Episode 7 of Transitions Podcast

Deaf Dogs Rock is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the love and care of deaf dogs around the world.

Nitro from Deaf Dogs Rock!

The 7th episode of our weekly podcast is also on iTunes.   Subscribe to iTunes Planning101’s Transitions Podcast Hosted by Marie Pawlak.

Manage your time effectively and follow your passion!

When it comes to really managing our time, social media, or our lives…  we sometimes fall short of the mark.

In this Podcast, Marie interviewed Christina Lee, CEO of Deaf Dogs Rock, who knows a thing or two about managing your time wisely while doing something that brings you joy.   She shared her journey on how and why she started her non-profit.  How falling in love with Nitro, a deaf dog that needed a home, brought her to her real mission and passion, creating Deaf Dogs Rock.com and some great social marketing tips.  As you listen to her story, start thinking about how to make simple changes in your daily life that will help you manage your time effectively.  Think about what brings you really joy and happiness?  What things should you be really focused on during the day that will bring you closer to your dreams?

Marie’s favorite tip from Christina is about running your business with integrity. If you commit to doing something, DO IT!  Such a simple thing that can have such a significant impact!  Marie’s second favorite tip is picking only a few social networking sites you like or love and focusing on them as you market your business.  “Don’t spread yourself too thin.”

Christina is the CEO and Founder of Deaf Dogs Rock and Vice President of Operations at Lee Digital Marketing LLC.  (Lee Digital Marketing specializes in Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, and Social Media integration.)   She is a great wife to her husband, Chris, and, honestly, one of our favorite people.  She inspires us with her passion and drive!

For more information about her non-profit, please check out her website, Deaf Dogs Rock (Linked here) Deaf Dogs Rock.com.

Seventh Episode of Transitions for Planning101.com -Music by Guido Heistek Song: Good morning from the album Away

Check out Planning101’s Transitions, a weekly podcast on tips, strategies, and interviews to help you on your journey. Don’t forget to subscribe to our iTunes Channel and like us on Facebook!

Transitions Podcast Episode 6

Our 6th episode of our weekly podcast is also on ITunes.   Subscribe to ITunes Planning101′s Transitions Podcast Hosted by Marie Pawlak

Creating your start up today

When it comes to actually making that first step into business, a lot of us get stuck. In fact sometimes we get so stuck we put off our dreams and passions, on the pretext that it isn’t the right time.  Sadly, we end up never making those first steps.

However, we all have the ability to turn our thinking around and start building our dreams now. In this Podcast, I interviewed Jen Bugajksy, owner of One Powerful Step, who knows a thing or two about creating a start up while maintaining a full time job and family.  She shared her journey on how and why she started her business and it is such a life-changing story. As you listen to her story, start thinking about how you can make your vision, and dreams a reality by taking those first steps.

Jen is an entrepreneur, a health coach and she is a mother and wife to four great kids and one awesome husband!

For more information about her services, please check out her website One Powerful Step (Linked here) One Powerful Step

Jen received her certification from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN) as a Health Coach in April of 2013 and is a member of the AADP American Association of Drugless Practitioners.

Six Episode of Transitions for Planning101.com -Music by Guido Heistek Song: Good morning from the album:  Away

Check out Transitions a weekly podcast on tips, strategies and interviews that will help you on your journey.

Hump Day Inspirational- quote of the day

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
Harriet Tubman

“What is the work you can not do?”

 

Why are you doing the work you are doing?

As school starts and we have a new group of freshman starting school I love asking them the following question: What do you love to do?  This helps them focus on what they want to study as they begin their college journey.  But what about those who are in the workforce?  Simple, Why are you doing the work that you do?  Scott Dinsmore’s TedTalk, How to find and do work you love is Scott’s mission to change the world by helping people find what excites them and build a career around the work only they are capable of doing.

Scott is a career change strategist whose demoralizing experience at a Fortune 500 job launched his quest to understand why 80% of adults hate the work they do, and more importantly, to identify what the other 20% were doing differently. His research led to experiences with thousands of employees and entrepreneurs from 158 countries.

While you listen to his talk think about the following:

1. What is your unique strength?
2. What do you value?
3. What in your experience has made you happy?
4. What in your experience has made you unhappy?
5. What matters to you?
6. What inspires you?

8 things to do to discover your passion

Below is a list 8 very specific ways you can begin the process to discover your passion and dreams.

1. Develop a 5-year vision

Open up a word document (or take out a piece of paper and pen), and grab a stopwatch. Set the timer for 8 minutes.

Imagine all of your dreams have come true over the last 5 years of your life. You have everything you ever wanted. You are going to write in extensive detail what your life is like:

What time do you wake up? What activities do you do? Who do you want to spend time with? How much money do you make? How do you make money?  How do you feel? Write down everything that comes to mind!

2. Read non-fiction self-help books and implement a major action.

Reading a great self-help book is incredibly powerful. But this comes with a caveat. It’s only powerful if you are able to adopt and implement the ideas you get from the book. If you read 12 books per year and implement one idea per book you won’t recognize yourself a year from today.

3. Volunteer in your community.

You know what type of people volunteer- interesting and motivated people who love to give back. The more you surround yourself with positive people the more likely you are to start believing in your own capabilities. Also, you might be shocked at how much you like the activity.

4. Start that hobby you’ve wanted to begin.

We all have that hobby that we’ve been saying for years “I’m will start that.” But year after year we do nothing. Make today that day! There’s a reason you want to do it. Just go for it!

5. Read an inspiring blog then take action.

Identify a blog that you love! Not “like” but “love” Than immediately take action based on what you learn. There is a reason you are drawn to this content. ( Hint Hint) 🙂

6. Send an email “questionnaire” to loved ones.

Send an email to all the people you love in your life. These are the people that know you best. The following works perfectly: “Hi (name here). I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, but I don’t know where to start. What do you think I would be amazing at?”

You will be shocked! People that are around you all the time see your strengths and skills but since it’s not “normal conversation” it never comes up. Just make sure you send it to supportive, positive people who love you.

7. Ask and answer the question “What do I want to do?” with no limits.

Just sit back and ask yourself “What do I want to do with my life?” and hold nothing back. Don’t accept any excuses. No matter how strange and impossible.

8. Do things that scare you.

Choose something that scares you and go out and do it. When we face our fears we learn immense things about our character. It’s incredibly confidence building to attempt to do things that scare us. Most of the things that scare us do so because they means so much to us.    Live like it is your last day on earth!

 

Taken from our Planning101.com Motivation handbook

 

 

Quote of the Day

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

Aristotle

5 common symptoms you have lost your passion for work

With autumn coming soon and school starting many of us our feeling a bit blue from the strange summer weather.  We also start to think about our work/ life balance and if we are doing a job we love.  How do you know you need a change?   Here are five common symptoms that you might need a change or you are doing too much:

1. Hopelessness. When you are feeling burned out, it is hard to see the future as bright. It’s hard to get motivated when nothing seems to matter.   It’s one thing to work hard and still feel the optimism of a job you love, it is another to feel apathy and pessimism, that feeling that tomorrow will not be better than today.

2. Lack of concentration. Another tell when you are pushing beyond your limits is when you are simply unable to focus on one thing at a time.  You feel and /or seem scatterbrained. Often this will sneak into your home life as well.  Do you find that it’s more and more difficult to engage your children or spouse without feeling compelled to text or email? Do you find it difficult to think of words or you cannot seem to complete a sentence without outside help? If you find you are having more and more difficulty working on a project or communicating with your family and/or colleagues without getting sidetracked, you have an issue with concentration.

3. Exhaustion.   Is caffeine your new water?  You find that you are increasing amount of coffee and energy shots just to stay awake, chances are you are mentally exhausted.   Yes, exhaustion occurs when the body doesn’t have sufficient ability to rest and recuperate; but it can also come when you cannot deal with all the mental stress of the day. Caffeine is just a temporary fix — it’s covering up the fact that something is wrong. You shouldn’t need gallons caffeine to make it through the day.

4. Irritability. If you are on edge and overreacting to every little issue, it’s a sign that you have nothing left to give.   When you think about your day do you feel drained, like every bit of energy you had is gone?  Humor, compassion, and creativity are all gone out of your day all you have left is anger, blame, contempt, and frustration. Are your family and colleagues ready to kill you and hide the body? (We don’t mean really kill you- Just close to killing you. ) 🙂

5.  Sickness. The mind body connection is strange.  When you are mentally run down your body can experience physical maladies from mental exhaustion. Common physical problems include headaches, digestion problems, colds, and flu, back or neck pain and even worst. Your body can break down from the demands and stress you are putting on it.

So what should you do?

Step one:

be honest with yourself, do you still like what you are doing?

If the answer is yes, you may want sit down with your boss and or colleagues and talk to them about taking a personal day to recharge. Do something you love at home (no housework that day), so you can get back the passion you use to feel at work.  (Don’t forget to tell you family this day off is not to get all the things that need to be done around the house done, this is a recharge day.)

If the answer is no, you will need to do what we suggest in “answer yes” but you will need to figure out if you can change jobs or figure out how to make your current job livable until you can find something better. Sometimes you can’t just change jobs and you have to look at your home life, what hobby or sport could I take up that would bring me joy so that work isn’t so bad.

Step two:

Talk to your family (Spouse, Partner, or friends) tell them what you are feeling and ask them for help to figure out a plan to either make change jobs or make your job fun again.

Step Three:

Workout. I know that is a strange step but it helps when you work out you get the blood flowing and the ideas flowing too.

Step Four:

Get some sleep. Rest can really help your disposition if you get enough sleep at night you can handle the craziest days.

Step Five:

Remember you Work to live, you don’t live to work!

The list about you, as a “kid”.

We all hear about “find your passion” ,”find what makes you happy” the problem is sometimes we really don’t know what that is.  One of the best ways to discover what makes you happy or where your passions are, is to get back to who you were and what you wanted out of life.  Simply put…What you loved as a child. When you think about your childhood happy or sad, there are moments that you had passion and as adults we forget that.  So take the quiz and go back to the beginning.  Remember what made you happy as a kid!

Complete the following sentences:

1. When I was a kid, I use to love to___________________.

2. When I was a kid, I spent my summers __________________.

3. When I was a kid, I daydreamed about__________________.

4. My favorite person, when I was a kid was________________.

5. When I was a kid, I spent a rainy day___________________.

6. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a______________________.

7. My favorite time of day as a kid was____________________.

8. My favorite color as a kid was_________________________.

9.  When I was a kid, the thing I liked about myself the most was________________.

10. When I was a kid, I hated to_______________________.

11. When I was a kid, my favorite game was_______________.

12. When I was a kid, my favorite book or magazine was_________________.

13. My favorite hiding place as a kid was______________________.

14. My favorite food as a kid was__________________.

15. When I was a kid, my favorite T.V. program or Movie was____________________.

16. My favorite part of my childhood home was__________________.

17. As a kid, I would lose track of time when I was________________.

18. My favorite holiday as a kid was_______________.

19. My favorite adult was___________________.

20.  My favorite age was______________________.

If you would like to share your answers please feel free to reply.