Shattering the Mindless Myths & Misinformation of Aging is one of the greatest challenges for the Baby Boomer Generation!

It is critical to:

1. Develop an innovative model integrating aging and working based on current research and rapidly shifting environmental realities
2. Realize that today’s model for aging and working can be destructive, deplorable, depressing, and invalid; and that redesigning and implementing a new pattern is essential.
3. Shatter the stereotypes and recognize the myths, misinformation, and negative effects of ageism in our society, workplace, and ourselves.
4. Know that age does not automatically spell decline.

Dr. Harkness Inducted into West Virginia University Education Hall of Fame

This past week career coach and career counselor, Helen Leslie Harkness, Ph.D. was one of four others recognized by The West Virginia University College of Education and Humans Services.

At the Hall of Fame reception, Dr. Harkness was inducted by Carolyn Atkins, Chair of the Selection Committee. Carolyn said “By recognizing these well-respected individuals, we emphasize the value we place on a strong work ethic, intelligence, creativity, motivation and achievement.
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Do you read the Dallas Morning News “Five” column?

In this popular column by staff writer Hanah Cho, local experts provide five recommendations on a topic useful to small business owners and individuals.

I provided my five ways to change or refocus your career. They were:

• Recognize Your Feelings
• Look Inward
• Look Outward
• Look Forward
• Take Action Steps

Read the entire article NOW!

I look forward to your additional comments on ways / steps you have taken to change or refocus your career.

As many of you may know I am an avid reader. I will sit down with my pen, paper and a book and start to read and write. I take notes about every book I read. This helps me to recall them easier, but also serves as a reminder of the things I need to take action on.

I recently read Brand Echonomics: Building a Message that Matters by Jeff Brady. Jeff is a former news anchor for WFAA and is currently host of The Texas Daily. In addition, he owns public relations firm in Dallas, Brady Media Group, that focuses on storytelling for big brands.

My message to all about this book is that you need to read it to understand how to create your Brand ECHO, not only for business owners but as an individual. Storytelling is the major key to success in your personal and professional life. You tell your story to others and they amplify your story to others creating the echo. We all need more story tellers!!

Below are some of my notes from reading Jeff’s Book, Brand Echnomics and I highly recommend you read it to get the rest of the story.

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What is your definition of wisdom? How do you define this life’s goal we are all seeking?

A trait I have developed with a bit of my wisdom gained from experience is that I have a sharp crap detector! I seem to have a knack for detecting and questioning these rules and absolutes that we’re automatically supposed to accept. And when we examine them closely, we realize that they might have been true at one time in the past, but they’re not true at all now!

I am a researcher and in preparing for writing a chapter for Words of Wisdom, (co-authored by Dr. John Gray, Brian Tracy, myself and others) I reached out to CDA clients and friends for their definitions of wisdom. Here are the definitions so willing shared:

“Interesting question and one that I have pondered for a long time. I have studied the words and journey of Soloman in the Bible who was the wisest man mentioned in the Bible. I too have prayed for wisdom. It seems to me that wisdom and experience are linked together. To become wise means to have lots of different experiences in order to see things from different points of view. How can you truly understand something if you haven’t experienced it? As people get to know me, many have commented that I have done a lot. I want to be like the hospice patients I used to sit with. I want to live a full life and in order to do that you must get out there and risk. I have gone through many dirk nights and rough times, which once again, I am shaking off. The latest time has been several years long, but I am feeling better than ever and looking forward to my next growth time.

For those who are younger and less experienced, I would suggest finding mentors to guide them. I think our society does a really poor job of mentoring people these days. It is even harder for those who come from fractured families. When I speak of mentors, I am thinking of people who really know you and want to help you become your best, not those with a particular agenda of their own.

~ Deanna Schroeder

“In yoga philosophy there is a notion that we are creations of different energy bodies and that the inner most “light” of the ‘true self’ is converted by sheaths or ‘subtle bodies’. The Sanskirt word for them is Koshas. The 5 bodies are Physical, Energetic, Mental, Wisdom and Bliss Body. These bodies penetrate and make up a sense of ourselves. We often identify with our bodies, but don’t always ‘feel’ like it. Noticing the movement of the organs, the touch, sight, smell and taste of it. We recognize pain and comfort in a physical way. The energetic body hold the vitality of ourselves, when we are tired, excited, feel expansive or withdrawn and ‘invisible’ …empty. The mental body is where out ‘Samskaras’ or patterns lie. We hold close to the ideas, beliefs and thoughts that we have had that kept us alive so far.

The Wisdom Body is one of Awareness. It is an amalgam of information coming from intuition which intermixes visceral awareness with knowledge – like ‘grocking’. From Wikipedia : Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes part of the observed – to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. In a ideological context, a grokked concept become part of the person who contributes to its evolution by improving the doctrine, perpetuating the myth, espousing the belief, adding detail to the social plan, refining the idea or proving the theory. It is the closest to the bliss body, and when quieting the mental body of thoughts, the inner voice can be heard.

The Bliss Body is the closest to the ‘divine’ consciousness of the universe. Here, joy, ecstasy, dynamism and goodness.”

~ Anonymous

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Finding a job is a war!

It is not getting easier; it is getting harder and more difficult.

Finding the right job that you can pursue with a passion, while having meaning and money is even more difficult. This is the focus of my work with my career clients at Career Design Associates, Inc., and has been since 1978.

Now, more than ever, researching and understanding all the unexpected and rapid changes in our workworld is a necessity. The Coming Jobs War by Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup shares his critical insight into the current workworld.

What Everyone Wants is his major question:

“Does anyone know for sure what the whole world is thinking?”

To answer this question, Gallup created the World Poll. They discovered that what the whole worlds wants is a good job.

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Our workworld is moving rapidly into the Age of Innovation! The key to career success today is quite different from what we were taught in the past. It is not stability and specialization in one field, and the “40 year Womb to Tomb” but flexibility with expertise, creativity and the ability to cross borders and boundaries, to solve problems, meet challenges and work independently, as well as with others. I have labeled this the “Yo Yo Career Model – You’re On Your Own”.

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During my three decades as a career coach in Dallas – helping adults replace the conventional personality Type A or Type B with the Type CC (the Career Change Catalyst) – I have experienced an infinite number of “dark nights” of recession similar to our current one. I have survived and thrived despite crisis changes and the rise and collapse of countless industries, including my original profession, teaching. In the mid-70s, Ph.D.’s were driving buses and painting houses. My reality was that a Ph.D. and a dime could get a cup of coffee. Consider the major industries in Dallas that have “boomed and busted:” oil, finance and banking, real estate, telecom corridor and dot coms. As residential real estate faces new challenges, all businesses face threats from international competition.
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One of my goals for a decade has been to connect the Science of Chaos and Complexity from physics to the rapidly developing Science of Well Being from the recent focus on Positive Psychology.

An article “Ikigai and Mortality” by Christopher Peterson, Ph.D., September 17, 2008, published in Psychology Today certainly validates the necessity to feel we have a worthwhile purpose in spite of our current, constant uncertainties.

Helping clients to find this purpose is my life’s work. I found my Ikigai in 1978, which was no easy task. I had gone through a divorce, a burned down house, the tragic death of a sister and a career change all within a few short years. Everyone has a “dark night” before they arrive at their purpose on the other side. If I hadn’t gone through the years of “dark nights” I wouldn’t have arrived at my purpose – my “Ikigai”!

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