Making Work Meaningful and Sustainable in the New Economy  - The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny

series key 6:  Sail Away on Your "Boat"

Do the work and provide the service, solution, or product/productive contribution that you have
always dreamed of… 


“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” -Shakyamuni Siddhārtha Gautama

• love what you do, do what you love. do great work
• escape the predictable, dull, ordinary, soul killing "rat race" and live the dream
• turn your passion into a profession...business...  career...  life's work

"I don't know what living your passion looks like in the every day; in the space between that fire in your belly and the bills that come due, but I imagine it's somewhere in the fight alone, that you learn what you'll live without to know it. That's something I never want to wake from." Lorée Beth Rider

10 Ingredients for Work Independence - Creating and Sailing Away on a "Seaworthy Boat"

• dream - vision
  
• opportunity - a recognized need that needs to be met - a favorable possibility
• deep personal passion -burning desire to be independent
• developed talent and skills
  
• an innovative solution - creativity activated
• a solid plan - (and, a fall-back plan)
  
• plan must be executed successfully - create a process, test, manage yourself, learn to be ones own boss
  
• must replace your income (set aside 6 months of "dream earned" income "before sailing away")
  
• when it's time to say goodbye, make a clean break with the old
  
• live in freedom - independence with complete unbound abandon

“...make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.”  ― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

Inspirations...

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." -Confucious

“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes a lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.” Jesse Owens

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

“Go confidently in the direction of our dreams! Live the life you've imagined.” Henry David Thoreau

“Security is not the meaning of my life. Great opportunities are worth the risk.” Shirley Hufstedler

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. ”
-Helen Keller

“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” -Christopher Reeve

“Let the beauty that we love be what we do.” -Jalal ad-Din Rumi

“The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, and this you will become.” James Allen

“Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance.” Bruce Barton

Making Work Meaningful and Sustainable in the New Economy  - The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny

series key 5: Build Your Own Boat… 
(and, not just a life raft)

• your "boat" is your escape vehicle.
  
• your "boat" must be a safe, reliable "escape vehicle".
• your "boat" is your business, your enterprise, your freedom and independence.
• your "boat" is your dream and vision manifested.
  

Noah built the ark before it was raining… and the work was done on his own time and in addition to his “real job”.

"Don't wait. The time will never be just right." — Napoleon Hill

Create something new... 

A new way to do something old… use tried and true principles with innovative application.

"We are all self-made, but only the successful will admit it." — Earl Nightingale

Do it better, do it differently, do it relevantly.

Introduction: Making Work Meaningful and Sustainable in the New Economy 
-The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny
Overview: Making Work Meaningful and Sustainable in the New Economy 
- The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny
series - key 1: Stay Connected - The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny
series - key 2:  Innovate - The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny
series - key 3:  Volunteer - The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny
series - key 4:  Get a Job - The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny
series - key 5:  Build Your Boat- The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny
series - key 6:  Sail Away on Your Boat- The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny
series - key 7:  Live Your Dream - The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny

Making Work Meaningful and Sustainable in the New Economy  - The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny

series - key 4: Get a Job 
-while you are building your dream - pursuing your life's passion(s) and work

Find good work to do… Work hard at it… Do good work.

In Christian historical tradition, one of the key early founders of the fledgling "religion",  Paul of Tarsus had a job. 

"After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain man named Aquila, born in Pontus, And, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with him and worked; for by occupation they were both tentmakers." -Bible, Acts 18:1-4 

Why would a highly educated, tremendously talented and important key figure do "manual labor"? Paul "got a job" in order not be a financial burden on others, nor to disrupt or detract from his ultimate purpose.

"A good hedge against the risks of starting your own business is to start up while you still have a job that pays a regular salary and benefits. If you're in a position to do that, you'll have the best of both worlds." 
-entrepreneurs.about.com

Be reliable, dependable… predictable in the sense that you can be counted on.
" If you become a person that people depend upon, or rely on, then you will find a sense of accomplishment and feel much more independent. People will respect you more and see you as someone who is ready and able to help, and that's one of life's greatest achievements." -wikihow.com/Be-Dependable

• Building reputation is ones most important asset, no matter what objective or enterprise being pursued.
• Dependability is the most important quality for business and other enterprises.
• A trustworthy person is a reliable person. A reliable person can be counted to follow-through and be true to his or her word. A dependable person will be trusted to keep his or her commitments.

we must always be expressively creating... 

that best reflects our Creator... 

finding yourself? good luck with that. 
creating the best self... that's the one to work on.

be curious... be creative... move forward

"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance..." -Albert Einstein

Making Work Meaningful and Sustainable in the New Economy  - The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny

series key 2: Innovate - What is new? How does it apply to me? How can it propel me forward?

"If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got." -Albert Einstein


Social Media/New Media

• Utilize innovation and current technologies and the many new media options.
• Learn about new media options, how they can be easily incorporated into your personal objectives and plans.
• Educate yourself about how to utilize new media, engage, interact, advance your personal vision.
• Understand the value of various types of interactive communication, how, when, and where to use them.

"Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.  It introduces substantial and pervasive changes to communication between organizations, communities and individuals." -Wikipedia

Popular social media sites include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Blogs. Meetup and hundreds more. There are also special interest sites for interacting with focused peer groups. For instance for the reading and books community:  Shelfspace, Goodreads, Authonomy.

"New media refers to on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation. Another aspect of new media is the real-time generation of new, unregulated content.The rise of new media has increased communication between people all over the world and the Internet. It has allowed people to express themselves through blogs, websites, pictures, and other user-generated media." -Wikipedia

Be innovative in finding new ways to use these new mediums - innovations

• Build best practices habits - utilizing new technologies - vehicles
• Build peer groups - affinity groups to learn, strategize, and with whom to test drive new ideas
• Structure better time management practices - online meetings, groups, online communication

Utilize innovation - New Media to “get on the right trail” to “get to the right stream and current flow”

"You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." Andre Gide

• Move in the right direction… to the big “blue ocean” of opportunity…
• As opposed to trying to compete in the “Red Ocean Strategy”, the conventional approach to business
  of beating competition derived from military strategy.
  
• Innovation helps to adapt to change and to create new opportunities and progressive changes

Blue ocean strategy generally refers to the creation by a company of a new, uncontested market space
that makes competitors irrelevant and that creates new consumer value often while decreasing costs
and emphasizes innovation and initiative.

Suggested reading:
Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne of The Blue Ocean Strategy Institute
What Color Is Your Parachute? 2012: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard N. Bolles

Making Work Meaningful and Sustainable in the New Economy  - The 7 keys to regaining control of your life, work, and destiny

series key 1:  Stay Connected… Get Connected

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”  ―Herman Melville

Stay connected within important spheres of influences from one’s own experience...

• work associates - past and current
  
• related trade associations and organizations
  
• community business groups and networking
• friends and peer groups
• actively participate in internet and social media interaction
  

Become connected within new spheres of influence and affinity groups…

• local media and publications
• participate in community organizations and events
• serving in community - volunteering opportunities
  
• joint venture opportunities - mutually beneficial partnerships
• referrals from friends and peer groups
• internet and social media - connecting with the like-minded
  

People want to do business and experience life w others that they
Know, Like, Trust…

And it helps a lot… if you/and they are someone to be admired and modeled…

Making Work Meaningful and Sustainable in the New Economy

Personal Life Objective:
to BEcome and continually BE a person of positive inspiration, influence, and lasting impact
BE a human Being not just a human doing


Change

"Change is inevitable. Growth is optional." ―John C. Maxwell, Bestselling Author - Speaker

“Growth is the process of responding positively to change.” ―Paul Harvey, American Radio Broadcaster

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” ―-Gandhi, Leader of India’s Independence Movement

“Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created
in your life for something new to emerge.” ―Eckhart Tolle

Our current world and business climate

greatest communications innovations of the 20th century:

• Telephone,
• Television,
• Personal Computer
• 1984- Steve Job’s creation of the Mac/Apple Computer
  
  

And now

the current future that is happening now...in real time…

• Mobile interactive 24/7 communications and information media
• iPad, iPhone, Smartphones, disposable phones, Wi-Fi everywhere…

most of us… (and this includes most of the world)… now carry
personal mobile phone/handheld computing and information gathering and buying and gaming…
and can do all kinds of other things…
device(s)

So what does this mean for today’s working and business persons… 
who are …learning and trying to keep up with all that is necessary to learn…
to do meaningful, sustainable work and business in a new and very economy and economic climate?…

The same principles apply that have always applied…

“Study the past if you would define the future.” -Confucius

"Find what you like to do, do well, and strive to do it with excellence." -Anony

Now we just have different and “better” access to tools and information…

Than ever before in the history of mankind on our planet!

What is the difference between having a JOB v. doing Meaningful Sustainable Work?

A JOB is voluntarily exchanging your talent, skills, and time to receive income or compensation.

versus Meaning Sustainable Work includes… experiencing and doing work in a different and meaningful way.

Working at jobs, careers, and enterprise businesses in ways that allow those doing the work and
providing special services to experience their work as more motivating, meaningful, or sustainable over
time.

Sustainable work is participating and practicing principles that create potential for experiencing work in
a different way than what has been the old standard.

What was the “old standard”?

…at the turn of the last century, our schools and institutions were designed primarily for perpetuating either
managing or working in factories… that is training of an “upper class” to manage a “lower class” of working
uneducated immigrants… to run factories…

We went from being primarily an agricultural society to being an industrial society…

…and our citizens were trained to stand in line… sit down, shut up… do what we were told… when we could
eat and take breaks… etc…

In many ways we are still functioning that way behaviorally… and especially in how we perceive and approach
work… even now 13 years into the 21st century…

So how do we…
 Make Work Meaningful and Sustainable in the New Economy?

next: A series on how to Make Work Meaningful and Sustainable in the New Economy

tree wisdom...

"A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love." -Saint Basil

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." -Abraham Lincoln

2013 is going to be a great year!~ Ü 

13 good things about #13!

13 is a prime number, which means it cannot be divided by any number other than itself. Hence, symbolizes qualities of incorruptible nature and purity.

13 is the period of change or transition for every girl or boy. It is the age when children officially become teenagers.

The US flag has 13 stripes, that represent the union of 13 colonies to fight the British rule, later these 13 colonies became the first thirteen states of United States of America.

The ladder to eternity has thirteen steps, on reaching the 13th step, it is assumed that your soul attains spiritual completion.

In Christianity, the celebration of the Epiphany takes place the thirteenth day after the nativity of Jesus. The number 13 is called theophanicus for this reason.

There are 13 principles of Jewish faith according to Maimonides.

In ancient Greece, Zeus is considered as the thirteenth and the most powerful god. This thirteenth god seems to be associated with totality, completion and attainment.

The Thai New Year (Songkran Day) is celebrated on the 13th April. It is considered to be a day of washing away all the bad omens, by splashing water on people, friends and relatives.

In Hindu mythology, Maha Shivratri is celebrated on the thirteenth night of the Maagha month, which is very sacred and a holy night for all the Shiva devotees.

In the sacred book of the Sikhs, the "Guru Granth Sahib", the word "Waheguru" which means eternal guru appears 13 times.

In one of the most powerful civilizations of history, the people decided to have 13 days in a week as they considered 13 to be an extremely lucky number. Each day was ruled by one god. And the god who ruled the thirteenth day was associated with mystery, psyche and magic.

All born on the thirteenth of the month:
Thomas Jefferson, (April 13, 1743), one of the founding fathers and third President of the United States; Milton Hershey, founder of the Hershey Chocolate company (Sept 13, 1857); Stevie Wonder, (May 13, 1950), singer-songwriter.

Dan Marino, quarterback for the Miami Dolphins - wore the number 13 all of his NFL career. He is considered to be one of the best NFL players ever.

source: buzzle.com