What do I want? This is all the directional stuff that we’ve been talking about. It might include things (I want a nice house), relationships (I want to work with top experts), achievements (I want to climb Mt Everest), and intangibles (I want to be able to sleep at night). I would suggest to focus your list to perhaps 5 which are most important to you, because it will help you make more progress.

You might have a long list of what you’d like for Christmas, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Instead, think about the big, big picture:

• What contribution do I want to make to this world?
• What do I want to be remembered for?
• What would give me a fulfilling life?

Typically, when people look at these broad questions, they realize that the things become much less important. Instead, career achievements and making a larger contribution, even if intangible, take priority.

What do I have? We’re talking about the assets that you have available to you. You have your knowledge and skills, you have a set of relationships and points of influence, and you have tools that you can call upon. You have your body, mind, and monetary assets.

This doesn’t mean that you should feel constrained by them. Sure, your education and past jobs have given you a set of skills. But if it’s important to switch to a different field, get started. You might just be surprised at how useful your current assets can be for making a career shift.

What could I use? As you look to make changes and accelerate your progress, there’s a lot of tools and assets that you could tap if you wanted. The most important of these are people, but we talked a lot about that in a previous newsletter.

Beyond that, look at the information you’ve assembled or know how to find. With a web browser and some dedicated Googling, it’s amazing what you can tap from other people. But don’t disregard books, magazines, newspapers, and local experts. You might not be sure if you can trust information out there on the web, so what’s written in more authoritative media might be useful to look at.

Next, look at what tools, knowledge, and information that people have access to in your target career path. Where do they build that up? How can you start getting hooked in? But it’s best to start with WHAT they use, and figure out HOW when you’re convinced that it’s a valuable investment.

An important resource

I’ve been exploring my local Chambers of Commerce recently, as assets for developing relationships in the small business community in northern Colorado. I’ve discovered some interesting things:

• Each Chamber is pretty standalone. Around here, at least, they don’t tend to work much with other Chambers in the area.
• Each is tightly focused on the needs of its membership. Because all funding comes from members, a Chamber quickly realizes that they have to do what members find valuable.
• But because of this, each Chamber ends up doing different things. I’ve found it a bit confusing at times, but it makes sense. And it also means that YOUR voice can have some significant weight in what the Chamber does.
• There’s many kinds of contributions and opportunities in a Chamber. It seems to be limited by your creativity, and by the perception of what the members will find useful.

It’s looking like there’s some significant opportunities for me, so I’ve signed up for the Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce. And I’m meeting lots of great people in the community!

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