The Career You’ll Love

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success, he stated that to achieve mastery in an area, it generally takes about 10,000 hours of serious learning, practice, and skill development.

I think it’s a valid conclusion, but there’s more to the story.

If you want to be famous for something, to be at the forefront, you have to establish yourself as world class. You want to be one of the best violinists? 10,000 hours. You want to make a living as a pro golfer? 10,000 hours.

Read more on my Workbloom blog»

When you think about it, “time management” is a ridiculous concept. Time always has been, and will continue to be, impossible to manage.

Each of us is given 24 hours a day, and that’s it.

Really, the choice is about how you manage your attention: where you place your focus, your energy, and your effort.

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No matter how much I know I need to do some things, it’s a pain. I have to wash the dishes, but nothing much is going to happen if I don’t do it right now. So maybe I’ll procrastinate for awhile, then a little longer. Pretty soon, it’s next week with a big pile of dishes in the sink.

There’s a number of great ways to get around these mental barriers:

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You’re incredibly busy, I understand. You have more stuff to do than you’ve ever had before. Reading. Responding. Figuring out. Taking calls. Emailing. Before you know it, you’ve worked 10 hours today and you wonder what exactly you accomplished.

That’s the trap.

DOING STUFF is not the same as ACHIEVING SOMETHING. And most people who look at their lives discover that a lot of the stuff they’ve spent time on didn’t actually result in anything particularly useful.

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For many years, I fell into a trap: Working on problems.

What’s wrong with that?

Well, think about this: A problem is something that’s defined by your situation, or by someone else. Working on that problem means that you’re trying to find a solution that is just defined by that problem, and doesn’t usually address anything deeper.

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Our culture focuses on the future. We seek out what’s new and fresh, always wanting to have novel experiences.

But there’s a lot to be learned from the past.

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Here’s a simple, but interesting concept I’d like to throw at you today.

How much time and energy do I spend worrying about the future? I might lose my job. That next appointment with the doctor might not go well. We don’t know how the new US Health Care law will impact us personally.

Read the rest of this on my Workbloom blog»

I think we’ve all become quite weary of those overly cheery types who declare that there’s no such thing as a problem, everything is an opportunity.

No, I don’t buy it either.

Read more of my post on the WorkBloom blog>>

It’s an interesting balancing act that many come to in their careers:  In some ways you feel very constrained, while simultaneously enjoying a multitude of options.  It feels weird.

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This has been an eventful week for me and my business – a key turning point.  This is the week I moved from planning to doing.

It’s scary, but it’s so wonderful to be doing what feels to be such useful activity.

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