The Occupational Adventure (tm)

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