Make 2013 the year you finally transform yourself, change your life, and make a difference to the world!
If you’ve been following me and reading my blogs, you know that I checked out of Corporate America after 20 years in 2008, after being downsized from Time Warner Cable. After A LOT of introspection, self-assessment and personal exploration, I realized that I wasted a majority of my career in the private sector helping corporations make more money. The loyalty that I exhibited to those organizations was never reciprocated. After being downsized EIGHT times, I had an epiphany and thus began my own personal transformation.
Beginning in 2009, I committed to The Chazin Group career coaching and business consulting on an “all in” full-time basis. I chose to spend the rest of my career helping others achieve their personal dreams and professional pursuits. First I authored the book: “Bulletproof Your Career in These Turbulent Times.” To date, I have helped 12,000 people pursue their passions by changing careers, finding new jobs, and re-entering the workforce.
I have also coached over 750 people achieve their life’s calling of entrepreneurship by going out on their own to plan, launch and grow successful business ventures, and consulted with 500 organizations how to unleash their people’s untapped talents through training and professional development.
During the past four years, I have never worked harder, experienced such highs (and LOWS) or been as fully engaged at ANY point in my professional career as I have running my own business and helping others!
Since Most People Hate Their Jobs, Why Do They Refuse to Change?
If you polled 100 people randomly and asked them if they were truly happy, maybe five would tell you they are.
The sad truth is most people muddle through life in a state of perpetual comatose existence, never fully engaged in their lives and feeling little sense of purpose. They lack a personal mission or belief they can change the world or simply make a difference. Many people that I have tried to encourage to change their lives by pursuing their passions have long ago given up such lofty notions in the pursuit of a regular paycheck.
It is my sincere wish that EVERY person reading this article would commit to making this year the year that they FINALLY decided to act on their dreams that they buried deep inside themselves. Here’s how you can make THIS YEAR the year you finally achieve your own PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION:
Think differently: This is the most basic, fundamental criteria that will determine your success or failure in implementing significant change in your life. First off, begin to think positively about yourself as a standard practice. Have complete faith in your abilities to thrive in chaos and embrace change to achieve success in your life. Once you begin doing this, extend your approach to think more positively about others. An entire field of study called the Albert Ellis school of psychotherapy, teaches we MUST NOT think that everything good SHOULD happen to us. Rather, think that it would “BE NICE” if positive things happened and we would prefer if people did what we wanted. By Thinking that good things SHOULD happen, you set yourself up for disappointment when they DON’T. Should implies MUST. When things DON’T work out the way we tell ourselves they MUST, we feel frustrated and angry.
This therapeutic approach established by Ellis is based on rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT), the pioneering form of cognitive behavior therapy. REBT is an action-oriented psychotherapy that teaches individuals to identify, challenge, and replace their self-defeating thoughts and beliefs with healthier thoughts that promote emotional well-being and goal achievement. Look into it!
* Turn your hobbies/interests into a side business: You know those things you do evenings and weekends that you derive pleasure out of and are really good at (those LEGAL things :-)) Turn them into a side business. The 21st century Ebay home-based business culture is IDEALLY suited for you to launch a hobby as a start-up business venture. Explore work from home businesses and franchises. Consider selling your “stuff” (creations) at bazaars, street fairs, flea markets, even personal parties (Lia Sofia, Pampered Chef, Avon, Mary Kay, etc.)
* Get active by engaging your community: You know all the volunteering you do? Start thinking of those things you do that could conceivably be cultivated into personal ventures to explore. Make your civic duty and community engagement pay off for you. This is how I broke into teaching in colleges and Universities. I started giving talks at local high Schools, adult education and vocational centers. That’s how I became a professor at St. John’s, NYU, Fordham, Baruch, and Hunter Colleges.
* Coaching, mentoring, and teaching truly matters: There are so many opportunities to engage your local community and “Do Good.” Who can you help in your town? How can you make a true difference and change the world?
* Go out on your own: If you work in an organization that you are responsible for making/maintaining contacts, generating business, serving clients, managing accounts, dealing with vendors, suppliers, the media…you are already in a position to convert that into your OWN business start-up venture. Write a business plan and pitch the idea as a way get your company to invest in your plan. If they refuse, leave and take your business plan with you.
* Stop Listening to the HEAD TRASH: You know all those little negative things that you say to yourself about yourself? Guess what? We ALL do that! It’s such a pervasive part of our human psyche that researchers have given it a name. It’s called “HEAD TRASH.” From now on you are NOT allowed to speak negatively to yourself about yourself. It’s self-destructive and causes you to stop pursuing your dreams, so STOP IT! I would suggest you even take this approach a step further. Make this the year that you remove all of the people in your social network from your lives who are negative by nature and always tell you to give up, not take risks, don’t pursue opportunities. If you aren’t willing to remove them completely then you need to tell them that you cannot deal with their negativity. Let them decide if they wish to remain a part of your life, then they will have to modify their behavior at the least when they interact with you.
* Embrace your fear of change: I have written extensively on the importance of adapting to change as a constant factor in our lives.
* Figure Out What Works and What Doesn’t Work: Invest time thinking about your successes and failures this past year. The goal is to try and emulate/repeat the things you were successful at, while limiting your failures. Einstein defined insanity as the act of doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Once you know what DOESN’T work for you, change your course of action.
Set Goals And Make Them Happen: Set no more than 10 goals for yourself for the entire year, then spend 2013 making sure you achieve them. Make sure these are all STRETCH goals that you have strive towards with major effort, in order to have any chance of achieving.
* Stop Limiting Yourself With Self-Doubt: You need to always have the mindset that you can achieve great things. We get into trouble when we impose artificial limitations on ourselves. If you can dream it, you can achieve it. Once you doubt yourself, you’ve already failed.
Implementing major change is scary. It’s in our DNA…or rather, our brain. Check out my last blog if you haven’t read why we hate change because it hurts our brains. The bottom line is, these past four years have damaged us in ways none of us can understand. It’s time we all commit to making 2013 the year we FINALLY allow ourselves to be TRULY HAPPY.
Make the leap in 2013 for true personal transformation! Jump into the deep end of the personal transformation pool. Do a cannon ball! Take the plunge! It may be January, but the water’s lovely. You’ll LOVE pursuing your passions and turning those long dormant dreams into reality!
Here is to a great, successful, achievement-filled 2013!
Ethan Chazin, The Compassionate Coach
