Into the Future!

work/life fusion is 2 years old next week.

From the very first post I wanted this blog to be a conversation about work that included everyone.

A career exchange valuing and building on individual experiences, excluding no-one.

Today, I still have exactly the same ambition for this blog but 2 years have taught me a great deal.

My intentions are the same but the future looks very different indeed...

Where you want your career to go

By Atholl McDonald (with apologies to Dr Seuss)

I believe wholeheartedly that a conversation about work - excluding no-one - can be created and hosted online. We also have the opportunity to learn something new with every step towards this intention; this archive of the last 2 years is evidence of that.

Within the next month, work/life fusion will be joined by 3 new things: A Book, A Blog & A Place to Explore. These brand new places to talk about work and explore our careers will breathe new life into the original intentions of this blog and I will introduce you to these 3 things first, right here where it all started.

To everyone who has read, joined-in and actively supported work/life fusion over the last 2 years, I can't say Thank You enough but this is my first try. I hope you decide to stick around and lend your voice and your experience to this new, extended conversation. I for one am looking forward to creating new opportunities together in the future, doing what work/life fusion has always wanted and tried to do...

Talk about work in a way that excludes no-one.

All my best to you for now,

Paul

Trust in Your Career

What would you say if I asked you to trust the following three things...

✪ You can make informed decisions based on evidence and experience

✪ There's no such thing as an absolute right or wrong answer

✪ You know more about your career than anyone else

Trust means staying together.

[Image courtesy of Jasmic on Flickr]

Trust is a big deal when it comes to work. Careers tend to suffer when trust is broken. We're asked to place our trust in a number of things throughout our working lives. Some companies, managers and experts welcome our trust and work hard to keep it. Others are happier to come and go, taking their promises with them, forcing the things we trust to change. Including some of the things that our careers may have relied upon.

Trust is important, that's why it needs to be based on something that can't and won't disappear. That's why trust should be something we can easily understand and build upon with care. We can all trust something completely different but our careers are founded on trust all the same. We can all trust something that grows with us as we discover more about work and gain new experiences over time

Take another look at these three simple things and ask if they are worthy of your trust

✪ You can make informed decisions based on evidence and experience

✪ There's no such thing as an absolute right or wrong answer

✪ You know more about your career than anyone else

Experience versus Opinion

Experiences stand where opinions fall

"Opinions are like small intestines: every body has one." Anon.

Ask these questions and you'll get an opinion...

What are my options?

Where should I go from here?

What would you do in my place?

Why am I in this position?

Ask questions like these and you'll get much more...

How have you made difficult decisions in the past?

What makes you confident about the future?

What got you through your last job search?

What tough times have you lived through?

The difference is all down to experience...

Nobody ever photographed an opinion

[Image courtesy of EBONY~CAT on flickr]

Opinions that read perfectly on paper or sound just right in conversation don't always work in the real world. When you are job searching or deciding where you want your career to go, opinions can be confusing and that gets in the way.

True experience is always grounded in fact. Good, bad or indifferent, an experience can teach you something. Someone else's experience can be just as valuable to you as it was to them. What you have learned through experience can always be relied upon, it happened to you after all.

Instead of asking someone's opinion, ask what they have done, find out what they lived through, what they rely upon and the lessons they have learned. Find out from them what has worked.

When an opinion just doesn't feel right, seize the opportunity to ask for an experience or share one of your own.

Discover for yourself why it makes all the difference.

Over Time

I have a choice to make...

How will I know what to do for the best?

This time no one can tell me what to do...

Will I ever arrive at the right answer?

I keep hearing "You'll know what to do" when it's clear that I don't...

...Yet.

Sometimes you just have to try something new

[Image courtesy of bonnix (Scotty) on Flickr]

If you're reading this with a big choice or decision on your mind, one way to build trust in your judgement is to look back on the choices you have made in the past.

Not to convince yourself that you have always been right, more to prove what you know...

...and what you have learned over time.

Keep Going

So many times I gave up in my head

Called it a day and went back to bed

keep going

[Image courtesy of victorsounds on Flickr]

Experts can talk about tough times for careers. How being laid-off is nothing to worry about. How the knocks and the setbacks on long job searches can be overcome. How to renew ourselves after long periods out of work.

But the choice to keep going is ours.

See that delightful break come your way

Ask Questions

Learn Lessons

Make Gradual Improvements

Keep Going

Time, Space & Encouragement

It may feel like it sometimes

but other people are not in your way

No one is in your way

[Image courtesy of katclay on Flickr]

Along the Way

Careers aren't like train journeys

We spend more time on the way instead of at our destination

There are no return tickets

There's no tea trolley either

The middle of nowhere or right where you want to be?

[Image courtesy of ecstaticist on Flickr]

Careers are like train journeys

They're best when we know where we're going

Even better when we know we're getting there

There's a strong case for self-catering too

On a train, On your career or both

Take a moment to stop and think...

How beautiful it can be sometimes, along the way.

All the best for now,

Paul