1. I’ve failed miserably.

2. I’ve had my heart broken.

3. I chose meaning over money.

Through these three things, I discovered my true self, realized that I wasn’t going to be around forever and made a conscious decision to make NOW count. Thankfully, I interact with an increasing number of people that are waking up to this same idea. Like me, they’re realizing that a meaningful life IS possible for them. They’re realizing that money can’t and will never buy them the passion they seek, but that discovering and living that passion (and a life lived meaningfully well) can and will make them money.

Life is not a series of events that occur to you. There is no third party influencing your life. It is through establishing the right mindset (thoughts become things) and your undying pursuit of living the life of your dreams that will guide you and create unbounded opportunity. Being around the right people will change you, so be ruthless with your time and select your acquaintances carefully. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, so surround yourself with people who believe what you believe. As required, perfect the art of saying “No” to those who do not fit your vision for your future.

Although life rarely affords you second chances, you must believe that in front of you are infinite possibilities. Many people fail to have great careers because (1) they know they’re supposed to follow their interests/passions…but they don’t, (2) they tell themselves that they aren’t geniuses or that they don’t have special skills, or (3) they tell themselves that they’re not unique…that they’re “normal”. If you look at yourself through any of those lenses, remove those thoughts from your mind and allow life’s infinite possibilities to occur by taking the brakes off your mind and what you are capable.

Remember, nothing replaces human contact. It isn’t and should never be viewed as a luxury. Generate value for and be nice to all those you encounter as you never know what they’re going through. At the end of the day, there are “leaders” and there are those who lead. Which are you going to be? People will not remember what you said or did, nor will they buy what you do, they remember how you made them feel and they buy WHY you do it.

To determine your Why:

1. Fail fast and learn from your mistakes,

2. Have deep and meaningful relationships with diverse people,

3. Choose not to buy iStuff and McMansions,

4. Error on the side of taking action NOW,

5. Create a positive mindset and visualize yourself being successful,

6. Surround yourself with people who believe in what you believe in,

7. Generate value for everyone, and

8. Ask yourself, “What legacy do I want to leave behind?”

Just like the point of education isn’t grades, your Why shouldn’t be retail therapy or escaping from your career. On the contrary, the point of grades, however, can be education and your Why should be focused on determining how to live a unique life, loving a lot and unlocking your own potential.

If you are under the age of 35 and/or you’re worth less than a few million dollars, you probably feel as though the ruling class in America is writing you off. And, truth be told, they are. We live in an age of manufactured perma-crisis where solutions are simple but there is too much money being made on the maintenance of these crises. The problem for you then becomes this overwhelming feeling of having your drive, motivation, purpose, meaning and desire being stripped right out from underneath you. You may choose to resign yourself to a life of mediocrity. You may not choose to live a life meaningfully well and full of purpose.

All of the above hit me in early 2008 like a freight train. I was nearly depressed, felt hopeless and didn’t think there was anything that I could do to change or control my fate. I had become so focused on receiving recognition for my iStuff that I neglected to think about true happiness, intrinsic motivation and the impact that I was meant to have on society. Each and every one of us is here for a reason. Sometimes that reason doesn’t smack you in the face until months or years after you’d wish it to. So, what can you do to overpower mediocrity, establish clear intent and live a remarkable life? Here are five ideas that will push you towards the creation of your Intention Statement.

You Can’t be Given Your Intent – Although I’ve had multiple clients ask me to provide them with the answer on what to do next in their career, no one, besides you, can determine that answer. The only way to find it is to work…and work hard. Try different jobs, volunteer, serve on boards, coach your kid’s sports team, build relationships and reflect on your learning often. Through time, effort, being inquisitive and identifying patterns of internal happiness, your purpose will become clearer and you’ll discover your intent.

Answer the Question, Why? – An Intention Statement, by nature, is your never changing purpose. It’s the why behind your decisions and choices. It’s the reason and motivation for you to sacrifice and do things now that no one else WILL do so that down the road you’ll be doing things that no one else CAN do. Ask yourself, what am I doing when I lose track of time? What do I want my legacy to be? What produces a strong sense of purpose deep down in my soul? When you ask yourself these questions, the answers derived will help create the guiding statement that will make life’s tougher decisions easier.

Simplicity and Imposing Constraints – The achievement of your intent cannot occur if your life is so full of distractions that you can’t focus on the meaningful. Instead of letting your schedule schedule you, consciously schedule your priorities. Don’t confuse placing constraints on your life and the activities you choose to engage in with making sacrifices. The constraints will allow you to focus more fully on the tasks that push you to create your lasting legacy.

Don’t Extract, Generate Value – As your craft your statement, choose actions that do not take away from others’ lives. There are already enough people in our world participating in the biggest upwards transfer of wealth in American history, starting international conflicts and placing power in the hands of the few. Why not be a part of the solution? Why not be a part of something that provides others with a hand up, not a hand out. Instead of saying I’m the producer and you’re the consumer, focus on being an individual, an artist and someone generating value for all of the “common” wealth. Choose not to focus on output, but rather to focus on multiple bottom line outcome.

Create a Memorable Statement – Somewhat similar to a corporate mission statement, your Intention Statement should be short, succinct, meaningful and able to serve you for decades to come. Write the statement so that you can memorize it and easily recite it back to others in conversation. Write it so that you are proud to say it aloud in groups and that it inspires others to go through the process to write their own.

In short, put in the time and hard work of self discovery, determine what you’d like your legacy to be, limit life’s distractions, generate value for others and put it all together to create a remarkable statement.

As we continue our slow transition out of the industrial economy into the knowledge economy, creating your reason is perhaps the most rebellious, and noble, thing you can do. Not leaving your fate in someone else’s hands is empowering. Continually striving for better, faster, cheaper is simply a race to the bottom. Simply falling victim to the downward spiral of working harder, getting poorer, feeling emptier, buying more, working harder will not allow you to achieve your life’s true intent. Why not create an upward spiral of success where you can leave the McJob formerly known as your career and transition to something that provides you with autonomy in your decision making, the ability to master your craft and purpose in your daily activities?

Human potential is vaster than any of us know. Your job is to find your own potential and then help everyone around you explode their potential.

So, I ask you again, what is your life’s intent?

Source: nothingknew.org

Popular culture has continually framed our idea of leadership to be something that is bigger than the individual. Because of this, we treat the title “leader” as something that one day we’ll deserve while giving little thought to the small things we do daily and how they are transformational to the lives around us. Leadership IS these small moments and you can be extraordinarily powerful simply by changing one person’s understanding of his/her ability. Here are five things you can do to be an everyday leader:

1. Operate with Integrity – in both personal and professional contexts, you will encounter and have to solve increasingly and incredibly complex issues. Ask yourself, “What is the RIGHT thing to do?” Don’t follow society’s path of focusing on the accumulation of financial wealth to answer these questions. With integrity, focus on generating spiritual, emotional, relationship, intellectual and creative wealth for your stakeholders when selecting the resolution. At the end of the day, business will never be as profitable as betterness.

2. Your “Say-Do Ratio” – there is a direct correlation between developing a reputation for doing what you say you’ll do and leading people. Humans are drawn to others who are credible and trustworthy. By continually setting expectations, and then fulfilling your obligations to those expectations, you will see how the speed of trust creates an inspired vision and following faster. You will unlock human potential and create a pay-it forward mentality that will impact more lives than you could ever touch yourself.

3. Embrace Difficult Tasks – I find it fun and rewarding to discover answers to hard problems. So should you. Do not be afraid of tough jobs, embrace them and the professional development you’ll experience. When given the choice between two projects, always error on the side of accepting the bigger challenge. Those in your circle of influence will recognize the achiever in you and be inspired to follow suit creating an upward spiral of accomplishment and societal benefit.

4. Ask the Right Questions – as an everyday leader, your job is to listen actively, simply stuff and be predictable. You must get better at understanding situational context, be able to clarify and crash together disparate ideas and ask the right questions that create introspective thought in your stakeholders. Ask questions that are specific to and tailored to the strengths of the person you are speaking with. You have to plan to be strategic with your people and moving them towards a shared goal. Be sure to dedicate time regularly.

5. Have a Sense of Urgency – regardless of your goal, drive towards it with a strong desire to win. In the 21^st century, high performance is simply an entry ticket to the dance. Our world is evolving at an increasing rate and you must push yourself, and inspire others, to make key decisions often based on limited information. Make sacrifices. Work hard. Move fast. Get results.

Leadership is not something that you may deserve at some point in the future. It is something that you are right here, right now. Do not devalue the seemingly small things you can do to change someone’s life. Do not be frightened by the fact that you actually matter that much. Do not fear that you are actually powerful beyond measure. Perhaps, it is our light and potential, not our darkness that scares us. Provide others with hope. Live up to your potential. Be an everyday leader.

• If you’re not doing it wrong, you’re doing it wrong. Fail fast…learn, unlearn and relearn…make change.
• The secret to making mistakes isn’t to avoid them; it’s to realize that they aren’t fatal. They’re the fuel to find stratospheric success.
• The root cause of disaster is predisposition towards immediate gratification. Instead, focus on endeavors that result in long-term success.
• Corporations optimize profitability. Conversely, great humans optimize by giving more than they receive and serving others authentically.
• It is easy to measure the day by the extrinsic rewards you garner, but more meaningful to measure the number of individuals you inspire.
• We speak what matters most without words.
• “You don’t get paid for the hour, you get paid for the value you bring to the hour.” -Jim Rohn. How are you generating value for others?
• It’s okay if you cannot do great big things now. Start by doing smaller things in a great way. Move from success to significance.
• Instead of spending time trying to be interesting, why don’t you spend time being interested? People remember how you made them feel.
• Human resources are like natural resources, the most important traits are buried deep and require significant work to discover and nurture.
• Personal branding requires truly discovering your character. To explore your values, start by looking at your debit/credit card receipts.
• When discussing your career, don’t just describe the steps, describe why you took each step and show that your life was chosen and managed.
• What you are speaks volumes more than what you said. Develop a leadership brand and be known for walking the talk in all aspects of your life.
• Marketing is the tax you pay for being unremarkable. Under promise and over deliver…on everything. You won’t ever have to market again.
• You are a leader when you create an environment in which mistakes become a collective learning experience. Give people chances to fail.
• Be ruthless with your time. Time is more valuable than money…you can always earn more money, but you can’t get more time. Be engaged.
• My advice as you embark upon 2013…discover your personal mission and vision…find a career that you would die for…and then live for it.
• Passion with little guidance is over-rated. Find your strengths first, then apply your passion. The outcome will be vibrant.
• Knowing and living your individual strengths multiplies your success exponentially. You can only modify your weaknesses slightly, so…
• Remember that it isn’t always about how you sell yourself, it’s about recognizing how the employer “buys” your talent and adjusting your sell accordingly.
• Many people haven’t had others believe in them, that may be why they’re not entrepreneurs. Support people and innovation will be the outcome.
• Globalization 3.0 – individuals transcend country and company boundaries and make impacts on the global economy alone.
• A human not having money is a curable condition. How far are you willing to push yourself to fail fast and apply your learnings?
• A lack of education is like spiritual cancer. To cure…give people sunlight, healthy food, opportunities to learn…and hope.
• Environment drives behavior. If you treat people as assets they will not become liabilities. Keep them on the right side of the balance sheet.
• People are a function of your perception of them; hold them in high regard and they will act accordingly. Let them live up to their potential.
• How many of you do a job because you HAVE to? What steps can you take right now to work in a job that you CHOOSE to do?
• The paradox of power in the 21st century – you become more powerful when you give your own power away. Delegate authority to your team.
• Trust is contagious. What have you done to trust one of your stakeholders today? The more trusted people feel, the more they cooperate.
• Remember, people commit to causes…not plans. You’ll get high performance when you pair passion and pride. Bring the unique vision to life.
• “Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.” – Stephen Covey
• Take P.R.I.D.E. (Personal Responsibility In Delivering Excellence) in your work. Consistently under promise and over deliver.
• Don’t “go” through life – “grow” through life. Take the time to define your own success.
• Think BIG. A goal is a dream set to paper. Don’t just think it – ink it! -live-inspired.com
• Zig Ziglar once said, “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” Get unstuck, be optimistic and test your limits.
• “You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things so that the small things go in the right direction.” -Alvin Toffler
• “Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.” -Napolean Hill. Generate value for others.
• “Think twice before you speak, your words and influence will plant the seed of success or failure in the mind of another.” -Napolean Hill
• “The key is not prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen Covey
• The best way out of a challenging situation is to roll your sleeves up and work through it. Fail fast and be a continual learner.
• Moving from success to significance requires you to not accept the expectations others have of you; exude positivity and generate value.
• “A culture of discipline is not a principle of business, it is a principle of greatness” -Jim Collins. Plan the work, work the plan.
• Your greatest opportunity for growth isn’t in fixing your weaknesses; it’s in identifying and being outstanding at your strengths.
• Don’t spend your life trying to surround yourself with people just like you; push for diversity and inclusion, you’ll develop skills faster.
• If you don’t consciously design a plan for your own life, someone else will. Choose the path less traveled and unlock your potential.
• Take risks, make mistakes and learn from your hardships. Regretting never having tried is far worse than failure. Fail fast and try again.
• Oscar Wilde said “You can never be over-dressed or over-educated.” Learn continually, be a go-giver and out-behave others.
• When making decisions about developing competencies, choose the learning opportunity that seems the hardest and makes your stomach churn.
• Instead of being throttled by fear, confront it. F.E.A.R. = Face Everything And Respond. Be known as the person who takes meaningful action.
• If life truly begins at the end of your comfort zone, discover your potential and deliberately rise to it. Go to where the magic happens.
• “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” -Milton Berle. Don’t follow another person’s idea of a great career. Build YOUR ideal career.
• “Make happy those who are near and those who are far will come.” -Chinese Proverb How abundantly do you place others interests before yours?
• Instead of creating imaginary boundaries that trap you, visualize yourself in your ideal career performing up to your potential.
• You can shape your future in ways you may not realize. You live in a world of possibilities. Serve others authentically and generate value.
• In building relationships, remember that people are attracted to authentic presence and a future full of possibilities.
• Joseph Jaworski said “The confidence you have in others will help determine the confidence they have in themselves.” Nurture human capital.
• Leadership is helping to release human possibility…helping those around you operate at peak capacity. What is your personal brand?
• Instead of handing over your personal brand to an institution that treats you as a disposable resource, develop your brand and proliferate it.
• As you proactively manage your career, your job isn’t to rise to someone else’s goal…it’s to understand and rise to your potential.
• Sir Ken Robinson said “Human communities depend on diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability” What’s your value proposition?
• Career/Leadership brand development isn’t something you do when you have a career, it’s what you do to find and live your passion every day.
• It’s better to have a shorter life spent doing what you enjoy than to live a long life miserably. Ask yourself, what if money was no object?
• Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, develop and manage your career so that you don’t need to escape from it.
• “Storms make oaks take root” -Proverb. When in career transition, you must learn about yourself continually. Make time for reflection daily.
• Jim Rohn once said “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” Are you willing to put in the time?
• Very little of what you do will matter to others until everything you do counts to and inspires them. Fear mediocrity and be influential.
• In many cases, the journey is more important than the destination. Learn continually, generate value for others and invest in real prosperity.
• Your job isn’t to tell others what to think, it’s to teach them how to think. Your brand will develop quickly because you out-behave others.
• To be influential, you must first connect to a core desire within those individuals you would like to generate value for.
• Career planning and personal branding require balancing deliberate, planned action with the flexibility to adapt to unanticipated opportunity.
• Connectors, the leaders of the 21st century, value the interdependence of meaningful relationships more than independence.
• The big problems we face in the 21st century can’t be solved with tiny ideas. Fight incrementalism and make quantum leaps towards betterness.
• The test of a great human isn’t what s/he makes ($$$), but rather the spiritual, intellectual, relationship and emotional wealth s/he generates for others.
• To lead an authentic and balanced life, you must be the same person at work, with family, serving the community and with friends.
• Take time to reflect on what you’ve learned and repurpose that knowledge to proactively generate triple bottom line wealth for others.

1. 85% of Job Opportunities Come Out of 2^nd Level Connections – A LinkedIn employee shared the research at an event I attended recently. I encourage you to review your connections’ profiles, learn about who they’re connected to and ask for appropriate introductions. There is a high probability that your connection’s connection will help you land your next job.

2. Success Patterns of Other People – If you review the profiles of five people that currently hold your ideal job, look back at the progression in their careers to help you craft your story and resume. Attempt to use their keywords or phrases in the development of your resume and LinkedIn profile. The steps in their careers will open your eyes to paths that you may not have considered before.

3. Contact Information Section – At the top of your first level connections’ profiles, you can click on the “Edit Contact Info” button and enter information as though you were keying in into a contact management system. After every interaction with him/her, enter key data like interests, family member names or specific tasks you promised to deliver.

4. Interests – Near the bottom of your personal profile is an Additional Info section for Interests. When conducting informational interviews, use the person’s interests as a warm opening to break the ice and get a robust conversation going.

5. Your Top 5 Endorsed Skills = Your Personal Brand – There is significant power in how people perceive you. If you are struggling to identify your personal brand message, review your profile to see the top three to five skills that others have endorsed you for. If others perceive you as already having specific strengths, be sure to leverage those ideas in your cover letters, 30-second commercials and when interviewing.

6. Import Your Resume Word for Word – Advanced applicant tracking systems are now allowing you to apply for jobs with your LinkedIn profile. When applying on company websites, you do not have to take the time to upload your text-based resume. Ensuring that your resume and LinkedIn profile are the same also helps to relay a consistent brand message from the perspective of the recruiter.

7. LinkedIn’s Alumni Tool – The new feature is incredibly helpful in seeking out 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd level connections in a specific geography, company, industry, function or from a particular educational institution. Instead of taking hours to send emails and making phone calls to find someone, you can find connections in your target companies in less than 30 seconds.

8. Create a Connection Acceptance Follow-Up Template – As you meet and connect with more people, it is important to connect with them on LinkedIn as quickly as possible. When your connections accept your LinkedIn invitation, immediately send a response back that includes what you are following up on, mention a shared connection (person or interest) and close with a suggestion for developing a further connection.

Creating a robust LinkedIn profile and then remaining active daily is very important. Without this focus, there is likelihood that you’ll become conversationally irrelevant. You want to be remarkable (worthy of making a remark about) in the eyes of your stakeholders. The above eight (8) tips will help you do just that.

Remember…find a career that you would die for…and then live for it!

As I look back upon the engaging discussion, here are my top five takeaways and how you can apply them to develop your career:

1. A recent Forbes article stated, “Sixty-nine percent of employed respondents are considered job seekers – meaning they’re actively seeking a new job or are open to the idea.”

How you can apply – Because an increasing number of people will be leaving their jobs, you must have robust networks in the companies you’d like to work for. Get as many people inside the organization talking about you as possible and the chances you’ll be referred into your dream job will be considerably higher.

2. Mr. Bricker said, “Be better at self promotion. You are your own brand and need to market yourself. Be sincere, speak the truth, let people know what you’ve done and what you are capable of.”

How you can apply – Update your resume and copy it word-for-word to LinkedIn. Connect with as many people as possible on LinkedIn and find unique ways to tell your story through posting engaging quotes, sharing interesting articles and commenting on others’ posts in groups.

3. Mrs. Costello said, “Keep track of the metrics that matter (for your resume). Use these to demonstrate your accomplishments.”

How you can apply – Make time at the end of every quarter to reflect back on your key accomplishments. After listing all awards won, projects completed and promotions received, write OAR statements that clearly detail the quantifiable results you drove.

4. Mr. Moncayo talked about how a football injury brought him to the hospital where an employee convinced him that the benefits of working in healthcare were great. Tony talked about the value of serendipity and allowing his heart to lead the way.

How you can apply – Consider reading the book Synchronicity by Joseph Jaworski. As you encounter moments in time where you feel a strong call to action, trust your instincts and explore the idea further.

5. A recent article on cnet.com found that 93% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find candidates.

How you can apply – Ensure that your LinkedIn profile, your most valuable piece of online real estate, is 100% complete. Then, update your profile monthly, have a unique headline and give recommendations to deserving people.

The healthcare industry is experiencing significant change and individuals that are are naturally adaptable, enjoy ambiguity and thrive on building new structures will find professional opportunities. As you continue to grow and develop your skills, remember that your competitive advantage will be directly correlated to how much more you give in value than take in payment, how you place other people’s interests before yours and how authentically and well you serve others.

Until more recently, making mistakes was looked down upon and was often accompanied with some sort of punishment. Punishment was often a control mechanism used to limit outliers in school systems and corporate structures because people functioning like robots were easier to manage than individuals with diverse backgrounds, skills and aspirations. Companies like Google, 3M and W.L. Gore are leading the charge in allowing people to make mistakes, learn from them and share their learning with the rest of the organization. Each allows employees to devote 10% of their work week to innovation and the creation of novel ideas that follow the employee’s passion and interests.

As humans begin to make more mistakes there will come an increased level of hardships that accompany the mistakes. The hardships may come from changes in relationships, financial considerations, emotional happiness, spiritual connections, etc. As we encounter an increasing number of hardships, it is imperative that we take the time to reflect on the hardship and conduct a lessons learned session. The goal of these sessions to walk away seeing the situation, yourself and your stakeholders in a new light. The interplay of all interested parties is important as you will garner the most well rounded view of the situation and what you can do to avoid similar occurrences in the future. It is beneficial to share your learning with your stakeholders as they may be going through something similar and your knowledge may be just they need to set right their own ship. It is okay to make mistakes, in fact, make as many as you can. Just don’t make the same mistake repeatedly.

A few things that may be worth noting about hardships:

• They’re one of the most important learning experiences you can have because you learn lessons quickly and can immediately apply your learning,
• Consider what the situation taught you about yourself and how you want to change your behavior moving forward,
• Create SMART goals and immediately begin the process of amending the old behavior,
• Don’t look back at your hardships and wish that they didn’t occur; look back on them fondly as they occurred to help you develop your skills for something bigger and better in your future, and
• As our society shifts and the pace of change increases, you will have no choice but to be able to learn, unlearn and relearn quickly so establish a process to deal with difficult situations.

Because the career ladder is being dismantled and is now beginning to take the shape of a jungle gym, you must think about your career development as though you are your own corporate brand. It may be better to take steps backwards or lateral moves to absorb the skills you need to excel in your chosen career. Developing a suite of skills can be more important than titles and pay grades as people prefer to interact with and be led by people who are authentically present. Stick your neck out consistently. Test your mettle by taking risks, failing, learning from the hardship and coming out the other end wiser, faster and stronger. The biggest threat to your career and its development isn’t the person you are interviewing against for your dream job, it is whether or not you pushed yourself to endure hardships and live up to your potential.

Now that 2013 is nearly here, consider the following twelve thoughts as you proactively plan for the year.

1. There are no quick fixes for the fundamental problems in life; they require hard work and the devotion of time.
2. Instead of telling others what to think, attempt to teach them how to think creatively and to innovate.
3. You can tell your values by looking at your debit card statement; does it reflect the legacy you want to leave?
4. Don’t prioritize tasks that provide immediate return over those that require long-term work.
5. The secret to making mistakes isn’t to avoid them; it’s to realize that they aren’t fatal, they’re the fuel to finding stratospheric success.
6. The purpose of your life needs to be deliberately conceived, chosen and managed.
7. You only make the mistakes that you need to make to learn what you are here to learn right now.
8. Don’t be afraid of dying; be afraid of never having lived up to your potential.
9. Leadership is about helping to release human possibilities, helping those you serve operate at peak capacity.
10. Write down your goals for the year and repeatedly consciously visualize already achieving them.
11. Be authentic, people are attracted to authentic presence and to the unfolding of a future that is full of possibilities.
12. As you proactively manage your career, your job isn’t to rise to someone else’s goal, it’s to understand and rise to your potential.

As you consider the above, remember that career distinction requires you to not make incremental change, it requires you to make quantum leaps in how you interact with and generate value for those in your circle of influence. A positive paradigm shift is required in that your competitive advantage will be directly correlated to how much more you give in value than take in payment, how you place other people’s interests before yours and how authentically and well you serve others.

I don’t want to simply raise the floor of mediocrity; I want to help you raise the height of excellence in your life.

Incremental change, as it applies to career transition, is exampled by moderately updating one’s resume, attending one networking event per week and meager preparation for interviews. It may help you find work, but your timeline will be considerably longer than it need be. Big problems aren’t solved with tiny ideas.

On the other hand, quantum leaps in how you transition careers, can be exampled by the development of personal mission and vision statements, volunteering to land meaningful work and living your brand day in and day out. You will find meaningful work, you will find it quickly and you will be more engaged knowing that you are doing what you’ve been called to do.

Making your brand systemic –

1. Clarify Your Values – Take an assessment that brings to light your core behaviors, motivators and competencies. Identify the adjectives that your stakeholders use to describe you. Write down the following about your ideal job: office location, total rewards, responsibility level and desired growth potential.
2. Develop Personal Mission and Vision Statements and a Value Proposition – Use the values from step one to draft a your personal mission (why you exist, your never changing purpose), your vision (what you will be in 5-10 years) and your unique value proposition (why you’re different, what you do that no one else can).
3. Set Expectations – Consult an expert to help you draft and incorporate step two material into your professional bio, resume, LinkedIn profile, cover letter and 30-second commercial.
4. Network – Visibility will breed credibility and trust as you meet new connections and generate value for them in face-to-face meetings and online channels. Set and exceed SMART goals about how, when and where you will network. Humbly include step two material in your conversations.
5. Inspect What You Expect – Your ultimate goal is to have your personal mission, vision and value proposition equal how your stakeholders perceive you. By auditing those in your circle of influence, you can either continue down the path or adjust as necessary to ensure influential people are recognizing your personal brand.

Ensuring that your personal brand has become systemic in many facets of your life is paramount to a meaningful 21^st century career. Corporations are no longer promising cradle to grave employment, so you must create an equivalent personal brand to use as a guide to shepherd you through the uncertainty of changing employers every two to three years. The ultracompetition for meaningful jobs is only going to become more severe and can only be won by “out-behaving” others.

I’ve heard it said that your reputation enters the room three minutes before you do. Have you innovated and clearly defined your brand and set expectations for your stakeholders? If the people already in the room are talking about you, are they using the same phrases and terminology you wrote down when you clarified your values and wrote personal mission and vision statements?

You can always choose mediocrity. But, you shouldn’t.

Avoid incremental change and make quantum leaps.

Develop a radical personal brand…and live it to your core.

1. Borders frequented by trade seldom need soldiers
2. 1990 – the Berlin Wall fell, America felt like it won the Cold War and slowly began to accept mediocrity
3. Numerous successful people in America are first generation immigrants
4. The biggest threat to America isn’t external, it’s our education system
5. Europe will take the next 10 – 15 years to recover economically
6. Best growth prospects are in India and China as America is no longer viewed as the world’s hegemon
7. America will experience 2% GDP growth and an unemployment rate between 8 – 10% for the foreseeable future
8. There is a mass exodus of talented people renouncing their American citizenship and domiciling elsewhere
9. Taxes and inflation are both going to increase in 2013
10. Investment portfolios will become increasingly borderless as nation states lose power to multinational corporations

I’m guessing that you are formulating your own ideas around the implications of this confluence of events and ideas on your career. Here are my top ten implications.

1. The rate at which we change jobs will increase
2. More people will start entrepreneurial ventures
3. Developing a career plan will become more commonplace
4. More people will seek to do business internationally
5. Talented people with high EQ will command higher wages
6. Continual learning will drive professional success
7. Relationships will play a bigger factor in business decisions
8. Trust will be the currency of the 21^st century
9. To win in business, you must “out-behave” others
10. Personal innovation will become a sought-after character trait

Making quantum leaps in how you view the impact of the above factors on the next decade of your career will help you to find comfort in the uncomfortable and confidence in knowing that you prepared yourself appropriately. So many people fear innovation because they think it is something that only creative people can do. Each and every one of you can be innovative in your career when you identify your intention, ambition and unique value proposition. With that foundation set, you can take on a variety of salaried jobs and entrepreneurial ventures that ultimately support your triple bottom line goals, help you become who you want to be and help you generate wealth for a wide variety of stakeholders.

Fear mediocrity and be radical.