3 Words

Three Words to Guide Us in 2024

January 22, 2024 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

Another Peak-Careers INTERVIEW on our Three Words to Guide Us in 2024

My guests today are Scott Woodard – Executive and Leadership Development Coach, Marcela Mesa – Psychologist and founder of Orientarte in Colombia, and Belinda Wilkerson – Founder and principal counselor at Steps To The Future, LLC

We discuss how they choose their three words and what they mean to them.

Watch / Listen Now

Dr. Belinda J. Wilkerson is the founder and principal counselor at Steps To The Future, LLC, a college and career counseling service serving students worldwide. A lifelong educator, she held teaching, school counseling and counselor educator positions in Rhode Island before relocating to North Carolina. Wilkerson is an adjunct professor at Providence College (RI) in the School counseling program. She is a former Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Cumberland County Public Library and Information Center and presently serves as the Vice-President of the Cumberland County Friends of the Library. She is in the second year of her Presidential cycle for the North Carolina Career Development Association (NCCDA), serving from 2023 -2024 as President. Belinda served on the Board of Directors for the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) Board from 2016 – 2022 and was the VP for Ethics & Standards of Practice from 2019 – 2021. Currently, she is a member of the IECA’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee and a co-founder of the Black IECs Affinity Group.

Wilkerson earned an EdD in Educational Leadership from Johnson & Wales University, holds an M.Ed. in School Counseling and a BA in history/ secondary education from Rhode Island College. Besides IECA and NCCDA, she holds memberships in the Southern Association for College Admission Counseling (SACAC), the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), the National Career Development Association (NCDA), the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) and the Career Counselors Consortium (CCC).

Married with two adult sons, she enjoys her fur family, reading, and traveling. Connect with Dr. Wilkerson on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/belindawilkerson/.

Scott Woodard is an executive and leadership development coach, helping leaders transform from strong to superb. He frames issues so people can take action and achieve their goals – for themselves, their organizations, their communities. He works with individuals and teams to see new patterns and create alternative ways to move forward. Together they identify small actions that lead to big changes.

Scott has conducted workshops and trainings for leaders and teams, to identify their strategic goals and develop measurable outcomes.

He has coached people from all walks of life: corporate executives and elected officials challenged to transform their organizations; Boomers trying to determine the “second acts” of their lives; and new graduates starting out in their first career.

Prior to his professional coaching career, Scott enjoyed a long career as a successful policy advisor to state and local elected leaders in Colorado, helping key decision-makers frame these issues in ways that they could move forward with actionable strategies. He was honored to receive a German Marshall Fund Fellowship in recognition of problem-solving leadership for public sector leaders. He holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and a BA in history.

He lives the ex-pat life in Ajijic, Mexico with his wife, a psychotherapist — so he is truly in touch with his feelings.

Scott can be reached by email at [email protected]. He can also be contacted via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottwoodardcareercoach/.

Marcela Mesa, is a Psychologist, GCDF and FCD Instructor in Cali, Colombia, with 24+ years of experience delivering career services in private practice, passionate about helping people make good career decisions from a broad diversity of social contexts. Trained as a Psychologist in the Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen in Germany, Specialist in Gestalt Therapy and Human Talent Management, founder and CEO of Orientarte in Colombia (www.orientarte.com) and now Orientarte LLC (www.liveyourdreamcareer.com ) in the US, aiming to deliver career services for Latinos living in the US. She is also co-chair of the NCDA Global Connections Committee. She can be reached at linkedin.com/in/orientartemarcelamesa and [email protected]

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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 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)

Three Words to Guide Me in 2024

January 8, 2024 by Jim Peacock 6 Comments

For nine years now, I have chosen three words to guide me throughout the year rather than creating New Year’s resolutions. Writing and thinking about the words daily inspires me and gives me the power to start each day. For example, in 2023 when I wrote the word Joy, I would stop and think about what I could do that day to bring joy. Throughout my day I would look for where the word Joy could be found. It was amazing how often it came to fruition in some form.

To choose my words this year, like the past eight, I scheduled a day-long tech-free retreat during which I could read, write, reflect, meditate, and take walks away from my distraction-filled home. I turned off my social media and phone and found that in and of itself to be cleansing. I spent the morning in one cafe and early afternoon in another.

It is amazing how by simply changing location I can be inspired to see things differently and be motivated to write. Being in a different environment helps me to think differently. I encourage you to try it if you can. Even a half-day can be powerful, but I recommend trying a full eight-hour day.

Peace. This word feels right to me as I look ahead in my life and with hope towards our country’s future. I was choosing my words shortly after the Hamas and Israeli fighting started, and as the war in Ukraine was coming up on two years since it broke out. So sad.

I try to start my day with stretching, walking, and reading before I begin working. This helps me start each day slowly and this year, I hope, peacefully. I am looking for ways to be more content with myself by incorporating meditation into my day and finding ways to be calm and kind to myself.

Catalyst. This word jumped out to me as I was reading J.P. Michel’s new book, The World Needs You. He is calling for career coaches to be career catalysts and help propel our students/clients to their future careers. My passion in life now is to give back to our profession by being a Trustee on the NCDA Board of Directors. I want to use my three-year commitment to NCDA to be a catalyst for our association.

Another passion of mine is offering a mentor relationship to people new to the field. Over the past few years, I have worked with several people who had various questions about how to get into the career development field, how to create a company that is currently centered in Brazil and move it to the US, what types of jobs are available for someone with the Certified Career Service Provider (CCSP) credential, or how to start their own consulting business. I want to help every one of them in whatever way I can, and I believe I can be a catalyst for them.

Discover. This word has several different layers to it. I like that the word feeds my love of learning. I am always looking to discover new information through reading, podcasts, listening to news shows, talking with people, or watching TV. I simply love learning. The layers include looking at ways to improve Peak-Careers and thinking about what I’d like to do with the business over the next few years.

The word Discover also has great meaning for who “Jim Peacock” is and will become over the next few years. I am in my mid-to-late 60s and find life is constantly evolving as my family grows (more grandchildren), my siblings are all facing retirement and we talk about how we can get together despite living 1000s of miles apart, my lifelong friends and I are closer now than ever, and my wife and I are traveling more.

I look forward to seeing how these words develop throughout the year.

Do you choose three words to guide you?

If so, please share your words and a little about what they mean to you.

Here are all my words from 2016-2023

2016 – Health ★ Mindfulness ★ Focus

2017 – Intentional ★ Authentic ★ Wellness

2018 – Reach ★ Capacity ★ Consistency

2019 – Reflection ★ Purposeful ★ Gratitude

2020 – Philanthropy ★ Rebalance ★ Strategic

2021 – Be ★ Kindness ★ Understanding

2022 – Community ★ Balance ★ Positivity

2023 – Joy ★ Humility ★ Exploration

2024 – Peace ★ Catalyst ★ Discover

If you’d like to read about how I choose past years words and/or watch some interviews with other people who choose three words, check out my website here.

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 Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

INTERVIEW: Three Words to Guide Us in 2023

January 16, 2023 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

Choosing Three Words to Guide You in 2023

My guests today are Robin McPherson, a mental health professional and career coach; and Telma Sullivan who is an independent career coach helping individuals to launch, advance, or transition their careers.

We have all chosen three words to guide us in 2023.

(1) What are your words and what do they mean to you?

(2) How did you go about choosing them?

Watch or listen to the interview now

BIO’s

Robin McPherson. A mental health professional and an education and career coach. I have over 20 years of experience in the human service and education field. I help people “figure out” what they want. It starts with Envisioning the life they want, then work with the mindset of Believing that one can Achieve their goals. I believe that the key to success is self-belief! I am committed to the process of helping others reach self-actualization. https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-mcpherson/

Telma Sullivan is an independent career coach helping individuals to launch, advance, or transition their career. She coaches young adults exploring careers, women reentering the workforce, people in mid-career, and career changers. Her coaching approach is client-focused and outcome-oriented, and her services include: job search strategy, resume/CV/cover letter writing, LinkedIn profile, networking, interview/salary negotiation preparation, and career change exploration. Telma is also a yoga instructor who enjoys creative writing and spending time in nature. Web: https://www.telmasullivan.com/

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 Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

INTERVIEW: Our 3 Guiding Words for 2022

January 17, 2022 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

Another Peak-Careers INTERVIEW talking about what are our three words to guide us are in 2022? Why do this? and How do we do it?

In 2016 I heard about Chris Brogan’s annual activity he did choosing 3 words to guide him throughout the year. Ever since then I have been choosing my words, writing them down in my journal daily, posting them in front of me, and thinking about them every day. Since then, a number of people in my network have joined me in this yearly process.

Guests today are (Sue) Soon-Lan Lee Switzer, a certified career development practitioner in Canada and Sheila Taylor, a nationally certified career counselor.

*Read my blog on my 3 words. (Read Now)

Bio’s

Sue. Her full name is Soon-Lan Lee Switzer was born and raised in Korea and moved to Canada in November 2007. Sue is a certified career development practitioner, human resources management, and essential skills training as working at a college on the west coast of Canada as an educator and research project facilitator. Sue is currently completing her own studies in the field of student-centered leadership in higher education. Sue serves as Vice President of the United Nations Association of Canada in the Vancouver region. Sue is highly dedicated in the community to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. [Her words are Hope, Presence, and Connection].

Sheila Taylor is a nationally certified career counselor. She works with high school and college students, and early career clients that are struggling to identify their vocation. By helping her clients move from frustration and confusion to become energized and hopeful, they are empowered to pursue careers that complement their strengths. For leisure, she and her husband enjoy traveling in a small RV in search of beautiful vistas and hiking trails. [Her words are Finish, Optimism, and Community].

My Three Guiding Words in 2022

January 3, 2022 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I took my “tech-free retreat” which I try to fit in monthly. My focus was on choosing my three guiding words for the upcoming year. December’s retreat was scheduled on a day that turned out to be our first real snowstorm of the year. Hence, it became a half-day retreat, not my typical full day one. I’ve lost access to an office I was using for my retreats, so I spent the morning at Selah Tea Cafe downtown Waterville where I worked on my three words for 2022.

I had planned to move to my other favorite coffee shop, Jorgenson’s Cafe, at noon, but they closed early. My next back up plan was to hang out in the Waterville Public Library on the 3rd floor which has a wonderful room with lots of windows looking over downtown Waterville…but alas, they closed due to the storm as well.

All was not lost as I still did lots of thinking and writing, and came up with my three guiding words for the year.

First off, let me share my words from past years. Each word still resonates with me at some level. They were important to me then and still are now as a clue to who I am and who I want to be.

2016 – Health ★ Mindfulness ★ Focus

2017 – Intentional ★ Authentic ★ Wellness

2018 – Reach ★ Capacity ★ Consistency

2019 – Reflection ★ Purposeful ★ Gratitude

2020 – Philanthropy ★ Rebalance ★ Strategic

2021 – Be ★ Kindness ★ Understanding

Here are my three guiding words for 2022 and a little of the reasoning behind each one.

Balance

In 2020 I used “rebalance” which is similar, but as I looked ahead to 2022 and reflected back on 2021, I kept coming back to the guiding word of “balance.” A few years ago I was trying to rebalance, to make a bigger change. Now looking at this word the meaning feels more like balancing with smaller more permanent changes.

Like a few years ago, I am still interested in reducing the actual number of hours I spend working each week. My wife retired this past year and I am trying hard to spend more time with her. We have already gone to a number of matinees during the week, and occasionally taken some time off “just to hang out.” I want to explore this balance more in the upcoming year while continuing to add value in the career field.

Positivity

Ted Lasso inspired me on this one. Special thanks to my backpacking buddy, Howard who turned me on to the Ted Lasso show in September. I came home from our backpacking trip in Vermont and my wife and I watched both seasons this fall.

Ted Lasso is positive, unassuming, funny, and has a HUGE heart. Each episode had me laughing, crying, and often surprised at what happened.

Humor has always been a big part of my life. I want to BE a positive influence on others and I want to be as upbeat as I can every day. Life is too short to be any other way and the past couple of years have been difficult daily to navigate…sometimes I just have to stop reading articles and move on.

Community

As I think back to what I loved working on this past year, I found myself reflecting on the many zoom calls with people in the career field, many of who were thinking about going into private practice or exploring their own career development related to our field. I really want to continue to help other career practitioners and love the idea of figuring out where I want to spend my time in the career community.

I am also looking at my local community here in Central Maine to figure out where I might spend some time and energy. Of course, I also have a community of family, cousins, and friends that I want to continue to nurture.

In February I will share the process I used in choosing these three guiding words. Yes, it happened mostly on my retreat, but this year I did something a little different. I will also write more about what each word means to me in the coming months.

Have you chosen three guiding words for 2022?

If so, what are they and what do they mean to you?

Read how I choose my words this year.

Interview: Following up on My 3 Words for 2021

June 28, 2021 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

Instead of writing New Year’s Resolutions or goals, since 2016, I choose three words to guide me each year. In January of this year, I interviewed four people about how they choose their 3 words and what those words mean to them. I wanted to follow up with them on how their 3-word activity is going six months later.

If you have not watched the January interview, you may want to begin with that one to understand “How they choose them” and “what the words mean to them.” (Watch January Interview).

In this June interview, I asked them how it was going and if there were any surprises. It was so great to circle back with these folks and hear how powerful this activity really is.

WATCH NOW

Note: You can read my blog explaining my guiding words and how I choose them this year. (READ NOW)

BIOs of the interviewees

Candina “Dina” Janicki is a Global Career Development Facilitator , Certified Career Services Provider, and a Certified Professional Resume Writer with a specialty in the Military Community. Dina works as a Project Operations Manager and Career Development Manager, aiding transitioning service members through the Microsoft Software and Systems Academy (MSSA). She has been a military spouse for 20+ years and volunteers her time to aid other military spouses and veterans through mentorship and career development assistance. She has also authored the article, “Opportunity Found: Chaos Theory for Military Spouse Employment” which talks about the Advantages of Chaos Theory of Careers for Aiding Military Spouses. (Opportunity Found: Chaos Theory for Military Spouse Employment (ncda.org)) . Connect with Dina on LinkedIn

Renée Beaupré White is passionate about helping individuals explore their interests and develop their skills. With more than 30 years’ experience in career counseling in higher education, Renee is highly skilled at assisting students and adults in career exploration, development, transition, and the job search process. As the current Director of Career Services at Castleton University, her alma mater, Renee is also a part-time career coach at Proctor Jr. Sr. High School.

Rob Hatch is the co-founder and president of Owner Media Group, providing strategies and skills for the modern business. He brings a unique blend of knowledge and background in the field of Human Development with his experience as a successful business leader and executive coach, and his weekly newsletter is read by tens of thousands of individuals all over the world. As a speaker, trainer, and coach, Rob works primarily with business leaders and teams, guiding them through critical transitions in their organization. He’s the best-selling author of “Attention! The power of simple decisions in a distracted world.”

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 Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

Sign up here 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.

Three Words to Guide Us in 2024

Another Peak-Careers INTERVIEW on our Three Words to Guide Us in 2024