I had an awesome chat with Catherine Cain of Be Awesome Online. She woke up at 7am on a Sunday morning to talk to me. She was happy, funny, and questioning. That’s not easy to do after just rolling out of bed. She forced me dig deeper into my own business.

In our short conversation she helped me be more awesome online. She used her superpowers because she couldn’t help it. Really it was just supposed to be a conversation, but she couldn’t hold her superpowers back.

I’m not writing this post to gush about Catherine, even though she is amazing. I’m here to tell you about a really cool nugget of awesome that I got from our conversation.

Right People

She told me about her lack of being able to find her right people back when she first started her business. She couldn’t find people that were easy to work with. They weren’t delightful and weird. That’s what she wanted, but didn’t tell her audience that. So the boring people showed up, you know the ones that make you feel like you getting your tooth pulled.

You’re glad that you are getting rid of that tooth, but you would rather be doing something else.

That’s where Catherine was. She wanted delightful and weird, but didn’t attract these people. It was only after she took the time to drill down into her business that she began to find the people that she wanted to help.

Fresh Air

That’s when she changed her tagline to “website advice for delightful weirdos” and everything changed. She was reaching out to her “right people.” It wasn’t like pulling a tooth. It was like leaning back and breathing in fresh air. The tedium stopped and the fun ensued.

When she embraced what she really wanted out of her business the law of attraction answered her.

If you aren’t hanging out with your “right people” in your career you must ask yourself, “Why not?” You must drill down and find out if you are telling the world the kind of people you want to help.

Clarity

I started this blog to help employees because I know how hard it is to work through bureaucratic tape, but a lot of employees are content with where they are at. That’s good. These aren’t the passionate people I’m after. The people I really want to help people who want to do work that excites them. No one should settle for boring work, but I can’t force people to want heart pumping awesome work. I want to help people who want to start their own business or have a small business. It’s these people who are quick to adapt ideas that will help them succeed.

I have to be more clear in who I want to help, otherwise I’m not doing work that’s easy and fun.

How About You?

Are you clear on who you want to work with?

Are your co-workers fun and easy?

Are your clients smart and cool?

If not, start digging, ask yourself the question that Catherine asked me. “What are your people’s sense of humor?”

My people can laugh at their mistakes because each experience improves their superpowers.

When your understand your perfect client’s (co-worker’s) personality then and only then can you truly connect with people that make work feel easy and fun.

* Are you on Twitter? Then join over 3,400 people who get my stress relief tips, happiness ideas, and thought provoking quotes. @workhappynow

* Todd Smith over at Dumb Little Man has a wonderful article about productivity. We all let time slip away. He suggests creating a work journal to see what you spend time on. Click here to check out the productivity article.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like these too:

> Take Back Control of Your Business – Series

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Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Do you wish that you had the ability to find a career that uses your superpowers? What can you do to make your dream career a reality?

Creating a career that you love doesn’t magically happen. It takes work. I refuse to blow smoke up your butt and tell you how easy it is, because then you’ll curse my name all around the internet.

I would rather focus on helping you build a career based on your core needs. This takes time.

You have to know what truly makes you happy, so you can create the career that fits your needs as well as the market.

Too many people will say that if you just follow your dream then the money will flow into your life. This can be partially true. What most people fail to recognize is the importance of aligning your needs with other people’s needs.

My Story

I wanted a more dynamic career. I was working in jobs that didn’t interest me. That’s when I went out and started trying out different interests on the side. I tested out various careers in marketing, teaching, Yoga, writing, massage, career development, professional speaking, and a few others.

I didn’t just quit my job and jump right in, which was a good thing. If I would have gone into Yoga or massage I wouldn’t have found a career that I loved.

I dabbled in research, blogging about these topics, working part-time in certain industries, and talking with professionals. I never had a problem talking to professional Yoga teachers, professional speakers, or coaches. The more I talked with these people the more I began to understand what I wanted out of my career.

I knew I wanted many levels of interaction, so pure writing was out. I realized that I loved to teach and I was good at it, but didn’t want to teach Math to kids that didn’t enjoy learning. I also wanted to speak to large groups of people. I loved the rush. The rush of happiness from my work as a big part of why I do what I do.

Watch the Signs

There are signs everywhere you are. Notice what advice people seek from you. Notice what gets you excited. Notice what you love to do at work and away from it. I still remember when I did my first Superpower Coaching session I felt a rush of happiness. I was good at it. The best part is during my last coaching session I felt that same rush. The feeling hasn’t died off.

I did lack core skills as I built my career and it was all trial and error. Hopefully this article helps fast forwards you past my errors and encourages you to build on your core skills that will help you develop a career that you love.

Here are 7 skills that you can develop in order to help you succeed:

1. Help others

Relationships are vital to your success. You’ve seen people get jobs because they know other people. You’ve seen people make deals because both sides trusted each other. You need to figure out how you can help people, so that they will learn to trust you. Once you’ve gained trust, the relationships will come.

Building relationships can help you discover what you love because you’ll be able to see how people react to your help. If they are excited, then you’ve made a good impression. You know that you have connected with the other people’s needs. Now notice how you feel about the work. Did you get lost in the process of creation? Was it drudgery? If you dreaded the process then you aren’t in the right field.

Seems pretty simple, right? For many reason it’s a lot harder than it looks. Just don’t be afraid to reach out 95% of the time people will love that you did.

Offer to help people in your industry of choice. Offer to help out online. Offer to help your friends in this certain area. Then practice, build, practice, build, practice and build some more.

2. Stop worrying about the time

When you are doing something you love, time ceases to matter. You’ll notice that an hour of work feels like only five minutes went by. This is a great indication that you are finding the work flow.

If you aren’t finding the work flow then you have to find the root cause. You probably aren’t connecting to the work. If you can’t find meaning in what you do, then the work will never be enjoyable.

We’ll talk more about how to build your skills of working in the moment in #7.

3. Find meaning

You must believe in something greater than yourself. It’s a simple equation.

Your work is more important than doing things to just pass the time. Your work should be more important than watching TV or sleeping in late or hanging out with friends for extended periods of time.

If you aren’t doing this work then you aren’t making other people’s lives better. People who actually feel a little pain when they are not doing the work are the ones who totally connect with their work. They feel this gravitational pull to do work that will make other people happy.

If you are at work and you would rather be doing something else then you have an obvious message. I’m not talking about when you just feel frustrated during a tedious task. We all have work that we don’t like doing. I’m talking about hating your job all the time. If this is how you feel, then you know you are in the wrong career.

4. Understand your goals

Down deep you have aspirations. Your goal may be to make people laugh. It may be to teach people the importance of saving the environment. It may be to remake your company into a “eco friendly” organization. Whatever it is, you must have a crystal clear understanding of what your goals are because only then can you make a plan to make your goals a reality.

A lot of people make the mistake of imagining themselves at the top of the mountain. They don’t actually see themselves doing the hard work to reach their goals.

You must visualize yourself enjoying the process of the work. When you can see yourself feeling good and accomplishing tasks to reach your goal, your goals will be attainable.

5. Connect with your heart

Your heart knows when each action is a vibrational match with your true desires. If you are procrastinating and you know your heart isn’t in it then why continue? Why suffer?

Let go of what you think you should be doing and actually do work that fits with your strengths and passions.

Try sitting down in a quiet room and listen to what your heart needs. If you’ve never tried this before your heart won’t want to talk right away, but just keep at it. Eventually it will give in and tell you what passions to follow.

6. Make friends, not allies

Many people try to make allies instead of creating friendships. The short term relationships (allies) are good for a little while, but the friendships that you make will help you last through the long haul.

Every great career is based on the long haul. We don’t remember the CEO of a big company that only lasts for 18 months. We remember Jack Welch because he ran GE for over 20 years. That’s leadership based on friendships and trust.

You need to develop friendships and let the business deal happen naturally. Not all friendships will close deals, but that’s ok because you have something even better: someone to talk to when you need help making a tough decision.

7. Follow the joy

You’ve probably worked on projects that feels like pure bliss. You are creative problem solving and before you know it four hours have gone by and you can’t believe you’ve had so much fun. This is that place of joy where work doesn’t feel tedious.

This flow is a great indicator that you are working with your strengths and passions.

Notice when your flow state happens and why. This is your sweet spot. You need to be able to access this sweet spot as much as you can. If you hit your flow state during a certain time of day, then try to do your difficult tasks during this time. If you hit your flow state with certain types of work then keep track of this. The better you can understand your flow state, the more often you can reach it.

How about you?

What skill would you add that has helped you build a career that you love?

What skill would you most like to have so you can transition into a career that you love?

What do you think is the most important skill to doing work that you love?

* Need help leveraging your superpowers in your career? Then check out my Superpower Coaching to see how I can help you.

* Kristi over at Kikolani has a great guest post about the Pros and Cons of a Home Based Business.

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> The Law of Attraction and Your Career

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Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Peter Buffett wrote a solid book about finding your path to fulfillment – Life is What You Make It. (This is an affiliate Amazon link.) It breaks down the story how he refused to follow his father’s path into investing. He was never interested.

The book is well written, but it doesn’t slap you in the face like I hoped it would. I was hoping for a wakeup call that would help guide readers toward a new perspective.

What I Enjoyed

I like that Buffett talked about his own journey in the music industry as well as a few other people he knew intimately. Too often we look at someone we admire and we become jealous of the present career they have. We don’t see all the hard work they put in before they succeeded.

Buffett also talks about how he jump started his music career using his $90,000 gift from his father at the age of 19. If he would have left this $90,000 in Berkshire Hathaway (his father’s company) stock, it would be worth over $70,000,000, but he isn’t upset by this fact. He knows how lucky he was to grow up in privilege, but he also knows that it doesn’t make him who he is. He makes sure to acknowledge this fact.

What this Book Lacked

I have to admit that at first this book didn’t grab my interest, but as I got further into it I realized how Peter has such a balanced mind. He sees his points from many angles. It’s the sign of a very sane person. The problem is that most books that I love have more weirdness to them. This isn’t a bad thing, just a quality that I enjoy. Buffett doesn’t force me to step outside of my comfort zone. That’s ok because a lot of people don’t want to step outside their comfort zone.

This book doesn’t pack any surprises. It’s full of solid material that helps guide your career, but there were no fireworks that went off in my brain. Like I said, it’s just a matter of taste.

Should You Buy this Book?

The thing is that most people need the common sense advice that is in this book, but many people probably won’t make it all the way through. This is unfortunate because I think that a lot of people should apply Peter’s advice to their own lives.

Side note: The topics in this book would also have a powerful impact if given in a presentation. I looked around and found an interview on YouTube. Buffett’s demeanor is kind and thoughtful. He definitely could give a powerful talk about finding a more fulfilling path.

This book is not for everyone. You should buy this book if you are young and in need of guidance toward finding work that allows you to use your superpowers.

The concepts in this book are timeless: Don’t give up. Follow your passions. If you don’t, you’ll regret it.

* Join over 1,00 people who have already subscribed to the FREE Happy at Work 10 Week eCourse. It will arrive in your inbox every Monday morning, when you need it the most. (Sign up is in the top left corner)

* I wrote a guest post over at Evolve Beings called – Why Your Job is the Best Place to Discover Your Super Powers. It’s a must read in my book.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

> Pay Close Attention to Who You Really Are (Interview with Peter Buffett)

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Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Every now and again, I like to bring you interviews to give you a new perspective on work happiness. During my study of work happiness I have found that there are many paths to the same goal. Some people believe that loving what you do is a must, while other people believe that relationships are vital to enjoying the work that we do. Interviews are a great way to get out of your own perspective and see what other people are doing to develop their superpowers and live their passions.

When I read the title of Peter Buffett’s book Life Is What You Make It, I knew that I had to read it. A big part of my younger day’s struggles was believing that I deserved to have better jobs without earning it. I’ll be putting the review up next week, but right now I want to introduce you to Peter Buffett.

Karl: Do you believe that you must love what you do to be successful? Why?

Peter Buffett: It depends on how you define success. If you think success is about acquiring things and/or making lots of money – you don’t have to love what you do. If you define success as enjoying life and potentially living a healthier, longer life then, YES. Absolutely. Loving what you do means that you’re not really working at all. And all of life becomes more fulfilling. That sounds like success to me.

What was the most difficult part about building your brand?

I think it comes down to paying close attention to who you really are and what makes you unique in the world. With all the distractions that are presented every day, it can be difficult to separate the signal (your true voice) from the noise.

If you could go back to the beginning what is one thing you would do differently?

That’s a tough question. I can think of small things I would change… and I certainly took some wrong turns… but it has all brought me here. And I’m certainly happy about where I ended up. So it’s hard to say that I would have done any single thing differently. I guess if I had to point to one thing, I would have learned more about music theory and orchestration. But that may have gotten me into a creative corner because I would have learned too much!

How do you cultivate work happiness in your career?

Every day.. because I am doing something I am truly interested in getting better at.. is an opportunity to learn and grow. That makes it fun to get out of bed every day to find out what might happen. What can I learn today?

What do you do to help yourself stay motivated and productive?

In my business, you’re only as good as your last composition. So it’s a constant challenge (in a good way) to stay “on my game”. Also, music sort of comes whether I like it or not! The motivation comes from my desire/need to express myself.

How do you maintain harmony between your working and non-working life?

Well… it helps to not actually think of it as work. But sometimes, because it doesn’t feel like work, I lose the balance between doing music and taking a break from it.  I don’t really have any hobbies or other distractions. So what I end up having to “work” at is taking some time off.

If you are feeling down, what do you do to lift your spirits?

Get outside! New York is great for a jolt of energy. And getting out into the country is great for a change of pace and feeling, too.

What is your biggest detriment to work happiness? How do you deal with this issue?

That’s something I really don’t seem to have a problem with. I really do love what I do. It can be frustrating at times when I’m working on something that just doesn’t seem to be coming out right. But it doesn’t take much for me to remember how lucky I am to be doing what I do.

If you could give work happiness advice to someone just starting their own business in 140 characters or less (Twitter style) what would it be?

Every day should be approached as an opportunity to learn.

* Join over 900 people who have already subscribed to the FREE Happy at Work 10 Week eCourse. It will arrive in your inbox every Monday morning, when you need it the most. (Sign up is in the top left corner)

* Penelope Trunk of Brazen Careerist wrote a unique post about diversity and how to cope with it. Being around people a lot different from you isn’t easy.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

> I Don’t Try to Motivate Myself

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Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

The Law of Attraction (LoA) gets a bad rep because of cheesy YouTube Videos and terrible books. They want to make the concept simple and enticing, but in doing so they lose much of the life changing impact that the practice can have. I didn’t believe until I started believing. Imagine that.

We are who we think we are and that’s how we accomplish our goals. If we don’t believe we can write a great book, hike the Appalachian trail, or create a career that will make us so happy that we can’t believe our luck then it won’t happen.

Let’s break the LoA down. First, we have to understand confidence.

What is confidence?

Confidence is our belief in our abilities. When we believe we can accomplish a goal, our minds set to work to make our goals a reality.

I’m working with a client who is afraid to reach out to old customers. He has enough steady work right now, but he knows his slow time is coming soon. He is afraid of the responses that he will receive. There is a reason why they are no longer customers. Right?

My client doesn’t want to face this reality. So he continues to do the same things he always does – wait for business to come to him.

He may have confidence in many areas, but in his business he lacks the confidence to learn from past mistakes.

Creating a Positive Mindset

Happy people have a resilience that unhappy people don’t have. They believe that good things will come into their lives. Even when faced with a terrible tragedy, they find a way to create a positive spin.

They may not call it LoA, but that’s exactly what they are doing. They are sending out intentions and expecting them to come back.

When you believe in positive outcomes, you train the brain to expect positive results.

My Thick Skull

I never believed that I deserved a wonderful career that made me happy. I thought it was something that might happen, but I was more concerned with making money. So my first job out of college was for money, but the work didn’t resonate with me. I wrote poetry on my breaks and during lunches.

My thick skull wouldn’t comprehend the possibility that my job was all wrong for me.

I worked because I had to. I never thought to align my strengths, focus, and passions into a career. I had yet to discover my superpowers.(create “what are career superpowers?” post).

The layers of my skill finally eroded away to open my eyes to my error. I could build a business on the side as I discovered my superpowers.

Once I believed in my superpowers, the LoA finally began to work for me. People began to seek me out because I put out intentions to the world that I could help other people. I trusted my powers offered them to the world.

Using the LoA on Your Career

You have to believe that you have dormant superpowers that need to be discovered and harnessed. If you don’t, there isn’t much career leverage that you can create. If you do believe that you have “the spark” inside of you then you will take yourself to amazing places.

1. Believe in Your Skills

I’m not talking about blind belief, but honest belief that allows you to understand your superpowers. By recognizing your kryptonite and understanding how to maximize your superpowers, you’ll build the confidence you need to offer your skills to the world.

2. Create a Vision

So many of my clients don’t know what type of work will make them happy because they don’t visualize their perfect workday. They see what other people have and think that they want that same thing. Then when they are doing that thing they realize it is all wrong for them.

The more you work on projects that make you happy, the clearer your visions will become.

3. Find Work You are Passionate about

You can’t force yourself to enjoy work that sucks. You may apply all the engagement tools in the book, but if you don’t have any intrinsic motivation will never spark a fire. You must do work that makes you feel energized. It’s easy to offer up your skills when you are doing work that energizes you.

4. Find Work that Captures Your Interest

Focus has been a weakness of mine. I have always liked so many things that I never took the time to master my skills. After realizing this I began to practice the art of focused attention.

I set an egg timer for 25 minutes and made sure that I did not become distracted from the task at hand. I rewarded myself with 15 minutes of Yoga after completing a task. I realized that my most productive times were the times between 1pm – 5pm, so I made sure to do my hardest tasks during this time.

The more I practiced the art of staying focused, the better I got at it. Now I can write for an hour straight, take a quick stretch break and then write for another hour without a problem.

You need to find out what helps you stay focused on your important work. Have fun experimenting with different ideas and eventually a few will work for you.

5. Chunk Your Tasks

Many tasks aren’t just straight forward. There needs to be some planning in order to make the tasks feel feasible. A short email doesn’t need much planning, but an email proposal does. So you must divide your work into small chunks in order to stay on task and avoid feeling overwhelmed. Five minutes of planning before I start a small project can save me an hour of procrastinating.

6. Improve Your Emotional I.Q.

Every career has its difficult moments. Whether we are working with difficult people or stuck for a solution, it’s natural to get upset. We can’t avoid our emotions, so we need to work on these issues on a regular basis. Whenever I’m feeling upset, overwhelmed, or just plain stressed out I go for a walk. I get away from my work and let my mind relax.

You need to find ways to work with your emotions. You may want to keep a one-sentence journal about what upsets you and why. By doing this every day for even just a month, you’ll begin to see a pattern. Once you recognize a pattern you can focus your energy on processing these emotions quickly so you can get back to doing work that makes you happy.

7. Develop a Flexible Mindset

You career is constantly fluctuating. The people you meet in your business, at work, or online will bring new opportunities. You need to be able to adjust your plans quickly to adapt to your changing environment. I’ve met people who have turned down work because it didn’t fit their perception of themselves. It’s important to be open to the idea of taking your career in the direction that your clients or company push you toward. As long as you can still get excited about the work.

Being too fixated on what you want your career to look like will create a lot of heartache. By being flexible, you will be more likely to become happy and successful.

Infusing the Law of Attraction into Your Career

Successful people are successful because they expect to be. When they fail, they find ways to adjust their plans.

You must believe that you deserve good things to happen in your career. If you don’t, it’s harder to attract the right clients to support your business. It’s difficult to connect with the right co-workers who are willing to help you build your career.

I’ve read that most personal development information works because people want to create positive change in their lives. They use all kind of resources to learn.

You can have the career of your dreams, but you have to put in the hard work to attract the right people and projects into your life. Once you build your superpowers and network, your career happiness will multiply.

How have you used the LoA to improve your career?

* Are you on Twitter? Then join over 3,400 people who get my stress relief tips, happiness ideas, and thought provoking quotes. @workhappynow

* Catherine Caine of Be Awesome Online write a post about looking professional online. In the old days we could were a fancy suit to impress, now we have the internet barrier. We need to appear professional, but it’s harder to do since people need more than a picture and a nice sales page to see how good you are. Check out Catherine’s post, very much worth your time.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

> How to Discover Your Career Bliss

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Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Every now and again, I like to bring you interviews to give you a new perspective on work happiness. During my study of work happiness I have found that there are many paths to the same goal. Some people believe that loving what you do is a must, while other people believe that relationships are vital to enjoying the work that we do. Interviews are a great way to get out of your own perspective and see what other people are doing to develop their superpowers and live their passions.

The art of nonconformity has been taken to a new level by by Chris Guillebeau. He has built small empire, maximized his airline miles to get free flights all over the world, and has traveled to over half of the countries on our planet. An amazing man that’s hard to track down, but he was kind enough to give me an interview. Oh, I almost forgot as he does all this awesome stuff so he can help you do it too. Check out unconventional guides on his website. (Affiliate link) He is also relaunching the Empire Building Kit today, so join in and learn how to create your own online empire.

Karl: Do you believe that you must love what you do to be successful? Why?

Chris: I don’t think you must, but I think it’s much easier. And certainly much more fun.

What was the most difficult part about building your business?

Sustaining interest over a long period of time. I’m much better at starting things and moving on.

How do you cultivate work happiness in your career?

I like to ask why questions. Why am I doing this? What do I really want? What really matters? Thinking about those things helps with focus.

What do you do to help yourself stay motivated and productive?

I don’t try to motivate myself — or at least, I should say when I do try to motivate myself, it doesn’t work very well. I think it’s better to find a way to do what you are already motivated to do. (Jim Collins wrote about this in Good to Great.)

How do you maintain harmony between your working and non-working life?

I don’t really separate the two. I’m fortunate to do what I love, so life/work balance isn’t something I think about.

If you are feeling down, what do you do to lift your spirits?

I look for the cause. If there’s not an easily-identifiable one, then I know it’s just a thing that will pass sooner or later. I often get lonely when I travel by myself, but I don’t think loneliness is always a bad thing.

What is your biggest detriment to work happiness? How do you deal with this issue?

When I find myself spending too much time on things I shouldn’t — I can make myself miserable pretty quickly. To improve it, I try to stop.

If you could give work happiness advice to someone just starting their own business in 140 characters or less (Twitter style) what would it be?

Whether work or life, I like this one: You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.

Don’t forget to check out Chris’ blog where he writes articles about traveling and building a sustainable online business.

* Don’t miss out on any more great articles. Sign up for my RSS feed or email feed and you’ll stay updated on the latest tips and ideas to bring more happiness to your working life.

* Lance of the Jungle of Life and Katie of the Levity Project are doing another happiness video. You should join in. It will make you happy. I promise. Check out the details right here and here.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

> 7 Simple Ways to Live Your Passions

> What I Learned from Working on My Habits

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

If you can’t connect to the work that you are doing, either it doesn’t fit with your needs or you aren’t trying. Some people have an aptitude for math, writing, history, science, computers, etc. They gravitate toward these things because they vibrate their soul.

I know I may be losing some of you here because of this “new age” vibrational talk, but that’s ok. I know I can’t win all of you over with each post. A lot of you really need this information, so I’ll continue.

You have deep needs that need to be recognized or you will never be happy at work. This is why I talk about the importance of reflection. It’s important to sit back and let the mind go to see how your career is humming along. I’ve known a lot of people who didn’t take the time in their twenties and thirties to really listen to how they felt and adjust their careers accordingly, and now they are paying for it in their careers.

I’ve also talked about the importance of being content with yourself before you can be happy with your work. I’ve been developing my work happiness for so long that I would even could be content cleaning a high school. It’s honest and useful work and I know that I could connect with the daily routine, but I also know that it wouldn’t vibrate with my soul’s needs.

Companies should be doing career coaching to help their employees (and themselves) achieve the best work possible. Employees would actually stay longer and feel more appreciated, while the company would learn more about each person’s superpowers and needs. I know building a business takes time, but it would be worth it in the long run. There is too much short sightedness going on in the corporate world. People expect great work from their staff, but they won’t give them the tools to actually do it.

You can’t rely on anyone else to help you find your career bliss, you have to find a way to meet your true needs.

Making the connection

I have struggled at every job I’ve ever had. No secret.

I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere with my career. I tried marketing, mushroom mongering, practicing a trade, teaching, trying to be a handyman, working in retail, and a few others. I also visualized myself doing 100 other jobs, from masseuse to novelist to copywriter to Yoga instructor. I pictured myself doing different jobs and some resonated with me but none of them felt quite right.

I wanted something challenging, interesting, and interactive. I looked at what I had struggled with the most is my career.

I had done a lot of personal development work, ran a lot of teams in the workplace, and was afraid of public speaking, but loved it.

Finally, after many nights of reflecting on my passions and strengths a plan began to form. I knew what direction I should take my career in.

I needed to help people who have struggled like I had. I wanted to alleviate the fear that other people had about doing something that they truly loved. It’s this love that changes the world. Where would we be without people who have felt this deep need to ignore all the naysayers and create something so unique and helpful that the world is changed forever?

This realization only came together after many conversations with my wife, friends, family, strangers on planes, and myself. Yes, I talk to myself. Sometimes I do it silently (meditation) and other times I do it out loud when I’m walking my dog.

I’m not the local town crazy man, whispering to myself and sipping on a brown bagged beer. I make sure that I do it when no one is around.

It took hours, weeks, months, and years of work to discover how I can be most useful to this world. I’m still learning and growing, discovering my superpowers.

How do you connect with your vibrating soul?

The real question is figuring what work matches your soul’s vibration. You have to match your strengths with your passions and focus in order to understand your superpowers.

People make the mistake of just using their strengths and they end up feeling empty.

You must be aware of what is in your mind and heart.

I want you to begin by listing 5 of your strengths. Make sure to make each strength a verb. You want it to be an action that you can repeat in various work situations.

My strengths are:

> Writing

> Relationship building

> Analyzing

> Developing new ideas

> Creating solutions to problems

Now list 5 actions you are passionate about. Make sure these are also verbs that you can put into action.

My passions are:

> Speaking to an audience

> Drawing

> Story telling

> Laughing

> Walking in nature

How can you use most of these 5 strengths and 5 passions in a career?

I knew that I couldn’t get all of my strengths and passions into one career, but I wanted to get as many of them as I could.

I choose a career in which I could speak, analyze and be creative. I looked at my background and saw a huge weakness in the world that I could fill.

I could help the 50% of people who hate what they did to earn a living. I could help them use their superpowers to make a difference and love what they do to earn an living. I didn’t really know that I was so passionate about work happiness, but I tried it out. I created a blog and started writing about business, stress, relationships (interpersonal and intrapersonal), productivity, and other work related topics.

After a year I knew that I had found my niche. That’s the best takeaway that I can offer. Try whatever you feel you would love to do as a career on the side. Do you find that researching environmental articles makes you happy? If so, you may be on to something good. If not, you know that this topic/work doesn’t resonate with your soul. Then pick something else and begin to research this topic. The more you dive into what you think will make you happy the better you’ll understand yourself and how it’s possible that you can love what you do to earn a living.

What about you?

Have you found your career niche?

Maybe you are ready for your next career. What are you doing to work toward this new career?

* Are you on Twitter? Then join over 3,386 people who get my stress relief tips, happiness ideas, and thought provoking quotes. @workhappynow

* Naomi’s post over at Ittybiz talks about the importance of working your butt off to get to where you want to be. She doesn’t put it as nice as that, but never the less a great message.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

> How to Harness Your Superpowers

> 5 Ways to Conquer Your Fears

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Are you dragging yourself to a job that just doesn’t interest you that much?

You aren’t alone.

Only 45% of Americans are actually happy at work. The other 55% need to do a better job of developing their desires into reality.

A person who is coasting or hating her job is doing herself and her company a disservice.

I used to be in the 55% category, that is, until I began making some small changes that led to a major shift.

You can also start making small changes that will lead to major changes.

You deserve to be so happy at your job that you wake up every morning thanking your lucky stars that life is so good.

I’m going to give you 7 power techniques to make your dream career a reality

1. Listen to your needs

In school we are taught to put our heads down, fall in line and not to make a fuss. You become afraid to get your needs met because it might piss someone off or you are afraid you still won’t be happy.

You have a right to love what you do. If you aren’t happy then it’s time to make some adjustments to yourself and your surroundings. Of course the hard part is figuring out how to do that, but luckily we have six more techniques to help you figure out how to meet your needs.

2. Improve your superpowers

Many experts tell you to focus on weaknesses. This is so wrong because you lose your emotional connection. You need to have deep understanding of your weaknesses, but focusing on your superpowers will bring the best results.

You must improve your superpowers in order to create the leverage that will allow you to take control of your career. If you are a great communicator but you’re stuck crunching numbers all day, then get out from behind your desk. You must get yourself out in front of people so you can use your verbal skills. Easily said but for some reason this is hard for most people to carry out.

The worst thing you can do is ask for permission. People have labeled you a number cruncher and that’s what they expect. You have to go out and shake hands or at least pick up that phone and make calls. Once people see the results, they will stop caring about your job description.

3. Research how others have succeeded

There are people out there who have the career that you want. How did they get it? Are they happy? What mistakes have they made?

Although, no one has your perfect career, they may have pieces of it. You have to talk to a lot of people to piece it together. The best part is that many of these people are accessible through the web. Go to their websites or Twitter accounts and ask them some questions. You’ll be surprised by the responses you set. I was able to get an interview with Tony Hsieh of Zappos.

When you figure out what works for other people, you can use those techniques to bring more success to your career.

4. Practice at work and at home

I’ve talked to a lot of people about work happiness over the past few years. When I’m coaching people with their careers I always ask what they are doing to improve their happiness at work. Most people don’t have an answer.

When I ask people what they are doing to improve their skills at work, they usually tell me about techniques that their employers have provided for them. They never think about building their skills on their own.

To create the career that will make you happy and wow your boss/clients, you must invest in yourself. I like to focus on one skill or personal development technique each month in order to strengthen my foundation. One of my weakest skills was cold calling. I decided to focus on this skill in order to improve both my speaking skills and my shyness. After focusing on cold calling for one month I now have no problem picking up the phone to talk about the benefits of work happiness. I’ve actually learned to enjoy it.

5. Know your limits

If you want to be an online blogger but you hate to write, you are going to have a lot of trouble making your career a success.

You have to know what you are willing to do and what you aren’t, then you will know what actions to focus on.

6. Appreciate your fears and push past them

Fear is your friend. It’s there to teach you what you need to pursue and what to ignore. The problem is that most of us run from fear instead of embracing it.

You probably have an idea of what your perfect career would be like, so hug your fears and use them as a guide to career success.

7. Encourage yourself every day

When you are a true friend to yourself, you stop tearing down your confidence and you build mental strength.

From this point forward, practice giving yourself gentle encouragement. This took me a while to learn, but repeated practice does work. If you make a mistake, try not to beat yourself up. Listen to your thoughts, both positive and negative. Notice how you feel and then try to think of one thing you learned from your mistake. This lesson will help you see the encouraging aspects of your mistakes.

Positive inner dialog will help you build confidence and develop stronger intrinsic motivation.

Putting it all together

Understanding your needs is the only way you will stop doing work you hate. You have to listen to your inner dialog as if it’s a trusted friend. This inner dialog may feel like your arch nemesis, but it isn’t. Your arch nemesis is there to show you what you need to focus on. When you are willing to allow your dreams to encourage you to take action then you’ve taken away your arch nemesis’ favorite weapon: fear.

* Join over 900 people who have already subscribed to the FREE Happy at Work 10 Week eCourse. It will arrive in your inbox every Monday morning, when you need it the most. (Sign up is in the top left corner)

* Marc and Angel Hack Life has an excellent blog post about living life to the fullest. I’ve tried most of the ideas and they do work.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

> My Arch Nemesis Dr. Oatzel Almost Stole My Superpowers

Image courtesy of Orangeacid

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Zappos has been honored with many accolades these past few years, including Business Week Customer Service Champ of 2009. Tony Hsieh, Zappos’ CEO, has been asked to speak all over the world. Zappos was named one of Fortune’s top 100 companies to work for in 2009.

Many people love to talk about the wonderful success story of Zappos, but some people don’t realize how much work was put into the development of the company. We know that they get raving reviews from customers, but we don’t know what it took to develop the business model that has been so successful.


Tony is about to tell the world exactly how he did it.

Tony wrote the book on how to make employees so happy that they wow the pants off their customers. He admits that he isn’t the first person to do this and that he has learned from others, but he has taken work happiness to a new level. His book is called Delivering Happiness (Amazon affiliate link), and it explains explaining how the perfect storm of Zappos came together.
Here are 19 reasons why you should buy Tony’s book:

1. You own a business and you want to learn how to run a profitable company.

2. You want to learn how to create a business without selling your soul to the devil.

3. You are curious about Tony’s life story.

4. You want to apply some of Zappos’ concepts to your own business.

5. You are wondering why Tony cares so much about Zappos.

6. You want to know how Zappos is so successful.

7. You want to know how Tony came to realize that happiness is more important than money.

8. You want to create core values for your company.

9. You need to know why Zappos offers free shipping and if you can do the same at your company.

10. You would like to learn how to get your people engaged with the company’s product.

11. Tony wrote the book without a ghost writer. (You can see this and at times the writing isn’t polished, but I actually liked this because I felt more connected to the story.)

12. You learn why Zappos pays their trainees to leave.

13. You are curious about how Tony views happiness.

14. You want to know how Zappos’ culture book came about.

15. You know creating a business is a gamble and you want to know how many risks Tony faced throughout his career.

16. You know culture is the best way to build a great company and you want to know more about how Zappos created an amazing culture.

17. You want to understand the importance of Twitter in the Zappos culture.

18. Why it’s good to embrace the weird side of the company’s culture.

19. It’s more than just a business book, it’s a life book too.

I’ve met Tony, interviewed him, and hung out on the Zappos bus at sxsw and Tony is an amazing person. I’m not getting paid to write this review. I’m writing this review because the book is worth your time.

Go out and buy it and help Tony get on the Best Sellers list, so more companies develop an open and happy culture.

* Are you on Twitter? Then join over 3,300 people who get my stress relief tips, happiness ideas, and thought provoking quotes. @workhappynow

* I talk about reframing your perspective a lot on this blog and J.D. put up a post that gives a fresh view. It’s called Change Your Why or Change Your How. If you can reframe a problem it ceases to be a problem.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

> Develop a Blog Business Funnel

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Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Every now and again, I like to bring you interviews to give you a new perspective on work happiness. During my study of work happiness I have found that there are many paths to the same goal. Some people believe that loving what you do is a must, while other people believe that relationships are vital to enjoying the work that we do. Interviews are a great way to get out of your own perspective and see what other people are doing to develop their superpowers and live their passions.

Peter Shankman is best know for Help a Reporter Out (HARO). He connects reporters to experts. You can submit a query and within 24 hours have an expert contact you about your question. It’s one of the fastest growing social media services in North America. I’m subscribed to his emails. If you are an expert in the sphere of careers, money, relationships, or whatever you are passionate about then sign up for his list because you’ll be put in contact with reporters that could use your help.

Karl: Do you believe that you must love what you do to be successful? Why?

Peter: If you don’t truly love what you do, how can you be passionate about it? And a life without passion is no life at all.

What was the most difficult part about building your business?

Not listening to the haters.

How do you cultivate work happiness in your career?

It’s all about fun. The day it isn’t, I ask myself what I can change to make it fun. When I start to get “blah” about what I’m doing, I know it’s time to make some changes.

What do you do to help yourself stay motivated and productive?

Skydiving, Triathlons, Running, and BOXING!!

How do you maintain harmony between your working and non-working life?

I don’t have a difference. Work is life, life is work, and it’s ALL fun. Only people who don’t have fun at work need to make the separation. (I’m totally gonna get shit for this answer, I can feel it.)

If you are feeling down, what do you do to lift your spirits?

See #4. Also, cats.

What is your biggest detriment to work happiness? How do you deal with this issue?

I used to have a girlfriend who was miserable in her job. Nothing I could do could cheer her up and make her realize it was time to move on to a better job. I finally realized I had to move on to a better girlfriend, sadly.

If you could give work happiness advice to someone just starting their own business in 140 characters or less (Twitter style) what would it be?

Life is too short to spend 12 hours a day being miserable.

If you are interested in joining the HARO email updates to help you connect with reporters check out his site and join today.

* It’s Spread-the-Love Day, when I encourage you to spread the word about Work Happy Now. You might:
> Forward the link to someone you think would be interested
> Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @workhappynow)
> Sign up for my FREE 10 Week E-Course and join over 800 people who have already improved their happiness at work. You will also receive a bi-monthly newsletter that gives you great tips and ideas on how to improve your career.
> Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update
Thanks! I really appreciate any help. Word of mouth is the BEST.

* Enjoyed this interview check out Gretchen’s interview of Mark of BoingBoing. He talks about knitting and iPhones.

If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:

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Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!