Sometimes I find that when I'm stuck or I'm working with people who are stuck, what keeps us in the same place is that we're asking ourselves the wrong question. We don't realize we are asking this question, but we are. This is the question we're stuck in: What's wrong with me? This post by Andrea Sher about her struggle with infertility reminded me of how often we can get... Read more →

Allison Jones has a great blog post today on places where she finds career inspiration. She says: When it comes to career advice, it is very easy to focus on tactics: how to write a resume; how to use social media to find a job; how to network. However, in the time that I have been blogging about nonprofit careers, I have realized that while tactics are important, they make... Read more →

I've found that figuring out what you want to do in life is both a science and an art. The "science" part is the practical stuff, the step-by-step, "research this, try out that, reflect on what you discover" approach. And there's something to be said for researching occupational and work trends to get an idea of where the demand for your skills may be and what kind of education and... Read more →

Jessica Hagy of Indexed fame has an excellent illustrated post on Forbes--20 Ways to Find Your Calling. Number one on the list is Ignore the future, deal with the present: The question, “What should I be when I grow up?” is wrong. Ask instead, “What is next today?” People become fat one bite at a time, and we become adults one hour at a time, so what we do today... Read more →

In our ongoing career and professional development, there are times when it's helpful to look at our past. It may be that we're bored and contemplating a change. We may have been laid off and had change thrust upon us. Even as part of our ongoing reflective practice, mining our past experiences can give us great fodder for the future. One way to look at your past is to use... Read more →

One of my current projects involves managing an online community of practice for professionals who help people with disabilities find employment. For the past year we've struggled to get folks engaged. Often it feels like I'm throwing information into a digital abyss. This is a grant-funded project and I'm in the last year of the grant, so decided that we needed to try something different. Going for broke, as it... Read more →

To me, the most energizing questions are those that involve people's values, hopes and ideals--questions that relate to something that's larger than them where they can connect and contribute. People don't have a lot of energy around questions that are about removing pain." --Verna Allee A lot of the work I do with people ends up being around removing pain. There's a problem to be solved or something to be... Read more →

A post from Chris Brogan has me thinking this morning: Jacqueline brought me iced coffee a few weeks ago, and I commented that it tasted especially delicious. She said, “I used two sugars instead of one or none, the way you usually say you like it.” As is often the case with me, I ended up thinking about a bit more than how many sugars I take in my coffee.... Read more →

For the past several months, I've been advising the clients I work with to use a career journal to record and explore their ideas about the work they are doing, what inspires and drives them and what they want to experiment with in their work lives. I've also been telling people to quit thinking and start doing--to experiment and then reflect on what happens. And then devise new experiments to... Read more →

Long-time readers of this blog know that I am a fervent advocate of the "Act/Reflect" cycle of career and professional development. And I know that failure to deal with both sides of this equation is one of your surest routes to stuck. Yesterday I stumbled across this article on the Harvard Business Review Blog on what to do when you don't know what to do. Boy, did it resonate! Career... Read more →