Karen Ruby

Proof That It's Never Too Late To Change Careers

I'm enjoyed reading the Globe's article on the prior CEO of Circuit City's The Source, Brian Levy. Brian worked at The Source for over 30 years, until he decided in 2006 to quit his CEO job and become a doctor.

Yes, a doctor. With all the extra schooling that entails. At 50 years old. And, he's loving it.

I'm love this story because it just goes to show you that it's never too late to change careers. Can you imagine how someone who started at the bottom rung and then after 30 years became it's CEO, just decided to chuck it all to pursue his childhood dream?

For those people who thik that entering med school at 50 years old is taking the spot of someone in their 20s who can be a doctor for much longer than a 50-year old, I say this - who's to say that the 20-something will remain a doctor? No one can predict what anyone else will do in their lives. The 20-something may become a doctor, then decide it's not for them, and default on all those student loans. Did you know what you wanted to do for the next 50 years of your life when you were in your 20s? I sure didn't. I think the 50 year old man has a better shot at sticking to the profession and deserves to be in the program, just as much as the younger person does.

What are you putting off because of your age? If Brian can do it, then so can you!

Review: The Alchemist

I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho yesterday. Right from page one, I started underlining sentences and I think I must have underlined something on every single page. I got so much out of this book and I really recommend it if you are looking for a purpose and a reason to pursue your dreams.

I can't remember where I read that this book was a must-read (probably Oprah magazine or one of my daily RSS feeds that I read), but I'm really glad that I ordered this book from Amazon. I had never heard of Paulo Coelho, but apparently he is a very famous Brazilian author with many influential books.

From the jacket cover:

"This story, dazzing in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest.. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way."

The story is very simple, but the lessons imparted in the book are timeless: that everyone has a purpose in life or a dream when they were young that came from their heart, but as they grew up they listened less and less to their hearts and allowed their dreams to die. The universe is waiting to help you fulfil that dream, if you would only listen and pay attention to the omens in your life which are leading to what your heart really desires.

Some more pearls of wisdom from the book:

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."

"Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own."

"...that a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie."

"It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything that they would like to see happen to them in their lives."

"...people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want. We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand."

"It was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the Master Work. Now, I'm beginning what I could have started ten years ago. But I'm happy at least that I didn't wait twenty years."

"Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure."

There's not anything really new and earth-shattering in this book, but the writings and story speaks so well and sometimes we have to be in the mood to hear and pay attention to universal truths. I won't reveal what happens to Santiago along his journey for his personal treasure, but this book has a lot to say in its simple story and I would recommend that you read it if you are interested in listening to your heart and following your dream. It's never too late.

Tags: The Alchemist Paulo Coelho

Wednesday's Quote

From "The Power Principle : Influence With Honor" by Blaine Lee:

"The principle of "next time" is one of the most pratical, liberating concepts that can help you change your orientation to influencing other people. If you focus on the past, all you do is feel bad. A different future can be created. Next time I can be wiser. Next time I can try harder. Next time, if I see things differently, I can respond differently. There is hope in "next time". The positive approach to discipline focuses 20 percent on what went wrong, and 80 percent on what could be different next time".

Just something to think about. I know I've been thinking of what I can do differently "next time".

Self-Publishing Poetry Book

My Mother has written poems all her life and one of the things that I've always wanted to do was to give her an actual book of her poetry. Last month, I was able to accomplish this major life goal of mine by self-publishing her poems.

Here is a picture of my Mom's books on the day the order arrived. Talk about exciting! The book turned out better than I ever expected. You cannot imagine the thrill of holding a "real book" in your hands, until you self-publish. No wonder so many people self-publish and want to be authors! It's quite thrilling to hold the finished product in your hands.

Here's a close-up of the spine and cover:

I had always wanted to do this for my Mom and as an keepsake for each member of my rather large family. I had originally wanted to give the book for my Mom's 70th Birthday (which was 3 years ago). When the opportunity presented itself to self-publish her poems, of course I did was so happy to be able to do this for her, for my family, and also for me. My Mother's health is failing and I did not want to live with the regret of not having my Mom's poems in a book form so that everyone in the family and her close personal friends could have a copy of her beautiful poetry.

You cannot imagine the reaction to the book in my family - everyone is so thrilled with it. Of course, I am too! This is something that can be passed down from generation to generation in our family. My Mom is already a great-grandmother and one day her great grandchildren can remember their "Noni" by reading her beautiful poetry.

Here's one of my Mom's poems that I particularly like:

Thoughts

Sometimes I lie awake and think about things
How mountains grow and streams run
Silly thoughts, serious thoughts fill my mind
And leave me with an appetite for more
A thirst, a craving of what, why and how?
This often escapes me and I become
Impatient for this knowledge
For when can I grasp as much as my cup will hold
Then shall I know where lies my future

Rita G. Ruby

The book was relatively easy and painless to get self-published. I worked with a graphic designer to design the cover page and the spine. I had already typed up all the poems (54 pages of them) and ordered them into chapters. I also wrote the page page, describing the book of my Mom's poems. The graphic designer worked with the printing company to print the pages and with the binding company to perfect bind the book. We also included two pages of colour photographs of different stages of my family. We only have a handful of pictures of everyone in the family in one picture.

All in all, it was so worth the time and money to be able to self-publish my Mom's book of poetry. If you have been thinking of self-publishing your own writings or someone in your family's writings, I really encourage you to do so. From start to finish, the book took only about six weeks and for 50 copies, it was under $1000. The money means nothing - the relief of not having the regret of not doing this for my Mom and for my family is priceless. The joy of actually holding the final book, knowing the happiness that it would bring my Mom and my sisters and brother, cannot be described. Self-publishing a book is pretty cool!

Don't live with the regret of not looking into self-publishing, if this has been something that you've wanted to do. If I can do it, then so can you.

Tags: Self-Publishing Poetry

Yes, Yes, Yes Saying Yes More

Does saying Yes more often mean saying No? If I say Yes to something that is happening in my life doesn't that mean that I'm saying No to something else that I could be doing with my time, energy, money? Are they mutually exclusive? It's true that to obtain different results, you have to change your thinking and perspective.

Bert over at Open Loops has an interesting post about guy who spent a year saying Yes to all sorts of questions, some with great results and some with not-so-great results.

It was quite timely to read Bert's post because for the last couple of months I've been saying Yes to more things in my life than I think I have ever in the past.

It's so easy to say No (at least for me it is). No, I would rather not go out dancing with you. No, I would rather stay home tonight and not go out to dinner with you because I have to work tomorrow. No, I would rather not meet you for drinks after work. No, I'm going to stay home this weekend and relax and not take in that new movie. No, I think I will watch my usual shows and not the show you think I must absolutely watch. No, I didn't do anything exciting this weekend. No, it costs too much money for me to accompany you on that trip. No, thanks, it's too much of a bother for me to get to your place and I'd rather just relax on Sunday.

Yikes, I'm the queen of saying No. I know a lot of my friends will agree with me on this.

But, I hope that they will also agree that I have been saying Yes a lot more lately. I don't know what it is. Perhaps, it's because I had a birthday a few weeks ago and realized another year has just gone zipping by.

So, some of the things that I've said Yes to lately:

• Yes, I will go to Las Vegas with you. I've always wanted to go and I'll put it on my VISA and worry about the cost later.
• Yes, I will go out to dinner with you.
• Yes, here is my personal email address and yes, you can email me to set up time to meet.
• Yes, I will upgrade my computer and not wait anymore. I'm so happy that I spent the money and did this.
• Yes, I will go on that bus tour to Casino Rama where I've never been there before. I had a great time and met some new potential friends.
• Yes, I will have lunch with you. (Yes, I will have coffee with you).
• Yes, I will go to the Halloween Fright Night Walking Tour even though I have to go by myself and may not know anyone there.
• Yes, I will go to the dance club with you this Saturday night, even though I have absolutely nothing to wear to this fancy club.
• Yes, you can give me a ride home. This in reaction to a guy that I just met who lived near me, even though my first inclination was to say No and take the subway home that night.
• Yes, you can buy me a drink, thank you.
• Yes, I will email this new potential friend back and see where it leads.
• Yes, I will go to the Personal and Professional Coaching session. Yes, I will go out afterwards with some of the group rather than just going straight home because I have to work the next day.
• Yes, I will go to that 4 men, 4 women dinner in two weeks to that fancy restaurant, even if I have to go by myself and have to dress up.

Earlier this year, I said Yes to changing my job. Believe me, this was the biggest Yes I've said this year and took a lot of courage to do so. I've learned that the more I say Yes to in my life, the easier it gets and the more enjoyment I'm receiving out of it. I'm not going to say Yes to everything, I think that's just foolish, but I am trying to dampen my automatic No when I can say Yes to more opportunities.

What can you say Yes to in your life right now?

Just something to think about.

Small Acts of Revenge, Updated

I have to apologize to John M. who sent me an email a while back to update me on Ian Urbina's new book and his blog that addresses those everyday annoying things that just drive you mad and what you can do about them.

I wrote a post back in March of this year about an article in the NY Times that Ian Urbina wrote titled: "No Need to Stew: A Few Tips to Cope with Life's Annoyances".

You can read my original post here: http://karenruby.typepad.com/weblog/2005/03/small_acts_of_r.html

Ian Urbina has parlayed his NY Times article into a book called, "Life’s Little Annoyances". If you want to read some real-life stories about how people are getting their small acts of revenge against life's annoyances, check out Ian's Lifes Little Annoyances blog.

I received an email from another friend of mine a couple of days ago and in it she laments that she has noticed that her tolerance for "degenerate behaviour in others" has noticeably declined.

If you follow this blog, you will know that I've written a few posts on the increasing rudeness of others and the lack of manners displayed lately. No, it's not in your head and no, you are not simply getting old and losing your patience. Studies have been done to show that modern life is becoming too insular, too fast-paced, too self-centered, and this has resulted in an increase in displays of rudeness and obvious retalitory acts of annoyances.

One way to counter this problem is to be more conscious of your/our actions. It all starts with the individual.

Just something to think about.

Tags: Ian Urbina Life's Little Annoyances Rudeness

Radical Career Cherry Bombs

I went to an executive personal and professional coaching seminar last night. It was really interesting because while although I read a lot of personal and career development books, I've never sat in a room with 12 strangers and talked about my personal and professional goals.

It was fascinating to hear other people's stories and what's causing them not to live their dreams and goals. You know what? We all have the same fear - something that is causing us angst in our life and is holding us back from realizing our full potential.

And, you know what surprised me last night? Half the room was filled with people who were perfectly content in their careers (some even loved what they were doing) and the other half of the room were not so happy in their career selection and life direction.

We always wonder What If. What if I moved? What If I changed jobs? What if I increased sales? What If I were to open my own business? What If this big change in my life is really an escape and I make things worse? What If I do this and it turns out to be great?

Last night reminded me a of a really good ChangeThis manifesto that I read last month - Cherry Bombs: A Supplemental Kit to Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead. There are no cut and dried answers in the manifesto, but there are some good questions. Questions that rang true with me. The purpose of the manifesto is to get you to question yourself and your career.

What is a Cherry Bomb?, you ask:"Cherry bombs are quick but explosive ideas that startle a situation out of paralysis. Bursts of thinking to create change within you, or around you. Toss one wherever you want a flash of action." Sounds good, eh? There's more...

Sally says that there are three very simple and consistent trends among professionals, namely:

1. Most of us do not love our career right now.
2. We definitely want to love our career.
3. We don’t know exactly how.

True! True! True!

She offers 9 Cherry Bombs to lob at yourself:

Cherry Bomb #1. Passion is Not a Luxury. It's an Imperative.

A career isn’t to be tolerated. It’s to be savored, devoured, marrow sucked and fingers
smacked.

Cherry Bomb #2 Optimism Ain't for Wussies.

Optimism is so annoying. It asks you to take responsibility for your attitude and your actions, rather than throwing up your hands and blaming circumstances.

Cherry Bomb #3 Ruin the Bell Curve.

The danger for a company or individual is measuring success by the collective average,
rather than by your own maximum potential.

Cherry Bomb #4 Your Job is Difficult and You Are Busy. Get Over It.

Your career shouldn’t be a frantic scramble of catch-up, with zero time to stop and breathe. A career is a process, not a destination.

Cherry Bomb #5 Emotion Without Action is Useless.

Hope isn’t a passive act. And nowhere is this more true than in your career.

Cherry Bomb #6 You Can't Do Good Work at a Mediocre Company.

Anything truly innovative requires ferocious, relentless, even irrational dedication to see it through to execution.

Cherry Bomb #7 Your Life Isn't Multiple Choice. It's One Long Essay Question.

Today your career is one of the few things you’ll ever own that’s truly yours, and yours
alone. You can build your career, take it apart, fiddle and rebuild however you choose. You get to create options to move forward, or take a step back, or even exit if necessary.

Cherry Bomb #8 Refuse to Allow Your Career to Become One Long Focus Group.

Don’t play on anyone else’s terms. You can’t win on their terms, only your own.

Cherry Bomb #9 Find a Goal That Scares the Shit Out of You.

What do you stand for? What’s your life about? What’s your mantra statement? Once you figure that out, and then steer your life toward it, you can start to realize your true potential.

Check out the manifesto for some great questions at: http://changethis.com/18.CherryBombs and check out Sally's site at: http://radicalcareering.com.

Tags: Cherry Bombs ChangeThis

Sunday's Quote

I just love this quote:

"Why hesitate? Upon the plains of hesitation are the bleached bones of countless millions, who on the threshold of victory sat down to wait, and in waiting they died" -- Author Unknown

What's your favourite quote?

Five Career Questions

"It's September. Do you know where your life is going?"

Great question!

This is the opening line of an article in the September 2005 issue of 'O' The Oprah Magazine. I just have to say that I have been a reader and collector of this magazine since it's inception five years ago. I have a every issue since it first came out and while I've been really impressed with each issue, this is the first time (but not the last time) that I want to share with you one of its articles.

The article "Getting Unstuck" by Suzy Welch, coauthor with her husband, Jack, of Winning poses five questions to ask yourself regarding your career and job prospects.

The Five Career Questions are:

1. Does this job allow me to work with "my people" - individuals who share my sensibilities about life - or do I have to put on a persona to get through the day?
2. Does this job challenge, stretch, change, and otherwise make me smarter - or does it leave my brain in neutral?
3. Does this job, because of the company's "brand" or my level of responsibility, open the door to future jobs?
4. Does this job represent a considerable compromise for the sake of my family, and if so, do I sincerely accept that deal with all of its consequences?
5. Does this job - the stuff I actually do day-to-day - touch my heart and feed my soul in meaningful ways?

A few of my friends have been questioning our careers and job positions lately. We've had lots of discussions and debates. No matter what your age is, everyone questions at one time or another whether they are really happy and on the right path.

I also like this quote from the article: "You can figure out what you want to be when you grow up. You just have to be very grown up to do it". Great advice, Suzy!

It's never too late to consider if you are the right path (for you!) or whether you need to take an alternative career path. Don't fall into the 'Everyone's Happy But Me Syndrome'. Life is way too short.

Just something to think about.

Taking Advantage of NOW

What if your life-long dream was to visit and discover New Orleans? You've always wanted to go to Mardi Gras, walk down Bourbon Street, visit the French Quarter and all the other tourist attractions that New Orleans offer. You told yourself, one day. One day when I have the money and the time and someone to go with and when the stars were in the correct alignment, then you would go fulfil your dream. Now, Hurricane Katrina comes along and New Orleans will never be the same. All those opportunities were wasted to experience the authentic New Orleans. Who knows when, if ever, the city will be drained and rebuilt. It most likely will never be the same city as it was prior to Hurricane Katrina.

What if your dream was to go to Machu Picchu? Did you know that there has been talk about limiting the tourists being allowed to see this World Heritage Site? What if, by the time you actually find the means/time/whatever excuse is limiting you from visiting it, they don't allow any more visitors to the mountain? It could happen. There could be a change of government in Peru and they stop all foreign visitors to the mountain. You just never know.

A few months ago, I read 'No Opportunity Wasted' (NOW) by Phil Keoghan who is the host of The Amazing Race. One of the key concepts I took from the book is to challenge the assumption there is plenty of time to achieve your lifelong dream and things will remain the status quo in the world and in your life. As the situation in New Orleans shows, things happen and you may not get another opportunity to fulfil your dream. We can't always assume that what we want to do with our life, the places we want to visit, the experiences that we've dreamed we would have in our lives when we were children, will be there in the future. The book also is a great read as it advises not put off things that you've wanted to accomplish/experience in your life. The book advises you to "Aim for the Heart, Test Your Limits. Take a Leap of Faith, Break New Ground, Rediscover Your Childhood, Get Lost, Shed Your Inhibitions and Face Your Fear".

As you go through the book and read about other people's dreams and fears and how they fulfilled them, you are encouraged to create your own "List for Life" using the 8 themes from above. The book is very inspirational and advises you not to waste your opportunities. Such as, if you've always wanted to visit a distant land and swim with dolphins, but you are scared to fly and this one fear is stopping you from fulfilling your dream, the book inspires you to get over whatever fear is holding you back so that you can take action and achieve what you've always wanted.

I had a friend come back from India this weekend. She went to see the Taj Mahal. Wow! The Taj Mahal. One of the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World". Just as an aside, when I asked her for a postcard from it, she sheepishly admitted that she didn't buy any souvenirs at the site, nor took any pictures while she was seeing it. Unbelievable! <grin> But, at least she had the experience of being there and would never forget it.

One of the places that I've always wanted to see was the Grand Canyon and to see Las Vegas. There was never the right time, I didn't have enough money, I used my vacation for the year, I had to save my vacation days to visit my family back home, I had no one to go with, and plenty of other excuses that I told myself. Well, no more excuses! We finally booked the flight and I am going to Las Vegas at the end of this month. We are doing a day tour of the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. Even if it means that I have to cut back on my expenses, will be in debt for a couple of months to pay it off, and may have to stay in Toronto for Christmas this year because I only have a couple days of vacation left. Sacrifices that I feel are worth it to have one more thing that I can cross of my dream list.

I'm not saying quit your job, get into massive debt, fulfil every wish that pops into your head, but if you've been putting off something from your dream list, why not check out the NOW book for inspiration and find the way to fulfil your dream.

Just something to think about. And, perhaps act on!