Want that Dream Job? Make a Plan.

Want that Dream Job? Make a Plan.

This past week I had the opportunity to meet a couple of mortgage brokers an engineer, an educator, a pharmacist, a CFO and several others from various occupations. On the surface each one was so different from the next. They all had very diverse backgrounds, special stories, skills, successes and failures. They were of dissimilar cultures, nationalities and races. They were both genders and a variety of ages. On the outside they could not have been more poles apart. Deep down inside, where it counts, they were quite similar. They all were unhappy with their chosen professions. They felt that they had been pulled in to them more by circumstance than by choice, they verbalized being trapped, miserable, helpless, without value, and saddest of all, each one of them was hopeless.

Something they also shared was none of them had ever thought to make a career plan. None had taken the time to sit down and map out their life intentions. It is quite rare to arrive some place if you don’t have the first clue of where you are going. “Duh” right? Maybe, but then why do so few of us plan our careers. Most often I hear: “That would remove all spontaneity!” Nice rationalization, but life has a funny way of providing enough of the unexpected to supply an abundance of spontaneity.

With all of our education, almost never does anyone teach us how to plan a career. We are taught that having a good paying job is better than being happy. How many times have you been told that if you are doing what you love, the money will come? How many people actually believe that? Fortunately, I have been blessed with too many examples of this being the case not to believe. But then again, I believe in Santa. I also believe that when we open ourselves and our creativity, are willing to commit and to persevere we can achieve our dreams without having to sacrifice fair compensation.

To succeed we must be willing to fail. Growth does not come without challenge. I say “take a chance to achieve your dreams, decide what you want today and tomorrow to look like. Make a plan that will make this happen. If we are willing to ask ourselves the right questions, we will probably find the correct answers.

By the way, it’s ok to change your mind.

Steve Krohn

TTG Consultants

Your Job, Your life and lessons learned from Tim Russert

Your Job, Your life and lessons learned from Tim Russert I doubt there are many doorknobs left in America that have not learned about journalist Tim Russert’s death this past week. I count myself as one of the millions of fans that will miss one of the few credible providers of information. As a nation, if not the world, we were blessed by so many lessons provided by Mr. Russert. The first lesson is one that I learned rather early in life, and that is NO ONE GUARENTEES US TIME! How many times do we need a reminder that life is fleeting at best, fragile but mostly, life is precious. Be cavalier if you like, the quality of one’s life is solely the responsibility of its owner. Sorry to remind anyone of this, but as adults it’s no longer the faults of bad parenting, bad aunts or uncles, bad teachers, bad luck or circumstance. We all are given a choice daily, every moment about attitude, commitment and action. Driving down the street, I have found myself, on occasion, behind a vehicle with a bumper sticker proudly proclaiming, “My job sucks!” Smiling, my only thought is “you’ve earned that job.” Making choices may be tough. Taking action might be tougher, but it’s the adult thing to do, and quite frankly, it’s the most freeing. Change, if you hate your job. If you need help, get it. If not, keep your anger and your dis-ease to yourself. Balance, it would outwardly seem is something Tim Russert excelled at. I wonder if his family would agree. I also subscribe to, against many experts advice, to the notion that life must also flow. Walls between life, person, family and friends make for a fractured life. Sounds sort of schyzophrenic to me. Appropriate balance. Doing the job that we love might just be the best gift and education we could give our children. What better compensation could anyone ever desire?