This week, I stumbled upon what I’ll call a blueprint for a contemplative personal journey toward success, courtesy of marketing guru and blogger Seth Godin. His free e-book, What Matters Now includes wisdom from great thought leaders on positive changes and ideas toward making 2010 a year of success that matters, work that makes a difference in our changing times. What I prefer to call – “vocation.”
Life coaches come in many forms and we hire them for many reasons: personal development. career, fitness, stress reduction and even work life effectiveness . While it’s mostly anecdotal, The National Coach Federation website
Influenced by societal dictates of success, we sometimes focus on looking outside of ourselves to define a satisfying career, instead of what would really make us happy; a job or career that allows our true “authentic” passion to manifest.
It was easy to follow the events around the passings of a number of legends over the last week. But the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon and a few other household names made news mostly because of their respective legacies; their life’s work.
Oprah, Madonna, Hillary Clinton. These iconic female legends carry immeasureable marketing weight. The voices of these women are written in stone, as their personal brands have permeated the internet and beyond. Even as they have evolved, these brands have been concretized in the consciousness of society in general, let alone their contributions to the historic implications of the feminine brand.
While scrambling for a job, in the hectic chaos of that search sometimes we forget to look in our own backyard for resources. There, one can find not only a contact or two, but perhaps some inspiration in the work life challenges that come along with the job search.
But now there’s another form of engagement to muddle through this “chaos career economy:” meeting with like-minded souls in a collective evolutionary leap of faith. No freakin agenda – just a deep conscious plunge into the void to experience what emerges. That’s what a bunch of us did recently.
I’ve been in what my good friends have come to know as “Judy Martin’s self induced boot camp.” That’s when projects seem to come of age at the same time, my work in tv, radio and blogging converge and my personal life is thrust into some sort of chaotic state. It’s actually a good time.
When the camera turns toward Madonna, Oprah or Arianna Huffington there’s no mistaking who they are. These female icons are walking talking brands. But as I wrote recently in my post Personal Branding in a Tough Job Market, personal branding will help to differentiate yourself in a tightening job market even if you’re only a superstar in your mother’s eyes.
Most inspirational or leadership philosophies teach us to look at the chaotic challenges around us at work and in business, as for opportunities for growth. But let’s take it a step further and look at them as opportunities to identify the stress triggers and raise our “stress awareness” at work.
