The Career Clinic Blog

There's someone who helped us out on the most recent edition of The Career Clinic, and I don't know how to thank him--but here goes.

Thanks, Ken. Thanks for listening. Thanks for taking Darrell and me up on our offer to call in, and give us a break from killing time--I hate killing time!--while a technical problem got resolved. Thanks for telling us about an assessment that reassured you that you were doing the right thing with your life. It was a perfect little exchange at exactly the right time.

Most of all, thanks for slipping in that you love the program. I'm still new enough to the job I crave the reassurance we're helping people. And I hope everyone who listens will consider letting us know how we can do better at that.

I'll do my best to live up to your assessment in the meantime, Ken.

We appreciate it!

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The odds are good you'll have a flat tire someday. Drive without a spare, and you're begging for it.

Let's say you puncture a tire when you drive over some nails that fell out of a pickup. You can rail against the pickup driver--who probably didn't even know about the nails--and blame that person for all the others who didn't stop to help in time for you to make your big meeting. You can take that driver's name in vain when you pay what amounts to highway robbery to get your tire fixed, eventually. And you can take out your frustration on everyone else who crosses your path that day.

Or you can say to yourself, "Wait a minute. Who was being careless here? Who was that?"

I love it when the answer is me. It's a lot easier to fix myself than it is to get someone else to care about my tires as much as I do.

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My first sale as a writer wasn’t even technically a sale. It was a prize I won in a twenty-five words or less contest sponsored by a magazine. I’ve been hooked on the concept of keeping it short ever since.

I started blogging a year ago today. I can’t celebrate with cake or champagne or anything--that’s another story--so Twitter it is. Look for me @TheCareerClinic. Thanks!

The experiment continues.

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"This is impossible." When motivational speaker Bonnie St. John faces whatever "this" is, her next thought is often: "I might as well get started."

You're kidding.

Nope, she wasn't. She shared this philosophy on the radio show and I was enchanted. What if the difference between achieving your dream--or not--is just a matter of time, if you're willing to take it?

What if we're a little too quick to label dreams, or people for that matter, as impossible? Maybe they're, you know, not.

Why not use that energy to make something happen? Let’s say someone else wouldn't put very high odds on you reaching your goal. So? Bonnie says you can strengthen your confidence by "pushing back on reality"--almost like physics. Meet every challenge or put-down with an equal amount of effort and pushback...and chip away at that mountain.

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The five-year-old who recorded the first half of this commercial was very unhappy at the implication she actually visited The Career Clinic web site. "That's what you do in advertising," I teased her. "You lie."

She's fifteen now, and graciously agreed to update the ad--if she can tell you how she really feels.

Here's listening to you, kid.

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Once upon a time I thought I was ready for kindergarten.

I was wrong.

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"If tomorrow you were given the chance to be great at every single skill in your life--I’m talking world-class level, in each of your various interests--would you do it?"

That's a question Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code, posed on his blog recently.

I thought about it for a moment and decided...no. I’d feel too much pressure to be an accomplishment factory.

It reminded me of calling the office of the elementary school I attended, to find out what my IQ was. The secretary used to be my piano teacher, and--to my dismay--recognized my voice. "You're the only person I know who would ask about that!" she exclaimed. "How could anyone not wonder?" I thought to myself.

And no, I'm not going to tell you. It was high enough to make me a little puffy, not so high I felt like I'd let the world down by not delivering more on my potential.

Genius, I decided, is like that. From the outside looking in? A whole lot of pressure.

Daniel can relate. He agrees one of the best examples we can set for a child is to let them see us suck at something--and have so much fun while we're at it.

Tennis, roller skating, even Tetris--no one can accuse me of making anyone else look bad by comparison. But fun? Are you kidding?

You can hear me three rooms away as another Tetris game unravels. I play it like I mean it. I play for the sheer joy of it, not because I'm better or faster or more graceful than someone else.

Good thing!

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Want to get better at tennis? The violin? A foreign language? Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code, says the way to develop talent is with what he calls deep practice.

Break things down. Isolate the movements. Do each one perfectly. Repeat. Ten thousand times!

It won’t guarantee you’ll reach the finals at Wimbledon, but it will help rewire your brain and make you a whole lot better than someone who isn’t willing to put in that much effort. Daniel says repetition has gotten a bad rap since the beginning of times tables. But repetition is power, he adds, if you concentrate on each rep.

Intense practice, endless repetition. The not-so-secret formula to many a successful--and yes, fun-filled--career.

Now granted, there are only so many things you’ll have the passion--or the time--to master. But that’s okay, too. Daniel thinks there’s a lot to be said for enjoying things you suck at. More in my next post.

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Want to see the world? Save a lot of money? Sample a new career? Make new friends, maybe even meet your soul mate?

Want to do that all at once?

Maybe you should consider working on a cruise ship. That's how Tony and Sarah Nasello got their lives--and careers--off to a dreamy start. Well, dreamy and challenging. Because it’s also hard work and long hours and keeping hundreds of people happy who likely have years if not decades of expectations demanding to be fulfilled on this one trip!

Tony and Sarah were my guests on The Career Clinic recently and looked back on their cruise ship experiences as some of the happiest of their lives. They indulged their passions for travel and for wonderful food, saved money the rest of us spend on mortgages and groceries and transportation, and--on top of Tony’s experience working for companies like Disney--learned how to make memories for people.

Now they do that at their restaurant, Sarello's, in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Yeah. Sarello's. Get it? A combination of Sarah and Nasello. Sarah knew she was going to marry Tony the minute he told her the name.

Do they regret it? I don’t mean getting married--these two are almost annoyingly happy. I mean naming their restaurant what they did. Because while I’ve known the couple casually for two years now--they do their own radio show on our flagship station, AM 1100--I still have to think about it. "Is it Tony and Sarah Nasello from Sarello's? Or Tony and Sarah Sarello from Nasello's?"

“Just so whatever you say ends in a vowel,” Tony jokes. Why would he care? It got him the girl.

Walk into Nasello’s--kidding, I mean Sarello’s--and you’ll feel like you’re on a luxury cruise. Say something even mildly amusing and Tony will throw his head back and laugh like he’s never heard anything funnier in his life. He isn’t faking, best I can tell. He’s just having that much fun living.

That’s amore.

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Should you take a year off between high school and college? Marry the guy? Buy a house in that neighborhood?

What about the job you’ve just been offered? Do you take it? Or keep looking?

Beats me.

The decisions I’ve felt most sure about have often left me wondering what I could’ve possibly been thinking. And much of what I love most about my life started practically on a dare.

So I’m probably a bad one to ask for advice. Then again, I hope you don’t read this blog for the answers. I hope you read it for the questions.

The decisions I take the most delight in have something in common. When I remembered to ask if whatever it was would make for a better story, the answer was, “Yes.”

Because really, what else is there?

Don’t take my word for it. Helen Keller said it better: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

I’ll take daring adventure, please.

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