[CREATIVE CAREERS UNLEASHED] Finding Your Passion http://ezezine.com In this issue, a New Year brings a new format and a renewed look at what it takes to Create a Career that works FOR you! CREATIVE CAREERS UNLEASHED! From Turning Point Strategies and Lyle T. Lachmuth Please FORWARD Creative Careers Unleashed to interested colleagues in your network. You'll find links to join and leave at the very end of this newsletter. FINDING YOUR PASSION I apologize for the late arrival of this issue. On the weekend of January 15th, I managed to strain the large ligament in my left leg (the one that joins the hip to the femur) and at first couldn’t sit for more than 5 minutes at a time. Now, thanks to rest and good drugs I’m able to sit and write – in bursts. - - - Recently, I had a discussion with a client about the nature of passion. It inspired this post at my Blog: What Flavour is Your Passion -- http://snipurl.com/CCUBLOG That got me thinking about what it takes to create AND live a career that works for you. That is, a career that suits your personality, matches your interests, utilizes your gifts – AND, makes you money! So, what does it take? In my experience it starts with PASSION So, let’s take a look at that HOT LINKS Learn more about Unleashing your Creative Career, moving Beyond Pain, and the psychology of Survivor: Panama Exile Island. Check out these posts at my Blogs: Unveil the Heart of your Business – http://snipurl.com/lqyl-ltl Make Stress Work for You – http://snipurl.com/lqym-ltl Exile Island – The Tribes – http://snipurl.com/lqyo-ltl FINDING YOUR PASSION I’ve been interested in the whole field of “success psychology” since the mid-70s. Does anyone else remember Maxwell Maltz’s “Psychocybernetics”? A co-worker lent me a copy and I was fascinated by Maltz’s notion that in 21 days you could change your own self-perception, and change your success. I read his first book. Bought more. Read them. Tried things out. But, never did make that 21 day magic happen (ya listening Tony Robbins?). It’s been more like a 21 year journey for me – well, actually 30 and counting. At about the same time one of my ‘bosses’ gave me a white paper from MIT on “Critical Success Factors”. The essential idea of this paper was that if businesses took the time to determine that handful of factors that made them successful and focused on those – duh! They’d be even more successful. When I ventured out on my own and began to work with smaller organizations and with individual professionals and business owners, I got thinking about this concept of Critical Success Factors (CSF). Over time, my then business partner and I, identified a set of 5 CSFs that individuals and small businesses need to focus on. The first of these was PASSION. Our experience showed that individuals, who lacked Passion, went nowhere fast. So, what are the elements of Passion? And, how do YOU create and sustain it? Passion has 3 components: Vision: A clear compelling picture of your ideal future Calling/Purpose: The essential reason why you do what you do Gifts: The unique expression of talent(s) you offer the world in service Let’s take a look at each of these. VISION I’ve said this before: if you don’t know where you want to go, then any road will take you there. To get excited about your career, you need to KNOW, beyond a shadow of a doubt, WHERE you want to (VISION). If you don’t have one. Get one. How? There are tons of articles and books on creating a vision (I probably own 20 of them ;-) However, I’ve been writing about Vision since 1987 and I’d love to give you access to an article I had published in Small Business Quarterly, way back in 1991. Just CLICK mailto:LyleTLachmuth@Gmail.com?Subject=VisionArticle and I’ll send you the article CALLING/PURPOSE There have been several recent bestsellers focused on creating a life of purpose. Since, 1986 I’ve been focused on creating my life, career, and business ONpurpose™ Next issue I’ll talk about how I’ve done that. For now I just want to say that life without purpose is life unfulfilled… and not worth living. GIFTS Way back in 1986, just before I started my Masters program I had the privilege of teaching a class on creativity to a group of gifted high school students who were participating in the Shad Valley Program. The Shad Valley Program, named after a ‘ravine’ on the campus of Ontario-based Waterloo University, provides gifted students of all ages the chance to attend university level courses. My class contained some brilliant ‘kids’. A young man of 15 who had several patents to his name, another inventor, the son of Member of Parliament, and many other very, very smart kids. I felt honoured and bit frightened to be teaching these very obviously bright and creative kids a class on creativity. But, we had fun and learned lots. I remember showing them how Curious George could teach then lessons on research, learning, and how to open up creativity. And, I talked about the need for them to identify their Gifts. Stressing that them best ‘gift’ they could give their careers was an understanding of their innate talents. At the end of the week of classes, one of the students came up to me and said, “Mr. Lachmuth I know what your Gift is!” I said, “What?” He replied, “Words!” I thanked him, filed that thought away, and got back to getting ready for university. Months later, in grad school, when we did a Visioning exercise those words of his came back. And, every year when I create my Destiny Plan™ I reflect on those words and how I want to express that gift. The Bible writer Paul speaking of the body of the Christian congregation, that “each has gifts differing!” What about you? What is your gift? Or, gifts? More in a moment… BRING WELLNESS TO THE HEART OF YOUR COACHING Are you a coach or consultant? Would you like to add a new dimension to your practice? Now more than ever, we and our clients need to focus on wellness. I know that’s sure been the focus of my own life over the last 4 years. What about you? Couldn’t your clients use a little wellness? In my journey’s I’ve been delighted to meet Ellen Britt. Ellen’s background as a Social Worker has uniquely equipped her to focus on wellness and healing – and, that’s been her passion for many, years. I’m pleased to introduce you to Ellen’s newest program focused on Stress Resiliency/Wellness Coaching. Trust me; there is NO program like this out there! Her next class starts soon, SO if you are interested in learning more CLICK on this link to see the class curricula www.HelixInstitute.com and visit this page http://primalwaters.com/SRWC1_info.html to access audio files of previous classes. Ellen is a tender, loving teacher, with a gentle Southern twang in her voice. Even if you don’t join now, do take a listen to what she has to say – you’ll learn some important lessons. FINDING YOUR PASSION – continued I strongly urge you to find your Passion. But, are you having trouble Finding Your Passion? I can help YOU. CLICK here mailto:LyleTLachmuth@Gmail.com?Subject=IWantPassion See you January 31st for WHAT’S CALLING YOU? Lyle Lachmuth MSOD, CDP, CRT(Hons) The Unsticking Coach (TM) Your Talents > Your Career >> Your Life >>> Your Way! Turning Point Strategies Box 72140 RPO Glenmore Landing | Calgary, AB CANADA T2V 5H9 T: 403-390-4768 | E: LyleTLachmuth [at] Gmail.com ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER Past issues here: http://home.ezezine.com/72/ PRIVACY POLICY: I will not rent, trade, or sell your name and contact information to anyone, at any time, for any reason! CAVEAT: CREATIVE CAREERS UNLEASHED and its publisher, are not engaged in providing therapy. This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only. CREATIVE CAREERS UNLEASHED may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety only, including copyright, legal, and contact information and with live links. Copyright 2005 Turning Point Strategies and Lyle T. Lachmuth