The Occupational Adventure (tm)

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

   

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

 

Wild About Work (tm) e-newsletter relaunch

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

If you've been around for a while, you may remember the e-mail newsletter I started (and promptly stopped) last summer. The short story is that the timing was wrong. And now the timing feels right, so I'm picking it up again.

I'm including this issue below so you can get a feel for the content. I want to keep things short enough for easy digestion, but substantial enough to actually be relevant and useful. I will send one out every couple of weeks.

You can subscribe here.

Enjoy!

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QUOTE

"He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying."

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

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QUESTION TO PONDER

Q: Where is the beginning of your dream? What is the first step that will set you on the path? What step can you take today, and tomorrow, to start moving towards flight?

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THE WILD ABOUT WORK AUDIOSNACK

In the Wild About Work Audiosnacks you'll find bite-sized nuggets of insight, ideas, and inspiration.  Please click on the link to download it.

Title: Learning to fly
Length: 1 minute 47 seconds
Size: 1.64 MB

Transcript:

When I read the Nietzsche quote in this issue of the Wild About Work (sm) newsletter, something about it really struck a chord for me. The words he used reminded me of little kids getting progressively more and more exuberant about the way they're experiencing the world. "He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying."

First they learn to stand, then they get a little mobile. Then they start to put some speed behind that mobility. Then they add a bit of vertical exploration to the mix, climbing around like a monkey. Next thing you know, they're dancing for the sheer joy of
it.

And then, only then, do they start to fly.

The idea that taking flight is a process is important, no doubt about that, but even more important is the idea that the energy is building along the way. They're relishing each step. They're not eyeing the horizon impatiently wishing the flight would hurry up. They're running races, and hanging upside down from a tree branch. Every step of the way is filled with delight.

And that's the way it can be in our lives, if we let it. We can celebrate the process. We can grin from ear to ear when we learn something new, rather than discounting it and focusing instead on the fact that we have "so much more to learn." Stop and wonder, just for the heck of it. Learn by playing. Learn by exploring.

The more you delight in the process, the more you delight in life. And the more you delight in life, the more energy you have to put into learning to fly.

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Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

1000 Occupational Adventure posts

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

Here's an amazing thought. I could stop blogging today (don't worry - I'm not going to) and you could go back to the beginning and read a different post every day for almost three years. This is my 1000th post.

Sometimes I go back through my old posts and I think, "Wow, this is good. This is helpful stuff." I love the fact that I've created this resource just sitting out there for people to use.

Writing this blog has had a huge impact on my business/career. When I started it after hearing John Porcaro talk about his experience blogging, I was at a stage where it was clear that it was time to expand my presence beyond the local Seattle market. I realized that blogging was the perfect way to do that.

Much of the media attention I've gotten in the last three years has come as a result of journalists finding my blog and contacting me for an interview. My involvement with Motto magazine was fed at least in part by my active blogging. And by now many of my clients first find out about me by stumbling across my blog.

Blogging has allowed me to develop the voice of my writing. It feels much more fluid and natural than it was when I started. I'm not sure if it has actually changed much, but it flows more freely now.

I've encountered some amazing people along the way. When I started the blog in September 2003, I had to really search to find other people writing blogs on careers, etc. Now there are all sorts of amazing blogs out there (check out both the career blogs and blogroll list in the right hand column). Blogging has opened the door to connecting with some really fabulous people around the world doing some really fabulous work.

And last but absolutely not least, I've loved what YOU bring to the table. I'm constantly learning and having new ideas sparked by your commnents and e-mails.

So thank you for coming and reading what I have to say. Thank you for your comments along the way, and thank you for the links to this blog. I appreciate it, and I'm looking forward to more of all of the above.

Enjoy! :-D

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Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Listen to an interview with yours truly

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

Lisa Haneberg interviewed me last week for her Fireside Chat podcast. Master of the pithy and concise soundbite I'm not, but it's worth a listen anyway. ;-)

You can listen to the web version of it here, or if you want to listen to it on the go, you can download the mp3 here.

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Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

More Cambodia pictures

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

FYI, I have the remainder of my edited down batch of Cambodia pictures uploaded to flickr if you want to take a look. The first two pages are temples (Angkor Wat, etc.), so if you get bored with that, you can skip to the third page.

Enjoy!

Motto magazine article - Wild-Eyed Pragmatist

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

I realized yesterday that I haven't posted a link to the pdf of my article in the November/December issue of Motto (I got my grubbies on it just as I was leaving for vacation, so I didn't have a chance when the magazine first came out in November).

The article is titled Wild-Eyed Pragmatist, and it's about blending the expansive world view of a Pollyana perspective with a nuts and bolts approach to reality.

Most of you probably already know about Motto, but if you don't, check it out. The focus of the magazine is work with "Purpose, Passion, & Profit." It's an amazing read (and I would say that even if I weren't biased).

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Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Cambodia & Singapore photos

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

All in all I took around 2000 pictures on my vacation to Cambodia and Singapore. I have edited that down to around 150 for public consumption, and have uploaded half of those to flickr thus far. You can check them out here.

Enjoy!

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Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Divine intervention: Leaving it all behind

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

How long has it been since you've had a 100% break from your work? No e-mail. No phone messages. Nothing.

For me, it had been years - six or seven, at least. Always checking and responding to e-mail while on vacation, even blogging from the road, I never really and truly left work behind. There was always a piece of me that stayed engaged.

As my trip to Cambodia and Singapore approached, I was gearing up to do the same thing. The Universe had other ideas.

The day before I left I was talking with the oh-so-wise Nancy Solomon, who knew how much I needed to step away from it all for a real break. She could see that I was mentally preparing to take my work with me, and encouraged me to commit to leaving it behind completely. "Let it go," she urged. "Just let it go. Trust that everything will be OK."

Much as I wanted to, I couldn't do it. There was a part of me that was afraid that things would fall apart if I weren't actively engaged - and then what would I do. I was a little surprised at how impossible it felt to simply say, "OK, I'm leaving work behind."

So I left, fully intending to check e-mail regularly once I got to Cambodia. And then the Universe intervened... "No, Curt," it seemed to say. "It's time for you to leave it all behind for a while." I got online to check my e-mail and...nothing. Not a single e-mail. Not even spam!

In the rush to get to the airport, I had left my computer on at home, which spent its time merrily downloading all my e-mails (which were subsequently deleted from the server). So none of them were accessible remotely. Suddenly, I had no choice but to leave it all behind. I couldn't check my e-mail, even if I wanted to.

It didn't take me long to fall into 100% travel and exploration mode - and more importantly, to leave work behind. It was delicious.

And now I'm back. And I'm ready to change the world.

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Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Wild About Work group coaching

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

I'm headed out on vacation tomorrow, but before I go I want to let you know about a Wild About Work coaching group I am launching on December 4th. If you (or someone you know) don't want to wait till the new year to start creating a career that lights you up, this group might be just the ticket! Hit the ground running in 2007 by building momentum as the old year winds to a close.

(Note: The group is limited to ten people, so if you're interested let me know ASAP to claim your space! It's first come, first served.)

Over the years, I have interviewed dozens of people who have successfully created careers that both made them feel alive and let them thrive. The one thing they all said was, "I couldn't have done it by myself." They invariably pointed to the support of others as a key success factor.

I created Wild About Work groups to help people tap into the energy, insights, and inspiration that comes from working with a group of like-minded individuals in pursuit of a common goal.

The group will run for six one-hour sessions starting the first week of December (and taking a break for Christmas and New Year's weeks). The coaching is phone-based, so you can dial in from wherever you are. 

You can find more information at www.passioncatalyst.com/groupcoaching.

Enjoy!

- curt

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Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM