One of the problems we humans can have with setting and reaching our goals is that when we set them, we are thinking of the person we are right now, rather than the person we will become when we meet those goals. We haven't connected with that future version of ourselves. For most of us, our future selves are like other people--people whose motivations, emotions, etc. we understand imperfectly. In... Read more →

What happens when you feel like you're stuck in a career rut? How do you get moving in a different direction? I think we make things more complicated than they need to be. Here are three steps you can take. 1. Admit that there's a problem. The first step is to recognize and accept the reality of your situation. As I've written before, one of the most important things you... Read more →

Ah, time. If there's one thing we're good at, it's listing all the reasons we don't have the time to do the things we say we want to do. So many people I know have a great idea for a side business, but they don't start because they say they don't have the time. Other people tell me that they'd really love to explore changing careers, but they simply don't... Read more →

This is the next in an ongoing series of posts I'm doing about how to use design thinking in your career. When we last left off in the Designing Your Career series, we had entered the Ideation phase where we talked about how to brainstorm potential ideas for experimentation. In this post we're going to discuss how to do a "reality check" on your ideas and how to begin evolving... Read more →

Over the course of several weeks, I'm showing you how to apply design thinking and principles to your career planning and development. The series of posts so far is here. We've gone through the Discovery and Intereprepation phases, gathering information about your career challenge, looking for themes and framing possibilities. Now we enter into the Ideation phase, where you are generating ideas that you could experiment with in the next... Read more →

Over the course of several weeks, I'm showing you how to apply design thinking and principles to your career planning and development. The series of posts so far is here. In the Interpretation phase of design, we've been looking at capturing your learning, identifying key themes and harvesting your insights. Now it's time to frame your opportunities--how do you take what you've been learning and use it to set yourself... Read more →

Over the course of the next few weeks, I'm showing you how to apply design thinking and principles to your career planning and development. The series of posts so far is here. On Tuesday, we talked about looking for themes in the information you've been gathering as part of your design process. Today, we're going to look at strategies for harvesting insights from those themes. What do we mean by... Read more →

Over the course of the next few weeks, I'm showing you how to apply design thinking and principles to your career planning and development. The series of posts so far is here. As you begin capturing your learning in the Interpretation phase, you should also begin looking for themes and patterns. This can take some time, but is well worth the effort. Here are ideas for getting started: 1. Review... Read more →

Over the course of the next few weeks, I'm showing you how to apply design thinking and principles to your career planning and development. The series of posts so far is here. For the past few weeks, we've been talking about how to use design thinking to create the career you want. One thing that's critical to your success in this endeavor is setting some deadlines for yourself. It's SO... Read more →

Over the course of the next few weeks, I'm showing you how to apply design thinking and principles to your career planning and development. The series of posts so far is here. You've defined your career project challenge and you've been gathering research and inspiration. Now we enter the Interpretation phase of the design process, where you begin to make sense of what you've been discovering. This can be a... Read more →