The Occupational Adventure (tm)

The Occupational Adventure archive

Welcome to The Occupational Adventure archives. Here you'll find over 1,000 posts here on various topics related to finding passion in your career. Check the archive page for posts by both month and topic (scroll down for topics).

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Please visit my new blog: The M.A.P. Maker
Meaning, Abundance, & Passion in your career and in your life

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Download the FREE How to Get Wild About Work audio course.

Come join the Ripple Revolution!

Do you want to change the world? Want to live an energizing life? Then you just might be a Ripple Revolutionary! Come join me at the Ripple Revolution blog.

The Ripple Revolution^TM is a movement to change the way we think about making a difference. It is founded on two simple ideas:

1. You have the ability to make a mind-bogglingly huge impact on the world - purely through your day-to-day choices and actions.
2. An integral part of making that impact is living an energized life.

It’s about creating a life you love while working to make the world a better place.

Come join the Ripple Revolution! In addition to the blog, you can subscribe to thenewsletter. I would love to have you come along with me. 

Curt

 

New M.A.P. Maker posts

Here are the most recent posts over on my M.A.P. Maker blog:

Gratitude in bed

Success tip: Learn to surf your changing reality

What are you waiting for?

Laughter yoga: Laugh your life better

Visual Self-exploration: Your Life in Pictures #11

Change your world: Join the Listen & Learn Revolution

Get unstuck with a 7-day goal

Visual Self-exploration: Your Life in Pictures #10

Choose your attitude with a morning crossroads

If you like these, please subscribe to the M.A.P. Maker RSS feed.

New blog! The M.A.P. Maker

Four years ago today, I wrote my very first blog post in The Occupational Adventure. In the four years since, this blog has played a hugely positive role in my life. It has opened up the door to national media exposure, connected me with a bucketload of amazing, smart, inspiring people, and provided a rich mental playground for expanding and refining my ideas.

Today, it feels like The Occupational Adventure has run its course. It's time to create a new playground for my brain.

With that in mind, I'm psyched to say that today I am launching a new blog, The M.A.P. Maker. M.A.P. stands for Meaning, Abundance, & Passion. I won't be leaving behind the ideas that have made this blog so rich and rewarding. Rather, I'm building on them.

The M.A.P. Maker focuses on that space where dreams meet reality. Meaning and passion are about the dreams, while abundance is about creating those dreams in the confines of reality. It's about the answers to the questions, "What lights you up? What difference do you want to make in the world? And most importantly, how do you create a thriving life built on that?" 

Abundance as I define it isn't just about your finances. We definitely need money (that's one of the confines of our reality), but we also need things like health, positive relationships, and fun. For me, abundance is about thriving in 360 degrees.

With over a thousand posts, I'll be leaving this blog up as a resource for people seeking passion in their careers (so please don't remove it from your links). But from here on out the fresh posts will be over at The M.A.P. Maker. If you have a blog and feel so inspired, please add a link to The M.A.P. Maker to your blogroll. 

I'm completely amped about where this new blog has the potential to take me. I hope you'll come along for the ride.

Thanks, and welcome!

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst (sm)

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

   

Believing is seeing: Top-down processing and the 10 to 1 ratio

I've been on an organizational rampage lately, and recently came across an article on hypnosis I had cut out and saved a couple years ago.

What fascinated me about the article was not so much the hypnosis element, but what it had to say about how we interpret our world, and how our reality is what we see, not necessarily what really is:

Bundles of nerve cells dedicated to each sense carry sensory information. The surprise is the amount of traffic the other way, from top to bottom. There are 10 times as many nerve fibers carrying information down as there are carrying it up.

These extensive feedback circuits mean that consciousness, what people see, hear, feel and believe, is based on what neuroscientists call "top-down processing." What you see is not always what you get, because what you see depends on a framework built by experience that stands ready to interpret the raw information - as a flower or a hammer or a face.

The top-down structure explains a lot. If the construction of reality has so much top-down processing, that would make sense of the powers of placebos (a sugar pill will make you feel better), nocebos (a witch doctor will make you ill), talk therapy and meditation. If the top is convinced, the bottom level of data will be overruled.

"If the top is convinced, the bottom level of data will be overruled." In other words, what you believe, you see. That has so much potential to be either an amazing asset, or an excruciating obstacle.

Take a look at your life. More specifically, take a look at the idea of creating a life that feels fun, meaningful, and fulfilling. How do you see it? Is the top convinced that it's possible, or a pipe-dream? With a 10 to 1 ratio of information going down as coming up, you can see why - however you see it - you're probably right.

The good news is that even if your top-down perception is negative, you can reprogram it. When you recognize it, you can start building a new reality. But that's fodder for another post on another day.

Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst.

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Please visit my new blog:
The M.A.P. Maker
"Crafting a Life of Meaning, Abundance, & Passion"

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Time for a career change?

Launch it with The Occupational Adventure Guide!

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Need to re-energize your career (and your life!)?

Do it with 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work!

5 ways to improve your self-promotion

Part of creating the career you want is spreading the word about who you are, the gifts you bring to the picture, and how you want to put them to use. In other words, self-promotion.

Penelope Trunk has a fantastic post (as always) over on Brazen Careerist with 5 tips to ratchet up the impact of your self-promotional efforts. In a nutshell they are:

1. Specialize, which means saying what you don’t do
In order to talk about yourself in a memorable way, you need to say something specific. This is why specializing is essential for effective self-promotion.

2. Stay the most focused when things look the most difficult
We each have a wide range of talents. And it’s easy to get frustrated when things are not happening fast enough. So it makes sense that we’d try something new, to see if it might work faster.

3. Be the tortoise, not the hare
Self-promotion is about building a long-term reputation for yourself. Establishing trust and respect in the marketplace. This is not something you do in a few months. So you need to get some work habits that will allow you to move self-promotion from a project type thing to a lifestyle type thing.

4. Mitigate the fear of starvation
Getting your name out there takes time. And while you’re doing it, there is a nagging fear that you won’t be able to and you will starve. You might be encouraged to hear that this is actually a feeling that is essential to grand success.

5. Know yourself, really, so you know when to shut up
Most people err on the side of not talking themselves up enough. We each need to learn the right way to toot our own horn.  However sometimes you really do have to let your actions are speak louder than words.

She has lots more to say on each of them, so be sure to visit her blog to get the full benefit of her words o' wisdom.

Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst.

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Please visit my new blog:
The M.A.P. Maker
"Crafting a Life of Meaning, Abundance, & Passion"

---

Time for a career change?

Launch it with The Occupational Adventure Guide!

---

Need to re-energize your career (and your life!)?

Do it with 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work!

Networking the random acts of kindness way

I love the whole idea of doing well by doing good. Hunter Arnold at Make More of Your Job has a great post on how practicing random acts of kindness can actually be in our own best interests, as well as beneficial to the recipients of that kindness.

He tells the story of having a hotel room mix-up and being given a key to a room that was already occupied. While he was waiting for someone to bring up a key to a new room, the couple invited him in for a cocktail (rather than having him stand in the hall and wait). It turned out that they were both from his hometown.

...How strange that such a chance encounter would introduce me to not one, but two interesting people who I had so many things in common with.  Though we didn’t speak for long, I left the room with 2 more connections than I had when I’d checked in.  That’s the point of here: performing random acts of kindness can provide you with amazing chances to network and build your professional and social circle.

He points out that often we're so focused and heads down with our lives that we don't look around and notice the amazing people around us. Random acts of kindness give us an opportunity to connect with them.

He sums it up with this...

So the next time you’re in the office (or anywhere else) and you see someone who looks lost, confused or even overburdened, don’t ignore them.  Engage them, even ask if there’s any way you might be able to help.  If you make this a practice in life, you’ll be amazed how many people you meet and what you might have in common.  The more opportunities you give yourself to socialize, the more opportunities you’ll have to make the most of your career, and even your life.  By practicing random acts of kindness you’ll be keeping yourself engaged in the most important act of any successful career: networking. Remember: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Let the ocean tell you where to go

As I have watched my friend Erden Eruc plan for and execute on his dream of human-powered circumnavigation of the world (with summit attempts on the highest peak on six continents thrown in), I have often thought how many parallels there are between what he is doing and creating the life of your dreams.

Take planning and control, for example. So often, we obsess about where life is going to take us. We feel the need for the security of certainty. But the reality is, often the best we can do is to carefully plan, ride where things take us, and adapt along the way.

In today's dispatch from the Pacific, Erden elaborates on his watermaker and its various backups. Then he makes a point that could easily apply to our efforts in life. 

Redundancy and alternate game plans require some advance planning, and where it all fails, creativity, improvization and survival skills help. Trusting that all will be fine is a comforting thought.

It's not about getting everything nailed down beyond a shadow of a doubt. That's probably not going to happen. But you can take a look at how you can prepare to maximize your chances for success, and then - rather than wail and moan when things go awry - tap into creativity and improvization to take you where you want to go.

Finally, he says...

I am about 150nm south of San Diego, and 500nm west of Bahia San Quintin. I can kick back and write a long dispatch as the boat tracks nicely due SW in favorable conditions, exactly where I want to go. I am feeling pretty good about my chances to carry on toward the dateline. I worry unnecessarily about my approach path to Australia, the last third of this crossing; the ocean will inevitably tell me where to go eventually.

I love that last sentence. "...the ocean will inevitably tell me where to go eventually." And so it is with life. So often we obsess with locking down the details every step of the way, when in reality what we need to do is pay attention, direct our progress as much as we can, pay attention to where life is telling us to go, and use that knowledge to go with the current rather than against it.

Take a look at your life right now. If you listen with an attitude of possibility, where is life telling you to go?

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Interview with Pursue the Passion

One of my favorite things to do is interviewing people who are on fire about what they're doing. So when I look at what 22 year-old Brett Farmiloe is doing, I find myself turning just a tiny shade of green (as in, with envy).

Brett and three friends are traveling around the country in an RV interviewing people who love what they're doing. They call their project Pursue the Passion. Yesterday, I had the good fortune to have the tables turned and wound up on the receiving end of one of his interviews.

As luck would have it, Cecilia Goodnow, a journalist from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, was interested in sitting in on our interview, and this morning there was an article about Pursue the Passion that quoted liberally from our conversation (plus there was a picture including me with a very goofy look on my face).

In the early days, interviewing a series of people who had sucessfully pursued their passions played a significant role in my transformation from marketing guy to Passion Catalyst. While the work itself (i.e., facilitating exploration and discovery) was natural for me, the fact remained that my background was in marketing, not careers.

Not only did the cumulative information I gleaned from the interviews help me create a frame of reference for my work, it also played a big role in keeping me inspired and energized as I worked through the immensely difficult first year of recreating myself.

Take a look at your own career. What do you want to know about? Who could you interview to find that information? You just might be surprised what comes out of it.

An interesting side note, one of the people I interviewed that first year was Richard Tait, co-founder of the game company Cranium. I e-mailed him out of the blue, and he was gracious enough to take the time to meet with me. Five years later, that random connection turned into the cover story of the most recent issue of Motto magazine.

You just never know where things will lead you.

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Rowing across the Pacific

You may remember my friend, Erden Eruc, who rowed across the Atlantic last year. He’s the same guy that bicycled from Seattle to Mount McKinley in Alaska (leaving in the dead of winter and bicycling for several weeks on snowy roads), climbed McKinley, and bicycled back.

His next goal? Rowing across the Pacific.

On July 11th, Erden launched from the California coast just north of San Francisco and started rowing. It was his second attempt to break free of land, with winds thwarting his first attempt and pushing him back towards land. He’s now far enough out that it looks like he’s safely on his way.

Next stop: Australia

Distance to destination: 7053 miles

Projected time to arrival: 8 – 10 months

The Pacific crossing is part of Erden’s attempt to circumnavigate the globe by human power, with summit attempts on the highest peak on each continent (minus Antarctica) along the way.

Watching Erden in action has been inspiring. Not so much because of the physical feat of what he’s doing (though that’s impressive as well), but because of the dogged determination, patience, and matter-of-fact problem solving he consistently demonstrates.

Given what he is doing, you would think that Erden would have a bit of reckless swagger to him. The truth is, he’s one of the most responsible, careful people I’ve met. I’ve consistently been impressed by the way he both thinks through his preparation and responds on the fly to problems. He’s an engineer by training, and it shows in his methodical problem solving approach. “OK, this didn’t work. So what are the options?”

You can follow his progress on the Ocean Rowing Society web site.

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

What's your 120 day plan?

On the radio the other day, the Seattle public schools superintendent - in her first day on the job - mentioned her 120 day plan. I often hear people who have just taken office talk about their__ day plan, a way to hit the ground running and get traction right out of the gate.

That got me thinking...what if we used that idea in whatever we're trying to create in our lives? What if we looked at today as Day 1, and created goals and specific action steps in place for the next 120 days.

What I love about the idea is that it's got a long enough time scope to actually make some substantial progress, but short enough that it has some sense of urgency.

What would you focus your 120 plan on? What steps would you take?

Download The Occupational Adventure Guide

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

The Passion Catalyst Question of the Week

I have an e-mail newsletter that seems to have had multiple false starts. I think I finally found a format that both works for me (i.e., it's sustainable and easy to maintain) and offers something of value to subscribers.

It's The Passion Catalyst (tm) Question of the Week. Short, easy to digest, and thought provoking (you can subscribe here). Here's what I wrote in the first e-mail...

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I want to ask you a question. In fact, I want to ask you a whole bucketload of questions!

Questions are powerful portals to insights, understanding, and action. 

In my one-on-one coaching, I don't give people the answers. I ask them the questions that help them find their own answers. The answers they find for themselves are always much more relevant, compelling, and sustainable than any answers someone sitting on the outside looking in can give them.

With that in mind, I have decided to create a "question-of-the-week" e-newsletter. Each week I will offer up a question for you to explore, along with a short elaboration on it. I've touched on this week's question before, but it's an important one, so here it is again...

Question of the Week

Monday, July 9th, 2007

Q: How do I measure success?

Most of us grew up in a culture where success had a pretty simple definition. It was tied to money, status, and power. If you achieved that, you were a success. Simple, right?

Yes, simple. And that's the problem. When you think of all the facets of your life – work, health, relationships, spirituality, etc. – that’s a pretty narrow and one-dimensional picture.

Take a look at how you currently measure success. What if you took the traditional definition and chucked it out the window? How would you measure success? What are the different areas of your life that are important to take into consideration?

What steps would you take to move towards that success?

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! Spend some time exploring this week’s question, but don’t treat it like an abstract intellectual exercise. To make it really count, when you've fully explored the answer to the question, ask yourself:

• What have I learned that’s important in how I want to live my life?
• How is what I’ve learned relevant to where I am and where I want to go?
• What concrete steps can I take to incorporate what I’ve learned into my life?

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Change your world, and the world changes

 

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

 

Over on the Motto blog, Kevin Salwen points to some golden words that Will Marre (who helped Stephen Covey build his leadership program) shares on the American Dream Project, a site aimed at "helping people create change in their lives and live their dreams." They were so good, I couldn't help but share them here.

On the site, Marre talks about pondering their core message. Here's what he came up with...

Change Your World, and The World Changes. We are not powerless. There are answers on the sea of uncertainty we find ourselves adrift upon. Our research partner, DYG, reports that since 9/11 our societies’ psychological self-confidence has continued to decline and that our individual response is to face the truth that in the end we are responsible. Responsible for our own lives, our own future, the quality of our relationships, and the moral culture of our circle of influence. This is not the time to throw up our hands, nor to exhaust ourselves over-defining our problems. It is time to choose our lives. In so doing, we’ll have a rippling impact that will make all the difference.

Consider this:

-- If we are sick of foreign wars, make peace with our personal enemies.

-- If we are concerned with our nation’s debt, save our own money.

-- If we are sickened by materialism, buy only what we really value.

-- If we are concerned with global warming, conserve, walk, telecommute.

-- If we are worried about the environment, recycle, plant trees, grow something.

-- If we are angry with our leaders, propose and post real solutions.

-- If we are worried about health care costs, eat right, exercise, and sleep.

-- If we are worried about crime, drugs, and violence, participate in a neighborhood watch.

-- If we are sad about the decline of marriage, make ours the best example of commitment and fulfillment we can.

-- If we are worried about terrorists, put some boundaries between ourselves and those who use or abuse us.

I hope you can see what I’m trying to get at. These suggestions are simply metaphors for thinking about our lives. They are not meant to be absolute or literal statements. These are simply reminders that for every big overwhelming problem in the world, there is a version of it in our lives. If we focus on what we can control, our own lives will bloom and our influence will spread. So right now, what big-huge world problem is most disturbing to you? How does a version of that show up in your life? How’s the ecology of your relationships, the sustainability of your lifestyle, the humanity of your judgments? More than ever I believe that when we change our world, the world changes. I am sure there is something we could each change for the better right now. I know there is for me.

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM