Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: career

  • Karl’s Library: Crossing the Unknown Sea by David Whyte

    Yes, those are post-it notes you see crowding the edge of my copy of Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity by David Whyte.

    From the looks of it you might think I marked every single page. You wouldn’t be much mistaken. I devoured this book.

    This book is about the process of finding work that adequately, fittingly, and meaningfully integrates with one’s own life development jouney.

    From the publisher:

    Crossing the Unknown Sea is about reuniting the imagination with our day to day lives. It shows how poetry and practicality, far from being mutually exclusive, reinforce each other to give every aspect of our lives meaning and direction. For anyone who wants to deepen their connection to their life’s work—or find out what their life’s work is—this book can help navigate the way.

    As suggested by the title, this book is for the pilgrim… the person on a journey of self-discovery and professional expression. 

    Here’s a sampling of my many marked quotes:

    “The soul would rather fail at its own life than succeed at someone else’s.”

    “Finding good work… means coming out of hiding.”

    “Do one thing every day toward my future life.”

    “What stops us from speaking out and claiming the life we want for ourselves?”

    “The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness.”

    “…the ability of anything followed unthinkingly, to turn into its exact opposite.”

    “The courage to remain unutterably ourselves in the midst of conforming pressures.”

    You can probably tell from the quotes that this is not a book of formulas, tests, assessments, or answers.

    My list of pull quotes most likely seems to you either attractive and intriguing or off-putting and irrelevant.

    This book is for those of you who see yourselves on an inner journey in search of a professional form.

    Click here for a link to get a copy.

    Karl’s Library is a weekly column highlighting my favorites from my professional development library. “Always learning” is one of the pillars of my personal mission statement. Explore past columns here.

     

    If you’re a Kindle fan like I am, it is available for the Kindle.

    Don’t have a Kindle? Get one! You’ll love it.

  • Free or Trapped?

    Ever think about how you ended up in the job or career path you are in?

    You might be participating in a family business. Maybe a friend recruited you. You needed a paycheck and grabbed something that pays the bills. You wanted the prestige that goes with your profession. You chose to climb the corporate ladder to get the responsibilities, pay, and status that goes with doing so. You are trying to finance a certain lifestyle. Someone once told you that you would be good at this sort of work.

    What is your story?

    In particular, and the focus of this morning’s reflection, how much choice did you have in the matter?

    Was it the only job that was available? Would any other choice have felt demeaning or less prestigious? Were you responding to family expectations? Were you competing with peers? Were you desperate for any paying work? Were you protecting your job security?

    Whether we feel free or trapped is a huge factor in shaping how we deal with situations at work. Especially all that is complicated and unpleasant in our jobs!

    If we feel free (i.e. we chose our situation and feel we have a choice about whether or not we will stay in our situation), we are much more likely to be able (more…)

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> What the Dog Saw #14: Late Bloomers

    thought-leadersJust call me, “Cézanne.”

    Having enjoyed a multi-faceted career, I could easily buy into any of the many interpretations others have provided to make sense of the diversity of roles I have held through the years. Interpretations, that is, that come from a particular frame of reference that Malcolm Gladwell explores in this week’s chapter on “Late Bloomers.”

    What-the-Dog-SawMultiple roles could be a symptom of being lost. Unable to find my way, my calling, my destiny, I could be moving from role to role in search of something that feels like home.

    I could be a loser of sorts. Kidding myself into believing that I am God’s gift to humanity. I don’t see that my personality grates, my skills are archaic, and my working style is neither productive nor helpful.

    I could have my priorities mixed up. Preferring to inaugurate entirely new visions of capitalism for the 21st century, I neglect being a stable, domestic provider who makes sure that each week’s expenses corresponds with a particular paycheck that covers them.

    What if, though, I were exactly where I belonged during each stage of my professional journey so far? What if the only way forward is to take another step? What about uncharted territory where the path only becomes visible when looking back at where we have been?

    When experience is one of life’s teachers, then the knowledge, experience and connections needed to see which path to take can only be found in actually proceeding down a path. In the doing is the learning, the adjusting, the maturing.

    Gladwell’s insight into our culture’s fallacious assumption that genius comes early and easily is a breath of fresh air to those of us who experience the world so startlingly different that we struggle to find vocabulary, context and/or means to communicate, persuade and create all that burns deep within.

    This week’s chapter seemed written especially for me. Give it a read. It might be especially for you too.

    You never know. You or I may be the next, “Cézanne.”

    Join the conversation. What was your main take-away from this chapter?

    Each week I post my reflections from one chapter of What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. If you are just joining the discussion now, welcome! Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Listen In -> Self Care. A Smart Career Move #4: Challenging Yourself to Achieve

    Create your own stress!

    You’ve got to be kidding, right? Who would choose to create their own stress?

    In this week’s show, Claudia and I discuss the importance of challenge to a successful career. In other words, we’ll be talking about a positive form of stress relating to getting something done or achieving something new.

    We all have a part of ourselves that wants to contribute and make a difference. To accomplish something.

    It’s not enough to simply get by. If you aren’t challenging yourself to achieve, then you’re doing yourself a huge disservice.

    Overstated? Listen in.

  • Listen In -> Resume Branding #1: Controlling How We Are Perceived

    With our Resume Workshop coming up on February 7th in Los Angeles, we thought we would revisit a series on Resume Branding.

    In this series, Claudia and I explore using the resume as a tool for describing what we’ve done in the past in such a way that we communicate what we want to do in the future.

    We want to accept responsibility for maximizing the communication opportunity that this awkward piece of paper (the resume) offers us.

    Over the course of the next four weeks, we’ll introduce an entire method for crafting a resume that articulates your distinct “brand.”

    While listening to the show, make your reservation for the Resume Workshop on February 7th now!

  • No Excuses in 2008!

    No excuses in 2008!

    Instead of a long list of well-meant resolutions, let’s launch the new year with a single intention: No excuses in 2008!

    Others may let me down, circumstances may conspire against me, but I will make no excuse for my own choices. Not in my work, not at my home, not in my attitude.

    Though I may face harsh realities outside of my control, I still control my response to those difficulties. Like the tennis player in a difficult match, I do not choose what comes at me. But I do choose whether or not I will stay in the game. I choose whether I will stay prepared and alert for the unexpected. I choose when my reactions remain primarily defensive and when I turn the tables to take the offense.

    No excuses.

    I will make bold decisions, and I will accept responsibility that those decisions affect the quality of my life and work. The more I recognize my own responsibility in the story, the more I discover my own power to change the story.

    Even through the storms of workplace conflict, career suffocation, stagnant economies, or unexpected job loss, I make no excuses. I will expand my repertoire of responses. I will get help from friends and associates. I will invest in myself and my career. I will try new approaches. I will be honest with myself about what is not working well and try something different. I will learn from my mistakes.

    No excuses.

    I will stay in the game. Let’s make 2008 the best yet.

    On your side,

    – Karl

  • Wrapping up Podcast Series on Vocational Passion

    If you missed our podcast series on Vocational Passion, be sure to visit iTunes or Odeo and download all five conversations.

    It is surprisingly common to think that finding meaningful work is too much to ask. That we are not worthy of an energizing job where our contribution is welcomed and rewarded.

    We have got to change that assumption! It gives our bosses too much power in the employer-employee partnership. We assume that the company belongs to them more than to us. We assume that those with positions at the top of the organizational chart are somehow more entitled to a rich and meaningful career than we are.

    Such assumption need to end yesterday. Join me in designing creative alternatives for showing up alive and invested at work. Join the conversation.

  • Coping or Contribution?

    Do you ever have the feeling of time slipping through your fingers? Another year has gone, but you’re not quite sure where it went. New Year’s resolutions losing the fight for attention against a crowded list of deadlines, emergencies and other people’s agendas for you.

    Life will always be busy and complex to some degree. The question is whether you feel (more…)