Hello and a love-filled
welcome to the 10 new subscribers to Jump! this month
YAY! what a great month of lurrrve (hear Barry White voice) it's been! So Love indeed is the topic for this month’s feature article, in fact I shall happily skip through this month’s issue like a loved up bunny and Love will be the topic of the entire issue, (mmm…must be the latent hippy in me coming out there!) but of course, in the lateral thinking out of the box style, I haven’t written on romantic love.
But before I start rambling on I wanted to say a huge Thank You to those who responded to me after last month’s issue, what can I say, I am very touched that you took the time to respond. Your kindness (a form of love..here I start!) and sympathy came quite unexpected, my deepest gratitude (another expression of love!) to you for it.
Without further ado, as a sailing crew member I sailed with used to frequently say “There’s a lot of lurrrve on this boat” I’d like to borrow his ice-breaking line and declare there’s a lot of lurrrve in this issue, enjoy!
Until next month,
be loving, be peace, be true, be you,
******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Recommendations and offers
 Book: The Work We Were Born To Do – Find the Work You Love, Love the Work You Do by Nick Williams
Let me tell you about this book. I bought this book back in 1999 I think, when I started to become aware I really wasn’t too happy with my work – after 4 years or so of working as designer, it dawned on me this isn’t what I wanted to do but didn’t know what I did. I started questioning whether there was more to life than this drudgery of work. Apart from to have fun with my friends, go on holiday sometime, shop, enjoy everything that living in London had to offer me in my mid-late twenties, I started to ask myself what was the purpose of my life? What did I want from my life?
Work was and had always been a huge chunk of it, I had focused on my career since I was 15, I decided then that I would be a designer living and working in central London, but now I was there, doing just that, and guess what I wasn’t actually enjoying it that much, something wasn’t quite right, the job wasn’t really me. There had to be more meaning than this to my working life. But what? How? Where? When?
The book stayed unopened on my shelf for a few years though. It’s a pretty big book, and one with mental exercises in too. I knew it would require some serious thought and effort on my part, it would challenge me as well as well as inspire me. So I stalled it to a time when I knew I would be able to give it the focus it deserves.
That came in 2003 when I was on a year long round the world trip, I bought the book with me as I knew there would be no excuses then not to have time and energy to read it! What was all this about? Could you really be doing work you enjoy? How can that be if I don’t even know what that is? Or rather I can’t imagine what job there would be in which I would actually get paid doing what I love. I didn’t believe I could! There in laid the conflict – I wasn’t even sure what I loved and wanted to do and if I did, I didn’t believe I was capable or that it’s even possible, let alone work out how to make it happen.
The book wasn’t quite what I was expecting – it’s written from a spiritual viewpoint, with powerful thought-provoking questions about the way you have been conditioned to think about work and money as exercises. At the time I wasn’t fully conscious that actually I ‘m quite spiritual in the way I perceive things so this worked for me. Nick’s clear gently encouraging, hugely informative and insightful words guided me to see that actually shift my thinking (that’s what I mean it would require some serious thought and effort!), so that my thoughts, my emotions and my actions were in sync. Or to put it another way – my heart, my soul and my mind were aligned. I went from thinking my desire to do work I loved was a hopelessly vague idea of a dream to thinking about the possibilities of it really doing work I love.
It helped me understand the not so helpful beliefs I held about work, about money, my identity, my talents and skills, my purpose in life…it sang to my soul when I read about all the things I knew to be truth in my spirit. It really made me think, and think hard about what is important to me, and helped me break through some long-held useless preconceptions that was quite frankly not benefiting me at all and in fact stopping myself from taking the initiative to make changes I so desperately needed to do to change the way I viewed work.
It’s not a career guidebook. No, it doesn't tell you what to do, no book could tell you what to do and it’d be spot on – after all each one of us is a unique individual – but the book (as does a good coach), does guide you to find your own answers, the ones deep in your heart and soul that have been buried behind misconceptions and unhelpful conditioning. This book helps you to liberate them - it can be life changing if you let it.
So if you are willing to work through a book (not a quick fix scan through fix it quick that doesn’t address the real issues at heart) than this book could really be very useful.
And get this – at the time I didn’t even know that the author is a coach! 3 years after that (what is it with the 3 year thing?!) I heard Nick speak at an event – and it was then I realised it was the same guy who wrote the book to which I owed much of where I am now, doing work I absolutely love and actually yes, I believe I was born to do this! (I should get royalties for the amount of times I recommend this book to others at the same point in life I was then about my work, my purpose in life). Anyhow, check it out for yourself. If you get it, be ready with pen and paper to jot down your thoughts, responses. Take your time and enjoy the journey of discovery ;-)
Buy it from Amazon
 Event: One Life Live, 2nd, 3rd and 4th March 2007 at Olympia, London, UK
Now this sounds like an interesting and inspirational event – I’ve not been before so I can’t say it’s a recommendation as such, BUT I thought you might be interested in it. I will be there myself on the Saturday 3rd, at stand G85 next to the Central Bar with Results Coaching Systems so if you’re there come say hello, and get a free coaching session ;-)
What’s it got to do with this month’s topic of love? Well, you might as well choose to LOVE your life you know, after all we’ve only got one of it, so why not create a life you want that makes you happy?
The exhibition aims to provide inspiration to help you explore different options for a more fulfilling life. It has different “zones” or areas with stalls covering the following:
• Taking A Break (travel) – I can and do recommend this as I took a year long break on a round the world trip to relax, get out of the rat race for a while and reassess my life (which resulted in me making a complete career change and starting my own business as a coach), so yes I strongly recommend taking a break!
• Relocate – escaping the rat race for good and living the dream life overseas with a better quality of life (this one I have handed over to the Universe to work on, so when it's delivered I shall let you know if I recommend it or not!)
• Life Balance – ideas for a more balanced life. This I do strongly recommend – having a balanced life that is, which is why I coach holistically by working on the whole of you – on 3 areas of your life in which you wish to see change, not just on one focus as everything is related and has impact on each other (e.g if you’re stressed at work and bring it home, it spills into personal life so we work on a work-related and a home related goal at the same time.). This is one of the most common goals I coach on – so if you feel I can help you as your coach to achieve a better work-life balance do get in touch!
• Retrain – for new career and start afresh. This I do recommend IF the new career is aligned with what you really truly deeply want, aligned with your core values and needs, and retraining is an option for you. I couldn’t recommend this if I hadn’t done it myself, (you can read more about it)
• Be your own Boss – breaking free to fulfil your entrepreneurial dreams – well yes I am recommending this since it’s what I am doing right now, and have no regrets whatsoever – aside of I wish I’d done it sooner! But than again I wasn’t mentally and emotionally ready for it sooner ;-) This is again an area in which I can offer you support in gaining clarity as to what, where and how, drop me a line to see how I can help you.
• Life begins at – approaching 50. Can’t recommend this as I’m not there yet!
Check out the One Life Live site for more info and grab your tickets!
FREE trial coaching session with Noodlecrayon!
I am offering all my newsletter subscribers the opportunity to get clear on what you really want (a career change? Start your own business? Better work-life balance?) through a complimentary 45 minutes coaching session. The sessions are very limited so it will be a matter of first in first served. My complimentary sessions are designed to give you focus and clarity in the area of your life that is most important to you. It will also give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the way I coach or coaching in general. Register for your free session here.
If you have a friend, work colleague or family member who might be interested in a FREE trial session all they have to do is subscribe to the Jump! ezine, by 1st April. To take advantage of this offer, they can subscribe here NOW!
******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Featured Article
How much do you LOVE your work?
Most job satisfaction surveys can divide people into three groups:
• People who HATE their jobs. Usually around 10%
• People who like their jobs. Around 70-80% of us.
• People who LOVE their jobs. Usually around 10-20%
70-80% of us like our jobs, not LOVE but like our jobs. As a coach I am not here to tell you what to do or what not to do, however with your permission I can seriously suggest that you do NOT like your job!
Liking your job is nice. It’s comfortable. It’s safe. It’s OK. When you like your job you’re pretty efficient. You’re fairly satisfied. You can get by for years on liking your job.
But when you LOVE your job - MAN, what a difference that makes. I can say this because I am one of those 10-20% that thoroughly LOVE my job, as a coach. I can understand that for those who are not in that category that this is a very bold statement indeed. Don’t misunderstand me, I haven’t always loved my job. I haven’t always been a coach, before becoming a coach I have had jobs I liked (very little, not liked much or just liked).
It’s a relatively small step from liking your job to loving it. It doesn’t take much and the things we need to do are relatively easy and available to all of us. Make note, I said it’s a relatively small step, not necessarily an easy step.
But the difference in outcome is gigantically humongous. As long as you like your job, you’re only a pale reflection of what you could be if you loved it. You’re realizing only a small fraction of your full potential. Not to mention that you’re not having nearly as much fun as you could be having!
Studies show that there are huge benefits to crossing the threshold and getting to the point where you’re really happy at work, as opposed to merely satisfied. Among other things:
• You do much better work.
• You’re much more creative.
• You’re much more motivated.
• You have much more energy.
• You’re much more productive.
• You’re a much better work colleague.
• If your job involves sales, you’re a much better salesperson.
• If your job involves customer contact, your customers are much happier.
• Your quality of life outside of work is much higher.
And we’re not talking just a little more - we’re talking a heck of ALOT more! Millions of people settle for jobs they like. The problem is that when you like your job there isn’t much pressure on you to change. Liking your job isn’t bad for you. It’s certainly much, much better than hating your job - which can make you sick or even kill you.
But when you love your job, love the work you do, you are in a completely different league. So I’m saying that we shouldn’t settle for any less anymore. Let’s make happiness at work the norm rather than the exception. It may take some work, but each and every one of us can get there.
Finding work you love
I’d be blatantly lying if I told you that it was easy for me to get to this position of loving my job, loving what I do. In my experience it's hard to find work you love (it must be, if so few do.) So don't underestimate this task. And don't feel bad if you haven't succeeded yet. In fact, if you admit to yourself that you're discontented, you're a step ahead of most people, who are still in denial. If you're surrounded by colleagues, who claim to enjoy work that you find contemptible, odds are they're lying to themselves. Not necessarily, but probably.
But getting back to the point, discovering what work you love is not easy. For a start it requires discipline. Discipline is remembering what it is you want. I got up early to do yoga at 6.30am because I want to be fit and healthy more than I want to eat that entire bar of chocolate. I work long hours of great work to build my business not just because I want to make it a success, but because at the end of the day it’s what I want to do, it work I love. All of these things that I do for what I want in the end, take discipline.
However, great work takes less discipline than what you might think. How? Because the way to do great work is to find something you like so much that you don't have to force yourself to do it. And to add icing to the cake, we generally tend to be quite good at what we love doing since the intrinsic motivation to do is already there and it’s easy to focus our intention and pour our hearts into it.
Some people are lucky enough to know what they want to do when they're 12, and just glide along towards it as if they were on smooth train tracks. But this seems the exception. More often people who do great things have careers with the trajectory of a ping-pong ball. They go to school to study A, drop out and get a job doing B, and then become famous for C after taking it up on the side.
Sometimes jumping from one sort of work to another is a sign of energy, and sometimes it's a sign of laziness. Are you dropping out, or boldly carving a new path? Plenty of people who will later do great things seem to be disappointments early on, when they're trying to find their niche. This jumping around can be viewed by the old and conventional world of work as unstable, unreliable, lazy, but if you study those who have finally found their niche, the successful (and by that I mean the ones who love what they do not necessarily financial success though sometimes that comes with it!) have an entrepreneurial spirit that thrives on different experiences that bring them growth and development. And often that means that there has been some changes made along the way as they carve a new groove for themselves.
My own personal story to get from that place of unhappiness in my job to here and now where I am loving my job has taken me on a journey that required long and deep soul-searching, a real journey of self-discovery (and I haven’t always liked what I discovered about myself!), it’s not been an easy ride so expect a struggle. Discovering the work you love can be very hard. Most people fail and even if you succeed, it’s rare to be free to work on what you want until, on average, you’re in your 30’s or 40’s (after you’ve had the time to experience some life and made some choices true to yourself which tends to be later rather than earlier in life).
However, if you have the destination in sight you'll be more likely to arrive at it. If you know you can love work, you're in the home stretch, and if you know what work you love, you're practically there.
Much as everyone thinks they want financial security, the happiest people are not those who have it, but those who love what they do. We spend so much of our lifetime working, it makes sense to actually do something you love. It may all seem like hard work, I’m not saying quit your current job that you don’t love, and go do what you love and all will become hunky dory rosy in your life at all. Those who have got there, have worked to get there, worked on themselves, developed themselves, their emotional intelligence, their skills, their knowledge and put themselves out there, taken risks, lost and failed, fallen and persevered.
So what I am saying is don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that keeps me going through tough times is that I love what I do. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
So tips on how can you discover the work you love?
1. Follow your heart and listen to your intuition
I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that your life will end is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Your time is limited; so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
2. Keep the faith
If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, perservere – after all this is about doing what you love. Do you really want to be on your deathbed thinking “What if and if only?” As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Keep the faith and don't settle!
3. Test the Love
The test of whether people love what they do is whether they'd do it even if they weren't paid for it—even if they had to work at another job to make a living. I always ask my clients ”if you had all the money, confidence, time and energy in the world, what would you do for a living?” The answer is usually a good sign of where the real passion (their love) lies.
4. Decide!
Make that decision, that choice for yourself - decide that from now on, you will be happy in a job you love, happy with your great work. This is a really powerful step - if you reach and go beyond this stage you have got further then most! Don't stop now keep the momentum going!
5. Take action!
You may have made the decison some time ago, but if you don't act on it, you'll be in the same place you already were. So this step is really really crucial. Follow through with your decision - find out what you can do to get to love your job or what you can do to get a job you love. Then just do it. However small an action, just start! But if you really want to move forward with a clear direction of where you're heading and how to make a start getting there, book yourself a FREE telephone or skype coaching session and let me help you discover the work you love! Yep, this is your opportunity to get clear on what work you would really truly love to do and how you could take steps to make it happen! What have you got to loose? But more importantly think of what you would gain…register for your free session here.
******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Note this quote
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Sharing Soul Sentiments
Check out this clip, it’s a simple and brilliant concept, great use of audio visual in its simplicity, fun AND it will make you feel good!
http://www.youtube.com/v/IuoaFKD25tI.
******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
About Sam Leongtave
Sam Leongtave is a Creative Personal Life and Business Coach for creative professionals, as well as a fully qualified experienced Graphic Designer. She coaches freelance creatives, creative professionals and entrepreneurs to be empowered to be their best self, to live a life that more fully expresses their choices, who they truly are, personally and professionally. She is the author and publisher of Jump!, and founder of Noodlecrayon Coaching™ |
