.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? No idea. Which came first your career or your lifestyle? Erm… well, your lifestyle had a say in your career choice of course. But your career choice has determined your current lifestyle and will continue to do so.  So, do you enjoy your lifestyle inside and outside of work?

If not, you need to change your career. Its your lifestyle engine.

So how do you know what career is the right career for you? Well its the one that gives you the lifestyle you want, inside and outside of work, short, medium and long term (high quality decisions take the short, medium and long term into consideration).

So you MUST start then with your desired lifestyle in mind first. To overlook this is a huge mistake. Then you work backwards.

There’s a lot to think about that makes up your ‘lifestyle’, and you must think about it if you want to make the right career choice. The Great Career Escape process walks you through the entire thought process step by step, having you apply as you go along. By the end of it you’ll know exactly what career path will lead you directly into this lifestyle, earning and spending your time and money where, when and however you want.

There’s nothing worse than being (or feeling) caught up in something, whether it’s work, relationships, business, your environment, whatever.  If you feel that way, then something’s not right.  And the default first step for most of us is to complain about it, or feel hard done by.

The first reason people stay caught up: they feel the pain and just spend their time and energy complaining about it. Many people never make it past this step.

Ask yourself in what areas you feel hard done by, or what you’ve been complaining about recently, and you might realise what you’re caught up in.  Some things you’ll realise will pass by, so you can just shrug your shoulders at those.  But some are unlikely to just pass by.  These are the things that you’re frustrated about that you really are temporarily caught up in.  Of course the remedy to your frustrations and worries for these is to get yourself out as carefully and as smartly as possible.

At this point, many people start throwing out the excuses and reasons why they can’t get themselves out.  But most of these excuses just sound lame when you really think about them.  Each of these excuses are effectively you casting another vote to continue to spend your short life caught up in something you’re unhappy about, instead of voting to get the hell out.

The second reason people stay caught up: they dish out excuses or reasons why they can’t get out, each one significantly decreasing any hope or chance of escape.  Of those who get past the complaining stage, few get past this stage.

The reality is usually that you can get yourself out if you drop the excuses and just go for it.  The first step then is to contemplate what you’d do if you did just drop those excuses.  If you have trouble doing that, then answer this: how would an actor in a movie play the role of you once you’d dropped those excuses?  Consider acting like that.

Obviously consider the consequences on your life and relationships in the short, medium and long term of both staying in what you’re caught up in, and getting out of it.  Then weigh up what you’re prepared to live with.  Then decide.

The third reason people stay caught up: they fail to decide to do something about it.  They may get as far as dropping all excuses and they may feel they’ve plucked up the courage to act.  But somehow, they just don’t make the decision.

And of course, verbal decisions (or passive decisions in your mind), in my book, can’t really claim the title of ‘a made decision’ until you act on them.  Only then have you really decided.

The fourth reason people stay caught up: they don’t plan some steps to take to get out as carefully and as smartly as possible (with minimal damage), and they don’t act on these steps.  Of those who decide to do something about their situation, few make it through to actually doing something about it.

So there it is.

Once you notice you’re caught up in something, do this:

1. Stop complaining and re-direct your time and energy…
2. Drop the excuses. Either plan a way around them, or just drop them (but consider the consequences, and weigh up whether you’d prefer to stay caught up for the rest of short your life or not)
3. Decide to act
4. Make a plan and act on it
5. Notice what happens
6. Adapt your plan and actions with what you’ve noticed and learned and keep taking actions until you’re no longer caught up

Now, depending on what you’re caught up in, you may not know what outcome you want, how you’ll plan to get it, or what you need to learn to be able to get out.  But they’re just excuses.  (See point 2 above).  Work it out.  Use your resources.  Use your contacts.  Talk to me.  Talk to each other.  Use your brain.  (What really?  Yeah yeah.  Honestly, it works)

If you’re caught up in your career, here’s your plan, map and all you need to learn and do to get out – click here

P.S.  Don’t forget to do what it takes so that you don’t get caught up in the same situation again

Really?  You can be more productive than your computer allows you to be?

Yep.  Well, of course your computer is the right tool for certain jobs.  But it’s all too easy to get lazy and try to do everything via your computer.  Ultimately, using your computer for too many things chokes your productivity.

Ever heard of Maslow’s Hammer? Abraham Maslow once said, “It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail”

I think that the computer has become the new Maslow’s Hammer.  It’s not always the right tool for the job.

Here’s how you can beat the productivity of your computer: don’t use it so much.  Get off the computer more often.  And I don’t just mean to take a break.  I mean get off the computer and invest more of your time doing these, which will make you much more productive:

• thinking – take an hour a day out to think away from the computer.  Think to answer this question: How could I change how I work to make much more positive impact on more people who pay me, more often?  Jot your thoughts down
• reading and learning – take an hour a day out to learn whatever you need to learn to be able to do your job twice as well as you do it now.  If you could work twice as well as you do now, what would you most need to learn?  Learn it for an hour a day away from your computer (read, listen to audio, attend courses or chat to experts)
• planning your next 3 months, your next month, your next week and tomorrow (the objective of your plan is ‘what would I have to do to earn myself a forever increasing supply of TIME, MONEY or ENERGY?’  I’d just pick one of those for now and make your plan to achieve that
• doing physical activity
• consider calling some people with the objective of getting ‘an answer’ instead of emailing them (I’m not suggesting to always call instead of email, I’m suggesting that each one is the right tool for a certain job. Emailing can be too passive.  Calling can be too intrusive.  Get the tool right to create a win:win where you can).  You can even start the call cheerily and say, ‘I’m spring cleaning, I’m organising my time for the months ahead – I’m tidying up all unmade decisions around me so that I can focus my efforts on what’s definite’  This tip is about asking for what you want. You’ll be amazed the impact it has on your progress towards more TIME, MONEY or ENERGY.  Most people don’t get the things they want (and deserve) because they don’t ask
• just resting

Each of those are healthier for you, your mind, your eyes, and your body and each are an investment with potential high returns in the short, medium and long term.  They will make you much more productive.  Since most people don’t do them, you’ll be well ahead of your competition if you do, and you’ll be rewarded appropriately over time.  It’s not rocket science this, it’s pretty simple.  Just turn what I’ve told you here into some actions, schedule to take them, and when the time comes, just get on with them. Then come back and let me know how you went.

Super Smart Note Taking for Mac and iPhone Users – 6 Productivity Tips

Tip 1: Buy an iPhone – I’m confident you’ll make the cost back if you use it to the full in terms of saved time, money and effort over time (and much more than that if you download and use the right apps)  The iPhone is one of the most useful and effective productivity tools I’ve ever come across.  It’s much more costly not to own and use one.

Tip 2: If you take notes on your Mac or iPhone, here’s a great way to do it that’s something different from mind mapping:

Download the free ‘Notational Velocity‘ for your Mac here

This free software saves you having to think about where to file your notes.  You just type, straight off the bat.  As you type, your existing notes that include the words you’re typing pop up in a list in front of you.  You can then either go into those notes to add what you’re typing, or just add a new note.  Simple.

Make it Much Better

Tip 3: Your notes will sit on your Mac with Notational Velocity.  If you want to access them elsewhere:

Create a free account at ‘Simplenote.com’ here

Then you can sync Notational Velocity with Simplenote and you’ll not only have a backup online, but you’ll be able to access them from any web browser.

Use an iPhone?  Make it Better Still!

Tip 4: Download the free Simplenote app for iPhone here

Then you can use your iPhone to view, create and edit your notes.  It automatically syncs to your Simplenote web account…which automatically syncs to Notational Velocity on your Mac.

So you’ve got all the info you need at your fingertips all the time.  No more excuses.

How to Make Your Entire Personal Information System Much Much Better

There will be plenty of times when you need some information in a certain place at a certain time.  But you don’t have it.  So you end up either looking silly, or end up not being able to do something you wanted to be able to do.  All because it’s not stored in your personal information system.

Tip 5:  Make the effort (or make a note!) to get that information in your system asap.  Set an alarm.  Get it in your system for when you next need it.  That time will come.  Maintain that approach overtime and you’ll surprise yourself as to how organised and effective you’ve become.  Then you can enjoy the rewards that brings.

Was this Post Useful?

Would you like more like it?

Tip 6:  Please let me know in the comments below (and while you’re at it tell me what else you’d like tips on relevant to your career or business progress, learning and productivity).  I’ll promise to be as helpful as possible!

Hate to say it but most people are ineffective.  They often don’t get the job done on time AND they don’t get home on time.  No one wins.

Effective habits don’t come naturally to us.  Our default setting is ‘ineffective’.  And ‘effectiveness’ was never a subject at school.  It would be ironic in my opinion if it was.  In fact, the very ineffective approach to the way school works ingrains some bad habits in to us that we carry through in to later life. However, effectiveness is learnable.  And over time, the habits can give you a sense of liberation from your work.

Want to get home on time today?  Try this:

You’ve possibly heard Pareto’s Law.  One application is that 80% of our results at work get done in 20% of our working time; that amazing 20% when we’re focused and in flow, getting the job done well.

If you could extract that magic 20%, and only do that, then theoretically you’d get 80% of your work done.  That’s within 2 hours of a 10 hour work day.  Then you could use the rest of the time how you like.

How can we get to the magic 20%?

One way is to use forced efficiency which I write about in a previous article here.  Ask yourself, ‘if I only had 1 hour at work today and then had to rush off, what would I get done in that 1 hour, and how would I do it?’

You’d  probably start by politely telling your colleague next to you to shut up about what was on TV last night.

You’d devote your attention to scan over all that needs to be done, and you’d instantly start recognising the key priorities. You’ll soon pick out the few actions that will have the most impact or consequences to your work.

You’d think about who you could delegate to, what you could defer, what you could just scrap doing altogether.  You’d find existing work that you could re-use to save re-inventing the wheel.  You’d instantaneously be a lot smarter as you consider how to achieve your desired result.  You’d probably write a quick neat list of what needs to be done in that 1 hour.

Then you’d just get on with it with urgency.  And often this way, you quickly get in to that state of flow.

You’ll be surprised by your progress if you start the day like this.  Never mind the exact figures in the theory, they don’t matter.  It’s just probabilistic.  It increases the chances heavily that you’ll not only get your important work done, but also get home on time, or earlier.

Just do it and see what it does for you.  And let me know how you go below.

This post can help you tighten up your entire approach in your work.  You’ll increase your productivity based on how much thought you’re prepared to put into this.  Despite how unproductive you may feel airlines are from a passenger perspective, they always strive to be more productive and produce a slicker turn around.  Their survival depends on it.  My next door neighbour is a pilot.  When he’s not flying, he spends most of his time answering my endless stream of questions about everything to do with flying planes.  As he talks, I clearly see the similarities between his work, my work and everyone’s work.  In fact, I see his work as one of the best models or analogies I know of to improve how we function in our own work.

Let’s steal the hard work of the airline industry…

Your flight:

• your days work
• your projects/tasks
• your entire business or career

Your roles:

• pilot
• check-in
• navigator
• co-pilot to a colleague
• and many more, depending on your team structure

Here’s some things to think about that the airline industry take seriously.  So should we:

• the point of the flight – to get passengers from A to B as safely and enjoyably as possible
• the procedures for passengers from arrival to check-in, boarding and so on (preparation to commence work)
• pilot procedures (controlling the plane, checking the dials, communicating and updating…)
• departure times (when you begin work)
• landing times (when you aim to complete work – deadlines)
• check-in times
• security (preventing any problems creeping in to your work)
• videos of what you can do at destination (what will you do when you complete this task/project?)
• turbulence
• emergency procedures (if x goes wrong, do y)
• changing the flight plan (be flexible, you MUST get your passengers to B somehow.  Diverting and organising a bus is an option.  Remember, your passengers are your customers.  And your team.  And your boss.  They all want you to help them get from A to B)
• air-traffic control (landing your tasks and projects safely to completion and organising the ‘take off’ of other tasks and projects)

How Does This Work in the Airline Industry?

This list is just a start, but I write it to encourage you to ask yourself, whenever you have a problem in your productivity or process flow, ‘what’s the equivalent of this in the airline industry?  How do they make it work?’  You’ll find some useful answers to transfer back to your own work.  A lot of productivity theory they train on courses you’ll get from this exercise if you think deeply enough.

Also, remember, the plane keeps flying even when the pilot takes a break (the co-pilot mans the controls together with autopilot).  They keep you heading to B.  So how could you maintain progress when you take a break?  Can your computer get on with something?  Can your co-pilots keep momentum on your work?  Organise yourself and delegate before taking breaks to make this possible.

Circling Planes

And they always keep moving until they land – they have to!  They circle the plane while they wait for clearance which of course costs a lot too.  Every minute they spend circling, the cost goes up and the urgency to land increases.  What flights of yours are currently circling and getting costly?  If they must land, you better prioritise and land them.  Get some order here and land them one by one!

Think about these ideas to improve how you operate in your work.  And if you have any more airline analogies (or others) for improving our productivity then please share them below in the comments.

Most people seem to throw around the idea that you must be a big ‘risk taker’ to make it in business.  It’s a viral message passed between people who haven’t thought about it enough.  Unfortunately it gets passed on to some poor hopeful who is rather risk-averse.  He definitely doesn’t want to risk making himself happier in life, in case it all backfires and he’s miserable.  So he chooses to stay put in his less-than-fulfilling job for the rest of his life.  Oh, the irony.

Let’s not pass this viral message on any longer until we’ve thought about it:

First up, everything you do, every decision is a risk.  So you’re a risk taker.

Second, you’re in business if you’re earning a living.  Whether you’re ‘making it’ or not in your career is for you to decide.

So the idea doesn’t mean all that much anyway.  It just means that you have to make some hard decisions to ‘make it’ in your career.  Yeah we know that.  The thing about risks, is they’re on a scale.  Low risk is still a risk.

And the thing about the majority of successful entrepreneurs and businesses is that they didn’t all take huge risks, despite things appearing that way.  That’s why they succeeded.  They took risks, yes, but they tipped the odds in their favour by researching, measuring, thinking and planning ahead.  It might look like a big risk to the casual observer.

Of course the real big risk takers, many of them failed.  Those who didn’t research ahead, think it all through, measure and act on the data.  You don’t hear so much about them as they tend to keep everything quiet.

Your job is to discover and decide where the risk vs opportunity is relatively low in your career decisions.  Then to do whatever you can to tip the odds even more in your favour.

If you let me drop you by helicopter in the centre of the bush in Australia, you’d be taking a huge risk.  But how could you reduce that risk?  You’d check I could pilot a helicopter first.  Then you’d learn all you can about bush survival.  You’d practice various life saving techniques perhaps and play out various scenarios in your mind to increase your survival.  You’d study a map of the area and take it with you, with enough supplies.

When well prepared, the risk is lower.  The opportunity and potential benefits may seriously outweigh the risks.

So learn, study up front, do your market research and plan contingencies and fallbacks for those big decisions you could make.  And if you don’t have a big decision ahead of you and you value the short time you have on this planet, go ahead and find one now, quickly.

The best advice I ever acted upon.  I can hear these words bounce around my head so clearly.  They were the words of my Grandad who sadly passed away a few days ago.

When I was very unhappy in my career years ago, he repeatedly said this to me.  I eventually acted on his advice.  The problem I had though is I kept ‘getting out’ and landing in to another miserable line of work!

I quickly learned that the common trial and error approach is a poor choice when it’s your career.  It’s way too costly in terms of time, money, energy and your own mental state.  It distorts your worldview too.  It’s typical ‘working harder, not smarter’.

But my Grandad didn’t mean just ‘get out’ did he?  He meant ‘get out and get in to your ideal career’.  I eventually realised that, so I made it my mission to do so.

8 years on and I still love my work.  I keep myself on track.  It’s a great reason for me to get out of bed in the morning.  And I’m proud that I learned how to keep myself happy.  I guess you might be wondering how you can put yourself in a similar position?

Well like Newton said, ‘I stand on the shoulders of giants’, I’ve stood on my Grandad’s shoulders and built on his advice.  Unfortunately he didn’t know this before passing away, but his message and what it meant to me personally inspired me to help others in the same way.  So I have drawn upon all of my learning and experience about thinking, planning, working smarter and decision making and I’ve created an informal step by step process to lead you in to your ideal career.  Not some fluffy pipe dream career, but a realistic career that aligns your strengths, your experience, your talents, passions and pride with a sustainable paying market.

The process I’ve created helps you break the whole decision down into smaller parts, and work through it methodically.  I help you make connections along the way with others who are in the same boat as you and who may help.  I help you generate plenty of relevant ideas that will no doubt surprise and inspire you.  And I help you narrow your ideas down to a short list.  And finally I help you take your top ideas and check thoroughly if there is a sustainable paying market for them.  You can’t always just make money doing what you love.  You need to align what you love doing with the needs and wants of your customers.

My Grandad’s message started this, and I’ve tied it up in to a whole ‘how to’ ecourse which I’ve called ‘The Great Career Escape’ to reflect my Grandad’s original words.  And I’m offering this for free to the first 20 people who convince me that they’re unhappy in their work and are serious about working through a process like this.  It takes time and effort to think and plan, so I’m not offering these places to dabblers.  Your place isn’t guaranteed, you’re going to need to convince me by dropping a short note about yourself.  If you’re serious or know someone who is, I invite you to get in touch.

Details are here: www.thegreatcareersecape.com

P.S.  I just received an email from my sister.  She said that our Grandad gave her the best advice she ever heard in life:

‘Don’t take life too seriously… don’t worry too much.  It’s not worth it.’

Well done Grandad, that’s 2 pearls of wisdom from a wise old man.  Maybe it’s just his Grandchildren thinking the world of him, but perhaps too he’s got a point.

This post is about flying solo in business, but the same ideas apply to you in your career too.

If you’re flying solo in your work or thinking about flying solo do you know clearly what sort of flight you’re going on?  Have you thought about:

• where you’re flying to?
• why you’re flying there?
• what you’re going to do when you’re there?
• how you’ll make your flight enjoyable?
• what turbulence is ahead?
• your flight safety and what to do in an emergency?
• your fuel efficiency?
• what sort of plane you’re in?

I offer this as a word of warning.  I meet plenty of people who work for themselves.  Some fly solo to get away from a bad or frustrating situation.  Some fly solo because they feel they have no choice.  Some fly solo because they just fancy it.  Some fly solo because they come into money via other means.  Of the business owners I’ve met like this, many haven’t known clearly where they’re going.  Some haven’t even seemed that bothered about the purpose of their flight.  Many have had a very bumpy flight.  Some have nose dived.

The business owners I meet who are flying high (or even looping the loop or victory rolling) tended to start differently.  They chose a different sort of flight.  They chose an important flight for them personally to make.  They plotted a course to fly to a specific large group of people quickly and help them.  They knew the common enemy of those people, and they flew to save them because they were strongly compelled to and knew they were the person to do so.  They knew they were skilled, strong, proud and passionate to save those people from their enemy.  And they knew the personal rewards it would bring them.  They also made a point of planning their flight thoroughly, looking for turbulence ahead (and knowing that there will be turbulence), doing safety checks and checking their radar and dials regularly.  They’re the business owners I’ve met who are making a difference and winning their battles against the common enemy.  They’re the heroes.

Flying solo is one thing, but choose your type of flight carefully.   You’re not in a stunt team – don’t fly to impress.  Don’t glide either.  Don’t fly to escape, or because you can afford your own airplane.  And don’t plod along on autopilot either.  If you’re going to fly solo, fly to make a real difference to people that you care about because you’re the best person to do so.  Choose a mission and fly as the hero to your chosen niche market, nothing else.

What mission and flight are you really on?  Do you need to land and plot a new course?

Business thinking transferred to your career as an individual can turn your career and rewards around.  Not enough people do it.  They just accept that they’re a cog in the machine.  You’re not a cog if you’re reading this.  You run a business that’s either growing or failing.

What’s the Purpose of a Business?

I like Brian Tracy’s, “to acquire and keep a customer”.

It’s not ‘profit’.  Your efforts combined need to acquire and keep the right customers that you’re best placed to serve and add value to.

If you’re employed then you must find an organisation (your ‘customer’) who will pay you each month and you must keep them for as long as you want to.  But, whilst working for them IN your business you should also be working ON your business.  That means working on attracting your next employer and/or working to keep this one.  This requires forward thinking and planning, marketing preparation, networking, learning, innovation and so on.

Are you doing this?

Cogs don’t do much of any of that.  Well, they’re a cog, why would they?

If you want to treat yourself well, you should steer and advance your career in the right direction.  Cogs don’t do that.  They don’t even know how.  Yes it feels easier for cogs to do their work then go home and switch on the TV.  It’s definitely hard work being a cog.  But when things look bleak for ‘your business’ it can be hard to turn your situation around if you’re out of practice and you’re only a  cog.  Most people are out of practice.

Poor Career Choices

So many people make lazy career choices.  Your career choice is the vehicle to carry you through your life.  What, you chose an old grey banger because it was going cheap?  Well, ok, if you really think that’s the car for you…

Most people assume you choose a job or career the old school way.  It’s like a lazy move in chess that will result in checkmate.  Understand how it works these days, because it’s different to how it was.  You need to think steps ahead.  Learn some new tricks.  Many people are a cog in their work and a cog in the process of looking for work too.  The big problem with cogs is there’s a lot of them.  They’re not all needed.  Many end up in the spare parts box.

If you’ve made a poor career choice, you’ve temporarily made a poor life choice.  But you can turn it around.

In the long run, it’s easier to work on your business as well as in it.  A few minutes a day can be all you need to turn things around over time.  Steering and advancing your business is a major ongoing part of your job, but you may have neglected it.  Don’t get caught up.

More Help

If you want help to keep your career on track and run it like a business, then my blog posts are written to help you.  I send them out Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so sign up and check your inbox.  And consider which of your friends might find them useful?  Anyone who’s less than happy in their work and might want to turn things around.  If you think any posts are useful, please share them.  They might be just what someone needs to get out of a rut.

Above all, think like a cog (or don’t think at all about your career) and you’ll be a cog and be treated and rewarded like a cog.  Think like a business and you’ll grow, profit and be rewarded more like a business.

Thoughts?