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The Treasure Hunt of Your Life

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Seeking Your Calling, Encountering God, Finding Yourself. By Rebecca Schlatter Liberty

Rebecca is a discernment coach who is taking my Facilitating Career Development (FCD) class. Her background is ministry where she practiced a lot of discernment coaching and workshops.

Her book is about how we have to look for things in our life to discover the treasures hidden throughout. I found so much of Krumboltz, Levin, and Mitchell’s Happenstance theory in her writing. About the importance of taking action to move forward in their career development i.e. treasure hunt and to be open to discovering things by accident.

In particular I liked her reference to a “God of possibility” which is similar to much of my work where I encourage people to change their mindset to look for “what else is out there” that they might be interested in doing.

Her references to the bible and a Christian view were aligned with a good sense of career development and yet, they do not take over the message of discovering a career or being too religious. Her ministerial view matched quite nicely with her career coaching view.

I am seeing a lot more coaches and books and articles now about weaving spirituality with career coaching. Clearly there appears to be a need for some people who want career coaching but also want a Christian perspective in it.

If that is you, read this book. Rebecca does a great job at helping people think about their career and weaves in much of her background as a minister.

Learn more about Rebecca at  rebeccaliberty.com

Resilience – If you are reading this, you have it.

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Resilience: The ability to bounce back from hardship. We all have resilience. We need to recognize that we have it and give ourselves credit for our ability to bounce back from hardship in these challenging times.

I see resilience as a rubber band that stretches as we need it. It is often surprising how much a rubber band can stretch. I believe we too, are often surprised, how much we can stretch when we need to. While backpacking in New Zealand in 1984, I was caught in the worst flooding in recorded history in the Grebe Valley in the Fiordlands. I never thought I could swim a mile through a forest in 10’ of water. And then scramble up an 800’ fiord mountain and walk 15 miles out to the first cabin with people who could help me. But I did.

We often do not know how many resources we each possess, when we are dealing with things like a months-long quarantine, or losing a job in the worst economy ever. I say, give yourself some credit here. Who would have thought we would have to quarantine for three months? I certainly would have freaked out if they told me that back in March, but I’ve managed to continue living and even managed to have some fun over this time too…a semblance of normal times.

resilient
Pixabay/Wokandapix

Resilience is also like a muscle. You can work it and make it stronger and you can also learn from these difficult times.  Much of our resilience is based on our own personal strength, both physically and mentally, as well as the resources we can lean on in tough times.

PHYSICALLY. We need to stay active physically to whatever level your body can take. The worst thing we can do is just sit around and turn on “I Love Lucy” reruns or watch Wimbledon tennis from 2018. In order to build your resilience make sure you are taking time to walk, or exercise, or move in whatever way you can. When I work from home I set a timer for 45 minutes which reminds me to get up and move. Sometimes it is as simple as getting another coffee or brushing my teeth, and sometimes I go for a walk or go downstairs and work out. 

It is important to realize that your physical health is as important as your mental health. Even watching what you are eating and making sure you are making healthy choices is important. Movement is one key and the other is what you put in your mouth. That ‘rubber band’ of resilience will not be stretched at all if you do not take care of your health.

MENTALLY. I think most people think of the mental piece to resilience first. It seems there is a constant undercurrent of stress in our lives now as we are dealing with COVID-19, the economy, the terrible social injustice of our society, and the upcoming American elections. Yikes! Just writing that sentence makes me nervous. Yet even with this undercurrent of stress, most people are managing their lives fine. My wife was furloughed for five weeks and that was difficult for her. But she managed to do a few things to help distract herself and we both managed to get through it.

I recommend exploring the practice of mindfulness which helps get your head out of “What’s going to happen tomorrow?”  “How am I going to deal with this in a month?”  “What could I have done…?”. All good questions but they can raise your level of stress even more if you don’t focus on what is happening right now. That is what mindfulness is all about. Being present in the moment and place you are right now. You can also do more reading, more reflecting, more writing, and more time with yourself. Remember it was not that long ago most people were saying, “I’m so busy! I wish it would slow down.”  Looks like those people’s prayers were answered 🙂

SUPPORT. We all need support in our lives. It may look different for each of us and it may be more difficult to get with social distancing, but with all the technology in our lives, we can still reach out to people to provide support, and to receive it as well. Don’t be afraid to reach out if you need it and don’t be afraid to check on people. This is all part of being resilient. 

Nancy Schlossberg’s Transition Theory comes to mind as I think about resilience. Her Four S’s really seem to fit here.

Situation: How bad is the situation? It is quite different for each of us. I have been working just as hard as ever because I do a lot of online training anyway. My wife, on the other hand, struggled with how to fill her days. Same house. Same situation. Different feelings. Recognize that each person may be dealing with the same situation differently. 

Self: This has to do with how much self-efficacy each person has. Are you an optimist? Or a pessimist? Are you taking care of yourself physically and mentally? What are some things you can do to be more optimistic?

Support: Schlossberg recognized in career development that people needed support in order to move forward, and we do too in these challenging times.

Strategizing: What is your ability to strategize? Are you able to think of a Plan A and a Plan B, and consider your possible options within those plans? Are you able to adapt to obstacles that come your way?

As you think about your own resilience; 

Which of these four S’s is your strength? 

Which one might need some work? 

The most important question…What did you learn?

I think the most important piece of resilience is being able to look at your own situation and ask yourself, “What did I learn from this?”  The longer people have been quarantined, the more I hear that people have discovered some new things about themselves and their families. And many people are able to say they really have enjoyed pieces of it. For me, my siblings and I get together for a Zoom-chat once per week. We never would have done that without Covid-19. 

When you go in for an interview, be prepared to answer the question, “What did you learn in these past few months?” You have been building resilience. You are developing other skills as well. The question for you is, are you aware you are learning? And if not, how can you increase that awareness. Think about these times as a time for personal growth.

Maybe this is the time to do something on the margins of your to-do list. Things like, “I’ve always wanted to do photography” or “I’ve always wanted to learn another language”. Things that you’ve put off because they weren’t essential to your day-to-day. This is a great way to:

 (1) keep your mental wellness in good standing and build resilience during these times, but also 

(2) a way to sharpen a tool that would otherwise have never been sharpened. 

Then when you are on the other side, you can impress your employer (or future employer in an interview), showing them your curiosity, initiative, and self-improvement all in one example. 

Who could imagine Anne Frank being hidden in a small room for 761 days! Over two years. She had to find ways to work through her days (journaling was one). She had no idea she would be hidden for over two years and then spend twenty-five months in a concentration camp. I had no idea I could swim for hours through the forest and climb a fiord and then walk fifteen miles in fourteen hours…but I did. 

We all have resilience. We can all build up our resilience by taking care of ourselves one day at a time and supporting each other. Your rubber band can handle quite a bit and can indeed flex without breaking.

Listen to this Crystal Debrah-Ekolie’s podcast, Change and Transition,
where Crystal interviews myself and Sabrina Woods on
“How to thrive in difficult times- RESILIENCE.”

NOTE: If you are interested in learning more about my near-death experience and adventures traveling in New Zealand for six months, I am writing a book about this adventure which should be out this fall. Email me if you’d like to be notified when it comes out. [email protected]

Dr. Lucy Hone shares her three secrets of resilient people based upon her research and her personal devastating event. This is a great Ted Talk I encourage you to watch it. (16 minutes) . Watch now.

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from National Career Development Association.

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You will also receive the career practitioners weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

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Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate

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By Mark Kurlansky who also wrote Cod which was a great book about how the cod is what brought the early Europeans to America in the 1400’s and how much an impact the cod has made.

Salmon is a book I will keep forever on my bookshelf (much to the dismay of my wife who wants me to start getting rid of some books). Kurlansky has taken the global view of this fish and how it is found all over the northern hemispere and introduced to the southern hemispher in New Zealand and Australia. One of the ONLY times hatcheries really worked and it is because NZ and Oz had the perfect environment for them.

The author talks about what the salmon needs to survive, their life-cycle, the history, and then how man-kind has destroyed the habitat required by putting up dams. Oh yeh, and also by putting up sawmills on the rivers that basically choked the fish out.

I bought the hard-cover and love it. It is filled with amazing photos of fish, grizzly, people, and scenery. He has also included a number of recipes on how to prepare salmon from different cultures.

If you are a person who loves fishing and / or wildlife in general, get this book.

INTERVIEW: Podcasting for Career Practitioners

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This is another Peak-Careers monthly interview and this month I am with Mark Anthony Dyson and Marie Zimenoff who have been podcasting for years on a wide variety of career topics. I thoroughly enjoyed interviewing them. Learn about podcasting for career practitioners, how they got started, what trends they see, and tips on what you can do if you’d like to get started.

This is a follow up to my recent blog called Career Podcasts… A Little Help from my Friends, where I list the top career podcasts as submitted by my friends on LinkedIn.

What we will explore in this Podcasting for Career Practitioners interview:

  • Why did you decide to get into podcasting?
  • What has changed over the past couple of years in podcasting?
  • What advice do you have for people in this area?
podcasting for career practitioners
Watch now on YouTube

BIO’s

Mark Anthony Dyson is always hacking and reimagining the job search process. He is a freelance career advice writer working with online publications serving job seekers and career changers. His career advice is featured on Forbes, Business Insider, Fast Company, and Linkedin’s #GetHired publication. Learn more about Mark Anthony, his podcasts, and blogs at Voice of the Job Seekers

Marie Zimenoff, CEO of Career Thought Leaders and Resume Writing Academy, knows career services have the power to change lives. She began her career as an advisor and recruiter for the Colorado State University mechanical engineering graduate program while completing her Master of Education in Human Resource Studies and Career Development. In 2008, Marie left the university to start her business. Inspired by a passion to make a difference in the industry, she trains career professionals around the globe in resume writing, career coaching, and business development. Learn more at Career Thought Leaders

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching. He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move

Sign up to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You will also receive the career practitioner’s weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. Sign up now.

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Career podcasts…a Little Help From My Friends

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Here is a list of career podcasts that come recommended from my friends on LinkedIn. I posted a few of my favorite career podcasts and asked people to share their favorites.

I have not listened to every one of these, but I feel confident you should check them out, as will I over the next few weeks.

Descriptions in quotes come directly from the podcast website or from comments from the person recommending the podcast.

Special “shout out” to the following people who recommended one or more of these podcasts; Mac Prichard, Tammy Gooler Loeb, Ryan Rhoten, Marc Miller, Jordan Bell, Rosaria Pipitone, Andrew Levine, Carol Fishman Cohen, Edythe Richards, Kitcaster, Rocio G. and others.

Where ever you see my Peak-Careers mountain logo, it means I have listened to it and recommend it.

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CAREER PODCASTS

Peak Careers with Jim Peacock

Repurpose Your Career Podcast by Marc Miller

Repurpose Your Career Podcast

Topic: Career change

Description: “Brought to you by CareerPivot.”

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Talklaunch by Various hosts

https://www.talklaunch.net/

Topic: Career success

Description: “The Talklaunch podcast features founders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs. Here we discover how they build their business, and what keeps them on top.”

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Peak Careers with Jim Peacock

First, You Hustle by Jordan Bell

I had a cameo appearance on one of Jordan’s early shows where I talked about ‘intentional serendipity’ 🙂

https://firstyouhustle.podbean.com/

Topic: Creative careers for college students

Description: “Thanks for including First, You Hustle! It has been a fun way to do programming for our students.” Jordan Bell, Columbus College of Art and Design.

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Going Solo by David Shriner-Cahn 

http://www.goingsolo.club/

Topic: Self-employment

Description: David shares the stories of people who turn to self-employment after a job loss, a timely subject today. “Have you lost your job after 20 or 30 years in your career? Do you feel traumatized and unsure of how to go forward? Would you rather work for yourself and have more control over your destiny? You are not alone. In GOING SOLO, we discuss what it’s like to go from being highly skilled and well-compensated to unemployment; how to deal with the trauma of late-career job loss; and how to reinvent yourself as an entrepreneur, satisfying your soul and supporting your lifestyle.”

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Work from the Inside Out by Tammy Gooler Loeb

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/work-from-the-inside-out/id1444574191

Topic: Career challenges

Description: “Tammy’s guests talk about overcoming personal career challenges.” 

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Careers by Jenn by Jennifer Swanson

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/careers-by-jenn-podcast-get-job-love-your-work-advance/id489253572

Topic: Career development

Description: Jenn offers tips for job search, personal growth, and self-improvement

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3, 2, 1, iRelaunch! by Carol Fishman Cohen 

https://www.irelaunch.com/podcast

Topic: Returning to work

Description: “Carol’s guests, often career coaches, share strategies for professional women returning to the workforce. Featured as one of the “Top Career Podcasts” since it’s inception in 2017, 3,2,1 iRelaunch! is focused on getting you back on the career track and making your return to work smooth and successful. We feature strategies, advice and success stories about returning to work after a career break.”

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Find Your Dream Job by Mac Prichard

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/find-your-dream-job-insider/id1047320599?mt=2

Topic: Career exploration

Description: A podcast for professionals focused on finding work that matters. https://www.macslist.org/podcasts

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The Voice of Job Seekers by Mark Anthony Dyson

TVOJS Podcast

Topic: Job search

Description: “One of my faves.”  

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Your Career Podcast by Jane Jackson

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/your-career-podcast-jane-jackson-create-your-dream/id989168672

Topic: Career development

Description: “Do you want more out of your career? Find out how to find your dream job, gain inspiration and great ideas to create the career of your dreams or start your own business.”

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The Career Confidante by Marie Zimenoff

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-career-confidante/id793020523

Topic: Career development

Description: “Mondays at 3 PM Pacific on VoiceAmerica Business, Marie provides a featured topic, interviews national leaders, and reviews the latest career management tools. You will benefit from a weekly Get Career Smart(TM) tip and featured job of the week, in addition to practical strategies in branding, career transition, advancement, job search, resumes, interviewing, and social media.”

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Second Act Stories with Andrew Levine

https://www.secondactstories.org/

Topic: Career change

Description: “Welcome to Second Act Stories, a podcast that shares the stories of people who have made major career changes to pursue more rewarding lives in a second act. The stories are in their own words and the words of friends and family that helped them find a new path. Every two weeks we bring you a new story. Each episode examines the “before” and “after” phases of a life/career change and offers lessons learned.”

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Ramsey Network Podcasts by Various hosts

https://www.daveramsey.com/show/podcasts

Topic: Career and life coaching

Description: “My favorite work podcast. He talks so much about limiting student loans and how to live life within your means. I’ve been incorporating his message in my career counseling practice.”

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How I Built This by Guy Raz

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this

Topic: Entrepreneurship

Description: From National Public Radio. “For anyone exploring an entrepreneurial path, it’s great to listen to the stories of the men and women behind some amazing companies.”

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Side Hustle School by Chris Guillebeau

About

Topic: Entrepreneurship

Description: “I’ve been a fan for some time for both entertainment and professional development value.”

MARKETING

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Peak Careers with Jim Peacock

PR Maven by Nancy Marshal

I was interviewed by Nancy in the fall of 2019. Check it out here.

The PR Maven® Podcast

Topic: Public relations and branding

Description: “Listen to Nancy Marshall interview industry leaders, top executives, media personalities & online influencers about PR & their personal brand.”

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Agents of Change by Rich Brooks

Podcast

Topic: Digital and social marketing

Description: “The Agents of Change serves business owners, marketers, and entrepreneurs to help them reach more of their ideal customers through search, social, and mobile marketing.”

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The Brand New You Show by Ryan Rhoten

I was interviewed by Ryan in June 2019. Check it out here

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ryan-rhoten/the-brand-new-you-show

Topic: Branding

Description: “A personal branding and digital branding podcast.”

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The Jane Anderson Show by Jane Anderson

https://janeandersonspeaks.com/podcast-episodes/

Topic: Branding

Description: “The Jane Anderson Show is the podcast for experts, consultants, speakers, trainers, academics and coaches who are or aim to be the leaders in their field. Jane shares her insights as well as interviews those who are industry experts to find out about their experiences when marketing themselves under their Personal Brand, or name.

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School of Podcasting by Dave Jackson

https://schoolofpodcasting.com/

Topic: Podcast tutorial

Description: Courses that teach how to create your own podcast.

ENTERTAINMENT

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Crimetown by Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier

https://www.crimetownshow.com/

Topic: Crime documentary

Description: “In partnership with Gimlet Media. Each season, we investigate the culture of crime in a different city.”

INTERVIEWING / STORY-TELLING

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The Turnaround by Jesse Thorn

https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/the-turnaround-with-jesse-thorn/

Topic: Interviewing, story telling

Description: “The Turnaround is a show about our greatest living interviewers, hosted by Jesse Thorn and produced by Maximum Fun and Columbia Journalism Review. Featuring conversations with prominent interviewers about their careers and their craft, the show is a perfect resource for a new generation of storytellers and journalists. Even if you aren’t a budding journalist, hearing how Terry Gross, Combat Jack, Katie Couric, or Larry King (among many others) each approach the craft of interviewing will make you a naturally more curious, inquisitive person. The knack for being present in the moment, a good listener, and a good probe for information is something that will benefit your career no matter what field you work in.”

FINANCE

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Bigger Pockets by Brandon Turner and David Greene

https://www.biggerpockets.com/podcast

Topic: Investing

Description: “Personally, I love it because I like flipping houses!”

WORKFORCE

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Managing the Future of Work by Joseph Fuller and William Kerr

https://www.hbs.edu/managing-the-future-of-work/podcast/Pages/default.aspx

Topic: Workforce

Description: “From Harvard Business School. Covers a range of thoughtful and sometimes controversial topics about workforce development and trends.”

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Future of Work by Jacob Morgan

https://thefutureorganization.com/future-work-podcast/

Topic: Workforce
Description: “A great way to stay updated on the latest #HBR topics and trends.”

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If you have a favorite podcast that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear what it is. What it’s about. And why you like it.

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching. He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You will also receive the career practitioners weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

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Life’s Great Question by Tom Rath

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Discover How YOU Contribute To The World

Tom Rath has written StrengthsFinder 2.0 and How Full is Your Bucket and Eat Move Sleep. He is best known for StrengthsFinder 2.0 and this book builds on strengths in a slightly different way.

As the title says, it really looks at how you want to contribute to the world.

He suggests that we move away from “You are what you do” which is the most common question people ask when they first meet you, to “You are how you help.” It really is about how you help others in life that makes a true impact in the world.

His website contribify.com has a “how do you contribute?” assessment you can take. I read the book first and tried to determine what my areas of contributions are before taking the 20-30 minute assessment. (A code is provided with the book to take it for free).

I did not come up with the exact same three but I was pretty close and can see how each of them fits into my life.

He describes 12 contributions that fall within 3 areas that looks at what the world needs and how you deliver your strengths, passions, and values to each one.

OPERATE

  • Organizing: How do we make things run smoothly?
  • Achieving: How can we get more done?
  • Adapting: How can we adapt quickly to changes?
  • Scaling: How can we reach more people?

RELATE

  • Connecting: How do we connect people to our missions?
  • Energizing: How do we get and stay charged?
  • Perceiving: What does each person need?
  • Influencing: How can we grow our client base?

CREATE

  • Initiating: How do we get started?
  • Challenging: Are we doing the right things?
  • Teaching: What do people need to know?
  • Visioning: What should we do next?

I love how this model looks at a persons strength but dives deeper into how do you want to use this skill? It is similar to the conversation with students or clients when they say “I want to work with people”. What does that mean?

Well, if you filter over Rath’s 12 contribution areas, you can begin to peel away how they want to work with people. Is it to get them energized or motivated? Is it to teach them something? Is it to get more things done?

Like all tools we have to help us understand ourselves (or clients) better, we tend to have a little bit of all of the areas in us at some time. Even as a strong Extrovert (ENFP) I still enjoy my time alone. But the reality is we do indeed have defaults and strengths and if we can play to our strengths we will be happier in our jobs and lives.

My guesses on what my top contribution in each area was:

CREATE: I thought I was more teaching, What do people need to know?

The assessment results gave me initiating, How do we get started? Which as to do with connecting people to get things done…I can see this and will re-read that section more closely.

RELATE: I thought I would be closer to the energizer, How do we get and stay charged?..

The assessment results gave me perceiving, What does each person need? Again, I can see both. Perceiving is about creating stronger bonds between people, finding commonality, and being a good listener. Both of these areas have merit in my world.

OPERATE: I thought I was adapting, How can we adapt quickly to changes?

But after taking the assessment and coming out as scaling, How can we reach more people? I realize that scaling is much closer to what motivates me and why I do what I do. The mission of Peak-Careers is to help more career coaches do a better job in their work in order to reach more people.

As I reflect on my mission for Peak-Careers, Providing professional development for career service providers, I can see how my mission has a lot to do with training people but also connecting them.

As I check out my ABOUT page, and read this, I help career service providers improve their skills so the greatest number of people receive quality career services. I realize that scaling is what I am all about.

This is a book I will re-read in order to glean out some of the nuances of each of his 12 contributing areas for better understanding. All in all, if you are a career coach or a person who is exploring a change of careers, I recommend reading this book and taking their assessment.