Threshold Consulting: It's Your Life, Own It!

Escape the Tyranny of Dead Ideas

As a nation, we’ve long been fascinated and driven by change; from its certainty to its acceleration, we see it as the tide that sweeps in promise as well as challenge. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the mantra of change that captured the hearts and minds of enough Americans to catapult Barack Obama to the White House. And with his victory come high expectations for the realization of new possibilities.

Still, it’s said that the more things change, the more they remain the same. This is also part of our cultural experience and as familiar as the lyrics to a classic song by The Who, “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”  So, even as there is change in leadership, we don’t always have the satisfaction of seeing the dramatic solutions we may crave. Yet, at this point in history, we can ill afford solutions that don’t work. According to Matt Miller, author of The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity,  dubious ideas about how a modern economy should work make our leaders ill prepared to craft workable solutions to our problems.

So, what about you? Are you caught in the grip of dead ideas that leave you ill prepared to effectively manage your life and your career in the challenging times ahead? And how do you know if you are?

From my perspective, any idea that is self-limiting or self-defeating is a dead idea. When it comes to career and life choices, there are many. For example, you have a dead idea, if you believe:

• it will be impossible to find a new position because we are in the midst of record job loss;

• by simply handing out resumes people will come up with a job for you;
• there is such a thing as an “American” job and you’re entitled to one;
• personal branding is all about creating an image and relentlessly promoting it at every opportunity.

You get the idea.

Fortunately, you can escape the grip of dead ideas by seeking out and applying the many vibrant ideas that can spark success, satisfaction, and prosperity in your career and life. For example if you believe your own happiness is tied to the happiness you bring to others, you sow the seeds of wonderful new possibilities.

So, as you start this New Year, find and apply vibrant ideas that work for you. Real change can only happen when you do.  

Cross-posted at The Personal Branding Blog.

Lifestyle Factors

No matter where you look, these days, it’s hard to avoid media focus on Baby Boomers. While financial planning, retirement, and even second careers are dominant themes, there are countless others. Based on what I read, it seems that Boomers will single handedly reinvent America and never age. We are an ambitious lot, with big goals. Still, I wonder about the anti-aging thing.

Given the wide array, and appeal, of anti-aging products and services, it’s clear that a lot of people want to look and feel young. While I can certainly understand that urge, I wonder about the extent to which people may be missing out on something even more important: aging successfully. Okay, successful aging certainly doesn’t offer the promise of eternal youth, but it seems to me it has great relevance to your well being no matter where you are on life’s journey.

Having a Mid-life…Life!

Recently, at man-o-pause, I read a post which asked, Is the Quarterlife Crisis the New Midlife Crisis? The title referenced a book about life challenges for people in their twenties. After briefly speculating if that’s what the 1960s were really about, I started thinking about and looking into mid-life crisis.

Among other things, I found that there seems to be a chicken or egg question with respect to mid-life crisis. Specifically, according to research cited in The (Not) Inevitable Midlife Crisis, a post at LifeTwo, only about 23 percent of respondents said they had experienced a midlife crisis. Of those, only about eight percent connected their emotional turmoil to aging. Others attributed their turmoil to events, or psychological turning points, including loss of a job or loved ones, that just happened to occur at mid-life.

So, are you at mid-life, or even at quarter life? What’s your crisis? Do you even have one? As I see it, you probably have some choice in the matter.

Uniquely You

The other night, my wife handed me a few pages torn from her Real Simple magazine. They contained a column titled “Dare to Be Different,” by life coach Gail Blanke. In her column, Gail cites the case of Jamie, whose attribute of being opinionated won her a job with an advertising agency that was working on a controversial campaign “designed to set a whole industry on its ear.”

While reading, I couldn’t help but think of my recent post on hidden assets, especially since Gail’s column reinforced the idea that it is our unique qualities that make us stand out. This is an idea that is taking on greater significance. In fact, the whole notion of differentiation, using personal branding, is covered in the forthcoming Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand by Kirsten Dixson and William Arruda, principals of the Reach Branding Club. 

Understanding this is critical.

Owning Your Virtual Life?

Although I see value for you in a trend dubbed by trendwatching.com as MASTERS OF THE YOUNIVERSE, I’ve just read about an extension of that trend and it gave me pause. The extension is YOUNIVERSAL BRANDING, which covers the opportunities for advertisers in everything from online gaming to avatar chat to online worlds such as Second Life. With 290,000 members at Second Life, as well as millions of members at other sites, this is no small phenomenon. Perhaps it even includes you. 

Such online destinations are, of course, largely escapist entertainment. Within bounds, I believe they could actually be kind of fun. As well, there may be some benefit to participation in a virtual world or metaverse. Having been, during my corporate training career, a big fan of computer-based simulation, I suspect that owning a virtual life and participating in a virtual society may provide some lessons. 

This Time It's YOU

In its December 25, 2006 issue, Time magazine announced the person of the year: this time it's YOU.

Given your access to a broad range of online tools for controlling the information age – from Wikipedia to MySpace, to YouTube, to flickr, to TypePad, to other sites – you now have the power to reach and influence others – millions of others!

Actually, this is not much of a surprise to the folks at trendwatching.com. They have been documenting important business and consumer trends including Generation C, the rapid proliferation of consumer generated 'content' on the Web, and MASTERS OF THE YOUNIVERSE, the power of new consumers to “create  their own playgrounds, their own comfort zones, their own universe.”

I think these trends are terrific, not only for the unprecedented power to own your life, but also for the challenge to answer one of the fundamental questions of life: Who, exactly, are you?

So, what's in your life portfolio?

From the time that Socrates first uttered the injunction to "Know thyself," countless others have chimed in with the same advice. Most people have a basic sense of self. Yet, most of the people I've worked with lack insights into what they have going for them in their lives.

In life transitions generally, but perhaps in career transition in particular, it is critical to know what you can bring to successfully meeting the challenges you face in building a new life. In my work, therefore, I use a "portfolio" concept to help people see the "assets" that they own and can use. Life ownership, then, involves identifying your assets, understanding how they interact, and knowing how to put them to use to benefit yourself and others.

So, let's consider some of the assets that are in your portfolio. While this is not an exhaustive list, here are some of the assets I ask people I work with to focus on:

What exactly does it mean to “own your life?”

Let’s think about this statement: “It’s your life, own it.” Upon hearing it, your immediate reaction might be, “Of course, it’s my life. I do own it.” And while you can probably name at least one individual that ought to “get” a life, you certainly own yours.

Or do you?

Like most people, life has no doubt brought you those moments when it seemed like things were out of control. You faced too many competing demands. You felt obligated in some uncomfortable way. You felt overwhelmed. Or you possibly felt trapped and in need of a change for the better. Come to think of it, there may have been those times when you secretly admitted to yourself, “Man, I need to get a life.” Yeah, me too.

So who am I, and why am I writing this blog?

Hello, my name is Walter, and I want to welcome you to the inaugural entry for my blog, "It’s your life, own it!" Here, on a regular basis, I will write about topics related to career/life planning and change.

With years of professional experience in counseling, coaching, consulting and training, I’ve helped countless people solve problems and create strategies that allowed them to advance their careers and improve their lives. It has been, and continues to be, rewarding work. Until recently, however, I was missing something really important about my work: the bigger picture!