Feeling Blocked on Your Green Career Journey? Shift Your Perspective!
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Green Career Tip of the Week
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"You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it.
You must learn to see the world anew."
-- Albert Einstein
Feeling you've hit a dead end with your green career search? Ever felt blocked about how to move forward on a project? As Albert Einstein notes above, finding a new solution is all about shifting your perspective on the issue.
I've had a few breakthroughs myself this week. As I've seen with every clients I've ever worked with, my shifts came not from pushing forward on the path I was on, but from shifting my view of the dilemma. You'll see some of the results of my shifts below and discover strategies you can use to shift your own perspective.
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Tip of the Week: Feeling Blocked on Your Green Career Journey? Shift Your Perspective!
As you read this article, think about the last time you felt stuck. Or perhaps what you are feeling stuck on right now.
Every way you turn, every thing you try, results in nothing. No change. No progress. No traction.
Frustrating? Absolutely!
It's easy at this point to convince yourself that your goal is not worth pursuing. Maybe you'll decide to wait awhile before you try again. Maybe you'll give up entirely. Maybe you'll rethink your goal and change your direction.
Assess Where You Are
Before you turn away from your desired goal, take some time to assess where you really are.
- What do you know is true for you?
- What isn't working for you at all right now?
- What aren't you clear about?
By taking the time to do this assessment up front, you have a better sense of what the issue really is. Depending on what you uncover, you'll be able to discern whether it's worth pursuing your idea with some minor adjustments or whether you need to do a complete overhaul or abandon your project.
Identifying Your Focus
As you review what isn't working for you and what you aren't clear about, what element needs to shift for you to be able to move forward? To take the next step?
It's rare that you can solve every problem at once. So take a look at the entire picture to identify the areas of the situation that will result in a domino effect for you.
Shifting Your Perspective
As soon as you have a target, it's time to spark new thoughts within your own head. Remember you can't find a solution looking at your situation from the same old way. You must jolt yourself out of that mental rut!
So now your challenge is to determine what can you do to trigger new thoughts about your dilemma. Although the specifics may vary depending on your situation, these ideas can get you started on a new path.
- Do something completely different to shift your energy on the topic. Go for a walk or a run, take a shower, walk the dog, or take a nap.
- Talk to someone who has professional experience in the area where you feeling stuck. This might be a resume consultant, a career change coach or a career counselor, or someone with expertise in your target industry. Someone with experience is likely to see far more than you do in your situation.
- Read or listen to cutting edge, innovative information about your industry or the green economy in general. This strategy expands your thinking in unexpected ways...that's exactly what can spark new ideas in your head.
- Attend a talk about something you are excited about. If you can't find an interesting talk in your area, go to www.TED.com and start watching the videos that intrigue you! You are bound to hear something that inspires a new thought or a new perspective.
- Just start! Take action. Do a small task that you feel is doable. In the doing of this task you may discover you know more than you think you do or that the task isn't as difficult as you suspected. If you make progress, keep the ball rolling, by taking another step.
Revisit Your Brainstorming Focus
Now that you've expanded your thinking and perspective, how does your target problem look?
Jot down as many new ideas and approaches as you can think of. Don't try to pre-select the best answer. Just do a data dump to get any and all new ideas out on the table.
Then sort through the ideas.
- Pull together similar ideas.
- Weave unexpectedly related ideas together to create a better idea.
- Spark off of a new idea you've never thought of before.
Then select the couple of ideas that you are ready to implement. As you take action on those ideas, be aware of how that shifts your relationship with your entire situation. It's possible that you'll make even more progress than you expect because your new perspective opens up new avenues you can't imagine now.
Copyright © 2010 Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc.
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Clear, Concise, Consistent ... The Introduction That Gets You Hired!
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Tuesday Sept 28, 2010
6:00 pm Pacific Time/ 9:00 pm Eastern Time
Follow the Green Money
Monday is flowing to concentrated photo voltaic solar, lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicle charging stations, energy and energy efficiency projects, and wind.
Great movement this week in solar thermal, regenerative energy stored in subway (!), and water quality solutions.
What's New for Green Career Central Members
About Us
Green Career Central(TM) is an online coaching and resource center designed to help mid-career professionals, students, new grads, and career counselors make sense of the green economy and the green job market.
Carol McClelland, PhD, author of the award-winning, Green Careers For Dummies, is one of the nation's leading green career experts and founder of Green Career Central. Throughout her career, Carol has helped thousands of people find careers that match their values and interests.
Green Career Tips Archive
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 For the last few months I've been struggling with how to provide our members with a list of all of our green career resources in one place that's organized and easy to use. I finally had a weekend to sit with this dilemma and come up with a solution. It feels great to have found a solution!
I won't bore you with the behind the scenes logistics I had to work through to reach this new outcome. I will tell you I've mulled this question over in my mind off and on, over and over. Each time I ended up at a dead-end that wasn't a workable solution. In this situation, I had to just start building this new section. Sure it meant I had to rework a few pages before I worked out all the details, but I wasn't able to see the new solution until I started creating it.
The Outcome: Green Career Central now has a brand new section: a Green Career Resource Area with ten easy-to-scan sections with a variety of resources you'll need to access throughout your green career journey.
Benefits to You: With this new Green Career Resource Area, you:
- Have up-to-date resources to jump start your research. We've added the date we last updated each resource so you know the information is current.
- Save valuable time and energy.
- Looking for local places to network? We've got a list you can use to start your search.
- Trying to visualize which industries are available in your region? We've collected maps that illustrate what's happening in your state or in your target green industry.
- Attempting to build your list of green companies? We've pulled together links to a variety of company lists.
- Access just-in-time resources. By cross-linking the resources with our Steps to Your Green Career, you'll see exactly when to put each resource to work for you. No need to spin out of control by frantically researching everything at once. Take each step in order and find the resources as you need them.
- Know how to use each resource most effectively. With the help of the articles in our Steps to Your Green Career section, you'll have valuable information to know how to make the most of the resources we provide and resources you research on your own.
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Get Started with Your Green Career Journey
Are you passionate about finding a way to contribute to the emerging green economy?
- Not sure where to start?
- Unclear about what steps to take?
- Trying to figure out where your skills fit within the green economy?
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Copyright (c) Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc. 2007-2010.
All Rights Reserved.
Green Career CentralTM is a trademark of
Transition Dynamics Enterprises, Inc
PO Box 354, Menlo Park, CA 94026
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