It’s coming your way! Change is everywhere in your life and work right now, sometimes it will hit you head on and bowl you over, and other times opportunities for you to change things will keep popping up, tempting you.

But will you change? Will you embrace the change, or even proactively encourage and force the change?

Or will you resist the change and try to maintain a feeling of safety trying to keep things as they are?

Of course it depends on the change in question.  Right now I’m talking about the biggest most current change in your life that you’re going through, or at least thinking about going through. The one that’s perhaps long overdue. The one that keeps sneaking up on you, tapping you on the shoulder and reminding you that something’s not quite right, and that change is on the horizon.

So what are you going to do?

Since change is going to occur anyway sooner or later (whether you like it or not)…

“Nothing is permanent but change” – Heraclitus

The main reason most people don’t want to change (when they feel they perhaps should) is fear. They feel comfortable in what they know. They know the deal. But they fear what they don’t yet know or understand.

So what’s the remedy? Learn about it. Learn about the thing you don’t understand so that you get a better idea of it. The more you learn about it, and study it, and ask questions and talk to people who know about it, the more you understand it and the less you have to be fearful of. It begins to click. And so the more likely you are to embrace that change or even drive it forwards on your own terms.

Despite reading this, many people will continue to fear the change they feel they should make, because they won’t make the effort to learn about new possibilities. I don’t know, maybe they’re too busy or something. Too busy reacting to things because of a decision or two they made way back. These people will stay put, until they are forced to change, and forced down a particular path.

So there it is, decide if you’re going to change, or whether you’ll leave yourself open to being changed, and if fear is your main hurdle, learn all about how things would or could be after the change. Learn about it until you’re clear. You’ll probably reach that tipping point where you’re ready.

If it’s a career change you’re thinking of, this may be just what you need.

Here are 3 more quotes about why you should embrace both learning and change:

“In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists” – Eric Hoffer

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” – Clarence Darrow

“In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy” – J. Paul Getty

My advice, learn how to learn fast (helps address fear and change) and proactively change under your own terms, in the direction you want. You do know which way you want to go don’t you? If not, try this.

You might also like these:

1. Become Indispensable
2. How to Create Better Quality Teachers (For Yourself, Your Organisation and Your Kids)
3. How to Leap Ahead in Your Career

First, Why You Really Should Mind Map

I’ve loved mind mapping for years.  Mind mapping has improved the quality of my thinking and learning, helped me generate thousands of ideas, helped me plan for my business, my work and personal life as well as saved me time and effort in many areas.  I’ve adapted mind mapping to help me in so many situations…but there’s a huge problem, particularly with mind mapping software…

You Can’t See the Wood for the Trees

It’s expansive.  There are no limits to what you add to your map – the screen keeps scrolling on and on.  It’s designed to not break your thought flow. Its very strength is also a potential weakness. This open ended platform for thinking is great for generating ideas, but it doesn’t get you to close any loops.  It doesn’t force you into making any decisions, which puts a halt to your actions and results.  A major mind map idea generating session can also leave you slightly overwhelmed and unfocused when you look over what you’ve done.  And some high value ideas can get lost in all the ‘noise’ of your mind map.

Increase the Quality of Your Ideas and Focus

Mind Mapping software helps you generate quantity of ideas, not necessarily quality.  That’s fine, because to get great ideas you usually need lots of ideas as a starting point.  The quality may come later. But I had an idea myself on how you can force better quality and more focus from your mind maps, and turn your best ideas into action more easily.

Some time back I started transferring my electronic mind maps on to half a sheet of A4 paper.  The physical limits to your paper force you to make decisions on what you include.  It forces you to increase the quality of your thinking and communication, be it choice of words or pictures.  It forces you to think about the important stuff and communicate it concisely! It’s handy of course to keep your writing standard size for this to work.  If you shrink your writing, you don’t benefit from the physical limits, so you’re probably shrinking the quality of your thinking too.

Take it Further Still

You can enhance your focus and quality of thinking even further.  Consider reproducing your mind map on the back of a business card.  What would you include and exclude?  Keep your writing standard size.  This really sharpens your thinking.  You get down to the main important points, and force yourself to make decisions. You gain focus.  Things become clearer.  It kind of tells you what you should be getting on with next.

Some people may already have control of their focus and ideas when mind mapping.  They may naturally manage their mind maps towards making decisions and taking actions.  But I’ll bet most people who use mind mapping software have lots of ideas, thoughts, resources and snippets of information that they’ve overlooked and that get buried in their maps, all because they haven’t forced themselves to make decisions to bring them to the surface and act on them.  I know I’ve been guilty of this, but I’ve really benefit over recent months where I’ve forced myself to make more focused decisions on what I think, learn, focus on, and on what I’ll turn into action, and in particular how I word my ideas.

The Missing Final Step

Plug my business card idea on as the missing final step to your current electronic mind mapping approach and let me know what it does for you.

You might also like these:

1. Free Mind Mapping Software
2. Mind Mapping and Visual Thinking
3. Get Home Early Today – a Productivity Boost

Here’s the common long way to do your job search: (afterward, I’ll show you the fast way)

1. start sighing, and begin your job search (sighing every so often to spur you on)

2. find and read tarted-up job spec ads designed to promise you a wonderful career doing wonderful things with wonderful people (ensure you don’t think about your long future ahead at all – instead picture yourself working in that role for just one day in the near future, nod your head, and follow their application instructions)

3. jump through the hoops they lay out for you, with your tongue out and panting if you like, make sure your hope is turned up to maximum

4. tart your own CV/resume up to match the big promises they made on the exciting job ad.  Create a new ‘you’ that makes the real you feel slightly inadequate and uneasy – ask your mate who works in a different field to check it, for some reason.  Spelling or something.  Get ready for him to say “yeah it’s fine”.  Thank him for his role in your bright future

5. realise you don’t understand cover letters properly.  Google to find a lame article that states the obvious and doesn’t really help you any further.  Make sure the article is off one of those vague ‘how to’ sites, because that’s where everyone else goes

6. wait to be accepted for interview.  Know full well that you really should keep job hunting, but instead decide to relax a little in case you get the offer on what you’re waiting for.  You don’t want to waste your efforts after all

7. fail to get the offer.  Get a bit annoyed at them for judging you like they have.  They probably didn’t even read your resume properly, idiots.  Tell your mates that the competition is high for this sort of thing.  Ensure you don’t even consider the limitations to how you come across once your colourful personality has been drained of it’s colour and you’ve been squashed into black ink on white paper, like everyone else

8. repeat steps 1 to 7 quite a few times

9. get an interview offer from one company and start getting nervous because you’ll have to pretend in person that you’re the star you wrote about in your resume. Check your resume again to remind yourself how you must act when you meet them

10. attend interview and act your way through it.  Whatever happens, don’t think about the 4 grey walls you’re working hard to secure a position between for the foreseeable future.  Ensure you do wonder what the people who work there are like, but don’t ask to meet any of them in case you look nosey

11. fail this interview, and a few others, go back to step 1 and repeat until you get accepted by one eventually

12.  discover to your astonishment months down the line that this isn’t what you thought life was all about.  Wonder why your life has come to this.  Come up with some reasons why your colleagues are annoying.  Tell your friends all about it

13.  get caught crying, but pretend it’s something in your eye so that your work friends don’t laugh at you

Or, you could go about your ‘job search’ this way:

1.  starting with a clean slate, identify your perfect career. Know exactly what it is – you can find your perfect career using my e-course

2.  identify who you most want to work for, and what you could do for them, whether they’re employing people or not right now. Research them thoroughly using contacts, the media and relevant websites.  Find out what’s ahead for them, what challenges they may be up against, what their competitors are up to,  and where you could probably add value. Note this

3.  know that because you’re aligned perfectly to do this sort of work and provide this sort of value to this sort of company (because you’ve planned thoroughly and arrived at this conclusion) then securing employment with them is going to be much easier than it would be applying for any other position anywhere else, and certainly much easier than the conventional job search process.  You’re a round peg in a round hole

4.  use Linkedin or similar social networking sites to locate a decision maker who’s as close as possible to your desired role and who might connect you to this company.  Learn about them as best you can.  Then start working for them right now, from home if you can.  Huh?  Come up with some plans, ideas, or improvements to something related to this person or the organisation, if you can.  Provide them with some relevant value somehow.  Demonstrate what you could do for them, just as a taster.  You love doing this anyway, so enjoy yourself.  Now’s also a good time to gather any comments or testimonials from other people who you’ve done similar work for.  Anything to back up your case

5.  contact them and share what you’ve been working on with them, and your testimonials if you have any.  Offer to work for them for free for 1 or 2 weeks.  This is less time than you’ll likely spend on your conventional job search, and it’s more enjoyable and productive too.  Tell them it’s your perfect career, and tell them why you’ve singled them out as being the best company to work for (and why you chose them over their competitors).  Tell them (or show them) that you’re practically born to work for them, and ask to work either for them directly or for one of their direct reports, for free, for 1-2 weeks

6.  Polish yourself up, make a plan to knock their socks off, get plenty of feedback and over-deliver to them for 2 weeks (loving every minute of it because it’s your ideal career).  Give yourself some good reasons to feel proud.  Ask to meet the decision maker for lunch at least once a week.  Ask questions, and seek problems that your boss and colleagues suffer from that you could solve.  Make as much impact as you can and as many contacts as you can whilst working there. Be very nice to everyone.  You’ll do this almost automatically because you’re so passionate about what you do.  Passion like that can’t help but shine through.  Don’t forget to tell them that you’re really keen to work for them full time and ask how you might go about getting full time employment there

7.  Get the good work you’ve done noticed by the decision maker somehow.  Try to work out a plan or job role that you could take on moving ahead with this company.  Have the conversation with the decision maker to work out next steps, and ask for more contacts

From that strong position, you’ll most likely find that you land a job in your perfect company in your perfect career in much much less time than you would have spent doing a conventional job search.

If not, you’ll have the experience to build upon by repeating the process with another company.  If the decision maker turns you down for now, they’ll almost certainly write you a glowing appraisal and give you further contacts to help you along your way.  But only if you ask for this.

Almost everything about this process makes more sense than doing the conventional job search which is tiring, and hit and miss.  You’re playing a different game this way – a game that you can win.  You’ll increase your chances, get in a stronger position, and you’ll get your ladder up against the right wall.  All you then have to do is climb it.

The Great Career Escape will help you find and get in to your ideal career and provide you with plenty more ideas like this to help you create a highly rewarding living.

You might also like these:

1. Become Indispensable
2. Employees: Earn More for Less Effort
3. Are You About to Lose Your Job?

Here’s a great way to get stuff done.  Do what you feel like doing when you feel like doing it – but ensure you’re knocking things off your ‘important’ list.  I’m a big fan of this approach to working.  Time Management expert Mark Forster knows how to get stuff done and has turned this approach into a set of systems he calls ‘Autofocus’.  You can check them out here. They won’t suit everyone, but you can always adapt them to suit.  Start by using them to get stuff done at the weekend for example.

I’ve used a similar approach over the last couple of years.  I determine what has to be done and what I really want to get done that day.  I list them.  I swallow the frogs first (great tip here).  Then I use ‘autofocus’ to get the rest done when I feel ready to do them.  It’s an interesting way to keep up your energy and motivation.  Give it a go.

P.S. You should enjoy your working day more using this approach as well as become more productive.  If you consistently don’t feel like doing anything on your ‘important’ list then you’re probably in the wrong job. You might want to think about finding a career in which you’ll nearly always feel like doing something from your ‘important’ list. You can help yourself here or join the Facebook page here.

You might also like these:

1. How I Became Addicted to Eating Frogs
2. Employees: Earn More for Less Effort
3. Get Home Early Today – a Productivity Boost

I prefer to use email often as you can keep the message on track, you’re not interrupting anyone and you can send your message without waiting for their immediate attention.  They can then read it at a convenient time.  But this is all very passive.  It’s not so good if the person you’re communicating with isn’t much of a reader, doesn’t pay attention to detail in your note, is unlikely to type back, is on the road all the time without email access, or is someone you need to develop rapport with first before asking for action.

So do you call then?  It’s certainly more active.  Doesn’t mean it’s more effective though.  If I’m working on something that’s likely to be more important than my ringing phone, unless I need a break I ignore the phone.  I’m not ignoring the person, I’m ignoring their demand for my immediate attention.  My answer phone takes their call and I can get back when it suits, just like I do with email.

So which is best?  It depends on the nature of the communication, your job role (the types of calls and emails you receive and their importance), who’s involved and the timing.

My simplified easy-to-apply advice for which is best:

Know the outcome you want and then get to know the other person as fast as possible.  Starting by knowing the nature of their job, make an educated guess as to which method they’d respond best to that will get your desired outcome.  If you’re wrong, it doesn’t matter, you’ll soon learn and you’ll know for next time.

Does anyone have any other thoughts on which works best?

You might also like these:

1. How to Communicate for an Easier Life
2. How to Be More Productive Than Your Computer
3. Your Perfect Office?

One of the best things I ever did was become addicted to eating frogs. No, it’s not from my years dining out when living in Belgium, it’s ‘productivity speak’ for ‘getting the biggest, ugliest, hardest thing of the day done first’.

I learned the idea of eating the frog first thing in the morning from Brian Tracy’s book, ‘Eat That Frog‘, which is all about productivity.  He explained that often the task we really don’t want to do – the thing we’re resisting the most, is often the thing that will make us the most progress in our work. The frog, is the important thing, that MUST get done today. Most people habitually put it off until the pain gets really high and they have to do it (often when they’re out of energy and their performance levels are are low). Or, it just doesn’t get done and they miss a deadline.

I start my day identifying the frog by asking myself, ‘if I could only get one thing done today that would make most impact on my work and customers, what would it be?‘  That’s my frog, and that’s what I’m addicted to getting on with in the morning, first thing, until it’s done.

I guess I became addicted because of the feelings of progress it brings.  When you’re done, and you tick it off, you feel great. You almost feel like you could take the rest of the day off, well earned. It’s become a habit of mine to get up and eat the frog, almost every day. I’d recommend you schedule to identify your frog Monday morning, and immediately get on with it until it’s done.  See how it makes you feel, and what it brings you. Sometimes it puts you right in the zone where you’re ready to identify your next frog and eat that too.  It can become addictive.  Do it for a day, then schedule to do the same the next day, and the next, until you get addicted to this great rewarding productivity habit.



You might also like these:

1. How to Be More Productive Than Your Computer
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I’ve also met and worked with lots of people over the years who consider teaching for one reason above all else: because it’s great for the holidays.  What?  What about the longer working part?  And the effect it has on your personal life?

Of course, you’re sending your kids along (or at least you probably will be) to spend much of their time with people who either don’t want to be there, or who only want to be there because they can’t wait until school’s out.  (This might ring alarm bells in your own work too).  That’s an awful lot of people who don’t really want to be there teaching your kids.  I don’t know about you, but it scares me.  I don’t want someone helping to grow, develop and teach my children, when their heart isn’t in it.  Because when their heart isn’t in it, then their performance, energy and results aren’t in it either.  The impact on your child’s learning, results and life, is huge.

For the record, I’ve also met a handful of teachers over the years who are in their ideal career, working not for the holidays, but for their passion and enjoyment for teaching and helping integrate children into the real world.  These people are the bridge to accelerating learning.  These people are driven to make it work.  They really care about their pupils and seem to put the needs of their pupils before their own.  And they tend to be remembered by their pupils. You may remember some of yours and you may even have the urge to get hold of them if you could, to thank them.  They made impact and they made learning enjoyable and powerful too.  A couple of my teachers stood out like that.  A couple, out of about 50.

Please note, I don’t blame teachers at all and I’m not having a go at teachers.  Because what’s going on here is going on in your field too.  My advice to teachers though who don’t really love their work is to get out and find and get into something that really makes you bounce out of bed in the morning and give it everything.  Something you’re driven to get better and better at and something that puts you in the best position to really help others doing what you do best.  My advice to everyone else (especially if you have kids) is to help teachers you know who are considering a career change to see it through.  They might be very pleased to hear of www.thegreatcareerescape.com.  Getting in to their ideal career will make them happier more productive people, and it will make way for teachers who were born to teach well.  They are out there, possibly working in the wrong job.  Think of the number of children’s lives this will positively influence over time.

And while you’re at it, consider how and where this is going on in your own industry too.  Perhaps some strategic repositioning will positively change your life and the lives of your customers?

You might also like these:

1. Become Indispensable
2. How to Leap Ahead in Your Career
3. 4 Decisions to Sort Your Life Out

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Here’s a productivity lesson I’ve derived from sales training.

Ever heard the old sales training advice ‘ABC’?  Always Be Closing.  If you’re not in sales you might have heard it in movies like Glengarry Glen Ross or Boiler Room (two excellent movies by the way that everyone should watch if they want a taste of the life of a salesman! Great ‘learning’ movies too.)

So why am I talking about ‘Always Be Closing’ as a productivity tool?

I’m referring to closing what I call ‘open loops’.  Open loops are things you’ve started and haven’t finished.  They’re everywhere,  all around you.  Stealing a part of your attention and focus.  Niggling away at your mind as you try to get on with something else.  Looking up at you as you walk past.  They are what puts you in that frustrated, slightly overwhelmed mood.

There’s no benefit from these ‘unclosed loops‘.  They took time, money or energy to start, and there’s been no (or little) pay off so far.  So a waste of time then.  Until you close them.

By close them, I’m NOT suggesting you continue each one to completion.  Dumping, deleting or ditching them is also closing them, and it’s the fastest way to do so.

So here’s my sales advice translated to productivity: spend the next 48 hours CLOSING whatever you can by deletion first, and completion next.  Obviously defer what needs to be deferred and get it out of your focus for now.  Or delegate, and get someone else to CLOSE for you.  (But that’s still an open loop until you know the job’s done).  But at all costs, go on a 48 hour ABC frenzy.  Keep repeating to yourself, ‘Always Be Closing’.

Then stand back, stand proud, and admire your progress.

P.S. If you really want to make consistent progress, don’t stop at 48 hours.  Do another 24 hours.  Then repeat.

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1. Get Home Early Today – a Productivity Boost
2. How to Be More Productive Than Your Computer
3. What Your Age Is Trying to Tell You About Your Work

I meet plenty of people through my work, all at different stages in their career.  It doesn’t take me long to decide which of three general attitudes they have towards their work:

1.  There are those who think they’re on a moving walkway in their career.  They think that just because they’re employed in a certain position, that all it takes is time for them to move up the ranks, and that in 30 years they’ll be in a successful, senior position.  It happens to some, but not to most (how can it work for everyone when there’s only a few places at the top anyway?)  If that’s you, then you can leap forwards in your career by understanding my next point…

2.  There are those who realise that there’s no moving walkway, and that no one owes them anything, that it’s not a fair playing field they’re playing on, and that they won’t get their ‘turn’.  They realise that if they want more back from their career, their employer or their life, then they’re going to have to get up and make it happen themselves.  You have to earn what you want.  Their priority is to get their hands on what they need to learn, and then put it into practice as fast and effectively as possible. They can leap forwards in their career by learning how to learn twice as fast (they need their employer to provide them with something like this) and learning how to manage themselves effectively to apply what they learn fluidly and consistently.

3.  There are those who just don’t care.  They just potter along.  They just go to work because, well you have to don’t you?  They’re in the wrong job.  Because when you’re in the right job, you do care.  You’re compelled to make things happen and do a great job, because you enjoy doing just that, and you’re proud of the results you create.  Unfortunately, those who don’t care about their career progress because they’re in the wrong job are unlikely to be reading this blog post.  So you might need to point them towards what they need, which is this.

Join the Queue?

Brian Tracy says that you only have to do 2 things to get to the front of a queue, or to advance your career:  ‘Get in line and stay in line.’

The truth is, you don’t have to stay in line where you’re at.  You can jump the career queue, and the beauty is, it’s a fair jump too. You earn the right to jump the queue by becoming more valuable to those who pay you (and to your colleagues too).  And it’s not a single line anyway.  It’s a mass huddle of people.  It’s a crowd.  It’s like a chess board full of pieces, and you can move like a knight.  You can jump people sideways, if you like, to get to where you want.

Just follow these steps:

1.  work out what position you want to be in and why (make it a position you really care about and will be proud of)
2.  work out what value you’d need to provide to who (and how often) in order to earn the right to be in that position
3.  work out what you need to LEARN and then APPLY in order to provide that value
4.  learn it
5.  apply it
6.  repeat

Of course there are plenty of stumbling points along the way, and there are ways to move through these steps faster, more easily and enjoyably too. If you’ve got a question for me related to this, please post it below or email me and I may blog my response.

You might also like these:

1. Become Indispensable
2. Employees: Earn More for Less Effort
3. 4 Decisions to Sort Your Life Out

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If you could work from home, would you? I find myself
having or hearing this conversation a lot. Many people surprise me by saying, ‘I just couldn’t work from home’.

What ‘Working From Home’ Really Means

What they may be overlooking, is once you work ‘from home’ you’re pretty much managing yourself. So long as you get your job done well, you can work where and how you want. The only real limits are technological and what you put on yourself. When I’m not working in a clients office or running a workshop  then I work wherever I feel happiest and most productive.

I write in cafes or sometimes from my iPhone in a park. I read and think on the beach, or in the shade under a tree. I learn by audio whilst walking or jogging. And if I need to socialise I’ve got the phone, skype, friends locally who work in a similar way, or plenty of people to chat to in cafes. All day long I can maintain a high level of productivity by positioning myself correctly. You don’t have that level of control and flexibility in an office.

But what about maintaining the discipline to work?

How to Maintain Self Discipline to Work

At this stage some people point out that they couldn’t discipline themselves to do their work without their boss breathing down their neck, or even whipping them! You can if you’re in the right job. You can if you’re compelled to solve other people’s problems doing what you enjoy doing and do best. It comes down to ‘how do you enjoy spending your time? What rewards, benefits and feelings do you get from doing your job well?’

Working ‘from home’ doesn’t actually have to mean from ‘home’ anymore. It means working ‘wherever you can and want’. And self discipline is not a problem when you’re fully driven to do your job well because you chose the right career path and you  have a burning desire to serve people doing what you do best.

Next time I find myself having this conversation, don’t be surprised when I flick you over this link

You might also like these:

1. Employees: Earn More for Less Effort
2. Become Indispensable
3. 4 Decisions to Sort Your Life Out