Live Integrity

This past week I finally got around to reading Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com. I’ve known for a long time that I needed to read the book, and I flew through the pages as I learned more about the Zappos story and philosophy.

 

One of the things I loved most about the book was the way Hsieh describes the ten core values of Zappos and then illustrates them with stories from employees, customers, etc. It almost serves as a handbook for understanding the culture, which is something the vast majority of companies lack.

 

So, in an effort to make our L4M culture even better, I want to highlight each of our six core values over the course of the next week or so. My hope is that this will help lay out our story and why someone might want to join the company in the future. For me, I hope it will help clarify why these values exist (and potentially highlight what might be missing, if anything).

 

Our first core value at Living for Monday is ‘Live with Integrity.’ In my mind there are two big questions to answer regarding every one of our values:

 

1. Where did this come from?
2. What does it mean for the company and culture?

 

I’ve told the Big League Chew story on this blog before, but it is the most vivid memory I have of learning the value of integrity. From a very early age, I understood that doing the right things for the right reasons would pay off. Even when it doesn’t pay off directly, it ALWAYS comes back around. At least that’s my view.

 

After my experience with Big League Chew, the concept of integrity continued to grow on me. Every year something would happen that showed me that no matter what someone is always watching. Whether I was doing the right thing or doing things that didn’t always make Mom proud, it always came back around. Eventually, after plenty of heartache and unnecessary challenges to overcome I learned that it was far easier to do the right thing for the right reasons as often as possible than it was to try not to get caught doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons.

 

I think that doing the right thing for the right reasons is a great definition of integrity. It takes the concept at its most basic level and applies it to our decision making process at home, at work, and everywhere in between. But over time, integrity has come to be so much more to me. When I started this blog in August or September of 2010 (wow, now that I put it on paper, I can’t believe it’s been two years), I racked my brain for a name before finally settling on Living Values.

 

Ultimately, that name represents the next stage in my understanding of integrity. I could do the right thing for the right reasons without ever naming or understanding my personal values, and I could be a valuable, contributing member of society by doing so. But taking my integrity to the next level meant putting my personal values on paper, then on my blog, and ultimately constantly displaying them for the world to see. That’s a vulnerable place to be. It’s kind of like a 35 year old man having to hang his superman underwear out to dry because the dryer is broken – you’re revealing intimate information to the world.

 

I mean c’mon, my values are my beliefs – they are the 5 or so words that describe what means the most to me in. the. world. To openly state them to you is to openly welcome criticism and feedback when I’m not being true to those values.

 

But what I’ve learned is that putting those core values out for the world to see makes it that much easier to remain true to them. There’s no going back when you tell other people what you stand for. Yes, I can make shifts and my values may adapt as I learn more about myself, but by and large those values will remain fairly consistent. So the second stage in my understanding of integrity was to live my values and stay true to them through my actions and words. The same thing applies to a company. When we put our values out for the world to see, we take that seriously. They’re not just a ‘nice to have’ or a ‘plaque on the wall’ – they’re the way we do business.

My learning about integrity has had one final stage to this point. That third stage comes from my experience in taking my first job and then subsequently leaving my first job to start Living for Monday. Through that process I had a lot of heartache and a lot of questions in my mind. Why wasn’t I happy in that great job? What would I do if I left? How would I make money? Is it even possible for me to succeed in starting my own company?

 

When I thought about the answers to those questions, I realized several things. First, I had heartache and I was unhappy because I wasn’t taking my true self to work. I was molding myself to fit what I was ‘supposed to be.’ A suit-wearing, big-word-wielding, corporate junkie that solves problems to add money to the bottom line of our clients… but I don’t necessarily believe in all that. I don’t know that the one objective of corporations should be to increase the bottom line in the short term. I don’t necessarily enjoy wearing a suit everyday. And I didn’t think any of those things were going to lead me to the vision I have for my life.

 

That experience taught me about the third level of integrity, which is staying true to my dreams and vision. I could have made the right decisions for the right reasons in the context of my first job. I probably could have found a way to live most of my values. But what I couldn’t do is fulfill the vision I had for my life – the dreams I had for my future. Living with integrity means having the guts to take a stand, take a chance, and go after the vision I have for my life.

 

The third level of integrity applies every bit as much to Living for Monday. We have a responsibility to pursue our mission and vision to the absolute extent of our capabilities. There are a million ways to make money, but living with integrity means every way we make money should fuel our vision of the future.

 

At Living for Monday, we believe ‘Live Integrity’ means three things:

• Always do the right thing for the right reasons. If in question, use the golden rule.
• Make our values public and incorporate them into every single thing we do.
• Pursue our mission and vision with every ounce of effort we have. Don’t settle.

 

What do you think about our first value, ‘Live Integrity’? Do you have ideas for how we can incorporate our mission, vision, or values into our operations? Let me know in the comments!

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Why I’m Giving Up my 25th Birthday for Charity:Water (And How You Can Help)

When I showed up to World Domination Summit 2012 in Portland at the beginning of July, I had no idea what Charity:Water was, why it was created, or who was behind all the work. When I left WDS 2012, I had become an avid supporter of the cause as a result of hearing the incredible stories from founder Scott Harrison.

Here’s why:

• Scott Harrison has an incredible personal story. He has turned his life around and dedicated himself to a cause that helps people in ways I can barely comprehend as a member of Western society. That makes me want to help him and the cause.
• The pictures of the diseases and pain being caused by contaminated water are unbelievable. And to think that clean water can solve so many of these problems makes me want to take action.
• Charity:Water has an incredible three-pronged approach to non-profit work. First, 100% of public donations (ie the ones to my birthday campaign) go directly to providing clean water for real people in Africa. Second, Charity:Water proves where every dollar goes. 18 months after making a donation, you will know what project you helped fund. Third, Charity:Water is a brand that Scott Harrison wants to be recognized across the globe. This three-pronged approach has been incredibly successful and built immense trust in their community.

Take a minute and imagine living a life in which you had no idea whether you would have clean water 12 hours later. Imagine spending every waking hour walking to and from a water source 4 hours from your home. Imagine having a permanently bent back as a result of carrying 50lb+ of water on your back for hours at a time… every day. Imagine seeing people all around you contract diseases and suffer as a result of contaminated water.

Now imagine contributing to the solution. Imagine opening up hours upon hours of time for people in Africa to learn in school, work to support their families, and maybe even enjoy life a little bit. By supporting my birthday campaign (and maybe pledging your next birthday), you can be part of the solution.

My 25th birthday is a month from now on September 7th. My fundraising goal is to have 200 people contribute $25 for a total of $5,000. That amount of money will allow us together to help an entire community of 50 families, or 250 individuals, get access to clean water.

Can you spare $25? How about $250? If times are tough, and $5 is all that you can afford, that means every bit as much to me. If you want to help out, you can contribute to my birthday campaign here: http://mycharitywater.org/Barrettabrooks.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for contributing. Thanks for being an awesome person. It means alot to me, and it means even more to the people you’ll help.

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How to Live a Remarkable Life in a Conventional World

I spent this past week in Portland on vacation with my girlfriend, Nicole. We booked our trip around the World Domination Summit, which took place this past weekend. If you want to know more about our travels in Portland, you can read detailed posts on my travel blog at http://www.barrettabrooks.wordpress.com

Chris Guillebeau created The World Domination Summit in 2011 to bring people together around the shared values of community, adventure, and service. This year’s (un)conference was the second annual, held in various locations around the city of Portland, OR. The theme of the conference was the following question:

“How do you live a remarkable life in a conventional world”

And today I want to share the 15 best answers I found to this question from an incredible weekend spent with awesome people.

1.    Be constantly vulnerable

Brene Brown drove home the point loud and clear that being vulnerable is a very good thing. In fact, it is the only way we can live an authentic life in which we truly impact others. Convention tells us to conform, become complacent, and adjust our actions to meet the image others have created for us.

Brene says no to those false ideas. Instead, “Who you are will always trump who you think people want you to be.” In opening the conference, Brene spoke of Conference Anqiety Syndrome, making several points that apply wholly to living a remarkable life.

First, we have to realize that “cool is about self-protection.” Next time I catch myself being cool, I need to remember that vulnerability trumps cool.

Second, we have to remind ourselves that “no one belongs here more than me.” Whether here applies to WDS, a great opportunity at work, traveling around the world, or anything else, I have to remember that I am there for a reason. Only then can I make my maximum contribution.

Finally, “Your experience here cannot exceed your willingness to be vulnerable.” How true that was at WDS and how true it is for my future endeavors. Authentic connection with others only comes from true vulnerability. New friendships, family relationships, deep conversations, and new projects all come more naturally from a place of vulnerability.

I have to remember that if I put myself out there and fail or receive rejection in return, I have done my best. I have been in the arena and until others have been their too, their criticism cannot move me.

To live a remarkable life, I must continue to push myself to be vulnerable.

2.    It is never too late to make a come back

Scott Harrison taught me that to live a remarkable life we must never give up on ourselves, but instead realize that it is never too later to make a comeback. Scott was a night club promoter in NYC with “every vice possible” before he woke up one day and decided to make a change.

He went from drinking, drugging, womanizing, and spending to serving, feeling, growing, and connecting. He went from club promoter to charity founder. He went from morally broke to founding one of the most inspirational and innovative charities known to man: Charity:Water.

In so many ways, Scott’s early story reminded me of my own. Raised in a good family. Smart, Christian kid. Grew up to rebel for no particular reason. Drinking, drugs, sex. Until one day I was forced to make a change or live a life of insignificance. I am still very much in the building phase, but Scott’s story shows me that a remarkable life is well within my reach.

Never give up on yourself. No matter what exists in your past, there is always a greater future to be had if you will allow yourself to dream. Those are the words my heart interpreted from Scott Harrison’s talk.

You are worthy; you are remarkable. It is never too late to make a come back.

3.    Understand who you are

Susan Cain and Jonathan Fields reminded me that knowing thyself is such an important characteristic for having an impact in the world. Susan is an introvert and proud of it. As she spoke I had this intense realization that although I have always been pegged as an extrovert, I really lie closer to the neutral line in between introversion and extroversion. In fact, if anything, I lean to the introvert side of things until I get to know someone, at which point I can settle in and really share myself.

The point made here is that we can always learn something new about ourselves. We never know everything. We never know every little corner of our souls, but we can always work towards ever-greater self-knowledge.

By understanding who I am, I can better understand how to interact with others to create the greatest impact in the world. People who know themselves and actively design their lives around that knowledge can lead remarkable lives no matter what convention is telling us.

4.    Seek adventure

Adventure is one of the shared values of those that choose to attend WDS, and Jodi Ettenberg embodied that value to a great degree. I learned from Jodi that adventure gives us a peek into our own souls, as well as the souls of others. It allows us to catch authentic glimpses of people, cultures, and locales.

Jodi seeks adventure by traveling the world and experiencing food to connect with people. She has learned many ways to eat safe, but authentic in any city and she used our breakout session to pass that knowledge along… To make adventure more accessible to each of us.

“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” ~Mark Twain

To live a remarkable life, I must seek adventure.

5.    Kill good ideas in favor of chasing great ideas

David Fugate, founder of Launch Books Literary Agency, was the first to make this point this weekend during his “Book Concepts that Sell” workshop. And then immediately afterwards, Scott Belsky (read more under #6) reiterated the point.

Both men offered great insight. For creative types, coming up with ideas is not the problem. The problem is actually two fold with the first part being that we can often have TOO MANY ideas. The solution is to develop the ability and capacity to kill the good ideas in favor of pursuing the great ideas.

Good ideas lead to a good life. But great ideas lead to a remarkable life. To live a remarkable life, I must always remember to kill the good ideas so that I can spend my energy chasing the great ideas.

6.    Take action consistently

Scott Belsky is the author of Making Ideas Happen and he presented the second half of the two fold problem I mentioned above. When we have many ideas (both good and great), we often end up taking action on none of them.

Scott shared an equation that will lead to living a remarkable life by taking consistent and definitive action:

Making Ideas Happen

=

(Creativity & Ideas + Organization & Execution + Communal Forces + Leadership Capability)

This led to another great moment of evaluation for me. I am great at coming up with ideas and getting them started in the moment of excitement. But then my energy often tapers off and I repeat the process to renew my energy. Scott calls this habit ‘incrementalism’.

But if you look back at those we admire for having lived remarkable lives, they were not incrementalists. Neither were they just creative thinkers with lots of ideas. Instead, they executed on their ideas by combining creativity, execution, community, and leadership.

To live a remarkable life, I must push myself to take consistent action and finish projects. 1 finished project will have infinitely more impact than 100 unfinished projects. Period.

7.    Develop unique superpowers to do good

Chris Brogan is a comic nerd through and through. He was vulnerable in front of a crowd of 1,000 and I loved it. And in the process he reiterated Brene Brown’s message while adding that we have to develop our superpowers to do good.

Chris used some of our favorite superheroes to describe potential superpowers… things like synthesis, empathy, tenacity, and rage. He challenged us to name our superpower and then to test it, fail, and gain confidence from the experience.

By honing our superpowers in this way over time, we will gain the ability to do immense good in the world. In the process, we have to remember that no matter how weird we are, or how unique our superpower may be, it is needed in the world. Therefore, “the weirder you get, the more you will succeed.”

I must develop my unique superpowers by exercising them, learning about their capacity, failing, and gaining confidence. Only then can I use my superpowers to do good and live a remarkable life.

8.    Commit to serving others

Service is yet another of the shared WDS values. Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott taught me that so much can be learned in the service of others. They have been traveling the world for over five years in the name of serving others.

They taught me that an unheard voice can be made loud and clear through service. They taught me that there is more to every story than what we may see on the surface. And they taught me that only through service to others can we truly experience the world and make deep connections.

To live a remarkable life I must always remember to commit to serving others in all that I do.

9.    Leverage your skills and interests to create passion

Cal Newport taught me that many interests can be molded into a passion, a life’s work, or a calling. I didn’t always agree with everything that Cal had to say, as I tend to lean a bit more towards the fact that there is purpose in what we do and any old interest may not spark our sense of purpose over time.

But, Cal’s message did resonate with me in that developing expertise is such an important part of becoming truly passionate about a given interest. The question I encourage my coaching clients to ask themselves is this: which of my interests do I care enough about to become an expert?

When we care enough to pursue an interest until we have developed true expertise and a valuable skillset, we both become more valuable as a contributor and more passionate as a person. Passion contributors live remarkable lives.

To live a remarkable life I will have to become ever more passionate by developing expertise and skills.

10. Tell a great story

One of my close friends gave a wonderful graduation speech in which he said “Tell a great story with your life.” Sarak Peck reiterated that message in her workshop on crafting narratives.

Sarah taught me that crafting narratives and telling great stories is a way of connecting with others. Stories bind us emotionally, communicate our vision, and share our lessons with others. At the end of the day we all have stories, but to live a remarkable life we must create and tell a remarkable story.

That story cannot always be planned. It cannot be controlled. It can only be communicated as is unfolds. It can be shared passionately, as with Scott Harrison. It can be used to interweave with the stories of others. It can be used to inspire. But for it to do all of those things, we must first create it, and then share it.

To live a remarkable life, I must tell a great story with my life.

11. Build a community of support

The third and final shared value of WDSers is community. The value of community in remarkable lives repeatedly made itself clear throughout the weekend. In particular, Corbett Barr’s workshop on instant idea evaluation showed the immense value of a community of support.

Corbett’s session was like a massive mastermind session, and the value of the feedback reminded me that I must build a community of support in order to live a remarkable life. We need feedback, we need constructive criticism, and when we hit the troughs of energy we need support. Building a community provides for all of these things.

Corbett reminded me that I need a mastermind group (which I’m hopefully forming with a couple of fellow attendees). He taught me the value of open, honest feedback.

To live a remarkable life I must build a community of support that will help me and support me.

12. Keep your eyes on your own paper

I learned so much from the attendee stories that we heard on Sunday, but a common theme was keeping my eyes on my own paper. It can be so easy to look at what others are doing and want to do the same. It can be easy to envy and covet and imitate.

But what makes a life remarkable is its uniqueness. Imitators are not heralded for their remarkable copying. We should be inspired by others but “don’t compare your inside to someone else’s outside.” A remarkable life comes from a place of authenticity and vulnerability. It comes from establishing our mission and getting after it.

To live an authentically remarkable life, I have to keep my eyes on my own paper.

13. Transform yourself to transform the world

J.D. Roth is an incredible man with an incredible story of profound personal transformation. J.D. taught me the value of transforming oneself. He reminded me to concentrate on changing myself in order to inspire others to change as well.

J.D. reminded me that focusing on what others should do will not make me better and it is not the way to transform the world. Instead, I should work every day and every month and every year to become a better version of myself. This time next year, as I board the plane to Portland for #WDS2013, I hope to have transformed myself to become a better person.

I can only transform the world by first transforming myself. To live a remarkable life I must embrace and pursue constant personal transformation.

14. Courageously invest in others

Chris Guillebeau has taught me so much through The Art of Non-Conformity (book and blog), The Empire Building Kit, and The $100 Startup… But never has he taught me so much as he did at WDS.

Chris showed me that living a remarkable life means courageously investing in others. It means trusting and empowering those around you to do remarkable things themselves. It means ignoring the trolls and naysayers and critics in favor of supporting the change agents and problem solvers and doers of good.

Chris has made himself vulnerable in countless ways in order to invest in me. He has neglected his natural introversion to stand on stage repeatedly in front of 1,000 people. He has shared his journey liberally with his followers, even when receiving criticism from others. And all the while he has asked for NOTHING in return.

I know that to live a remarkable life I must courageously invest in others.

15. $100 is All it Takes

Chris has also taught me the value of $100. It stated a couple of months ago when I received an advance copy of $100 Startup. It continued when I attended his Atlanta book signing and met him in person for the first time. Through all of this he showed that a meaningful, impactful business can sprout from $100 or less.

But then Chris did something entirely unexpected at the end of the day Sunday. He made the most courageous investment of all in all 1,000 attendees.

He created his own parable of the prodigal son and will be tracking the results over the next year. Combining this year’s profits with an anonymous WDS donation from a 2011 attendee, Chris dispensed $100,000 to the 2012 attendees.

He showed absolute trust and confidence in our ability to do good with the money. He showed a willingness to be absolutely vulnerable in handing out CASH to 1,000 people, many of whom he does not know deeply. Why?

Because he knows we share values of community, adventure, and service. Because he trusted that we would each walk away and willingly bear the burden of responsibility that comes with such a generous gift. And because he wants to see what happens when you empower a group of change-makers with the tools to make it happen.

To live a remarkable life, $100 is all it takes.

#WDS2012

(To learn more about WDS and to sign up to receive notifications about #WDS2013, check out http://worlddominationsummit.com )

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Trends: Supplementary Education

One of the things I most often try to do is pick up on trends in the market place. What’s going on out there, how does it affect me (and Living for Monday), and what can we do to be sure we stay abreast of the game-changing trends.

The more I look around and read and learn about whats going on in the marketplace, the more I see this cottage industry popping up across the educational spectrum. I’ll call it supplementary education and I have to say that it intrigues me more than anything I’ve ever read of or experienced.

In the Dec/Jan issue of Fast Company, they ran an excellent, albeit short article on a company called General Assembly. If you flipped the page too fast you would have completely missed it, but luckily I was astute enough to read every word.

In the old days, the ten companies highlighted in the article would be our competitors. But today I look at them as potential collaborators and mentors in producing a generation of productive and self-aware leaders in our work force.

Living for Monday is just getting started, but I’ve got to say that the trend towards supplementary education, focused on real-world learning and personal development is encouraging. It’s a trend we are contributing to and one we will continue to contribute to over time.

We have plenty of problems to solve and obstacles to overcome, but one thing is for certain (courtesy of a text message from my mom today): “There is no such thing as impossible; only what we tell ourselves is impossible.” I am not sure to whom I should attribute that quote, but I do know we are working hard to do something some would say is impossible:

We are helping individuals discover their purpose, take intentional action by aligning with a career that they will love, and be inspired to solve the preeminent problems and seize the premier opportunities of our time.

That’s something I can believe in and something I’m proud to be a part of.

Interesting in joining us? Check out our website, and give me a shout at Barrett at LivingforMonday dot com.

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How to Build a Lasting Culture

Something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately… Building a lasting culture.

I believe in the power of culture and I believe in our power to intentionally create the environment and company we want. But it takes quite a bit of effort.

One of the aspects of our Living for Monday culture is our monthly book club. We read a book every month as a team — so far we’ve read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and Start with Why by Simon Sinek. Both great books, and Sinek gives us the first step to building a culture that lasts in the title of his book. Let’s start there.

1. Start with Why – Why is our purpose. It’s what we exist to accomplish. As Sinek outlines in the entirety of his book, nothing matters unless and until you start with why. Why? Because that’s where motivation comes from. That’s how we draw in our clients or audience or believers or cult. Why is the reason our employees show up to work and our customers buy our products and services. Why matters most. The Living for Monday why: Drive discovery of purpose and inspire intentional action. Everything we do is with that purpose in mind.
2. Define values – Sinek describes values as the ‘How’ to your ‘Why.’ They bring to life a somewhat abstract concept and begin to distill it down into actionable principles. Values are attractors of talent. They tell people how we go about doing things, what they can expect, and whether they will align with us. They’re a differentiator. And most importantly, because they are an outpouring of our ‘Why,’ they give us a way to identify the people with whom we want to work. They tell us whether we’re a good fit. We have six values that we hold dear at Living for Monday.
3. Build values into the operations – Defining values and not putting them to use is kind of like baking a cake and throwing it away. Why would you do such a thing? Values are only powerful when they are built into the essence of an organization. They drive product development, employee growth, incentives, and ultimately the organization’s success. We live our values in every possible way. One example of how we’re building L4M around our values is by reading a book every month and incorporating our newfound knowledge into our operations, which helps us all to learn and grow (one of our core values).
4. Hire, fire, create, and make decisions based on those principles – There’s not much more to this one. This is everything. Trey and Nick align with the L4M values. They both share our why. They’re excited about what we’re up to. We look at our why and our values before we make any decision to grow the company or take on a new opportunity. It gives a sense of purpose and passion to everything we do.
5. Invest in the people – I haven’t worked in or witnessed an organization yet where the people weren’t everything. People matter – that’s one of my strongest beliefs in the world. And I wholeheartedly subscribe to the theory that focusing on the employees and their growth, development, passion, and happiness makes for happy customers and happy shareholders. Did I mention it helps create incredible culture?
6. Believe. Inspire. Act. – As a business owner or leader at any level, we’ve got to believe what we say. We have to espouse the purpose and values of the organization in our personal and professional lives. We get held to a higher standard. It’s a double edged sword in some ways. It means the camera is on us when we act out of line with what we say we believe, sure. But it also gives us leverage to inspire because we embody what the organization is all about. And inspired people take action. They change things. They make things happen that otherwise wouldn’t.

I’m no expert, and Living for Monday is only barely viable at this point. But if I had to bet on how to build a lasting culture, I’d say the six steps above are a pretty good place to start.

What do you think? How have you built lasting cultures? What should be added to the list above? Let’s toss some ideas around in the comments!

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5 Ways to Live a Life of Purpose and Fulfillment

I’ve challenged myself a lot over the years. I’ve done stupid things, and I’ve done some pretty cool things. I’ve learned my own lessons, and I’ve tried to learn from the experiences of others as well.

Today I want to share with you the top five things I believe we can do to fundamentally change our life for the better and start living with more purpose today.

1) Improve Our Physical Health

There are three fundamental ways I believe we can change our health and have vast impact. They are incredibly simple, and yet so hard to follow. I’ll list them in order of ease of accomplishment.

• Start exercising — even if its just once per week at first. Some exercise is better than no exercise, and the science shows it will improve our attitude, happiness, and sense of self-worth.
• Eat more lean meat, vegetables, and fruit — I listed this as an affirmative action, because really this means we have to stop eating so many foods out of a box or package. It’s a tough shift, but it’s one I’ve undergone in my own life recently, and I feel great!
• Stop drinking alcohol — I listed this one last because I know so many of us love their booze. It’s tough to give up. I know because I was a college fraternity man – I had my share of fun. But now that alcohol is very rarely a part of my diet I’ve seen vast improvements of my health. This is by no means a judgment thing – I’m just telling it like it is on the health end.

2) Define Our Values

If you know me at all, you might have guessed that this one would be on here. Why? Because I believe in it SO strongly. I believe that simply putting the 3-7 words that describe what means most to us in the world on paper is one of the most empowering things we can ever do.

Bonus: posting them on our wall, bathroom mirror, dashboard, or anywhere else we’ll see them everyday.

Anyone can do this, because everyone has values. It’s just a matter of defining them and then living by them on a daily basis. We’ll never be perfect – there’s not a day that goes by when I follow my values to a T. But the act of trying my hardest makes me feel incredible.

3) Search for Our Passion

If passion were a fish it would be the one that always gets away. It is so hard to get in the boat. It’s elusive, and the process for finding our passion is so undefined.

But we all know what we really love deep down. So why aren’t we all the most passionate people in the world?

It’s simple — the world (or at least in the US) tells us we’re supposed to rise to the top, make a bunch of money, have a big house, and on and on. And the way to do that is to check the boxes of education, resume building, getting promoted… Or is it?

Our passion maximizes the impact we have on others. The people who have positive impact on others live fulfilled lives. (And I plan to prove or disprove my hypothesis that passionate people have more earning potential in the long run.)

4) Develop Strong Relationships

I know, I know, some people are introverts. But introverts and extroverts alike are humans with big hearts. It’s our nature. We are social beings.

The stronger our relationships with our family, the more fulfilled we will be. I’m using family in a different sense here. I heard this great definition the other day that I’ve now adopted — our family consists of anyone we’ve allowed access to our hearts and minds.

This isn’t a numbers game, its a game of meaning. How many truly meaningful relationships do you have? Should you have? Whatever your answer is, that’s the right number for you.

5) Have Incredible Experiences

Things (possessions) are great on occasion. A new car or a new pair of hiking boots, or a new camera are all fun… But newness wears off.

I am a firm believer in sacrificing things to have incredible experiences. And I don’t mean around the world trips with 15 of my closest friends. An incredible experience could be driving a mile down the road with my girlfriend on a Saturday to finally try a new brunch place and finding out they have incredible coffee.

Incredible experiences depend on your own passions and hobbies and interests. They depend on your family. But no matter how you define them, incredible experiences will almost certainly change your life for the better.

I hope I’ve not offended anyone with any of my points above. I truly believe that these five things will lead to more purpose and fulfillment in anyone’s life. Even though I’m very much still a work in progress (and always will be), these five things have had a huge impact on my life. And I love it.

What would you add to the list? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

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World without Resumes: How to Shift Our Mindset

This is part two of a four part series on ‘How to Differentiate Ourselves in a World without Resumes.‘

Step one in differentiating ourselves without the use of a resume is to shift our mindset. In the first post in this series, I introduced this concept with the following:

Shift our mindset – The default strategy for pursuing jobs these days is sitting at home behind our desk and submitting countless resumes through job board postings. According to CNN Money, “80% of today’s jobs aren’t advertised.” This means that of the total job opportunities out there, we’re probably only accessing 20% of the job market. We have to shift our mindset from one of waiting to be chosen to one of proactive strategies to make things happen.

In a world where only 20% of job openings are advertised publicly and resumes are not accepted as the currency of the job market, we need to change our thinking about landing a job – especially our dream job.

Step 1: Anything is possible. The world likes to tell us what it thinks we should do in our career and how it thinks we should spend our time. That’s nice, and input from those we care most about should never be undervalued… But often the opinions of others and the external expectations that influence our actions are limiting factors. They cause us to narrow our view on what our possible career opportunities are. So, what to do about this?

Explore. Develop a thirst for learning and personal growth. Most importantly, we have to challenge the status quo. Starting today, we have to think of our career search without any limitations. Accept nothing as a given. The more we can learn to not accept the current standard as our reality, the more we can find ways to create a new reality that reflects the career of our dreams.

Step 2: Know what we want. Speaking of the career of our dreams, we need to know what we want. How can we do this? Spend time alone. Learn about our values, explore our various passions, learn new skills, understand or strengths, dream about the future. And then we have to be intentional.

Can we have everything all at once? No. Can we have a lot that makes us happy over time? Absolutely. But we have to put our finger on we want first. And we need to learn to be specific. Just like a product designed for everybody is a product that sells to nobody, not knowing exactly what we want from our career will result in us never really achieving purpose and fulfillment.

Starting today, we need to define exactly what we are looking for in our career – and then we need to define our first ‘dream job’ in terms of that career.

Step 3: From consumer to producer. The final step in our mindset shift makes us take what we know we want and get proactive about it. A consumer mindset is one of waiting on companies to post job openings online, submitting our resume, and hoping we get picked. We are completely dependent on the whims of the market, and we have little control over whether we are picked out of the stack.

A producer mentality is one of action. We understand what we want and we do the hard work required to make it happen. This is a mindset shift from “I hope I get a job” to “Here’s how I’m going to make this happen.”

How have you shifted your mindset around the career search process? How might you change your mindset after reading this post? Do you think it is harder to get a job with a consumer or producer mindset? Let us know in the comments!

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The Long Term Earning Potential of Passion and Purpose

I’m in the business of helping people find their dream jobs. We like to say that we do three things at Living for Monday:

1) Change our clients’ mindsets
2) Give our clients a toolset
3) Open up new possibilities in the job set

And we do all of those with the intent of helping clients pursue passion and purpose in their personal and professional lives.

Now, as you might imagine, one of the easiest objections to this concept of passion and purpose at work is money. “Yeah, but you have to live in your car and eat ramen to be passionate about your work.” Or,”I don’t want to take a lower paying job.”

Well, I’ve got two things to say in return.

First, I would challenge naysayers to consider the units by which our life should be measured. Money provides for our needs, but beyond that it mostly contributes to materialism and clutter. Wealth of spirit, attitude, experience, and giving is what passion and purpose bring to our lives. (This is not to say that monetary wealth is bad, but that’s for another day.)

And second, the practical finance and accounting major in me feels the need to appeal on a purely monetary level as well. I would make the argument (and I intend to prove or disprove this theory over time) that finding passion and purpose in our work significantly increases our earning potential over the long term.

Why? Because energy, innovation, leadership, and growth come from passion and purpose. And you know what else? Energy, innovation, leadership, and growth have tremendous value in the market place.

So whether you like the feel-good aspect, or you’re more of a rational, analytical kind of person, I posit there is much to be gained from living a life of passion and purpose.

What do you think? What objections come to mind when considering the possibility of finding passion in your work? Have you seen passion lead to higher earning potential? Let me know in the comments!

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Pursuing Passion When Income is a Constraint

In my Friday book review, I asked readers to comment and leave a question related to living values, pursuing passion, dreaming big, or changing the world in exchange for a chance to win a copy of Rework.

Jimmy, a friend of mine and a guy who’s out there chasing his passion in his work, left the following comment (and ended up winning the book):

One question I have for you about pursing your passion is this: In what instances would you encourage someone to combine their passion and source of income? You recently took a committing step to fully pursue your new venture Unconventional Innovations and step aside from your previous job. From your experience thus far, would remaining with your old company limit your opportunities for success or provide needed flexibility while you establish yourself? Interested to hear your thoughts on commitment levels for pursuing your passion balanced with the realities of a required source of income.

Jimmy brings up a great point, and in today’s post I want to put forth some extended thoughts on the subject of passion vs. income. When income is a constraint, it can really throw a wrench into pursuing our passion. It creates pressure to perform, it shortens our time horizon for finding or creating viable opportunities, and it generally makes the entire process less fun.

In response to Jimmy’s question I want to highlight three key scenarios that can allow us to pursue our passion while still making enough money to pay the bills and maybe have a bit of fun.

Scenario 1: We’re not all that ready to make any major life changes, and we just want a way to get more passionate about what we’re already doing. In this post I talked about three ways to find passion in our current job, starting today. The three key points: build relationships; Do more of what we love and become an expert; and use the four words “How can I help?” as often as possible. Head over to the link above for a more detailed post on how to make things happen given our existing circumstances.

When we find passion in the work we’re already doing, we will perform better because we are more excited about showing up. We will also secure our existing source of income by adding more value to our organization.

Scenario 2: We know our passion, we want to pursue it, and we know our current job is not the answer. However, it’s not viable to up and leave our job because we need the income. So it’s time to get to work in our free time. What do I mean by that? I mean it’s time to start creating or researching our passion.

To create our passion, we should begin laying the groundwork for establishing our own business or finding a partner to go in with. In a 40-50 hour a week job, it is perfectly feasible to establish a business plan, lay the groundwork, and be ready to go into pre-launch mode. The last step is fostering the courage to take the leap.

In researching our passion, we have one main goal: figure out what jobs exist that allow us to pursue it, and what companies have that kind of job in their organization. Notice I did NOT say ‘what companies are hiring for that kind of job.’ There is a big difference. 80% of available jobs are not made open to the public for application, so looking for openings that perfectly fit our passion is a futile exercise. In my coaching curriculum, I dive in depth into researching companies and preparing to conduct an intentional career search. The tools apply here as well. We need to define our ideal job description, network to build meaningful relationships and access the hidden job market, and then nail our interviews on our own terms. That process takes a ton of research and that’s what we’ll have to do in our spare time if we want to pursue our passion without losing our income.

Scenario 3: Our job is not the answer to pursuing our passion, and we work way too dang much to be creating and researching on the side. This is the death trap. We need the money, our job is demanding, and we have little to no energy to be doing extra work outside of our normal responsibilities.

In my mind, there’s only one option here. Save, save, and save. Calculate your total expenses per month and multiply times six. That is our target. If the number seems impossible, we need to consider what expenses we would be willing to forego for a six month period in order to pursue our passion. Ideally, we do enough research to find our passion and identify the necessary expertise/certifications/effort to pursue our passion.

As soon as we have our coffers built and we’ve done our base research, it’s time to hit the road. Our full time job becomes finding a way to make our passion a viable moneymaker. We might need help, and it might be smart to build into our savings budget a little extra cushion to purchase some education materials, hire a coach, or generally dedicate to networking and personal development.

Let’s wrap it up

There are three key ways to maintain our income while still pursuing our passion and taking a big step towards doing the work we love. We don’t have to leave our job to do so, and in some cases it might be better that we don’t.

No matter what route we take, I would make the argument that pursuing our passion is the key to not only long term purpose and fulfillment in life, but also to higher earning potential due to loving our work. But that’s for another day.

If you had to choose one of the three scenarios starting today, what would you choose? Why? What is the difference between your passion and your current work? Please share in the comments!

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How to Get Un-Stuck

This post is the third and final post of what has become a three part series, which started with Don’t Get Stuck, continued with How to Know When You’re Stuck, and finishes today with How to Get Un-Stuck.

Getting Un-Stuck: Career

Dig deep and find out what kind of work you love. Ask yourself the tough questions about why you ended up in your current job, what you always wished you could do for a living, and what your absolute passion is. If you need help, shoot me an email.

Schedule lunch with a colleague this week. Work sucks when we don’t like the people we work with. We often don’t like what we don’t know. Get to know a colleague you’ve long been wanting to get to know better or maybe one you don’t understand.

Set a professional goal completely outside of your job description or performance metrics. Job descriptions and performance metrics are what make life at work boring. They trick us into limiting ourselves to once set of tasks or accomplishments. Throw that stuff away for thirty minutes and brainstorm some goals that would be fun, cool, or beneficial to accomplish. Write one down, put it in your office or cubicle, and make it happen… Start with step one today.

Learn a new skill. Almost every major university has online training in typical school subjects and skills-based learning. Many companies offer great training programs that don’t get taken advantage of. Find one that looks intriguing and sign up. Then SHOW UP!

If all else fails, start a side hustle doing the work you love. I can’t tell you how many blogs I read that inspire people to get passionate about life by starting a side hustle outside of work. If you’re really in a rut and doing work that is monotonous and you can’t change it, invest in a side hustle. A side hustle takes your great love or passion and puts it to work making money. Set a goal of making just $500 from your passion in the next three months. Failure is not an option. If you want more resources, send me an email.

Getting Un-Stuck: Relationships

Whether you are in a relationship or not, go on a date. If you’re in a relationship, find a restaurant, a show, or anything else new and potentially exciting and invite your significant other to go there with you. Get it on the calendar today! If you’re not in a relationship, ask someone on a friendly date. It’s not the end of the world if they say no, and you might have a blast if they say yes!

Plan a dinner or activity with friends. It’s easy to end up partying with our friends, especially as young professionals. It’s something consistent that is always an option, and nobody has to do any planning. Everyone just shows up at a bar and that’s that… But if you really care about your friends, plan a dinner or outing with your core group where you can spend quality time together. You’d be surprised at how much fun you can have in the absence of a bar if you’re willing to put in some effort!

Place at least one random phone this week to someone you care about. It takes maybe 30 minutes, and it can substantially change the trajectory of that person’s day. Call them and just start the conversation by saying: I was thinking about you and I wanted to see how you were doing. Let it carry on from there.

Put a reminder on your calendar each week to tell someone you love them. We don’t say I love you enough. Period. Do it.

Surprise a loved one with a hand-made gift, note, or meal. We don’t have to spend much money to give a pleasant surprise. Use your hands to make a gift, write a note, or try a new recipe and give it to someone you care about.

Give your kids one entire day of undivided attention. Yes, the whole day. Kids can be annoying. They can seem like a lot. Sometimes you just need some time away. But on the kid’s end, sometimes they just want your undivided attention. So give it to them – for just one day. Don’t you think you’ll look back fondly on a day sans to-do list, cell phone, and errands?

Getting Un-Stuck: Personal Growth

Go to your favorite physical bookstore and buy the ONE book that looks most interesting, fun, or promising. Pick a book, any book. Enjoy it within the next week. If you don’t start and end it immediately, it will sit on your shelf and not get read. Reading gathers momentum, and in a couple of months you might find you have a new favorite store and hobby!

Take 4 hours of vacation time from work and do something you love. If you’re allowed to take half-days, do it. By yourself. Don’t tell anyone. Sneak away for the afternoon and do something you love. Whatever it is, just enjoy it and don’t worry about anything else in the world.

Set 3 stretch goals for 2012. Not resolutions… goals. Things you can accomplish and be proud of. If you don’t usually set goals, just use them for things you normally do, but give them intention. If you already use goals, set some goals that will expand for comfort zone or encourage you to experience new things.

Find your local Habitat for Humanity affiliate (or charity of choice) and schedule a day of service for you (extra points for you AND your family). There are a million organizations that need our help right now. It is always a perfect time of year to support those in need just because. Give it a shot and see what you think!

Whatever made you leap for joy when you were a child… Make time for that at least once in the next two weeks. Whatever we do, it is so important that we don’t forget our childish joy. Just have fun. Do it with friends, or family, or by yourself. But please, over the next two weeks, do something that made you leap for joy as a kid.

Have other techniques for getting unstuck, or generally enjoying life? Please share in the comments!

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