21 Century Worklife

This is part two of a two-part series detailing our perspective on the massive shifts in the job market, economy and world in greater detail. The first article is ‘There’s an Earthquake Reshaping Your Career‘.

Truly aligning with the fullness of who you are probably sounds both exhilarating and terrifying. The truth is, there was no new instruction guide, no roadmap, to navigate the emerging landscape. Until now.

(By Cathy Wasserman & Steven Joiner)

Bridging to a better worklife

After reflecting on the earthquake…

Now you know the Career Caretaker has officially left the building.

You know the old career paradigm has been holding you back, draining your energy as you try to silo yourself into ‘work mode’ and ‘personal mode’ and ‘paying your dues’ to a Faustian bargain, where you trade your personal power for “benefits” that are fading faster than you can say ‘I want to retire in Costa Rica’.

You know you need to change your mindset. Think about why the earthquake freaks you out, why it actually might be exciting in some ways, and figure out what you want. (Don’t forget about the three questions we asked at the end of “There’s an Earthquake Re-Shaping Your Career”)

In the new paradigm, your authentic self in all of its glory and shortfalls provides the primary gasoline for your life, the larger economy, and society. Think of it as the foundation of your success; your Self-Leadership setting you up to build greatness upon.

Your biggest job now–whether you’re looking for work, loving your work or pulling your hair out over it on a daily basis–is to more fully tap into yourself and harness more of your own raw material. Science tells us that most people access a relatively small portion of their capacity. Imagine what you could do if you accessed even 5-10% more…

Wouldn’t you rather eat meals with a variety of ingredients than the same tired few ingredients day in and out? Sure, some days you want to stick with comfort food, but wouldn’t it be nice to regularly have more options? Well, just as ‘shopping fresh’ by regularly stopping by the market rather than doing a mega-trip once a month can take a bit more preparation and intention, adding some ‘spice’ to your capacity takes some effort… but the rewards, as we hope you’re starting to realize, are worth it. To get those options out of your mental cupboards and into your actual worklife, begin by exploring your Calling Card–the one-of-a-kind combination of your talents, values, experience, knowledge, accomplishments, working style, passions, mission/vision, goals, ideas, curiosities, and more. This will arm you with the knowledge of your unique contributions to the world, both big and small.

Fortunately for you, the workscape you’re taking your Calling Card into is an increasingly open playing field with more fluid and flexible organizational and professional structures than ever, which make it possible to create the worklife best suited to your unique temperament and talents.

This means more personal responsibility and, yes, more risk. But the reward is the ability to take your power back and proactively steer the course of your life. Honestly, would you really rather wait to see if others will do it for you, keeping your fingers crossed that things will land where you hope that they do?

Truly aligning with the fullness of who you are probably sounds both exhilarating and terrifying. The truth is, there was no new instruction guide, no roadmap, to navigate the emerging landscape. Until now.

Retreating back into the office or the traditional job hunt; thinking ‘there’s just no other way’ and trying to find a Career Caretaker; racing to keep up with an over-stimulating, 24/7/365 hyper connective, kinetic universe that you aren’t wired for; or denying that there’s an earthquake will all ensure that you take many of the same unproductive steps over and over again and ultimately not get you where you really want to go. Remember what Einstein said:

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Smart guy.

The Coordinates of the New Worklife Paradigm

Now that you’re ready to stop going insane, it’s time to start experimenting with some of the coordinates of the new worklife roadmap:

1. Make sure you’ve really and truly acknowledged that we’ve entered a new world. The workplace is shifting to a Mobile Talent Market (bring the team together, knock out the project, and move onto the next project or organization) and moving away from the Career Caretaker model. Really acknowledge the shift–grieve the loss of the old paradigm, if necessary–and face the fact that the world has moved on. You now need to play a much more active role in your career and in securing benefits and retirement. If you find yourself stuck and doing the “insane” shuffle, reach out and get support from a friend, mentor or coach.

2. Ride the Creative Edge and get curious about how you can use the earthquake to your advantage. Explore how you can connect with other’ ‘Mobile Talents’ and create new kinds of communities filled with people whose fierce individualism and genius builds even more fierce Communities of Genius. Go online to get offline and build living, breathing community. Be careful: use technology to feed, not anesthetize your potential. Contact a few close friends or colleagues and see how you can pool resources whether in deepening your Mutual Radar Society, planning retirement collectives, or simply sharing your latest discovery about your Calling Card.

3. Discover the strength in being your own team/player, coach and cheerleader. Recognize your many internal resources and power and resist giving them away, whether to a Career Caretaker or to your own thoughts, which keep you running in place. Learn how to motivate yourself and how to stop de-motivating yourself with empty emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and technological calories. Acknowledge yourself for the good that you do each day. Be grateful.

4. See that your personal relationship with your Calling Card and your ability to link with organizations, and individuals with complementary Calling Cards are two of the most important connections you can make.

5. Consider that each of us (that means you, too!) is most fundamentally a Creator… of ideas, questions, systems, processes, relationships, etc… no matter what our worklife. That it is your responsibility to figure out what you are meant to create each day. Some days that might mean creating something big like a grant proposal and, other days, it might mean creating something seemingly small like the calm thought you commit to thinking again and again as you make an important decision or just as you go about your day.

If you choose to set out on this grand adventure, grab your new roadmap, your reclaimed power, and the rough draft of your growing Calling Card. Remember by choosing this path, you are choosing more satisfaction and reclaiming your potential, and Alignment in all facets of your life.

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