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21 April 2009, 16:13
When One Door Closes, Another Opens. Noah St. John
It's true: when one door closes, another opens. But those hallways sure can be a bee-atch.
In my teens and early twenties, I worked as a professional ballet dancer. It was ridiculously hard work for dreadfully little money. The punishment we put on our bodies was comparable to that of a pro football player, for about 1/1,000th of the salary.
One day, we were rehearsing Carmina Burana, a particularly brutal choreographic masterpiece, when I felt a pinch in my left hip. Since I was used to dancing through the pain (I popped Advils like M&Ms), I didn't think much of it. But this was different. The pain didn't subside. Instead, it got worse.
MRIs, X-rays, physical therapy, chiropractors from Maine to California. Nothing. No one could find what was wrong. I was forced to retire from ballet and begin a career doing...
That was the problem. I was out on the street without any training in anything but the performing arts (and in case you're wondering, you don't get into ballet if you have any intention of making money).
Because I was physically unable to do the job, my livelihood -- and the only career I'd ever known -- was taken away without my consent. Today, millions of workers who are perfectly able to do their jobs find themselves in a similar position.
Most of the hallway chatter at a recent business conference centered, naturally, around the economic downturn and how people are responding to it. Yet, as The Washington Post recently reported, the rebound may be just around the corner (if you consider 2010 just around the corner).
But even the rosiest predictions show that most of the jobs that have been eliminated won't be coming back. So how do you find a new livelihood after the old one has been taken away from you?
It's vital to remember one thing (that no one told me back then): your livelihood is not your life. Even if you are laid off from your livelihood, make sure you're not laid off from your life. For many, their livelihood is more than their sense of worth; it's their identity. I am an engineer. I am an author, I'm a doctor.
What you do for work is not who you are. But because so much of our selves gets wrapped up in our work, the real trick is to separate your livelihood from your life. A colleague put it like this:
"We are taught that career choice is made very early in life, by our choices to go to college or what our major is. We just weren't prepared to have to make those choices again in mid-life. It's like having to pick which fork in the river after we've sailed halfway down it. Are we supposed to go back upstream and start again?"
After my career-ending injury, I nearly committed suicide because no one told me how to separate my livelihood from my life. I criss-crossed the country for eight years, going from one job to another, each one of which I hated more than the last. Then I went back to college to study physiology, then leadership, then religious studies. I knew what I was looking for; I just had no idea what I was looking for.
One night, I wandered into a seminar and had an epiphany that changed my life. After all those years of wondering and wandering, I finally found my purpose on Earth -- to teach people how to get rid of the head trash that's holding them back from the success they're capable of. I didn't so much find my new livelihood as it found me.
When your livelihood is taken away, you have to fight to get it back, and fight for your own sense of self. The problem is, since most of our systems of support are created at work, it feels like those get taken away, too.
It took me more than eight years, but you don't have to take anywhere near that long. Today's connection tools like Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter enable people to rebuild Systems of Support faster than ever before.
Enjoy!
http://www.SuccessClinic.com
Sincerele, Margarita Nomeikiene
The more value you add to people, and the more people you add it to, the faster and easier you'll find your new livelihood -- perhaps one that's even better than your old one. Answer these for yourself:
1. What do I love to do?
2. What do I feel strong doing?
3. What have other people told me I'm good at?
4. What would I love to be paid to do?
5. Who's doing what I want to do and getting paid for it?
6. Who do I know who might know them?
7. How can I meet and provide value to them?
It's true: when one door closes, another opens. Yes, those hallways can be a pain. That's why, in times like this, it's good to remember the immortal words of Fats Waller:
"One never knows, do one?"
* * *
Noah St. John, Ph.D. is the author of The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness (HarperCollins) and founder of SuccessClinic.com.
He helps people get rid of the "head trash" that's holding them back and enjoy more wealth, more freedom and more abundance in every area of life and business. For a free book excerpt, visit SuccessClinic.com
Content
15 April 2009, 06:34
Leonardo da Vinci Birthday of Leonardo da Vinci
Do you know?
Leonardo da Vinci Birthday (1452 - 1519) April
Leonardo and the Moon
In Leonardo's time, most people believed that the Moon - like all celestial bodies - was a perfect, unblemished sphere which shone with its own light. However, Leonardo noticed that the Moon did not look uniform. He also realised that when it was low in the sky, you could sometimes see the whole of its round surface faintly, even when only a thin crescent was lit.
Leonardo decided that the Moon itself did not shine with its own light, but reflected the light of the Sun. Although he was not the first person to suggest this, it is a perfect example of how he was willing to trust his own observations over conventional wisdom.
Leonardo also realised that if you were standing on the surface of the Moon, then the Earth might appear as the Moon does to us. He also suggested that it might be covered with water, and that the markings seen from the Earth were caused by giant waves on the surface. Clearly this last idea was wrong. However, his understanding of the Solar System was one of the most advanced of the age.
There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see. Leonardo da Vinci
Want to know more?
Want to be a friend from Leonardo da Vinci and his friends?
Go for
http://www.facebook.com/profile.phpid=1664948210&ref=name#/pages/Leonardo-da-Vinci
ENJOY!
Sincerely,
Margarita Nomeikiene
Content
13 April 2009, 17:44
The Progressive Realization of a Worthy Goal
With Easter greatings!
ENJOY!
From Nightingale-Conant
The stories of people achieving unusual success despite all manner of handicaps never fail to capture our attention. They're inspirational to be sure. But they're much more than that if we study them closely. The boy whose legs were terribly burned and who was told he'd be lucky to ever walk again becomes a champion track star. The woman blind and deaf from birth becomes one of the most inspirational figures in the century. And the poor children who rise to fame and fortune have nearly become commonplace.
In this age of unprecedented immigration, we read about and see on television examples of people who arrived in this country without any money and without knowing a word of English and who within a surprisingly short time have become wonderfully successful. In fact, the typical Korean family that has immigrated to the United States during the past 20 years has a higher average income than the average American family that was born and went to school here.
Now how does that happen? Freedom, personal liberty, is the most precious thing on earth. It is also one of the rarest; hence its great value. People who manage to get to America, despite mountainous problems and miles of red tape, often find themselves free for the first time in their lives. It's a joyous, wonderful experience for them. And in this newfound freedom, they set to work to find a place for themselves. They go to work serving their new country and its people. Time means nothing to them.
To them, being free to pursue their own ends in the richest, freest country on the planet is everything. They all go to work. And they work hard and their work is excellent, first-class, as good as they can do it, and it's priced fairly. There's no complaining or sense of entitlement. All they want is the opportunity, and once that's theirs, they make the most of it.
In New York City, a Korean family managed to buy a small convenience grocery store in Midtown Manhattan. The first thing they did was clean it. It sparkled with cleanliness. Then they stocked it with everything they felt the people in their area wanted in the way of things you find in a grocery store. They were open early in the morning; they stayed open late at night. They never failed to smile and give a friendly greeting to their customers. Naturally they became wonderfully successful. They were open seven days a week. One day customers coming to the store found it closed and on the door was a sign giving the reason why. It read, "We've gone to Yale University to watch our son graduate." That's an American story. It's the true story of people who found joy and freedom and in the opportunity to serve their fellow man and make the most of it.
What sets these people apart, people with such vast handicaps such as not knowing the language, not knowing the right people, not having any money, or the boy with the burned legs who becomes the champion runner or a Helen Keller, blind and deaf, who becomes one of the most inspirational figures of our time? What in the world's the answer? The answer, if fully understood, will bring you and me anything and everything we truly want, and it's deceptively simple. Perhaps it's too simple.
The people we've talked about here and the thousands currently doing the same thing all over the country are in possession of something the average American doesn't have. They have goals. They have a burning desire to succeed despite all handicaps. They know exactly what they want; they think about it every day of their lives. It gets them up in the morning and it keeps them giving their very best all day long. It's the last thing they think about before dropping off to sleep at night. They have a vision of exactly what they want to do, and that vision carries them over every obstacle. It's what drives them at every level.
This vision, this dream, this goal, invisible to all the world except the person holding it, is responsible for perhaps every great advance and achievement of humankind. It's the underlying motive for just about everything we see about us. Everything worthwhile achieved by men and women is a dream come true, a goal reached. It's been said that what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
It's the fine building where before there was an empty lot or an ancient eyesore. It's the bridge spanning the bay. It's landing on the moon. And it's that little convenience store in Midtown Manhattan. It's the lovely home on a tree-shaded street and the young person accepting the diploma. It's the new baby in its mother's arms. It's a low golf handicap and a position reached in the world of business. It's a certain income attained or amount of money invested. What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
Thikk about what you read.
Best regards !
Margarita Nomeikiene
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