midlifejourney.com

This afternoon I am off to a business networking event on the golf course. 18 holes, followed by a business after hours event. Should be fun.

Networking should always be fun. The focus on promoting your business in the most subtle of ways.

Rule #1: You never bring up business on the course itself, at least not directly. Subtlety is key. You can mention the work you do if it comes up in conversation, but you don’t start listing all the projects you are working on, unless it’s relevant to the conversation. In fact, focus on the other person’s interests, find out what they are about, what they do, who they might know. And be quiet, for heaven’s sake if it seems your golf partner would rather not talk. Some golfers prefer silence to banter. And there is nothing worse on the golf course than a babbler.

Rule #2: Once the game is done, networking can begin. A celebratory drink, or a few minutes in the club house can be an opportunity to share business information and leads. But remember, focus on the other fellow. See how you might be able to solve his or her needs, not your own… and by so doing, you accomplish both.

I dont know about you, fellow midlifers, but I find keeping up with all that is new a pretty daunting task. The discipline of constantly updating, and learning new skills, is exciting yet overwhelming. After 10-12 hours a day on this computer, I just want to chuck it in and veg in front of the TV for a few hours. Thanks to OnDemand and HD-TV Recorders, all my programs are recorded and waiting for me to view (fast forward through commercials, of course) when I finally step off the computer merry go round.

One of the best ways to keep up with everything is an online service I discovered not too long ago: lynda.com. They have experts who present online tutorials on just about every software package out there. It’s worth a look.

Author: Stan the Mann

With a new year is approaching, we naturally look backward at what we have accomplished and forward to what we hope to accomplish. This is the perfect time to set goals.

If you want to set goals that truly work and empower you to get results, here is a system that really works. Use it and you will achieve great things that will surprise and amaze you.

If goal setting has not worked for you in the past, meaning you fell short, it’s probably because you set your goals in general terms. General goals move you in a general direction. It rarely produces big specific achievements. You need to make your goals specific. This will help you achieve what you want more quickly. Clarity is power. And things become much clearer when you write them down. A Harvard study has shown that graduates who have written specific goals are significantly more successful than graduates who do not.

I’ve been setting goals since I was 17 years old. At first, they were general goals and I didn’t write them down. But I did have a vital ingredient for success. I wanted to achieve them passionately.

You see, I did not have a warm supportive family when I was growing up, although my mother did instill in me a high value for education. She divorced when I was two years old and married my stepfather. He was an alcoholic and beat her. He was a strong man with forearms as big as hams. When I was a teenager and tried to protect my mother, he ground my face in the dirt. So you see I had high motivation to leave home as soon as I could. We also were very poor because of the Great Depression. So I had high motivation to make money.

Later I started writing down my goals and making them specific. It enabled me to get a job with Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Before then all I did was common labor. I loaded a truck by hand with 4 tons of cement blocks. Then I drove to a job site and unloaded it. I did this four times a day, which means I handled 16 tons, just like the coal miner song. I had absolutely no white collar experience. I wanted the life insurance job so bad I could taste it. My passion must have impressed the head of the agency and he hired me.

I was the youngest salesman they had ever hired up to that time. Barely 21 years old, I outsold every one of my 16 colleagues in my agency. I made so much money I forgot to deposit my checks until I was reminded to do so by a call from a harried Metropolitan clerk who was trying to balance her books.

I wanted still more and I got a Masters degree from the University of Michigan, graduating with honors and Phi Beta Kappa, the honor society which fosters and recognizes academic excellence.

No one in my family — mother, father, uncles and aunts — ever graduated from high school.

The goal setting process I now use is simple, easy and fun; yet produces profound results. I’ve been teaching it for over nine years and I see my clients get great results.

I think most people set their goals in general terms, like I used to do, because they’re afraid to make their goals detailed and to set deadlines. They fear not reaching their goals and feeling badly. They avoid painful feelings like disappointment, frustration, feeling insignificant and being full of self-doubt.

When I am making goals, I trigger myself into the mood of a child wishing on a star, innocently full of faith and belief. I think about all the things that I really, really want. I put aside my critical self and don’t worry a bit about how I’m going to do it. Because if I did, it would feel impossible and I would shut down.

I think about what I really, really want. I see it, feel it, hear it. I might even smell and taste it. Just like I wanted that job with the insurance company so I could get out of the house, be my own person, find a good woman to love. I’ve learned that when your desires are strong enough, your unconscious mind will find ways to make it happen. Even the universe will help you out in unexpected ways.
To make your desires strong, you need to have strong reasons why you want to achieve these things. First think of your reasons, don’t worry how you accomplish these things. These answers will come to you. You just have to have big strong reasons why achieving your goals is a must.

Best wishes for a rich and rewarding business and life,
~Stan

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Author: Kelli Smith
Baby boomers. They’re the generation born between 1946 and 1964. They came of age in the early 70s and early 80s. They’re the generation that made changes and waves, worked harder and longer, put off marriage and children, did things differently than previous generations.

Whether because of financial necessity or because they have something to offer, baby boomers are staying in the workforce longer. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and projections indicate that by 2010 there should be 18.5 million boomers ages 45 to 49 in the labor force, as compared to 14.7 in 1995, and 16.8 million versus 10.6 million in the 50- to 54-years-old range.

They’re still making changes. They’re retiring later, or not at all. If not downsized or laid off, boomers often continue to work. When they don’t choose to continue in the same career, it doesn’t mean they’re ready to stop contributing, and sometimes they’re making transitions to new careers.

“On average there are three to five career changes in a person’s lifetime and that’s pretty common,” says Kevin Gaw, Director of Career Development, University of Nevada, Reno. “It’s pretty common that a layoff ends up being a great opportunity for someone to find something that’s more suited to them, too.”

But it can be challenging to a baby boomer to be suddenly confronted with a career change. They were raised in a world where you got your education, then got your job, and while you may not have stayed with the job until you retired, you would probably stay in the same profession. “It can be jarring to realize you have to transfer your skill set to another area,” says Gaw.

In 2004, Gaw’s office worked with 208 alumni. Nearly 7.5 percent were going through a career change, three percent because of a forced situation such as layoff or company closure or relocation. The rest of them just wanted to do something different. When you?re faced with an important career shift, there are things you can to do make it easier on yourself and achieve a more enjoyable, productive career change.

• Look at your skills. Determine which are transferable to other jobs.

• Find your passion. What do you love to do? “It’s not about the money,” Gaw says. “The money isn’t what makes us happy. What makes us happy is doing something that’s meaningful to us.”

• Look at reality. If you want to be an astronaut but can’t do math, Gaw says, the reality is it’s unlikely. People need to work through that disappointment and maybe change that passion to a hobby rather than a vocation.

• Determine whether you want to make a radical career change? say from legal secretary to Web designer? or stay within the same profession.

• If you like the company you’re with but feel the need for change, see if they can retain and retrain you. If it comes down to a complete career change, there are also some things you can do to help create a whole new career for yourself.

• Promote yourself rather than your age. Once you get into a position and can show off your skills, you’ll be known for those skills rather than your years.

• Start slow. Before investing heavily in education, determine if it’s the right career path for you.

• Network. Many non-entry level positions are found by references. Join professional organizations in the field you want to enter.

• Consider working for yourself. A job market survey conducted in 2005 by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., quoted on thematuremarket.com, indicated that of 3000 job seekers, 13 percent chose to work for themselves, and 86.6 percent of them were over 40.

Another option is to leverage your experience and teach or train. Moving into training and coaching people just entering the profession you’re leaving is a fairly informal move. Teaching requires state licensing, and there are programs helping place retiring workers into teaching positions. The University of Nevada Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning takes executives through a first-time licensing program and puts them in the schools in just a couple semesters, often teaching in high-needs areas like math, science and languages. Likewise, IBM unveiled their Transition to Teaching program in September, reimbursing them for tuition and providing stipends while they student teach. Many of their executives are highly trained in math and computer sciences.

Whether making a career change to a new profession or a new position, Gaw says such changes are a normal life pattern. “It’s a good thing to be open to change. The challenge is recognizing skill sets and knowing how to capitalize on them and present them to the new opportunities.”

About The Author
Kelli Smith is the editor for http://Edu411.org, a career education guide for finding schools and career development information.

Source: articlecity.com