupation in Kansas. And unless you're prepared to move to whereever the jobs are (which most people are not), this could be a problem. Often the information is outdated by the time you're reading it. Take the list I cited above. This data was gathered in 2008-09 to project job openings that would occur from 2010-2020. Do you really think that the market isn't going to have changed substantially between 2008 and 2020?  In this case, this is a list of jobs that supposedly don't require work experience. This may have been true in 2008-09, but in the current market, most employers are demanding (and getting) people with specific work experience. Your odds of getting an entry-level position in these areas are significantly decreased because the market is so competitive right now.  Furthermore, this doesn't take into account the rapid pace of automation and the impact that technology is having on these jobs. Again, using this list, many of these jobs are currently being automated away by sophisticated software and robotics. Yes, there may still be some openings, but these occupations will employ fewer people and the skills required to do the jobs will change.  2. If it's available, look at the total number of jobs in the field and the number of projected openings, NOT the percentage growth.  Often these lists are compiled based on percentage growth in a field. So, for example, a job will appear on a demand list because it's projected to grow by 15%. But you shouldn't really care about the growth rate. You should care about the number of jobs that will be available.  Which is going to offer more opportunity? An occupation that is projected to grow by 100%, but is so small that means only adding a few thousand  jobs? Or an occupation that may only be growing by 1%, but it's so large it will be adding tens of thousands of jobs?  The number you should be paying attention to is how many jobs are projected, not the rate of growth.  You also need to look at the time frame for that projected growth. Often, if it's DOL information, it will cover a 10 year period. So it's not that 120,000 jobs will be created in one year. It's 120,000 jobs that will be created over 10 years. That's a BIG difference!  3. Put the numbers in context. In looking at labor market information, you have to put the numbers in context. First, you have understand how truly huge the US labor market is. There are 155 million people in the labor force right now. This means that there are 155 million people between the ages of 18 and 65 currently working or looking for work. This doesn't include people who have dropped out because they've been discouraged about looking. It doesn't include people over age 65 who may still need to work or want to work.  Right now, there are 11.8 million unemployed people. This does not include people who are underemployed--working part-time when they would prefer full-time, for example--and it does not include people who have dropped out. So let's take one of those occupational areas listed above--Nuclear power reactor operators. Here's what the info shows: That 2000 is the number of projected openings expected to be created. . . between 2010 and 2020!! So over the course of 10 years, 2,000 jobs are projected to be created. That's only 200 jobs per year--across the entire country!! In a labor market of 155 million people, 200 jobs per year is NOTHING! Most people don't dig that deeply though. We are likely to see that median salary ($77,550) and the fact that this job is on a list of "hidden gems" and think--"Wow! There's an opportunity!" But really, not much opportunity there at all, at least in terms of the number of available job openings.  Another way we need to put things into context is to understand what demand is for an occupation in the area where we want to live. Are these openings going to be created in our local area or in some other part of the country? Usually you will have to do more research to determine if this is the case. And even if you can find that information, it's difficult to predict out more than a few years.  The Big Lessons The next time you see a list of jobs that are supposedly in high demand--and are tempted to use those lists in your planning--make sure that you look at the list with a critical eye. Be sure to:  1. Find out how many jobs are expected to be created in the area you want to live in. That will be the information that is most useful to you. Percentage growth and jobs created some place you don't want to live is useless information.  2. Find people currently employed in this occupation (or at a minimum, in the industry) and talk to them about what they are experiencing in the field.  What is happening with technology? How are job requirements changing? What do the best candidates do and have in terms of their education, work experience, etc.? This is where informational interviews can be very helpful. They're a great way to network, but more importantly, to learn about what's really happening on the ground. (I have some resources on informational interviewing here.)  3. Find out what you need to do to be considered competitive in this field. Not qualified, but competitive. In this market, it's not about meeting minimum qualifications.  If you want a job in a particular field, you need to focus on being competitive, not minimally qualified.  4. Prepare accordingly, keeping an eye on how things continue to change. While you're in school or developing your skills, you'll need to continue to pay attention to what's happening in the market for this job. As an example, I'm working with people graduating from Associate Degree RN programs. When they began their training 2 years ago, jobs for RNs were plentiful. Now that they're graduating, those jobs are drying up--hospitals are hiring Bachelor's degree nurses. The pace of change is dizzying, so you have to keep paying attention to how requirements are changing as well. Also watch out for what technology is doing to a career area. See my previous articles on this--Tech is Eating My Job Part One and Part Two and how to deal with tech eating your job. Remember, lists of high demand occupations can give you a useful starting point. But to really make them work, you have to use a critical eye and gather more information before you use that information for decision-making. Take any "demand list" with a HUGE grain of salt. Look behind the numbers and keep doing your research to stay on top of what's happening. 

Right now, I have at least 10 projects on my desk, all in various stages of "progress," but all unfinished. I have ideas floating around in my brain for about 20 more. Right now I have 12 (!) tabs open on my browser, each one reminding me of some item on my "to do" list and my "to do" list never seems to get any shorter. I close a tab, only to open two more.  Like many creative folks, I'm excellent at generating new ideas and "what ifs." I do it for myself and I do it for other people when I talk to them about their businesses and careers. I can't help it. Ideas just come. I recognize that I'm addicted to the start of things and to the new. The problem, of course, is in the follow through. You can have a million ideas, but if most of them are lying around in various stages of "undoneness," then there's really no point. They haven't truly made it out of your head and into the world.  Part of the "Creation" pattern of career resilience is developing the habit of completing what you start. In today's always on world of multi-tasking, finishing things is the hallmark of a true professional.  Strategies for Following Through I thought about all this this morning when the video above from Marie Forleo dropped into my inbox. It's on making follow-through a habit. She suggests four strategies here: 1. Stop thinking that creativity is all unicorns and rainbows. Who doesn't love the "fun" part of any creative project where you're filled with ideas and working on the parts that play to your strengths. But in every creative thing you do, there will come a point when it's no longer fun. Diligence and persistence will have to carry you through. Know that. Plan for it. And push on through.  2. Start with the small balls. Finishing what you start is a habit. Look at the little things you leave hanging. Discipline yourself to stay focused and to finish them before you move on to the next item on your list. This is easier said than done. While writing this post, I found myself drifting over to respond to emails and write down some ideas for another project I'm working on. I also posted to Facebook twice and answered a client call. This is a major reminder to me of how addicted I am to the idea of "multi-tasking," which is clearly killing my ability to focus and complete things.  3. Don't make finishing optional. This is a big problem I have. I keep my commitments to clients, finishing work I know that I "have" to do. But it's harder to keep my commitments to myself, where I've made finishing a creative project a "nice to do" rather than a "have to do."  This is a state of mind as much as anything else. It's interesting to realize how often I see the work I do for other people somehow being more important than work I've promised myself to do. It's part of what can make the work of developing my career resilience more difficult--I'm responding too much to what other people need from me, rather than to what I need to do for myself. So making myself at least as important as my clients is something I need to work on. Marie's quote on this is a good reminder: If you want to be responsible, keep your promises to others. If you want to be successful, keep your promises to yourself.  4. Go on a Project Diet. Another big one for me. Rather than generating more ideas, I'm working right now on simply finishing the ones I currently have on my plate. It's very tempting for me to follow the next shiny object that comes into view. I love the energy of new ideas. But right now, I really need to learn to say "no" to the all you can eat project buffet that goes on in my brain.  An Addiction to the Next Shiny Thing is Really Just Resistance at Work One thing I've found in looking at my bad habits around follow-through is that multi-tasking is a big problem. The million open browser tabs and the constant drifting of my attention is a challenge. Simple discipline is needed.  But more than that, I understand there's something deeper at work here. Failing to finish is a form of Resistance, what Steven Pressfield talks about in Do the Work as the inevitable external force that rises up to greet you when you begin a creative project. Doing battle with the forces of Resistance in their predictable forms throughout the life of your work on your creation is an unavoidable aspect of creating something new. And the more outstanding and amazing that creation is, the more Resistance you will face.  When I understand that my addiction to the next new thing is really just part of the Resistance that has risen up to keep me from following through on what I already have on my plate, this gives me a better mindset for approaching the work. I see that the more I'm putting off following through, the more likely this is exactly the thing I NEED to do. Chasing a new idea isn't nearly as powerful as completing the one that's already here. So I buckle down and stay with it.  Following through, finishing what we start--this is an important pattern to work on in developing our career resilience. What do YOU do to build this pattern in your life?  

  For the past several months, I've been in a sort of career quandry about where I want to go next. I'm feeling the need for some big shifts in my life, but I'm not entirely sure how I want those to play out in my business and career.  Part of this is because I'm turning 50 in September. Part of it is due to shifts in my client base. And part of it is because I need to change things up periodically--as we know, I love the power of the new.  In thinking about my next career moves, I realized a few days ago that I've been caught up in the idea that I have to make something BIG happen. But I couldn't decide what that something BIG was, so I've essentially been stuck.  So instead of worrying about what I'd be doing for the rest of my life (which is really ludicrous to plan for anyway), I decided to sit down and just plan for what I want to accomplish in the next 6 months. Between July 1 and December 31, what goals did I want to set for myself?  What I came up with was a plan that built on my current business and practice, but that also stretched me--putting me out there in some different ways where I wanted to do some experimenting and risk-taking. Letting go of the idea that I had to make some huge change that would be for the foreseeable future freed me up to focus simply on what I could do in a manageable period of time. It also got me back to focusing on the experiments I could run and the different ways I could play with possibilities.  One of the things that can happen to us when we're in a period of career uncertainty or confusion is that we paralyze ourselves waiting for that BIG IDEA that will change everything. I need to go from doing THIS to THIS and if I can't decide what the next THIS might be, then I'm just stuck.  You can free yourself from this trap, though, by releasing yourself from the idea that you have to do something major. As Hermione Ibarra points out in Working Identity, most career change happens gradually anyway. We go through a process of exploration and trying out possibilities, building new networks and exposing ourselves to new ideas.  My 6-month plan allows me to drop the big question of "What am I going to do with the rest of my life?" and instead, focus on the smaller (and more manageable) issue of "What do I want to explore and experiment with in the next 6 months?" I can evaluate my experiences, see where there's energy for me to follow and in November and December, begin planning for the next 6 months. Eventually this will lead to greater clarity about what I want and possibly I will make a huge leap into something new. But that leap will be informed by my experiments and it may feel much less huge than it does now.  When you're confused or uncertain, planning for the shorter-term can release you from the pressures you may be putting on yourself that keep you stuck. Forget the 5-year plan or the "I'm going to blow up my life" plan. Just focus on the next 6 months--or even the next 3 months. What can you experiment with that can move you forward? 

  As I've continued to work on the issues of career resilience, developing the model and thinking about how the patterns of resilience play out, one area I've been thinking about is how our overall mindset about our careers shapes our ideas about resilience.  In working with people, I find that they have two ways of thinking about their work lives.  The first mindset is what I've come to call the "Disease Model." This is where people don't take very good care of themselves or their careers. They engage in the career equivalents of all the high risk behaviors we associate with poor health--bad eating habits, no exercise, lots of stress, smoking, drinking too much, etc. When it comes to their careers, this means doing things like not setting personal career goals, not focusing on their own professional development, forming networks that benefit their companies, but not them, etc.  The people who take this approach seem to operate with the idea that if they "get sick" (e.g. lose their jobs or end up miserable in their work), they will deal with that when it happens.  They seem to believe that there's nothing they can do to prevent these events or to at least minimize their effects. Then, when they are in crisis,  they are looking for the quick fix at that point. What pill can they take? What surgery can they have? Lifestyle change doesn't really enter into it. It's "fix the problem and then let's get back to business as usual." The other mindset I see is one that's more Wellness-based. These individuals recognize that they can forego a lot of the problems of poor career health by taking better care of themselves all the time, rather than just when they get "sick." They see career health as something that you work at on a consistent basis, not something that you take for granted or abuse by engaging in bad career habits.  In other words, rather than looking for the quick fix when things go wrong, these people are focused on creating a lifestyle that maximizes their career health.  These are two fundamentally different approaches to thinking about your career. The "Disease Model" is less empowered, more focused on quick fixes and, ultimately, more likely to result in poor career health in the long-term.  The "Wellness" model, on the other hand, assumes that you can engage in healthy habits that maximize your health and that make it less likely that you will encounter serious health issues. And if you do experience a serious health problem, you're in better shape to deal with it. This is a more empowered and long-term mindset.  What's very clear to me is that the resilience model of career development--building the patterns of Clarifying, Connecting, Creating and Coping on a consistent basis--requires people to have a wellness-based approach toward their careers. People caught up in the Disease Model will not be attracted to Resilience strategies because they require a commitment to developing a healthy career lifestyle. There are no quick fixes here.   So, which approach do you have to your career management and development? The Disease-based approach or the Wellness approach?