Internet Inspirations: Spring is Coming Edition

Get inspired to spring into March! Photo (c) Heather Comstock 2013.

It is the end of February. The groundhog predicted an early spring. The daffodils are up and the grackles are cackling in the trees of my neighborhood. As the weather turns warmer, here’s some inspiration to kickstart your March from around the internet!

Over on Jon Acuff’s blog, he’s got a great piece of the power of finding 30 minutes a day to move forward on fulfilling your dreams! John notes that “rescuing the first 30 minutes” is the hardest.

On the Harvard Business Review blog, Peter Bergman gives you “Nine Practices to Help You Say No”. When you say no, you create space to allow yourself to “Yes” to something more important.

While this advice may seem counter-intuitive when job searching, Learnvest has a great rundown on Signs You Shouldn’t Take That Job. Employment situations should be a good fit for both you and the employer for long-term success!

PEC Boardmember Cheryl Pullins has a great post on her blog about how to pry your ego out of the driver’s seat so you can move forward fulfilling your dreams. Plus, bonus Kool Moe Dee reference!

 

 

 

Possibilities and Opportunity: Where your talents and the needs of the world intersect

By Lisa Dolce

New Year’s Day has always been a day of reflection for me for as long as I can remember.

Find the intersection where your talents meet the needs of the world!

I celebrate the successes as well as the learning that came from the challenges of the past year. I take a deep breath in and exhale anything that may be holding me back and then breathe in all the possibilities of the coming new year.

The last few years have been tough for many of us personally and professionally. There seemed to be much that was out of our control. The good news is that not everything is out of our control. One of my favorite quotes comes from Aristotle, he said, “Ones purpose is knowing where your talents intersect with the needs of the world”.

The job market may still be tight but it is not without it’s needs, possibility and opportunity. So the big question is where do your talents intersect?

For some of us it may be the perfect time to reinvent ourselves. You have probably known for a long time that it was time to do something else, but it never seemed to be the “right” time to do it.

It may be a career change, going back for that degree or finally starting that business you’ve been talking about. Now is the time.

For others it might be time to find more meaning or balance in their work and in their lives. What are we chasing after and why? What beliefs or dreams are we holding onto that no longer serve us?

So as we enter 2013, breathe in all the possibilities this new year has to offer, and take the time to clarify what your talents are and how you can share them to fill a need in this new economy. Make a list of your top skills that you already have and ways you can reconfigure them to meet the opportunities that the new job market will yield–then go out and explore, network with others and learn what new jobs will emerge as government bail-out plans unfold, companies restructure and new leadership takes over.

And to help get you started, and as a New Year’s gift to you, the Pinnacle Empowerment Center is offering free monthly career clubs, empowerment circles.Come join us and other career seekers for inspiration, motivation and strategies for matching your talents with the needs of our community.

Wishing you a new year filled with exciting possibilities and opportunity!

Believe in Yourself

This is a post from Job Coach Cindy Virtue who encourages us to make the most of the holiday break and to BELIEVE in ourselves!

Believe in yourself and your dreams!

Today my calendar was marked to sit down and write the blog for Pinnacle Empowerment Center this morning. It was on my to-do-list for 9:00am to hold me accountable or Heather may not be too jolly with me come our Wednesday Open House Celebration. Well it is now 4:00pm a little later than anticipated, but as everyone knows little bumps in the road sometimes comes up. Here is my bump:

I have a good friend who wrote a book 8-years ago, which had sat on her bookshelf just getting dusty. While reflecting over the last holiday season and with the encouragement of her friends and family she decided to submit it for publication. She found three possible publishers in March and submitted her transcript. To her surprise two-weeks later she was sitting with a contract with a target publishing date for October 2012 in time for the holiday sales. Since this was a book about the meaning of Christmas timing was an issue. She worked very hard over the summer, meeting demanding deadlines for rewrites.  Unfortunately, due to factors out of her control, the book was finally printed mid-November missing the shelves in major book store, but it is now available online.

As we were catching up last week and she was filling me in with all the details of what the publisher will do to promote her book they also encouraged her to reach out to her network. Well, this is my area!   I could see she felt so overwhelmed so I helped her come up with a promotional plan- which is very similar to what I do when I help job seekers.

We sat and brainstormed on how to best use the limited time left before the holiday to market her holiday book. Helping her understand how to reach out to her network, making phone calls asking her friends for help to spread the word, identifying upcoming events to attend and possibly ask if she could setup a table for a book signing  such as the Dec, 20th Girls Night Out Even in Downtown Ellicott City. Finally, why not create a FREE website through wordpress.com which will make it easier for her network to spread the word. This was my BUMP since I only have created one several months ago this took longer than anticipated, but was well worth it. I am much better or should I say faster in helping job seekers with Linkedin profiles then I am in creating a website, so I may need to keep my day job. In the end, she took a leap of faith and she is now a published author!

With the holiday upon us and as you may be job searching you need to believe in yourself. Take this time to regroup, take a fresh look at your resume and Linked profile, come up with a game plan on how you can reach out to your network, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Pull out your calendar now and start setting deadlines and goals for the New Year. Attend PEC FREE Job Club or Empowerment Circle for help. The year 2013 will be your time but you need to make it happen!

Note: January Job Club has been moved to Tuesday, January 8^th due to the holiday. Please contact me for times and location at cindy@empowerctr.org or (410) 799-1097 ext. 300

Have a safe and wonderful holiday season!

Want to learn more about Ellicott City newest author? www.missmarybelieves.wordpress.com

Need a Holiday Time Out?

Ready for a break from the holidays? Join us on 12/12/12 for an informal evening of delicious nibbles and great company to refocus, re-center, and re-energize yourself!

The holiday music and commercials started the day after Halloween.  Christmas trees and Halloween costumes and candy were side by side in stores.  The holidays seem to arrive earlier and earlier each year.  Everywhere you turn there are commercials exhorting us to buy and cook our way into the hearts and minds of those around us!  Can the holidays live up to they hype?

 

• Would you like to not just SURVIVE the holidays but THRIVE?
• Want to figure out ways to protect your time and energy for things that are truly important?
• Need help setting boundaries with difficult people?

Join the coaches of the Pinnacle Empowerment Center on Wednesday, December 12 at 6:00 p.m. and spend some time with other like-minded ladies for a time out from the holiday madness!  Come eat, drink, and mingle with us as we discuss and share ways to keep from getting overwhelmed and reconnect with the purpose of the season.  Here’s a taste of what we came up with just informally discussing how to survive the holidays:

• Not everything has to be perfect!
• Take a few minutes every day to bring joy to someone.
• View the holiday festivities as “optional” rather than “required”. You can’t be everywhere.
• Make sure you make time to get together with people who inspire you – surround yourself positive energy.
• Don’t take it personally – realize that others around you are stressed and reacting to the holiday drama themselves, its not you. Don’t get drawn into it.
• Don’t discuss politics, education or money. If these come up, excuse yourself and indulge in another piece of pie!
• Keep it simple – don’t let the holiday momentum overtake you or allow others to push you into things or events you don’t want to do.
• Refocus the holiday away from the material and on sharing the traditions with those you love. Even starting a new tradition can bring joy.
• Let others help . Delegate or hire out tasks you don’t enjoy or don’t have time to do.

Take a holiday time out for yourself and join us for a wonderful evening to help you re-focus, re-center, and re-energize yourself for the holidays!  Complimentary coaching sessions are available so bring a friend! For more information visit our website or contact us at 410-799-1097 or info (at) empowerctr.org!

Posted by:  Heather C.

Finding More Than a Lost Purse

This is a post from Coach Maria Shepard-Smith who shared this story about an unexpected Christmas Eve Time Out during a discussion about why the holidays seem to get crazier every year.  We hope you’ll enjoy as much as we did!

Maria finds an unexpected refuge and gift while looking for her missing purse!  Photo credit: Daderot (Daderot) [CC0 or CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

 Many years ago I was rushing around at the holiday season on Christmas Eve doing my last minute shopping, after work of course, in Macy’s NYC on 34^thSt. I wasn’t alone, unfortunately there were hundreds of others doing the same thing …what were they doing here…didn’t they finish up early…why were they in my way?

Needless to say, I was harried and rushed and thinking about the hundreds of things I had to do before Christmas day…yes just a measly 6.1/2 hours hence.

Well “I went in” as they sometimes say, you know you hear it all the time ’I am going in’ …knowing just knowing you might not survive the ordeal. Or worse, for me at that moment, that I might not get ‘just the right present’ to add to the lovely holiday spirit and sense of peacefulness that is always being touted at this time of the year, which for me was, at that moment, quickly evaporating.

Yes! I was at the very place where many of us end up, for one reason or another, when it is least expected, and when we can least afford it emotionally…at the brink of extreme angst.

Well, I did survive and in a way that I did not even think was possible when I finally left the store 3 hours later and headed home at the end of the evening.

In the midst of my harried rushing about I had forgotten the real meaning of the season.

As I made my way down the Subway station stairs to catch the train home, I fumbled with my packages and shopping bags for my purse to get a token for the fare. In less then 2 seconds, I realized … I DID NOT HAVE MY PURSE!

I rushed back up the stairs of the Subway, through hoards of folks headed down the stairs. I hurried into Macy’s trying to remember where I could have put my purse down ….you just don’t do that at the height of the shopping season in NY. Well I decided to retrace my steps…going backwards. I made my way to the 7^th floor restroom…the last place I had been before leaving the store.

I rushed into the restroom went through the sitting area and checked the stalls…I knocked on the stall that I had used and asked the woman if she saw my purse hanging on the hook behind the door. ‘No ‘she said, ‘there’s nothing here. For a moment, I didn’t believe her, but then I knew that it had to be true…what was she going to do…stuff it in her bag, (in those days my purse a pretty fair size).

Well, with a sinking feeling in my stomach, I began thinking about how I was going to get home. Well, I thought, I’ll give a sob story to the policeman or clerk at the booth. They would let me on the train. After all, it was Christmas Eve. They weren’t going to hold me hostage for the fare…which at that time was .35 cents. Plus, by the time I would have gotten down to the Subway, after my search, I would look like such a sad sack they would take pity on me.

Then of course I began to make a mental list of what important things I had in my purse…not much money…only one credit card…and various other items we all carry in a wallet. The thought of having to plow through the task of unraveling the event of a lost wallet etc. was too much for me.

For some reason, I didn’t lose it, my sanity that is. I just began to settle down. After all, what choice did I have?

With a resigned feeling, I turned to leave the bathroom area to make my way to the other departments in the store where I had shopped. ‘I’ll give it a try,’ I told myself…knowing full well that it would be a futile attempt…but I had to try. I continued ruminating as I walked towards the door to the sitting room. “I’ll head for the ‘lost and found’ department before I leave too,” I said to myself.

As I did so, the matron for the women’s room came into the bathroom area from the outer sitting room. She was a tiny elderly woman with grey hair and glasses. I asked if she had seen a purse. ‘What color?’ she asked. ‘Black’, I replied with a ray of hope. “And how much money was in the purse?” she asked. ‘About two dollars”, I said. ‘Come with me’ she said. She walked me through another door into a small windowless room connected to the sitting area. In this room there were a small table and chairs and some of the restroom supplies. “Is this it?” she asked, as she handed me my purse. I was stunned. Not because she had it, but because it just seemed absolutely impossible that I would get that bag back at all.

I was profuse with my thanks. Perhaps she realized that I had reached the other side of panic, numbness, because she asked me to have tea with her…right there in her little space…and I did. This was a space she used to rest and perhaps to have her meals. She heated water on a small electric burner and took out an English teapot with two matching teacups. As I listened to her tell me a little about her life, while we sipped our tea, I felt a growing sense of peace and gratitude. I had been given a gift…in this little room, sipping tea in bone china teacups with a kind and gentle spirit. I had come upon a refuge…metaphorically and literally.

At the time I was grateful for having been given this moment. I was grateful too because I was able to give her, at that moment…a little gift of companionship on Christmas Eve.

I realized at the time and in looking back at that Christmas Eve, that the genuine meaning of the season or the greater gift is to give of oneself in a simple way.

I also received a bequest, not just a reminder to retreat from the hustle and bustle and share quiet and touching moments with others, but a series of more poignant gifts that reveal themselves each time I relive the experience of sitting in that little room.

When I look back at this experience in my life, and I often do, I realize it has become an allegory for me. It was a moment where I learned something that continues to touch my ‘soul’; something about life and how to ‘be’ beyond the moment. It is something that I cannot cognitively explain, except to say that I feel like I experienced a spiritual connection with humanity.

Finally, the memory of this event continues to touch me deeply because, for me, it is a lens through which other difficult events and experiences can be seen and transformed; transformed from a lost cause to a hopeful resolution, from calamity to a silver lining, from disaster to re-birth.

It has many meanings and lessons and I hope it will touch you all in a way to help you move into and through this special season of the year, and perhaps through any trying a time, with the ability to create a sense of peace within yourself as well as for those around you.

Perhaps the experience was a cue to remind me that we have a greater connection to one another than we are aware of or care to believe. Perhaps it was the pathway to the work I do now. Perhaps it is a chance for me to pass on the awareness that we are all in some way responsible or maybe even destined to support and nurture one another. Perhaps once we start to do this we will all be in a better place as I was in that little room in Macy’s NYC, sipping tea with a kind and gentle soul.

Join Maria and other life coaches and career coaches at a holiday gathering at the Pinnacle Empowerment Center and Refocus, Re-center and Re-energize. Take a break from the holiday chaos and join us for some cheer and inspiration as we wind down the year. Come drink, eat and mingle with us as we discuss and share ways to keep from getting overwhelmed and reconnect with the purpose of the season.

**Complimentary coaching sessions** available

Please bring a friend!

When: Wednesday December 12^th at 6:00pm

Location: 8180 Lark Brown Road, Suite 301, Elkridge, MD 21075

For more information visit click here!

Maria Shepard-Smith is a Life and Career Coach with 15 years of experience coaching and training individuals and empowering them to find their own answers. Coaching is a way of encouraging and supporting clients on their path as they continue to make important choices in life and in their careers. Tune in for more on about how coaching works and how you can benefit! Call Maria at 410-799-1097 ext 304 or email her at maria@empowerctr.org.

Happy Thanksgiving from PEC!

As we wind down this short business week, we take some time this week for Thanksgiving before catapulting into the busy holiday season.  We hope you’ll enjoy these reads as much as we did around PEC!

Permission to Suck

Okay so this is from the folks at MAKE magazine who tend to focus more on engineering and mechanical things, but the reality is, we all have to start somewhere. If you want to wait until you’re perfect at something to get started, you’ll never get going.

Can you Really Have It All? Seven Keys to Finding Balance

As we gear up for the busy holiday season, here are some great tips on how to create the space you need to focus on what’s truly important to you!

The Fermata

Seth Godin ponders the role of the Fermata which isn’t just for music!

Lighting Your Flame

Rochelle Moulton is thankful for those who have helped inspire her and keep her moving.  Who are you thankful for this holiday?

All of us here at PEC are thankful for the wonderful community who support us in our mission.  We hope that you and your families have a wonderful holiday together!

Talk Back To Us – Ask A Coach!

We’re all ears for your questions! Join us for Ask A Coach!

Ever heard that it’s okay if you talk to yourself but you’re really in trouble if you start answering back?  Well, we want to avoid that!  We want to start conversations about what’s on your mind so we’re creating an Ask A Coach feature and we need YOUR help!

• What questions do you have about how to get started with updating your resume?
• Do you need ideas on how to explain gaps in employment?
• Have you been at home with the kids for the last several years and want to know how you can make your resume more marketable?
• Do you have questions about how to get that small business started?
• Do you feel like there could be more to your life or career but aren’t sure how to identify the changes you can make?

Send us YOUR question and we’ll answer them on Facebook, on the blog, or in a message back to you.  You can post on our Facebook wall, send us a Direct Message, or just send us an email at info(at)empowerctr.org if you’d like to keep your query private.

Don’t forget we have lots of friends in a variety of fields to so if we don’t have the answer, we’ll activate our network and find out!  Look for answers on Thursdays.

Remember, the only stupid question is the one you didn’t ask!

Don’t want to wait?  Take our poll and let us know what topics interest you most!

The Case of the Curious Coach

This post is from PEC’s Life Coach, Maria Shepard-Smith.  

Can a fortunate cookie help you with your life or career decisions? A coach can ask the right questions to guide and empower you!

In Coaching, to help the client move forward the coach asks a series of powerful –open ended questions. The questions are very different from conventional questions that help to gather information and deduce answers. Open ended questions set the stage for the client to think, really think, and find solutions in themselves rather than in the coach. The way the questions are asked and the nature of the questions makes the client resourceful and removes the coach from the role of the ‘expert’ or the one who has the answers.

Here are a few examples that show the difference between conventional questions and open-ended questions. Test them on yourself or someone else to see how conventional questions elicit information and open-ended questions evoke personal exploration.

Conventional Question	Open-Ended Question
Tell your boss you need help on this project.	If you were the boss, how would you design this project?
What are you doing to achieve your goal of being healthier?	What would ‘being healthier’ look like to you?
Are you stuck between those two alternatives?	What would be several other alternatives besides these two.

As you can see, an open-ended question allows the client to explore and discover choices. Believe it or not clients come up with so many possibilities that they surprise themselves. My clients are energized and in a word, empowered. The client’s sense of being able to imagine and develop solutions and plans generates a greater capacity in the client to move forward and take action. The coach’s goal is to clarify and create awareness without superimposing their own values and ideas on the client!

Although an experienced coach is aware when practicing ‘curiosity’ in the form of questions to empower another, we all have the ability and have used the technique in some form or fashion.

An example that comes to mind, before I was aware of the value of open-ended questions, is one about my daughter. When she was about 7, she had the sad experience that many 2^nd graders have of not being able to participate in recess. She had been talking to another student during class time and of course lost the privilege of play time that day. Rather than scold her right off, (a fallback for parents because it makes us feel better…after all bad behavior reflects on us as parents)… ….. I decided to ask her what she thought she should do.

She though for a few minutes and said, “I think I will not sit near Tina from now on during our class work time.” Perfect! So what was achieved (1)- my daughter gained the ability or the beginning of the ability to work out a solution on her own…without me imposing one or ‘the right parental’ solution. (2)-I was enlightened by the fact that hey…she can figure out what to do when faced with a quandary and without me jumping in to give her the answer.

The coach has to do the same for their client. That is to step back and through open-ended questions- allow the answers to surface.

Those clients who come to me for life and/or career coaching usually are facing a series of intertwined challenges. Although it is helpful to work with an expert who will be able to give advice or outline solutions, the real value of coaching is the opportunity to learn ‘how to figure it out’.

When my clients reach the place where they have the awareness that they actually do have the ability to come up with choices they are absolutely motivated to take action. Coaching is a way of effectively empowering people to find their own answers. Coaching is a way of encouraging and supporting clients on their path as they continue to make important choices in life and in their careers.

Tune in for more on about how coaching works and how you can benefit! Call Maria at 410-799-1097 ext 304 or email her at maria@empowerctr.org.

Let’s Go Fishing! Maybe?

By: Cindy Virtue. Job Search Coach.

Are you serious about landing your next job or are you just giving hiring managers a near death experience?

This week I was preparing for my upcoming workshop on how to help teens with their job search and getting ready for a family camping trip to Point Look Out in Southern Maryland where my sister likes to go fishing off their pier. I came across this question from Dick Bowles, Author of “What Color is My Parachute” – How do you fish? Do you choose Pond One that has two fish and ten fishermen or do you choose Pond Two that has twenty fish and only two fishermen?

When I go fishing I like Pond One. Why? I really don’t want to catch anything. I like hanging out with my sister but I have a fear of touching the worm and the fish. I’ll sit there all day, sort of hoping to catching anything only to reel it in and to let it go. This is the “Open Market” in job searching. The Open Market are the job boards, want-ads, placement agencies, etc. This represents less than 20% of all jobs are advertised and yet more than 80% of all job seekers look here!

Now let’s talk about Pond Two. This pond is for the real fisherman, like my sister, who enjoys catching fish all day. The more fish she catches, the more motivated she is to keep trying for that Big Catch of the Day! This is like using the “Hidden Market in Job Search Method”. You access this job market through your personal network, company websites, yellow pages, social media, and by developing leads before they are advertised. More than 80% of all jobs are filled this way but less than 20% of all job seekers look here!

In today’s job market you have to get out of your comfort zone, step up and take charge of your job search, and build relationships that can help you move forward. So, how do you fish?

Cindy Virtue has over seven years of coaching experience. Drawing on her own career transitions experiences, Cindy helps clients chart a path for career success. You can meet Cindy at one of the Empowerment Center’s free monthly Job Clubs.

What Can Coaching Do For You?

This Harbor Seal at the Oregon Coast Aquarium is a natural swimmer but she might benefit from coaching for her job search!

I learned to swim as a kid in a succession of hotel and friend’s pools during the summers of my childhood. I can pass the Boy Scouts swimming test but I am not going to break any speed records! My son has learned to swim the same way so I recently enrolled my son in a swim conditioning class at the local rec center. The goal was to make him a more confident and efficient swimmer. This is accomplished by having his swimming technique observed, corrected, and refined by an experienced swimming coach.

His coach breaks down the complexity of a swimming stroke and using various techniques focuses on one thing at a time – breathing, arm movements, or kicking. Then she brings it all back together. When they do it all at once though, the perfect stroke may degenerate as they try to do it while kicking and breathing – all at the same time. The coach brings her experience to bear, provides feedback, and cheers the kids’ on to continue working at it even though the payoff isn’t immediate.

Does this feel like your career or your job search? That’s why career and job search help is called “coaching”. The coach isn’t going to do the work for you but will help you identify problem spots and work with you to refine your techniques and help you become more confident and efficient. Over the last few years of working with the lovely ladies of the Empowerment Center, I have been privileged to watch how they help and work with their clients and truly coach clients toward their goals.

When you’re job searching, how much time are you spending looking at job postings on the internet? You may be spending hours doing that weekly and feel like you’re being productive in your search, but the reality is, you can’t hide in your house and expect to find a job that way. Job Search Coach Cindy Virtue points out you shouldn’t be spending more than 5-10% of your time using the internet. She notes that you get more bang for your buck networking in person. You’ll have more success with those job postings if you can make a live contact at the company via your network. As part of her coaching technique, Cindy evaluates clients and identify areas that need strengthening such as whether they’re spending too much time on activities that won’t pay big dividends when job hunting. She provides feedback and encouragement as the client moves forward on her job search.

Perhaps you’ve been in your position for years. You’re bored with the work and would like to move upward in your career but you’re not sure if it is within the same company or another job altogether. You live for the weekends when you can hike and bike outside and volunteer with a local recreation league that helps adapt outdoor activities for people with disabilities. You meet with a Life Coach who helps you identify that what you like about the job is the security of the paycheck but the work itself isn’t what you want to do for the next 20 years. The coach helps you develop a plan to go back to the local community college and get your credential as a physical therapist while keeping your day job. Life Coach Maria points out that much of what she does with clients is to help find a path, break complex issues into smaller, more manageable pieces, and holds the clients accountable as they work through their plan toward their goals.

Consider some of the biggest names in sports – Michael Phelps or Gabrielle Douglas. These athletes have amazing talent but they still have coaches in their corner helping them work on their weaknesses, inefficiencies, and pushing them to continue to work harder. Who is in your corner? How can one of our coaches help you meet your goals?