How to Transition into Your New Job (without sucking!)

Written by Melissa Anzman

Another goodie request from the Life After College survey!

The way you transition within your career sets the tone for your overall success – trust me, I’ve made some big mistakes in this arena. Most people only consider how their first day will go, what they should wear, how they will fit in. But career transitions happen more than just on your first day and will always leave a lasting impression.

If you are transitioning into a new company, most likely you are excited to begin your journey in a job that you are excited about. As I used to plan my first day at the many jobs I started, I would have a little panic over which notebook I was going to bring for day one followed closely by what I was going to wear to be professional but still fit into a culture I had no clue about yet. Not once, until it bit me in the behind, did I think about planning my entry and introduction into the company, culture and the people.

How to Transition into a New Company without Sucking

Do not walk in with your guns a blazing.

I know you are excited to add value and leave your mark on the position and change everything at that company that is wrong. Perhaps your new manager has told you throughout the hiring process how you are going to be expected to jump right in or start the ground running.

During the interview process, you probably made notes of the jungle of low-hanging fruit that you could easily update and change and make and impact. And you just can’t wait to get in there and start delivering and being everyone’s new favorite person.

Your boss has probably started to drop little hints that you were hired to solve problems, to make things happen, to improve the items you’ve identified… right now.

Your boss doesn’t really mean that – I promise. What they actually want is someone who is a quick learner, able to take direction, catches on fast, absorbs information that is provided, and for all that is holy – does not rock the boat.

If he or she is persistent that you start getting to it, figure out how you can get things done without running over other people. I have often used being a new employee to my advantage – say things like, “I’m still so new and just figuring things out, could you possibly help me understand…” or “Since I’m still figuring things out, I’m sorry if I’m stepping on a land mine here, but it seem like….”

In other words, instead of delivering solutions, present them – you will get a lot farther this way.

Chill out on the over-friendliness factor.

I’m not saying be a jerk, but being too happy or friendly on day one comes across as phony. Smile when appropriate, introduce yourself when presented to others, but do not try to make small talk with every passing person. Just relax and try to go with the flow instead of turning every passer-by into your BFF.

Approach the people you meet like a genuine networking experience – start building relationships from day one, and worry about friends or a great contact, as you get to know your colleagues better.

Know that you are creeping in on their territory.

Just like walking into a lion’s den, you have no idea what you are walking into. Your predecessor may have left you big shoes to follow, or may have left you a mess. Even if you think you know why that person left, you have no clue, and each person you meet could have been a friend or enemy of the person who used to do your job.

Be respectful of that and know that you may not be welcomed by everyone at first. They are going through their own adjustment period and possibly dealing with their own insecurities over the situation, so treat carefully and lightly, and above all else, remember, you are walking into their domain.

Even the most friendly and open to change people, can change on a dime when you step on their favorite project or they perceive you as adding more work to their pile or criticizing their efforts. Be careful and aware, and ask permission (instead of forgiveness) when you come across a sticky situation.

Take some time to figure out the office politics in action.

Don’t assume that the hierarchy within the company is the same as it was in your previous company. Titles mean different things everywhere and more than that; titles typically have nothing to do with who is actually “in power.”

Figure out who the key players are and learn how to navigate either with them, against them, or abstain from them. This type of knowledge will only come from sitting back and watching everything play out in front of you.

Keep your opinions or solutions to yourself (for now).

For the most part, new ideas or efficiencies are not welcomed – think about it: they have clearly been doing something that way for ages, they do not take criticism, even constructive criticism, well. You have to earn the right and respect to start moving things in new directions – so give yourself a few weeks at the very least, before you start providing radical ideas.

Instead of spewing out solutions, try asking questions that get to the heart of your solution. For example, phrase your idea like this: “I’m curious if this approach has ever been tried and what the results were.” This immediately takes the potential sting out of your opinion/suggestion, while letting your colleague provide the historical information and get on the same page with you.

Use day one as a day to “peak behind the kimono.”

Not only with what you should wear, but also it is your opportunity to ask as many questions as possible and start to observe the buzz and feel of the office as a whole. Be sure to pay attention to how others interact with your boss, and what the expectations will be for you.

And I beg of you – stay away from engaging in any conversations where you start with: “in my last job;” “how did my predecessor do this;” or “what do you think about my boss.”

Have any transition tips to add or stories to share? Tell us more in the comments below!

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About Melissa

Melissa Anzman is the creator of Launch Your Job  where she equips ambitious leaders with practical ways to grow their career. She is the author of two books: How to Land a Job and Stop Hating Your Job. Follow her @MelissaAnzman.

"I Don't Know" Isn't a Dirty Word

Written by Jenny Blake Okay, so "I don't know" is more of a three-word phrase, but you get the idea. When pondering a life change, a relationship or a career, how many times have you said, "I don't know" with a big sigh and a dejected, deflated tone?

"I don't know" is not a disease to be cured. It is not a flaw or a shortcoming, or a circuit of your brain that needs fixing. Nor is it problem until you make it one; until you use it an excuse to shortchange curiosity and exploration around whatever subject you are stuck on.

When talking with friends, I am guilty of sandwiching my "I don't know" response between shame and frustration. Shouldn't I know whether this decision or direction is THE RIGHT ONE or not?

Notice the all caps . . . we treat knowing as some holy grail, when in fact, "I don't know" is a doorway to freedom. It marks the start of a new adventure, a new path to be explored. I will repeat myself in saying: if we already knew, we would likely be bored.

Gordian Knot refers to a problem "solved only by bold action," and harkens back to the time of Alexander the Great. What if the next time you answered someone with, "I don't know," you said it with pride? Pride for the thorny new question you are groping your way through, something holy and worthy of your growth and evolution.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” 

—Zen Master Shunryo Suzuki

"I don't know" requires humility, beginner's mind. It means admitting what you don't know. You can transform not knowing by seeing it as the opportunity that it is. Use it as a teacher to uncover new aspects about yourself, your values, and your desires, and ultimately, your ability to serve others in an even fuller way.

Sometimes the sediment that "I don't know" leaves behind as it flows in and out of our lives is compassion—for everyone else who is in transition, in-between or unsure about questions big and small.

The idea that you need to know—and right now at that—is constricting. It suffocates creativity.

I don't know is a gift. Treat it with reverence. Shine the light of acceptance, attention and inquiry, and watch it transform in its own time.

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the author of Life After College and the forthcoming book The Pivot Method. She is a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business. Today you can find her here on this blog (in its 8th year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

One Strategy to Encourage Influencers to Spread Your Idea (+Giveaway)

Written By Davis Nguyen My mentor Keith Ferrazzi taught me that the quality of my life is equal to the quality of my relationships.

In every domain of my life I found this to be true—from having a workout buddy who pushes me to go for the extra rep every morning to having a group of friends who cheer me on during dance performances even when I make the occasional blunder. In addition, outside my personal life, I saw how the quality of my relationships can also impact the quality of my working life.

During my last two years in college, I had the honor of working for many generous, giving, and connected individuals including Keith Ferrazzi, Susan Cain, and Life After College's own Jenny Blake. From working for each of them I see how important their networks were to their success.

You Don't Need an Ivy League Education to Build a Network of Supporters and Influencers

In Dorie Clark's Stand Out, Dorie tells us that having a network to help you and your idea stand out isn't only available to the Sheryl Sandbergs and Ivy League graduates of the world. You too can build a network of influencers. One strategy to build a network of influencers? Growing your network through interviewing.

Growing Your Network Through Interviewing

Long before her book was published, Dorie would reach out to influencers she admired and asked if she could interview them for an article she would write up for Forbes. Over two and a half years, Dorie wrote over 250 articles and made connections with influencers she admired.

Why did Dorie's strategy work?

Imagine that you had a book that just came out and someone offered to publicize it on Forbes. Would you take the offer? Of course you would.

The secret, if you haven't figured it out already, is that when Dorie reaches out to these people to interview, she makes the interview about helping the other person and not about her. Each article she writes answers the question: "how can I best help this other person?"

And if you develop that same mindset of asking how you can help others be successful, you'll be able to connect with your favorite influencers, too.

When it came time for Dorie to release her book this year, the hundreds of people she had been connecting with took the time to help her. On the back of her book, you'll see many of the influencers whom she connected with over the years including Adam Grant, Pam Slim, Ryan Holiday, and Keith Ferrazzi.

I think Dorie would agree that her book wouldn't have been as successful had it not been for those in her network who helped her.

You can do it, too

Dorie's association with Forbes enabled her to get in touch with many influencers. But as Dorie writes, "even if you're writing for your own personal blog, the vast majority of people will agree to an interview."

But if you do want the credibility that comes from having a big name, major publications are always looking for 20somethings to write for them, like Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, and Forbes.

You don't have to just dream about meeting your influencers; you can begin meeting and interviewing them today.

Interviewing your influencers is just one of the twelve strategies Dorie Clark outlines in her book Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around it on how to build a network, audience, and community to spread your ideas.

Book Giveaway

We’re excited to give away a copy of Stand Out by Dorie Clark to three lucky Life After College readers. To enter, leave your email and answer to the following question in the comments by Friday, May 8th:

Comment to Be Entered to Win:

Who is one of your influencers?

Looking to grow your network right now?

Doors are open for the private Momentum Community that I have been telling you about, and I would love for you to be a Founding Member! With Momentum, you will get access to all my best tools, templates and resources, as well as the ability to ask me anything and collaborate with tons of other smart creatives, for just $1/day. Founding member enrollment is open until this Sunday, April 26. Click here to learn more and enroll »

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About Davis

Davis (@IamDavisNguyen) graduated from Yale University in 2015. He currently lives in San Francisco and works at Bain & Company. When he’s not helping CEOs transform their companies, he is helping recent graduates figure out the type of life they want for themselves and helping them get there.

3 Keys to Becoming a Master of Momentum

Written by Jenny BlakeMomentum is not a destination, it is a mindset. Punctuated successes—new titles, raises, business milestones, big clients, book deals—are absolutely worth celebrating. But what we are really after is a sense of inertia, velocity, and flow. A feeling of wind in our hair and forward movement in our work. Generating momentum requires a new way of being, working and creating. It also requires a special type of problem-solving.

Momentum is about taking the pressure off of any one big “goal” and holding a mindset of:

1. Curiosity & Creative Problem-Solving
2. Experimentation, and
3. Collaboration & Community

Momentum Key #1: Creative, Right-Brain Problem-Solving

We went from linear thinking in the Industrial Age to networked thinking in the Information Age. Now we’re reaching peak data.

We are full to the brim and overwhelmed, frazzled by overflowing inboxes and 24/7 communications. We are in the Too Much Information Age, and something has to change.

Believe it or not, that something is a return to joy, simplicity, focus, purpose and to right-brain, creative, non-linear thinking. The coming years will demand that we get more creative, and more intuitive. In short, more adaptable to (and accepting of) constant change.

Here's how you can practice this skill today:

1. Write down the biggest challenge you are currently facing.

2. Now re-write it as an open-ended question.

3. Instead of trying to find ONE answer, get a piece of paper and make a mind-map:put your desired outcome (not the challenge) in the center. Throughout the next week, add as many “spokes” as you can for potential solutions, resources, and people you could talk to.

4. Important: note what is already working. Where on this list do you already have connections or experience? Momentum comes from building on your strengths and existing assets, not starting from scratch.

5. Bonus: close your eyes and get quiet. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Frame up your question and ask: What does my head say? What does my heart say? What does my gut say? You have a brain-center in all three of those areas, and it is all-too-easy to silence the latter two with an overactive or anxious mind.

Momentum Key #2: Run Small Experiments

I hate the question, “So, where do you see yourself in five years?” Truth be told, it’s irrelevant! The world is changing so quickly that it is silly to expect ourselves to know.

If you do have a specific idea or goal, that’s fantastic! Or maybe you just know how you want to feel. Many of my coaching clients want to feel a sense of freedom, adventure, impact and connection with loved ones and a broader community.

As the saying goes, if you want different results, ask different questions. It is time to take the pressure off of knowing everything, especially your NEXT BIG MOVE.

See yourself as a scientist and set-up a variety of small experiments to test your ideas about what might be next. Look for experiments that author Nassim Taleb would describe as asymmetric: low potential downside with high potential upside.

1. Write down a hypothesis: what project or next move feels edgy in a good way, scary-but-exciting? What gives you a surge of adrenaline to think about?

2. Next describe the vision, or end-state: if you were to be smashingly successful in one year, what would be happening?

3. Now break the idea down into smaller parts. Identify 2-3 small experiments: how could you gather some initial feedback? A strong experiment will help you answer the following:

   1. Am I good at this?
   2. Do I enjoy it?
   3. Is there more opportunity where that came from?

4. Identify one person who has already done what you want to do. What advice would s/he give you about next steps? You can do this exercise even if you do not know him or her personally. If you do know the person, reach out and ask!

Momentum Key #3: Collaboration and Community

Going it alone is tough. It’s lonely, and most of all, it’s frustrating. Ultimately, it doesn’t work.

There are many shortcuts waiting for you. Do not make life harder on yourself than it needs to be. Stop doing everything the long (and hard) way.

If you can shave four years off of building your business or career by learning from someone else’s successes and failures, do. Why wouldn’t you?

Momentum comes from cycles of giving and receiving, connecting and retreating, learning and sharing.

1. What would you love help with this month, but are a bit afraid to ask? What would happen if you did anyway?

2. How would you describe “your people”? What common characteristics do they share?

3. Who do you admire? List 3 people, and a few sentences or key phrases about why.

4. What can you learn from each of the people you listed above? If you don’t know them personally, see if they have a book or course that you can study from. After all, it is a distilled digest of years of their wisdom and hard work!

5. Make a list of 3 peers you would like to connect with this month, people who are in a similar stage as you are.

6. Reach out to at least one of them after you read this post :)

Become a Founding Member of the Private Momentum Community!

It’s here, it’s here! Doors are open on the private Momentum Community that I’ve been telling you about, and I would love for you to be a Founding Member, where you will be grandfathered in at a special rate for life as a thank you for helping me build the plane while flying it.

Click here to read all about it »

Private coaching with me is currently $1,500/month. With Momentum, you’ll get access to all my best tools, templates and resources, as well as the ability to ask me anything and collaborate with others, for just $1/day. That’s $30/month . . . but if you sign-up this week as a Founding Member, it’s just $25/month, billed quarterly, with a full money-back guarantee if you look around and don’t like what you see.

Here's a brief overview video:

Join our live Q&A call tomorrow

I will share how to dismantle the 3 biggest barriers to momentum, and answer any questions you have about the community at the end of the call.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 14 at 12pm ET WHERE: YouTube Live Event — click here to add the event to your calendar

I look forward to seeing you there!

Ready for your next adventure?

Learn more about Momentum here »

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the author of Life After College and the forthcoming book The Pivot Method. She is a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.

Today you can find her here on this blog (in its 8th year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

You are Not Alone

Written by Paul Angone If your twenties have gone nothing like you planned – you’re not alone.

Career doubts. Crushed dreams. Relationship debacles. Faith struggles. And flat out groan up awkwardness. In my twenties I experienced them all and felt like such a failure.

After college I was working a comfortable job, yet I couldn't shake this gnawing discontent and question of  “what am I doing with my life?”

For a while I thought I was the only one struggling. But as I started opening up to friends about the big doubts and questions I was experiencing–about wanting my life to mean something more, a relieving thing began to happen.

Those same friends who I thought had it all figured out, were asking the same questions and feeling the same frustrations. There was something bigger going on here and I knew we needed a space to really talk about it. To really figure out how to live a life of meaning and purpose when you don't feel at home in your groan up pants.

I started writing the most honest book I could about my journey through the ambiguities of adulthood to find the answers to the big questions we're all asking.

Now ten years later, that book All Groan Up: Searching For Self, Faith, and a Freaking Job! releases in just a few weeks, April 21st, 2015!

This book is the most vulnerable, hilariously embarrassing, and important thing I've ever written.

In All Groan Up I pull back the veil on the unspoken fears, doubts, lies and BIG questions you are facing and smack them in the face with truth and hope.

Your twenties are about slowly building a plan that actually has a foundation to it—built on failures, strengths, mistakes, values, wrong turns, vision, etc.

Your twenties are about building a plan based on who you are, who you’re not, and who you’re becoming.

All Groan Up: Searching For Self, Faith, and a Freaking Job! releases this April 21st, 2015, but if you pre-order the print book, you can read the entire ebook right now. Plus you will also receive over $250 worth of additional bonuses in the upcoming weeks.

• Pre-order the book at Amazon
• Pre-order the book at Barnes and Noble

Pre-order the book at any of these locations, and then go to the All Groan Up Book Page and enter your email to download the entire ebook and be entered to receive the extra bonuses.

Or if you want to read the first four chapters right away for free, enter your email at the All Groan Up homepage and you can read them right now.

It took me ten years to see this book happen and the only reason I was able to push through the failures, dead-ends, and do-overs is because I passionately believe in the hope, truth, and inspiration the story of All Groan Up offers.

Thank you friends for being such a huge support and encouragement to me. I hope this new book will encourage you in return that you're not alone on this journey.

Watch the Epic, 121 Second All Groan Up Book Trailer!

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About Paul

Paul Angone is the author of All Groan Up: Searching For Self, Faith, and a Freaking Job!, 101 Secrets for your Twenties and the creator of AllGroanUp.com, a place for those asking "what now?" Snag free chapters from both his books and follow him at @PaulAngone.

How to Find a Job You're Passionate About

By Davis Nguyen Last month, I gave a talk at my high school. During the Q&A session, a student asked me what I did for community service (our high school requires a certain number of hours).

In high school I had done more than three times the required amount, but it was the first time I really thought about why I chose those particular activities.

I thought about answering the student's question by telling her what I did: "I spent most of my time going door-to-door collecting unwanted books." But that hadn't been how I viewed my community service. While I was volunteering for a Nigerian non-profit, I saw my task as helping Nigerian students 6,000 miles away get a chance to read books that would otherwise go unread.

Had I looked at my required community service as something I had to do, it would seem like a chore. Instead I asked, "Why does it matter that I do this?"

How I almost stopped myself from finding a job I was passionate about

If I selected my community service projects by asking "Why do I want to do this?" instead of "What do I want to do?", I realized I didn't do the same when it came to picking my job.

As I was searching for my first job, my failure to ask "Why does it matter?" instead of "What am I doing?" caused such a headache.

I knew coming out of college that no first job would be perfect. But as most things I had done in life, I made a list of pros and cons of what I would be doing at each potential job. The more I wrote the more I found myself uninspired to apply for any of these jobs.

Unlike what I had done with my community service projects in high school, I focused on the "what" instead of the "why" of my job.

How I found my "why"

To find my "why" I started thinking about the people who I looked up to most who were changing the world. The type of people I wanted to grow into someday.

I knew I wouldn't be a CEO of a large company out of college, but I thought about the people I looked up to and why I looked up to them. I asked myself, what qualities do I admire in them?

I made a new list. Instead of pros and cons, I made a list of qualities I wanted in myself, and I restarted my job search. The qualities I listed included:

• Being a more structured thinker
• Gaining more self-discipline
• Being challenged to deliver every day
• Being a better communicator
• Being better at time management, and
• Constantly learning

My "why" for each job became "because it will help me become the type of person I want to be." I looked at jobs that would help me reach my "why."

We’d love to hear from you in the comments:

What type of person do you want your job to help you become?

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Join the Momentum Safari!

Looking for find more joy and passion in your work right now? It's not too late to join us on the 21-Day Momentum Safari! Each day you will get a small prompt to complete an action, reflection or connection, all based on themes from different animal avatars.

By the end of the three weeks, you will have a renewed sense of lightness, play and exploration . . . and hopefully unstoppable momentum! See you there!

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About Davis

Davis (@IamDavisNguyen) graduated from Yale University in 2015. He currently lives in San Francisco and works at Bain & Company. When he’s not helping CEOs transform their companies, he is helping recent graduates figure out the type of life they want for themselves and helping them get there.

3 Ways to Bring More Joy to Your Workplace

Joy, Inc.

Written by Marisol Dahl

Try to think back to the last time you felt focused and in a wonderful state of flow in your work. Your spirit and energy are buzzing. You pursue each task with great concentration and a promise to do your absolute best work. Your projects are challenging, but you approach them not with fear but with a sense of adventure.

Now imagine if that is how you felt every single day.

At Menlo Innovations, a software company in Michigan, this type of work isn’t just a dream but a reality for all employees. In Joy, Inc., cofounder and CEO Richard Sheridan shares the true secret to achieving great work and unparalleled workplace satisfaction.

That secret? Joy.

The reasoning is simple. When we feel a sense of internal joy, we are more productive, more engaged, and produce better outcomes. Internal well-being translates to an external environment of positive thinking, fearless experimentation, and high quality work.

As Sheridan notes:

A pursuit of joy within a business context is not about the pursuit of fame or profit. Humans aspire to a higher purpose. Teams desire to work on goals bigger than themselves. They want to have a lasting and valued effect on the world. They want to make their mark, not for the glory, but for the purpose of bringing delight or ending suffering. Like the Wright brothers, we at Menlo want to fly. We’ve found that profit, fame, and glory often follow us in this path, too.

3 Ways to Bring More Joy to Your Workplace

1. Create an open, flexible space

When you walk into Menlo Innovations, you’ll notice that there’s tons of open space, lots of light, and an “underlying current of useful noise...the noise of work.”

The space itself is designed to be conducive to human interaction, a key ingredient for a more joyful workplace. Having lightweight furniture and strategic electrical wiring make it easy to move desks around in seconds, so the people working on the same project can easily collaborate and build off of each other’s ideas. The open space with few (if any) physical barriers allows everyone to be within eyeshot of each other, allowing for faster and easier flow of communication. An environment like this breeds a productive serendipity: the constant exchange of information and stimulation allows great ideas and solutions to bloom.

2. Pair Up

At Menlo Innovations, you’ll find something even more peculiar: employees work in pairs. Two people, one desk, one computer. Some may think this way of working is incredibly inefficient and a waste of a client’s money, but it’s actually quite the opposite.

When employees pair up, they teach each other and build on each other’s skills. When two people are together and not alone, they are able to tackle new problems with less trepidation and more comfort. With two sets of eyes on the computer screen, mistakes are much less frequently made.

With employee pairing, workplace culture and production are at their highest quality. The whole is certainly greater than the sum of its parts.

3. Feel Safe, Don’t Be Safe

Sheridan notes that freedom from fear is one of the most important components of a joyful workplace culture.

Freedom from fear requires feeling safe. If you feel safe, you run experiments. You stop asking permission. You avoid long, mind-numbing meetings. You create a new kind of culture in which you accept that mistakes are inevitable. You learn that small, fast mistakes are preferable to the big, slow, deadly mistakes you are making today.

When people feel safe to make mistakes and try new things, the potential for great work and innovation is infinite. A universal commitment to quality, meaningful work makes it easy to own up to a mistake without fear of punishment. It's not about being on the safe side and only doing things you know will work. It's about feeling supported enough to be bold cavaliers.

In all, Joy is about deep satisfaction and knowing you are working towards something great. It isn’t always happy and easy—sometimes you will feel stuck, angry, and frustrated. But joy is what drives you to keep going and deliver greatness.

Book Giveaway

We’re excited to give away a copy of Joy, Inc. by Richard Sheridan to one lucky Life After College reader. To enter, answer the following question in the comments by Friday, March 27:

Comment to Be Entered to Win:

What is one action you can take this week to bring more joy to your workplace?

Join the Momentum Safari!

Looking for find more joy in your work right now? Join us on the 21-Day Momentum Safari! Each day you will get a small prompt to complete an action, reflection or connection, all based on themes from different animal avatars.

By the end of the three weeks, you will have a renewed sense of lightness, play and exploration . . . and hopefully unstoppable momentum. The adventure starts March 23—see you there!

About Marisol Dahl

Marisol is currently a Sociology and Education Studies major at Yale University. A longtime New Yorker, her interests include business, communications, and marketing. Marisol started her blog in 2011 as a way to document her college years and beyond. When not running around campus and catching up with her school reading, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading dystopian fiction, and trying out new recipes. She can be reached on Twitter at @marisoldahl.

The Roller-coaster of Work

Written by Melissa Anzman

Being an entrepreneur can feel like a roller coaster ride – sometimes it’s exhilarating and other times it’s scary. Lots of highs and lows.

A few weeks ago I started my day like any other, but something was off. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, again. I was going through the day unhappy, dare I say miserable, again. I’d felt like that for some time – frustrated, stuck, miserable, unsure, and so on.

I looked around me. And here’s what I saw:

A consulting client that I’d been working with for 2.5 years – feeling underappreciated, underpaid, and undervalued. Not to mention every time I had to get on a call or reply to an email, which happened 10-15 hours each week, I was annoyed.

A long-time client who’s partnership had changed dramatically in the way we worked together. I had gone from being the creative brain behind the machine, to an order taker. Not to mention having been told that she had been saying some seriously negative things about me as a person, while being sweet to my face for work. Even knowing that for several months and never saying anything, I just couldn't seem to get over it and not take it personally.

Constantly stressing and worrying about money. Even when it was coming in and I was ok, I was still worried about when it may not.

I hadn’t had a late night coding session, or creative brainstorm/rabbit hole, or been super excited about much of anything… for a long time.

Three of my clients had just completed extremely successful launches… which felt reaffirming, but I was a bit bummed our immediate work together was done.

Not to mention, I was finding it extremely difficult to find time to improve my new skiing hobby… and I live at the base of a mountain.

And all of that, is just the tip of the iceberg.

But I can honestly say, I started questioning if it was all worth it.

So I looked back at my life when I was in the corporate world, before I left the first time. I read a few journal entries and they looked a little something like this:

“I am making well over six-figures, I have the title, I work for a great company, I’m still moving up the ladder… but I’m so unhappy and feeling trapped.”

When my clients come to me in a similar conundrum, or if they’re just starting out with their business, I always remind them to create and keep their “Why” close at hand. But my “why” had changed since my first leap.

And essentially, despite my “why” I created the same work environment that I loathed when I was working for someone else.

I think we have all fallen down that same spiral before, whether we’re working for ourselves or for someone else. We naturally gravitate to the path of least resistance when it comes to the work we do. We can expand and focus on different skills and head in different directions, but we always tend to get busy.

When we get busy, we forget to look up and see what more is out there. Of the many ways we can live a bigger life.

We stop asking questions like:

• “Is this the type of work I want to be doing?”
• “Is this the client I want to partner with?”
• “What will really happen if I don’t respond to that email within 10 minutes?”
• “What skills do I want to learn to help me be a better me?”
• “How can I still do great work, but also become a better person?”

I felt like I finally looked up for the first time in a long time. And I wasn’t at all pleased with the world I built… I had fallen into the same bad work habits, with some improvements sure, that I had when I worked for someone else.

So I jumped without a net again.

I told the consulting client that it was time to move on. I told my long-time client that our time would be ending at the end of our project.

I knocked off a few of the long-hanging fruit. I fought to get back the freedom and flexibility I crave, regardless that those two clients were approximately 30% of my monthly income (and more "reliable" than my other income streams).

A weight was lifted from my shoulders immediately, but the worry was still there. It wasn’t the “smart” choice… the smart path was the one I was on. But for me and the work I want to do, it was time to be uncomfortable again.

Which leads me to where I am today.

I want to encourage all of you to look up; stop being busy for a few minutes and answer these questions for your own work/business, and share them in the comments below:

1. Is this the type of work I am energized about more than not?
2. How can I live my life and work, bigger?

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About Melissa

Melissa Anzman is the creator of Launch Your Job  where she equips ambitious leaders with practical ways to grow their career. She is the author of two books: How to Land a Job and Stop Hating Your Job. Follow her @MelissaAnzman.

Frustrated trying to figure out your "life purpose"? Try this one.

Written by Jenny Blake How many of you have felt pressure to define your passion, your life purpose, or a business or blog niche more clearly? There's so much career and business advice that says, "Whatever you come up with, get even more specific!"

More than anything, this has caused me more anxiety than peace.

I have always felt my life purpose, or calling, was to help others, but when I tried to "niche it down" I got stuck. And more than that, bored.

I love Cal Newport's message from his book, So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love, to drop the pursuit of passion and adopt a "craftsman mindset" instead. Newport says, "Stop obsessing about what the world can offer you, and instead focus on what you can offer the world."

In a recent blog post, he cites a recent Barak Obama quote on losing his first bid for congress:

“The thing that got me through that moment, and any other time that I’ve felt stuck, is to remind myself that it’s about the work. Because if you’re worrying about yourself — if you’re thinking: ‘Am I succeeding? Am I in the right position? Am I being appreciated?’  — then you’re going to end up feeling frustrated and stuck. But if you can keep it about the work, you’ll always have a path. There’s always something to be done.”

—President Obama (via Cal Newport's Study Hacks blog)

My Own Wandering Purpose Path

When I first launched this website, it was under the stated purpose of "helping young professionals feel more fulfilled in their lives and work." As you can see, I had a hard time choosing a specific subject area within that, given that my book and this blog cover everything from relationships to money to happiness to the latest tech tools.

And yet, here you are! I am glad I didn't put pressure on myself to choose just one of those topics, or even a more specific age group.

While that purpose statement helped a little bit, it quickly stared to shift and expand in the years that followed. When I launched JennyBlake.me in 2013 it was about "how to move beyond burnout and thrive at the intersection of mind, body and business." Then it shifted to "systems at the intersection of mind, body and business."

Now, systems seem too limiting! I'm writing a book on how to figure out what's next called The Pivot Method, which is only tangentially related to those subjects. But even as I'm writing the book, I realized there's a step after that!

I am deeply curious about how to generate a feeling of momentum in life and work. Beyond the accomplishments themselves: a feeling of exhilaration, fun, ease, and wind in our hair, no matter what each of us is working on.

When I try to get more specific about my purpose, I now remember that it need only serve me for a project or two, then it's perfectly okay to zoom back out to a broader calling, one that is universally useful to us all.

Frustrated trying to figure out your "life purpose"? Try this one.

The one thing that has brought me peace in my lowest moments is (re)dedicating myself to serving others. That's it! It doesn't have to be more complicated than that.

Simply ask: how I be most helpful to the most people?

It is no coincidence that my two book deals came on the heels of great confusion and turmoil in the years prior. I would never wish suffering upon myself or you, but if it does come your way (which it inevitably will) know that once you are through it, you can transform it by helping others.

Start right where you are

Your mission to be helpful doesn't have to be on a huge public stage as a public speaker, blogger, or even teacher. Follow the yellow brick road that starts right under your feet.

When I speak with up-and-coming bloggers, I often tell them to drop the idea that they have to have a niche first. Let it come to you. Start with being helpful in any of the ways you know how. Start with your friends and family and expand from there.

And helpful doesn't have to be academic, audacious or overly complex. Helpful can be humor! Art! Inspiration! Joy! Compassion! The list goes on . . .

A few questions to consider:

• What do the most people come to you for advice about?
• What types of information and resources are you most excited to share with others?
• Take a look at your bookshelf (or Kindle, Feedly or Podcast subscriptions): what themes stand out?
• What forms of giving, sharing or teaching bring you the most joy?
• What would you do even if you weren't being paid for it?
• Do you happen to have a group of people that you most love working with? This can be a demographic (age, gender) or a psychographic (smart, motivated)

On the subject of mission statements, I have also dropped the language of "change people's lives" (which I've heard a bit in the personal development sphere). I can't change your life, and you do not necessarily need help.

I just want to be a light that shines on your own brilliance, capability, resourcefulness, and love. I resonate deeply with Michelangelo's notion that the angel is already inside the marble stone, you just need to keep chipping away the marble to see it. And as you chisel bit by bit, help someone else with their own . . . or many someones.

"Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it." —Michaelangelo

You're Invited: Free 21-Day Momentum Safari

"Small variations in initial conditions have a habit of amplifying in rather momentous ways."

—Prof. Nigel Clark, Lancaster University (thanks Dad for sending!)

In April, I'm going to be opening the doors on a private community called Momentum to help all of us generate, accelerate and maintain momentum—in any area of our lives. It will be a place to talk shop, ask me whatever is on your mind about career or self-employment, swap expertise and tools with others, and form mini-mastermind groups. We'll set a quarterly focus area and support each other in tracking our goals and filling in any gaps as we work toward them.

In the meantime, I've created a free three-week course to help get your creative gears turning. Rather than talk to you about Momentum, I want you to experience it! And have a rollicking good time in the process.

What: The 21-Day Momentum Safari is a daily adventure to help you generate movement, play and delight in any area you choose. Each day you will get a small assignment to complete an action, reflection and/or connection, based on themes from different animal avatars. By the end of the three weeks, you will have a renewed sense of lightness, play and exploration . . . and unstoppable momentum!

Where: Online course, delivered to your inbox each day with a platform for tracking your progress

When: Kicks off March 23! Sign-up today and you can get started on some of the preliminary steps, like declaring your focus area and taking a "spirit animal" personality quiz :)

Cost: Zilch! It's free.

Sign-up: Right here, baby! Can't wait to safari with you :)

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the author of Life After College and the forthcoming book The Pivot Method. She is a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business. Today you can find her here on this blog (in its 8th year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Have You Become a Half-Dead Adult?

Written by Paul Angone Are you becoming a real live half-dead adult?

What do I mean?

Well to explain let me take you to a call center.

Call Center Crisis

In my opinion, the only difference between hell and a call center is the phones. (Unless the devil is sporting a cellphone these days.)

When you work at a call center you realize fairly quickly that when people call in it’s not because they want to chitchat or tell you about the amazing work your company is doing.

No. They call because they have a problem. A life-shattering, comets-colliding, worlds-imploding problem that you’re to blame for.

And since our call center was wildly understaffed, every person I spoke to was usually waiting on hold for an hour before they even made it to me. Oh, they were just as pleasant as a peach come summertime by the time I said “hello.”

The Call Center Chef Behind Me

The only really nice thing about working at the call center was the solidarity and unity among coworkers based on one simple truth—we all hated our jobs. Every last one.

But then I’d ask coworkers how long they’d been working there. “Five years,” they’d say.

“Five years!” I’d respond. “Well, when did you first start hating the job?”

“Five years ago,” they’d say.
“Five years?” I’d respond.
Something about these conversations didn’t make sense.

Take Rosey who sat behind me. She was about 45 years old, kind, energetic, and was an amazing chef. The office parties where she brought carrot cake were the only times all calls were placed on hold.

But Rosey had been working at the call center for a long time and complained about the job with the same frequency as the incoming calls.

“Rosey, why don’t you quit this lousy job and pursue cooking?” I asked. “You’re an amazing chef. You hate it here. Why stay?”

“Oh, I tried pursuing cooking once,” she said. “But it was hard. Didn’t pay enough, you know? And I couldn’t catch a break. So I gave it up and started working here.”

“Well, I think you should give it another shot,” I said.
“No, no. That’s not for me anymore,” she said putting on her headset. “I’m done with dreaming. Just gets your hopes up for no good reason. You’re young, but one day you’ll learn. Sometimes you’ve just got to say goodbye to the fairy tale and put on your grown-up pants.”

Right there at that moment, I vowed something. I was never going to wear grown-up pants.

You see, the call center was filled with real-live-half-dead adults—people who are more comfortable with feeling like crud than they are with making a change for the better.

Change is scary. Change takes courage. Change means uncertainties.

The people at the call center let fear call the shots. They were fine living crapfully ever after. I was not.

How to Escape From Becoming a Real Live Half-Dead Adult

Taking yourself too seriously is very serious work. Very important, steadfast, I-can’t-be-bothered business. Where you save up every penny to buy a one-way ticket to Boredullameville—it’s kind of like living at Disneyland, except the exact opposite.

Or you can live differently. You can live ridiculously.

The #1 rule to living ridiculously? Never, ever, under any circumstances, worry if people think you’re ridiculous.

The boring love to bore. The realistic live all too real. Naysayers love their ample amounts of nay.

On the other hand, ridiculous people live with their bodies dipped in possibilities and they don’t care who crawls out from under a rock to tell them that painting your body in potential and “what if’s” is not the appropriate or responsible use of resources.

Ridiculous people are these weird, wild people that actually make you feel alive. They take one step in the room and the heavy weight of Stuffy Adult-Dom floats away like a helium balloon.

Ridiculous people ooze creativity. It’s easy to follow instructions. It’s hard to create your own.

Ridiculous people believe in others more than others believe in themselves. Then they constantly encourage others to see the truth that they see.

Ridiculous people don’t always live life strictly by the facts. Oh, they take them into account, but they know facts aren’t always factual. They know that facts are contrived by self-proclaimed adults for their own fancy.

Ridiculous people care more about doing what’s right than what will look right to others.

There’s too many real-live-half-dead adults for you to join the ranks. So if at some point you want to accidentally drop your “grown-up pants” in a real.live.fire, you have my blessing.

I want to be ridiculous. Who's with me?

This post is adapted from Paul Angone's book 101 Secrets For Your Twenties 

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About Paul

Paul Angone is the author of 101 Secrets for your Twenties and the creator of AllGroanUp.com, a place for those asking "what now?" Snag free chapters from his book and follow him at @PaulAngone.

One Fun Exercise to Add More Time to Your Day

By Davis Nguyen There never seems to be enough hours in a day.

Day after day, we find ourselves committing to so much that we don't have time to do the things we find important. We're left frustrated and stressed.

What if there was a better way?

What if there was a way to say no to the things that aren't so important so we could have more time for the things that are?

Last week, time coach Elizabeth Grace Saunders released her book, How to Invest Your Time Like Money. Her book offers strategies for making time for what is important in your life without having to work harder or longer.

Saunders encourages us to identify the root causes for why we don't have time for the important things in your life. Instead of feeling frustrated when you don't complete everything you want, try identifying the root problem so you can avoid the same mistake in the future.

Begin with the problem, then ask yourself why the problem occurred. Then you ask why that problem occurred. You repeat this until you arrive at the root issue.

This was a version of the exercise I performed on myself.

What was the problem?

I didn't have time to go to the movie with friends.

Why didn't you have time to go to the movie with friends?

I had a paper to work on Friday night.

Why did you have a paper to work on Friday night?

I didn't do it Friday morning.

Why didn't you do it Friday morning?

I woke up late.

Why did you wake up late?

I was reading Reddit posts the night before.

Why were you on Reddit the night before?

I didn't have a reason.

From this line of self-questioning, I came to realize what actions had caused me to miss going to the movie with friends.

When it comes down to choosing between reading Reddit and spending time with my friends, I much prefer the second.

Instead of beating myself up, I make sure I don't make the same mistake in the future.

Be sure to check out How to Invest Your Time Like Money to find more time-saving exercises. At just under 80 pages, we think it's definitely worth the investment!

We’d love to hear from you in the comments:

What is something you wish you had more time to do? How can you invest your time differently this week to make it happen?

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About Davis

Davis (@IamDavisNguyen) graduated from Yale University in 2015. He currently lives in San Francisco and works at Bain & Company. When he’s not helping CEOs transform their companies, he is helping recent graduates figure out the type of life they want for themselves and helping them get there.

How to Find Out About Work/Life Balance When Interviewing

Written by Melissa Anzman Another awesome topic from the Life After College survey!

The phrase, Flexible Work-Life Balance has not only become common place now, but is a “perk” that a lot of us are seeking in our jobs. More people than ever are looking for a career that fits in their life, instead of the other way around.

But how do you actually figure out if a new opportunity can provide you with the work/life balance you are desperately seeking?

How to Find Out About Work/Life Balance When Interviewing

“You” Questions

1. What level are you going to be at?

While not a hard and fast rule, the bigger your team, the more difficult it is to work remotely… or work less hours. I’m not saying you have to put your aspirations to be a director, a vice president, or more on hold – but what you want to be responsible for in your role, does have an impact in your flexibility.

At some point in your career, you may hit the crossroad of two choices: flexibility or the title.

This can be especially true if you’re at a larger company. I don’t think it’s right or even necessary, but seeing your face and being able to step into your office becomes more important the higher you climb.

2. What will you be responsible for?

I remember an employee coming to me and asking if they could work a flexible work schedule (working remotely 3 days a week), and her main duty was to get signatures on proofs. Think about that – her daily job was mainly walking around, talking to people and getting them to sign-off. How could she do that from her home office?

There are just some roles, although fewer and fewer these days, that require you to be onsite and working during “normal” business hours. If you are in one of those roles, it doesn’t make much business sense for them to approve more balance.

Ok, now that we have all of the “you” questions asked, here’s what to look for in the interview process.

Company Signs/Questions

1. During the interview process, will you be meeting the key stakeholders in person?

If a prospective employer has key stakeholders in different locations, whether it be at their home offices or other satellite locations, there is a better chance that you will be able to do your job from an alternative environment. This indicates that the team is already working with people who they don’t get to visually see and interface all day with – which helps your cause.

2. Ask: “What are your work-day hours/expectations?”

It sounds like a simple question, but it can reveal so much about the option to have more balance. If they are clear about it being a “butt in seat” type of role – heed that warning.

One answer I was given when I was interviewing was, “While we all work remotely, you are expected to be at your desk during business hours. Your time is monitored by your chat presence.”

That’s a pretty clear sign that there isn’t any flexibility in how or when you deliver things.

3. Ask: “Is this department open to various work arrangements and flexible work options?” or “Are there people on this team who have alternative work schedules?”

This can be a bit of a tricky question – you don’t want to tip your hat or come across as trying to get out of work. But it’s important to ask this if you are seeking more balance.

Sometimes the company is open to it, but the department isn’t – which is why you want to phrase it specific to the role, not the company. If other people are already doing it, it will make your request much easier to understand and process.

4. Find out if effort or time is rewarded

The foundation of wanting to have some balance, is to be able to deliver your work in a reasonable amount of time so you can do something other than work. The only way to achieve this, if your effort and delivery is valued over the time you spend at work.

Traditionally, larger companies lean more towards the time end of this equation – whereas smaller companies may need you to wear various hats, so they value delivery. Either way, find out what the hiring manager values in this equation. And listen to his/her answer – if they come from a more traditional work environment and are essentially attached to their crackberry, they are going to expect that from you… which obviously won’t lead to much balance.

Some Things to Remember

1. There are so many ways to create more balance in your work, be sure to try several of them before giving up.
2. Working shorter hours, means you’ll have to learn how to work more efficiently – it takes time to learn how to make this work for you.
3. Research work/life balance options before approaching the conversation. There are many different ways to create the work schedule that works for you – a 4/10 (four days a week, 10 hours each day – one day off); working remotely all or some days; and really whatever other arrangement you can think of. Consider how your absence will impact your colleagues, peers, clients, boss, and the overall organization, before you make your ask.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below: What’s your burning question about creating a flexible work/life environment?

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About Melissa

Melissa Anzman is the creator of Launch Your Job  where she equips ambitious leaders with practical ways to grow their career. She is the author of two books: How to Land a Job and Stop Hating Your Job. Follow her @MelissaAnzman.

20+ Apps That Transform Your Smartphone Into An On-the-Go Office

Written by Marisol Dahl

Raise your hand if you spend the entire workday in your office, at your desk. No one? Only a few? That's not surprising.

With our jobs more mobile, more global, and more on-the-go than ever, we're spending less time in the office and more time out on the field. We're hopping on planes, meeting new colleagues at coffee shops, and hosting conference calls while cooking dinner.

You may not always have the luxury of a decked-out and teched-out office at your fingertips, but there are times when no matter where you are, you just gotta get stuff done. Here are a few of my favorite apps that help make on-the-go office-y things a breeze.

20+ Apps That Transform Your Smartphone Into An On-the-Go Office

Notes, Notebooks, and To-Do Lists

• Todoist: you can make lists for different projects and assign different tasks for different days. You can even add recurring action items.
• Wunderlist: Great for making multiple separate to-do lists.
• Notes: the good ol' fashioned iPhone app. Super quick and easy for when you want to jot down a new idea.
• Evernote: Create notes, sort them into notebooks and notebook stacks, and more! This app syncs across devices and makes it easy to share and work on notes with others. Everyday I’m finding new awesome tricks with Evernote—it’s my number one must-have.

File Access and Storage

• Dropbox: Cloud storage for all your files so you can access them anywhere. All of my files are on Dropbox, and I have very little that is just stored on my computer. With this app, I basically have the entire contents of my computer at my fingertips no matter where I am.
• Google Drive

Word Processing and Editing

• Google Docs: Syncs up with all your Google Drive documents and allows you to do all of the fancy editing that you normally could with Google Drive. Great for quick drafting that's immediately available to view on other devices and share with other people.
• Microsoft Word: Beautiful integration with Dropbox word documents. This is great for creating more formal documents to send and share. It has a few more formatting options than Google Docs, and you can do almost all the fancy formatting like in regular Word on your computer, like inserting tables, adjusting margins, fiddling with fonts and colors.
• Adobe Reader: Great for annotating PDFs that you can grab from other apps like Mail and Dropbox. You can highlight, underline, draw, comment, and more. Major bonus: it can convert files to and from PDF format!

Scanning and Faxing (yes, I said faxing)

• Scannable: This new app from Evernote will make any old piece of paper into a beautiful, crisp electronic file. No bulky printer needed—scan and send any piece of paper in seconds.
• JotNot Fax and FaxFile: I know, who faxes anymore? But every once in a while there's a situation in which something must be faxed. Just these past couple years, I’ve become much more comfortable with faxing than I thought I’d ever be. These apps are reliable and simple.

Calendar and Mail

• Gmail: Easily usable for any account on Google Apps for Business.
• Mailbox: People swear by it!
• Sunrise: A great calendar app that integrates iCloud, Gmail, and Outlook calendars. You can set it to give you notifications so you’ll always be on time.

Business Collaboration and Connection

• CamCard: perfect for quick business card scanning and for transferring your own contact info. If you want to get really fancy, there's FullContact Card Reader. Through Zapier integration FullContact is able to automate a lot of different actions once a new card is collected, including automatically adding that person on LinkedIn or to your Google Contacts.
• If your workplace uses online social work platforms, you bet there’s an app for that! Download Asana, Podio, Trello, Basecamp, and more to keep up with all project updates on-the-go.

Time Tracking and Invoicing

• Whatever you use for tracking time and sending invoices at the office, there’s probably an app for that. I particularly love Freshbooks and Harvest.

There you have it. With these apps, staying on top of your work while away from the office is totally manageable.

Looking for More?

To keep up on our latest favorite apps, tools, and resources, be sure to

sign up for the Life After College newsletter. Bi-weekly roundups chock full of new ideas and things to try, read, and explore—straight to your inbox!

So, what did I miss?

Do you have any other must-have apps that make working on-the-go easy?

About Marisol Dahl

Marisol is currently a Sociology and Education Studies major at Yale University. A longtime New Yorker, her interests include business, communications, and marketing. Marisol started her blog in 2011 as a way to document her college years and beyond. When not running around campus and catching up with her school reading, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading dystopian fiction, and trying out new recipes. She can be reached on Twitter at @marisoldahl.

One Obvious Way to Achieve Your New Year's Resolution that You Probably Missed

By Davis Nguyen All right everyone, January is over. How are your New Year's resolutions coming along? Is it smooth sailing? A bit of a struggle?

Have you already forgotten?

For the longest time, I found myself setting the same New Year's resolution year after year.

Most of my life, my friends and family would remind me to watch what I ate and suggested maybe I should take an extra gym period. It was their way of hinting that I was on the heavier side of the scale.

Every year in high school, I placed weight loss as a New Year's goal and at the end of each year, I would just add it again. I got nowhere. I would read books about dieting, download a copy of P90X, and buy weights, but I never got started.

Why My New Year's Resolutions Never Took Off

Each December I'd reflect on why I failed to accomplish my goal, and it became down to the same reason: I didn't know how to start.

There was so much I didn't understand and the more I tried to figure it out on my own, the more confused I would get.

Are carbs good or bad?

Do I do low-weight and high-rep, or was it high-weight and low-rep?

What workout supplements do I need?

I came into college 40 pounds overweight. I've since dropped those extra pounds, made staying healthy a lifestyle, and given people advice as they start their own fitness goals.

How I Changed My Approach

What changed from high school and college?

Entering college, I was surrounded by people who ate healthy and did morning runs before class. I even dated a girl for whom being healthy was the number one priority. I didn't know it at the time, but being around them slowly changed the way I lived my own life.

I saw how they exercised and what foods they ate; and when the whole table opts not to have dessert, you're less inclined to hold everyone up with your own dessert.

I was able to lose 40 pounds in ten months just by being around people were already doing what I wanted to do. I learned that sometimes you just can't do everything on your own.

How to Make Sure Your Resolutions Don't Fail

One of my long-term goals is to inspire people to believe that they can have a better life. This year one of my resolutions is to land my first speaking engagement. A year ago, I wouldn't know where to start:

How do I get people to hire me? What do I talk about? What if they ask how much I want to be paid?

Instead of trying to answer those questions by myself, I started reaching out to and asking people who have built careers as public and motivational speakers.

Through knowing and talking to them, I was able to get my questions answered and advice on how to get started. As a result, I landed two events just in January.

The quickest way to accomplish something is to surround yourself with people who have already done it.

We’d love to hear from you in the comments:

What is one small step you can take toward your biggest goal for 2015?

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About Davis

Davis (@IamDavisNguyen) graduated from Yale University in 2015. He currently lives in San Francisco and works at Bain & Company. When he’s not helping CEOs transform their companies, he is helping recent graduates figure out the type of life they want for themselves and helping them get there.

Joseph Campbell: What is Your Sacred Place?

Written by Jenny Blake

Greetings from Ubud, Bali, where I'm living for the month of January . . . sadly for just a few more days! For the logistics of planning a trip here, check out The Nuts and Bolts of Living in Bali for a Month.

I knew I felt like an iPhone on red battery when I arrived, but had no idea just how deep that "red" feeling actually went. I couldn't even bear to crack open my laptop for the first week — I felt a crazy-strong pull to take a break from all obligations and rediscover the 50,000 foot perspective on my life and work. After all, that 50,000 foot view isn't just some static object to behold, it is a constant evolution full of new surprises and insights.

Although I intended on making this a "workcation," for the majority of the trip (outside of coaching calls and light task maintenance) I ended up putting many projects on hold. Instead I focused on fully recharging through yoga, meditation, sunshine, healthy food, and great conversations with fellow travelers.

In doing all that, at first I felt a bit self-indulgent. Is it hedonistic of me to base every day solely around my own health and happiness? But now, almost one month later, I can categorically say no.

I am a better person when I am recharged. I am happier, I am more creative, I am a better listener, I smile more, and I have more love to give. I can only imagine the ripple effect this has on the hundreds of tiny interactions I have each day, online and off. Imagine what would be possible for our communities and the world if we were all even just 10 percent more connected to our best, most "charged" selves?

In a recent post on JB.me (Life Origami: Can You Delight in the Slow Unfolding?) I quoted Joseph Campbell — one of my favorite authors — who is an expert on mythology, legend and culture (1904-1987). You may already be familiar with his Hero's Journey archetype, but there's so much more of Campbell to know and love, as I recently discovered reading the text of his in-depth 1985 interview with Bill Moyers in The Power of Myth.

Although Campbell's advice to "follow your bliss" has become a common colloquialism, many people find the advice overwhelming. What if you don't know what your passion is? What if it changes from season to season? No doubt it will.

Campbell nonetheless implores all of us to carve out a path for our bliss, to fight for it, no matter how small our success at first. Below are some of my favorite excerpts on how (and why) to do this.

Joseph Campbell on How to Find Your Bliss

What does it mean to have a sacred place?

“This is an absolute necessity for anybody today. You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen."

What happens when you don't follow your bliss?

"Our life has become so economic and practical in its orientation that, as you get older, the claims of the moment upon you are so great, you hardly know where the hell you are, or what it is you intended. You are always doing something that is required of you. Where is your bliss station? You have to try to find it.

. . . That's the man who never followed his bliss. You may have a success in life, but then just think of it — what kind of life was it? what good was it — you've never done the thing you wanted to do in all your life. I always tell my students, go where your body and soul want to go. When you have the feeling, then stay with it, and don't let anyone throw you off."

Moyers: What happens when you follow your bliss?

"In the Middle Ages, a favorite image that occurs in many, many contexts is the wheel of fortune. There's the hub of the wheel, and there is the revolving rim of the wheel. For example, if you are attached to the rim of the wheel of fortune, you will be either above going down or at the bottom coming up. But if you are at the hub, you are in the same place all the time. That is the sense of the marriage vow — I take you in health or sickness, in wealth or poverty: going up or going down. But I take you as my center, and you are my bliss, not the wealth that you might bring me, not the social prestige, but you. That is following your bliss."

What if you don't know where to start?

"Sit in a room and read—and read and read. And read the right books by the right people. Your mind is brought onto that level, and you have a nice, mild, slow-burning rapture all the time. This realization of life can be a constant realization in your living. When you find an author who really grabs you, read everything he has done. Don’t say, 'Oh, I want to know what So-and-so did'—and don’t bother at all with the bestseller list. Just read what this one author has to give you. And then you can go read what he had read. And the world opens up in a way that is consistent with a certain point of view.”

What if you haven't found your life's bigger purpose, passion or mission? No matter. Start with daily life:

“We are having experiences all the time which may on occasion render some sense of this, a little intuition of where your bliss is. Grab it. No one can tell you what it is going to be. You have to learn to recognize your own depth.”

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the author of Life After College and the forthcoming book The Pivot Method. She is a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business. Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Cover Letters Oh My!

Written by Melissa Anzman

Based on some of the responses from the 2-question survey about what you want us to create this year, (have you taken it yet? If not, here's the link), I was excited to see learning more tactical ways to move your career forward, was on the list.

One that grabbed my immediate attention, likely since I absolutely loathe them myself, is a request to learn all about cover letters. So I'm going to pull the HR curtain back and help you use these cover letter tactics to move your career forward this year.

Do I Need a Cover Letter?

Let's get this out of the way first: yes, you absolutely need a cover letter. I hate to give you that advice, but it's a necessary component of your resume toolkit. Cover letters are used in different ways depending on who the recruiter and hiring manager are, but they are important because they allow you to provide additional information as to why you are the right candidate for the role, and they can be used when a recruiter is on the fence about your candidacy.

Bottom line - you need a cover letter and it needs to shine, but you shouldn't be spending a bunch of time on it. 

How to Write A Cover Letter

The cover letter goes in the body of your email.

I’m not sure how or why so many people get this wrong, but do not attach your cover letter… anywhere. When you apply via email, your email IS your cover letter – so put all of the goodies in the actual body of the email.

When you are applying via online program such as Taleo or Brassrings, I recommend pasting your cover letter into the space provided when you are confirming your documents, versus doing it as an upload. This way, you know exactly which cover letter you’ve attached and helps alleviate another blunder.

A hiring manager or recruiter is not going to waste time opening another document, so make it as easy as possible for them to get a snapshot of what you bring to the table.

Have three simple and short paragraphs –that’s it.

1. Paragraph one: tell the recruiter who you are, where you found the position, which position you are applying for and one engaging fact.
2. Paragraph two: your differentiators – what makes you the best candidate for the job; what skills and/or experience do you have that directly relates to the position posted that is not highlighted verbatim on your resume.
3. Paragraph three: leave the recruiter with one fun or interesting nugget to remember you by and how and when you can be contacted.

Don’t say “I’m the best candidate for this job”

The recruiter is already assuming you feel you are the best candidate for the job, since you’ve decided to apply. Instead, SHOW all of the ways you are the best fit – what have you done that would support that statement, what else? Keep digging deeper until you are sure that your dad (or insert another non-industry adult) would understand your accomplishments, without knowing you personally.

For example:

• Tell: I was the top salesman at the company.
• Show: I was ranked 1 across the 33 sales people at the company, increasing profits over 13% which equated to $30,000 of new business.

See the difference? The “Tell” does not provide a reference point, leaving the recruiter left asking… so what? When you show, the recruiter is able to see the significance of your achievement.

Remove the gimmicks, insults, and superlatives.

If you’re making the recruiter roll their eyes, you are going in the "no pile." They don’t want to hear what your colleagues say about you, or how great your parents think you are. They want to see actual results – “I launched two HR departments at small companies which resulted in X, Y, and Z. This experience will directly correlate with the change management initiative responsibilities you’ve included in the job description.”

Your tone should be professional, concise, and to the point. And above all else, it should be fact. Your cover letter (or any job-seeking materials) should be rooted in fact, not smoke and mirrors.

If you include items in your resume that seem too good to be true (I am the best at Sales, better at Research and Development, and top-achiever in Marketing), you will be overlooked – even if it’s true.

Be consistent about your cover letter topic so it doesn’t sound like BS.

Remember, the recruiter wants to be friends - so make it as easy as possible for them to connect with you as a person. 

Your cover letter should be specific to each position.

While I also believe in tweaking your resume for each application (if applicable), updating your cover letter for each application is a must. There is no excuse for you not to include only relevant information here – address the hiring manager properly, if you are applying directly, include the company name and the correct position title, and be sure that you address specific accomplishments from the required skills.

No one cares about the classes you took and other miscellaneous information.

Being a new grad is ok – hiring managers have all been there too. But when you list “relevant coursework” in your cover letter, or even worse – on your resume, it looks like you haven't "accomplished" work yet.

Everyone knows that real life experience vastly differs from anything you have learned in a classroom.

You are wasting valuable space in your cover letter when discussing “I got an A in Accounting,” or “I may not have real life experience, but I took many business courses in college.”

These facts may help you when on the job, but it’s more important for you to SHOW how you utilize the skills you have learned.

Have some per-son-ality, you’ve got personality…

(Did you sing along to that or did I out-nerd all of you?)

A boring form letter will not cut it anymore. Let your unique voice shine through.

Your cover letter should be written in first person (no references like “Anzman does” or Melissa can”) and should come across as though you’re in an interview – condensed into three short paragraphs.

Boring is easily overlooked but obnoxious will not win you any friends either. Be YOU, write about YOU, SHOW the hiring manager what YOU bring to the table, and you will have instant cover letter personality.

We’d love to hear from you in the comments below: What’s one thing you will do today to improve your cover letter?

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About Melissa

Melissa Anzman is the creator of Launch Your Job  where she equips ambitious leaders with practical ways to grow their career. She is the author of two books: How to Land a Job and Stop Hating Your Job. Follow her @MelissaAnzman.

Your Biggest Fall Might Save Your Life (an unbelievable story from history)

Written by Paul Angone This story starts with a terrible accident.

One that took place at the worst possible time. (as most accidents do)

A man went on a carriage ride with his son and daughter. This man was an incredibly important figure of his day and was working non-stop for years. He needed to get away and think in peace for a moment.

As the carriage turned down a cobbled street, a horse got spooked and took off full speed, crashing the carriage and throwing this man to the street below.

His injuries were extremely serious. A broken shoulder, broken jaw, face and head lacerations, and severe bleeding. Some feared the man would not survive. A large metal splint held his jaw together, covering one of the most prominent faces of the time.

How could this happen? 

This man was so crucially needed, and his injuries so serious, that Abraham Lincoln cut his trip short and rushed home to visit his most trusted confidant, ally, and friend. Lincoln stepped into a dark room full of nurses whispering, with worries of death on their faces, and his heart sunk.

There his friend lay in immense pain. Lincoln was able to share with him that the Civil War was sure to be over in days. They had finally done it. It must have been a moment shared together filled with such joy, pain, and exhaustion.

It was the last time Lincoln would talk to his friend, the Secretary of State, William H. Seward.

Nine days later, Lincoln would be assassinated. And on the same night as Ford Theater's infamous performance, an assassin would come for William Seward as well. And Seward should've died if it wasn't for the most unusual of miracles.

The Assassination Attempt

Lewis Powell entered Seward's house and injured many with a gun and bowie knife as he stormed into Seward's room. And there over a defenseless Seward the assassin would strike him with a bowie knife in the face repeatedly and hit him with his gun until Seward rolled off the bed, supposedly dead.

But defying all odds, he was not.

Months later, Seward would make a miraculous recovery and re-take his position of Secretary of State, supporting newly appointment President Andrew Johnson through their courageous, yet reviled by many, plans of complete reconciliation with the South. If not for Seward's support, Johnson might have been impeached.

So what miracle saved Seward's life that terrible night?

The large metal splint from his broken jaw. The terrible carriage accident only nine days earlier saved his life from the unthinkable act later.

The metal used to hold together a terrible break became a shield that would protect his face from numerous fatal blows.

Road to Redemption

The most miserable moments of our lives have the potential for the greatest redemption. 

Our greatest falls have the possibility for the greatest rise.

Many things in life won't turn out like we planned. Some things will even inexplicably take turns down dark roads.

But we never know what amazing gift lies around the next corner if we are willing to keep walking.

As I recently wrote recently in the incredible benefits to failing miserably; failure doesn't ruin your story. Failure helps you write it.

Later William H. Seward would do something else that many would consider one of the greatest mistakes of the time, he would purchase a piece of land called Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000 in 1867. "Seward's Folly," as it was called, purchased one of the most dense states of natural resources for two cents an acre. Not a bad return on investment. One that probably would've never happened if he hadn't first crashed that day.

Where does your story find you right now? At the top of the mountain? Or at the bottom with a broken ankle?

Wherever your story finds you, live it with the hopeful expectation for redemption.

With great pain can come great purpose. 

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About Paul

Paul Angone is the author of 101 Secrets for your Twenties and the creator of AllGroanUp.com, a place for those asking "what now?" Snag free chapters from his book and follow him at @PaulAngone.

Happy 7-Year Blogiversary to Life After College!

Written by Jenny Blake

I can’t believe it, but the Life After College website turned nine years old this week . . . and the blog seven! No big fanfare or round-up this year; just an enormous thanks to all of you who are here reading. No matter where you are in your life after college, the LAC team and I are thrilled to have you on board, and honored to be writing for you week after week.

I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a New Year filled with adventure, magnetic personal projects, and momentum in whichever direction excites you most. Not sure what that is? Here’s a template with thought-starters for the year ahead.

How Can We Be Most Helpful? Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

2015, we’re coming for ya! We are eager to dive in and create insanely helpful posts and tools for you this year. In order to do that most effectively, we would love your feedback . . .

If you have 60 seconds, please share your thoughts in this quick 2-question survey about what we can create for you next year and you will be entered to win one of two $50 Amazon gift cards!

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the author of Life After College and the forthcoming book The Pivot Method. She isa career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business. Today you can find her here on this blog (in its seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.  

Photo Credit: andrewmalone via Compfight cc

Magnetic Personal Projects: What’s Yours? Part 3 — Let’s Talk Money

Written by Jenny Blake

Now you know how to deflect boring cocktail party banter. You’ve tested your side business hypothesis and got your eyes on a personal project prize, maybe even one that can generate additional income. Now the question is, how can you turn it into a full-fledged business if and when you’re ready?

Roll up your sleeves and get ready for today’s post: we’re going to talk money, honey.

The Fundamentals

First, it’s important to know how much you need to live on a monthly basis.

When working with coaching clients, I start with three basic gauges for monthly income:

• Minimum needed to pay basic expenses
• Nice-to-have (to meet current or desired lifestyle)
• Jump out of bed with glee (smashing audacious success!)
• If you need help calculating your monthly expenses, try this 4-Step Budget Template (I also suggest Mint.com for tracking on an ongoing basis).

Next, we work backwards from the nice-to-have number:

• How many clients (or widgets do you need to sell) at what rate?
• Or is it one client or company that you’re focused on, and you need to increase the scope of work?
• Sketch out a few scenarios with this financial modeling spreadsheet.

Avocados versus Tomatoes

My friend Jenn shared an analogy that she learned from business coach Monica Shaw, on avocados versus tomatoes. Jenn describes it as follows:

Avocados are long-term projects and bigger bets that are worth the wait. Avocados don’t grow as plentifully, but when they do they are creamy and delicious. Avocados take longer to harvest, are more expensive to grow, and they aren’t always in season—they are therefore harder to come by.

Tomatoes, in business, are more readily available, easy ways to make money. In nature, tomatoes are a dime a dozen, their crops are bountiful, and they grow in all kinds of different terrain and weather. Therefore tomatoes are not as valuable, because there are so many of them, accessible to us at all times.

The analogy in business is that avocados are the long-term projects that bear very bountiful fruit but go through barren periods, whereas tomatoes are what tide us over in-between because of their short incubation period from planting to harvesting. The idea is to have a mix between avocados and tomatoes.

First, find your tomatoes: what activities create baseline income? Baseline income tends to be consistent, sustainable income that might be service-oriented programs or exchanging time-for-money, but are structured in a way that covers baseline expenses no matter what. Then with these “tomatoes” in place, you can move in to mid-and top-tier projects that are bigger bets but that won’t always consistently bear fruit. You have your basic expenses covered while still able to cultivate the time and energy it takes to grow more avocados (and not just be a tomato farmer).

Is it Quitting Time?

Even though leaving my full-time job in 2011 was the right decision for me, I actually don’t think it is always the best next move for everyone.

There’s a financial term, “unrealized gains,” that refers to money you’re leaving on the table by leaving too soon. If you’re in a great job at a great company, there is a chance this could be the case.

I suggest you pivot before you leap: before you plan your exit, consider whether there is some totallynew or sideways team in the company where you could practice some of the skills that you would need for your side business or for running your own business.

For me, I pivoted internally from the AdWords training team to the coaching and Career Development team. When I left Google to work for myself, I was doing virtually the same job activities.

If you have done everything in your power to stay and you’re still ready to go, it is critical to have a clear understanding of the following:

• Savings Runway: how much money have you saved that can fund your transition?
• Monthly Burn Rate: how much money do you typically spend each month to live? How many months will your savings last you?
• Lines in the sand: by when do you want to make the final decision about leaving? When is your final “make or break” deadline, where if you’re not earning enough money you will look for another job?
• Bridge Income: how can you earn income to buoy yourself between career changes, in addition to your savings runway?

Additional Reading

These questions alone could fill a book . . . one that I’m writing, in fact! Here are a few others to keep you busy in the meantime:

• For those of you who want to figure out a business model to support your next steps, I recommend Business Model You and the Freelancer’s Bible.
• For building a lean, resilient business, Eric Reis’s The Lean Startup is a must-read.
• Seth Godin’s Startup School series is a must-listen (I downloaded the SoundCloud app solely for this purpose!). Be sure to also check out his great classes on Skillshare.
• If you want to identify the common threads in your career, check out Pamela Slim’s Body of Work.
• To run your life and career like a company, I suggest Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha’s The Startup of You and Shane Snow’s Smartcuts.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments:

What next step/s could you take to pivot before you leap? 

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Disclosure: This post was written as part of the University of Phoenix Versus Program. I’m a compensated contributor, but the thoughts and ideas are my own.

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the author of Life After College and the forthcoming book The Pivot Method. She isa career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business. Today you can find her here on this blog (in its seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.

Magnetic Personal Projects: What’s Yours? Part Two — Start a Side Business

By Jenny Blake

Last time we talked about the importance of having a compelling personal project you’re excited about, no matter where you work or who you work for (including yourself).

Today I’m going to talk about a specific type of personal project: the side business. This is different from a hobby in that it is tied to earning a living, even if just a tiny proportion of your current income.

Side businesses often represent a calculated risk: I am going to willingly invest some of my spare time and energy (and maybe money) in this side project, something I’m excited about, with the hopes of making a greater proportion of my living off of this someday, or using it to land my next paid gig.

Side Business Sweet Spot

One of my friends, Christian, loves fishing. When he finds a good spot in the lake, he refers to it as a “honey hole.” The honey hole is the secret spot he can return to that’s highly likely to yield a great catch.

The best side businesses are your equivalent of a honey hole: you enjoy them, you are excited to return to work, you feel you have discovered something unique to you, and they are fruitful—they provide value in return.

There are four criteria to a successful side business:

1. Cash Flow

If it does not create income, either now or in the future, your beloved side business is a hobby. The best side businesses will be able to demonstrate a return on your investment; if not now, then at some point in the not-too-distant future. How long you are willing to wait for that is up to you, but I suggest doing something where you can test the ability to generate revenue fairly quickly.

At first, the income you earn from your side business is likely to be very labor-intensive. You invest time and sweat equity for little pay. You do the hardest work up front. In his Startup Schoolpodcast series, Seth Godin calls this “front-loading”—better to do the hard work up front then reap the rewards later, rather than be surprised down the road when you have much more at stake.

2. Enjoyment

A side business doing grunt work is valuable if it helps you pay the bills or save up for the next big trip you want to take. But a side business with swagger is one that gets you into a state of flow. It is one that allows you to tap into your unique zone of genius, and leverages your best strengths. It is one where you lose track of time, and are excited to get to work, whether you have 15 minutes to spend on it that day or five hours.

Questions to consider: What did you love to do as a kid? How might you pilot something similar as an adult?

3. Skill-Building

This is where you get to be a bit of a futurist: what skills will be needed in your field in the next few years? What areas are most exciting to you? What skills, if you were to build them now, while this is a side project, would greatly serve you if/when you were to take this project full-time? For some this may be more formal education; for others self-study or learning by observing others does the trick.

4. Opportunity & Market Potential

This goes hand-in-hand with cash flow. The most successful side businesses are ones that have a solid amount of growth potential. If you love teaching underwater basket-weaving but there’s no one interested in learning it from you, you will be quickly catapulted back into unprofitable habit territory.

Look for side businesses where the market is bigger than your ability to serve it; opportunities that Nassim Taleb would describe as “Antifragile.” Look for areas where, if you were to invest your resources, you could profit almost no matter the state of the economy; opportunities that areasymmetrical in that they have high potential upside with limited downside, or risk.

Be the Scientist

I like to think of side businesses like experiments: you have a hypothesis about something that interests you that could make money, and now it is time to test your theory. For those of you who are already self-employed, this might be testing a new approach, service or product within your overall business.

Here’s a template for this exercise, which will walk you through the following steps:

• Make a list of 10 potential side business hypotheses that interest you down the left-hand side of the page, with the four categories above across the top.
• Rate each idea on a scale of 1-5 for each of the criteria.
• If you don’t have a clear winner, narrow the list down to your top three, and determine one small next step or experiment you could try for each.

Stay tuned for Part Three, where I’ll share more on how to determine when to take your side business full-time.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments:

Which of your personal projects has the most side business potential? 

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Disclosure: This post was written as part of the University of Phoenix Versus Program. I’m a compensated contributor, but the thoughts and ideas are my own.

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About Jenny

Jenny Blake is the author of Life After College and the forthcoming book The Pivot Method. She isa career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business. Today you can find her here on this blog (in its seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.