Victory!

“When you accomplish a goal, don’t cross it out. Instead, write ‘victory’ next to it and move on to the next one. This way, whenever you have a bad day, all you have to do is to review your victories to feel good about yourself.” – Jack Canfield

Losing your job? How to act with inspiration rather than desperation

In today's economy, the sad fact is that a number of people out there (maybe you?) are going to lose their jobs when they really didn't want to through redundancies and layoffs.

What are the best ways of moving on? Here are some practical tips: I've been redundant three times in my career and I reckon I'm getting expert at picking myself up, dusting myself off and moving on!

Step 1: Think of a reason why this happened and decide to believe it.

No matter how confident you are, losing a job always makes you question and doubt yourself. Or worse; blame your situation or the colleagues at your former employer. Neither is constructive. The best thing to do is to analyse why this happened and de-personalise it. Think of the overall situation - maybe economic reasons, your company had out of date products and services, too many staff who were not busy and productive enough. Find a reason why and accept it - then you can move on.

Step 2: Split your decision making into two: earning money and future career.

The high level advice on deciding what to do with your career and your life is good, but is not always practical when bills need to be paid. Decide on two things to do. Firstly:

• What are you going to do to support yourself or your family financially in the short term? This might include reducing expenditure, workign out how long any final payments from your employer might last, taking a short term temporary job in order to support yourself while you sort out what to do next. Lots of people focus only on trying to find some kind of ideal and altruistic existence and create more of a crisis for themselves in the long term as supporting themselevs and their family goes unaddressed.

• What do your really want to do with your career? This requires more long term thought and might include seeking a similar position elsewhere or making a radical change of direction - or something in between.

By separating these two questions, you can give yourself permission to take a job for short term money, even if it isn't perfect for the long term, and leave yourself space to thing more clearly about your future and what you really want to do.

This approach has many benefits - not least because it removes the sense of panic and allows you to search from a mindset of inspiration rather than desperation.

Watch for more instalments on this topic!

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Quote Corner

"Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life".- Confucius

Amazon and advertising - the future is in lazy consumers!

Have been at TM Forum Management World this week. A conference about the techical world but with some inspirational speakers from the digital world giving a completely different insight into the direction which technology is taking us. Have a look at my recommendations on fab video site Telecom TV: Rory Sutherland (pictured) from global advertising company Ogilvy telling us why the industry must take note of lazy consumers! And Werner Vogels from Amazon explaining how important it is to look not just at things which will change, but also things which will stay the same.

There are business lessons in these speeches for us all!

Dinner time anyone?

There can be no more civilized country in the world to hold a conference or a big event than France! I’m currently setting up a conference on the lovely Cote d’Azur in Nice, right down in the south, where the sea and skies are blue and the days are sunny and bright! But the weather is not only the reason for my positive vibes.........

France is the only place in the world, in my experience, which puts paid to the pre-event, all-night setup frenzy that characterizes most conference venues in the world. Come 8pm, the building closes and work ceases. Just in time for a relaxed and delicious French dinner, punctuated only by the loud and important tones of foreigners on their mobile phones, ensuring that their authority continues to be felt remotely as they do business in distant time zones over the dessert course.

Now workaholics among us may think this is a terrible loss of productivity. But let’s remember the old adage: “Work expands to fit the time available for it”. By making it possible to continue working through the night.... lo and behold, it is necessary to work through the night (and with a fair amount of stress, panic and sleeplessness that simply isn’t recovered until the conference is over).

Think about it. Are there areas in your working life where your work expands simply because it can? Do you really and honestly believe that you achieve better outcomes and results because of those long hours?

Quote Corner

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,"who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?"
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that otherpeople won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Marianne Williamson (A Return to Love)