Kevin W. McCarthy

Are You In The Midst Of A Tough Shift?

 

A Tough Shift™ happens when we're not able to make a smooth transition. Do you find yourself fretting, fearful, or discouraged?  Take heart! 

Tough shifts are events such as career changes, starting a business, having a baby, retiring, getting married or divorced, a death, a move, a job change -– they're all around us. Some are smoothly managed, others are not. That's when we need help (scroll to bottom for help).

As a kid, I remember learning to drive a stick shift in an ice blue 1962 MG Midget that our family owned.  This car made today's Mini Cooper look big.  It was basically a tin coffin with an engine and wheels and a removable lid.  It had paper-thin doors, slide on windows, a pull starter, and it was absolutely the most fun car in the world to tool around town in.  (I can't believe I found a photo online of one that looked just like it!)

My digression into my '62 MG Midget past is about learning to shift gears.  I remember the first sounds and feel of that gearshift in my hand as I attempted to sync the clutch, the gearshift, and still steer the car.  I find myself driving two-footed every now and then with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. Growing up in the "South Hills" of Pittsburgh meant I needed to master it all fast, lest I drift into the car behind me at all stops!  Today, driving a stick is still second nature thanks to what I mastered at age 16.

Tough shifts in life are similar to my learning to drive a stick shift experience.  They can be difficult, noisy, rough, clashing, and damaging with the threat of even worse things happening.  On the other hand, once mastered, the ability to make what used to be a tough shift becomes an opportunity to efficiently go places.  The skills are transferable to other "vehicles." The lessons learned stay with us.

Do you need help making your Tough Shift?  Join me in a new six-week On-Purpose Leader Experience starting on Wednesday February 1, 2012 at 12:05 PM Eastern.  For your convenience all webcasts are recorded and available for replay at our private website where you can also post questions and interact with other participants and me.

Enroll today for this amazing life transforming experience designed to enhance the personal leadership of your life.  Enrollment is just $147 single or $227 for two.  Register today for The On-Purpose Leader Experience!  Shift into high gear for life!

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Do You Want A Simpler Life?

 

Have you reached the point where you've said, "Something has to change!  I can't go on living like this!"  But then you just keep on pushing your scheduling and piling up the work at home and on the job. 

Life in the fast lane requires a vehicle designed to go fast.  To do otherwise is simply gambling with one's life.  Aren't you blessed with the capacity to run in the fast lane?  But, you've also been blessed with the wisdom to know that can't be sustained long term without negative consequences.

No research studies here to reference, but my gut tells me many of us are looking to simplify life with the hopes that decluttering will offer stress relief, healthier living, and a more peaceful existence.  We're running so hard and so fast, that if we ease off the accelerator of our lives for a minute, we're apt to discover we're lost and without direction.  We begin asking basic and solid life questions such as, "What does it really mean to be yourself?  How do I find direction in my life?"

The desire to simplify our lives and the act of actually doing it are easily postponed.  When a car needs maintenance, a dashboard light flashes on and we take it to the repair shop or dealer.  When we need maintenance, we experience headaches, stress, grumpiness, and worse.  Hypertension, adrenal fatigue, weight gain, and other risky decisions keep us flying down the highway of life in ill-maintained bodies.  What do we do, we pop a pill to kill the pain or turn off the indicator.  We're running ourselves into the ground at a frenzied, unhealthy pace.

"Clutter equals postponed decisions."  That's what my friend Barbara Hemphill, author of the Taming The Paper Tiger series and professional organizer extraordinaire, says about all the stuff surrounding us. In essence, Barbara's telling us that physical clutter is a reflection of a life of indecision.

In the On-Purpose Approach, clutter is speedily and readily managed with the Want List and Tournament process.  Download the free preview to the Discovery Guide by going to the Free Stuff page here on my blog.  Use this simple process to sort and set priorities.  In just about 10 minutes, your brain will be better organized and you'll be more productive.  Use this tool every day with your Two Do lists or anytime you've got a project and can't figure out where to start.

Let me offer a different perspective for you.  What if the demands, stresses, and strains of our modern society are actually blessings that refine and sharpen us to be more of who we are and are called to be?  That means you are, in fact, an on-purpose person in creation.

Related On-Purpose Minutes

• Do You Really Know Who You Are? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
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Do You Know Your Gift?

Your contribution to the life of another is directly tied to the gift you possess.  How well you examine and understand your gift directly influences the measure of your difference making.

Within you is something inherently special.  It is a gift that must be unwrapped, examined, and understood to be fully appreciated and enjoyed.  This gift is an expression of your purpose.

You can give this gift by sharing The On-Purpose Person with a
family member or friend.  Place your order today.  Do you want the book(s) to be personalized and signed?  Use the comment section on the order page to give us instructions.  If you want to include a gift card with your name, please let us know and we'll even do that for you.

Do You Feel Like A Failure?

So, how will you choose to see failure?

Unemployment, slow business, foreclosures, and underemployment are just some of the struggles pressing into the hearts and minds of many today.  As the debts pile up and the opportunities apparently diminish, the personal repercussions can cause us to lose hope and begin to see our lives as failing.  This situational depression can weigh on one's spirit to the point of discouragement and negativity as we paint ourselves as failures.

What if your perspective, not your current circumstance, is the problem?  Today's On-Purpose Minute challenges us to stop looking outward and begin looking inward and upward for a fresh approach that holds the key to the present situation and life beyond.

Thomas Alva Edison, the great inventor, saw "failure" as information.  (See the video clip "I Haven't Failed" by my actor friend, Frank Attwood, who portrays Edison.) 

Gene Kranz, NASA Flight Director, in the movie Apollo 13 is attributed with saying, "Failure is not an option," in the face of saving the crew in space. 

I'm struggling right now with many challenges in life, business, and family.  Perhaps I needed this message more than you do, so forgive me for talking to myself out loud.  Yes, failure is not an option.  Sometimes it simply takes that kind of resolve even as the world crumbles about us.  I needed to hear that!

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Do You Want to Grow Up?

What does it mean to be a grownup, to mature, or to assume adult behavior?  Sadly, far too many older women and men haven't a clue what it means to act, live, and be an adult.  I find that we men, in particular, are slow to grow up into manhood.

Maturity begins with a decision to grow up.  Like anything worthwhile, it takes practice, a mentor or coach, and the desire to keep at it.  Practice pays off.  The rewards of maturity are to live into the life intended for us and to make a greater difference or contribution with our life.

Seek out a mentor, life coach, or counselor with whom you can create a structured relationship for personal leadership growth and development.  This intentional approach and relationship provides the benefits of accountability, fresh perspective, and experience. 

If you want to learn something new, then invest in becoming a more mature and capable person.  Take one step toward being more responsible for yourself.  Then another step, then another.  Soon you'll discover that growing up isn't such a big deal if you take care of the small deals along the way.

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How Do I Find Peace In My Life?

 

Finding peace in your life is really a matter of finding peace in your spirit.  When your spirit is calm, then peace of mind follows and the swirl of chaos and confusion is an annoyance, but unable to cut to the core of our being.

Peace is not like an elusive rainbow that can be seen but never visited.  Peace can take residence in your heart when the space is there for it.  Most of us have such cluttered spirits and have gotten ourselves so busy that we don't have the margin to explore the possibilities within us, nor do we have the process to help us get there.

Peace and security are often joined at the hip as being mutually dependent.  We may have a sense of security, but we aren't really secure.  The world is a broken and fallen place so security is an illusion.  

Security is simply protection from outside forces.  Peace is the need for no protection.  Yes, you can have a bit of heaven on earth.  Peace can be owned.  You've experienced it, haven't you?  Now you know when you have it and when you don't.

The On-Purpose Leader Experience is designed to help you find that peace that passes your understanding and then to live into it.  Is it the easiest thing you'll ever do?  Hardly!  I'll challenge you (in a good way) to dig deeper, experience more, and rise to the surface of your life a renewed and refreshed person.

 

 

 

 

 

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How's Your Trust Account?

Have you watched as your savings and retirement dwindle?  Is your job in jeopardy or have you already been laid off?  Are the foundations of your security shaken and showing signs of cracking?  Is it stressing you to the point where you have no peace?

This On-Purpose Minute provides hope and perspective on the trust account anyone can have for free.

Click here to receive an email when I post new On-Purpose Minutes.

 

On-Purpose Business Minutes

• What Is Money to You? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• How's Your Customer Service? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• Are You Prepared To Lose To Gain? (kevinwmccarthy.com)

Are You Prepared To Lose To Gain?

How do you deal with loss?  What is loss? 

Could it be that loss and, more importantly, learning how to deal with loss are simply as organic to life as the vegetable section at your local Whole Foods store?  In The On-Purpose Person, I reference fighters, floaters, fleers, and flitters as "styles" for dealing with stress and life. Learning to navigate loss is important to our health, well-being, and finances.

In today's On-Purpose^® Minute, let's explore the gains to be found in loss!  You might be surprised just how effective loss can be to our long-term benefit.

Click here to subscribe to The On-Purpose Minute which is published every Tuesday morning.

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Is A Startup Business A Smart Career Move?

ONPURPOSE@WORK starts this Wednesday.  Learn the valuable and essential thinking skills to be an entrepreneur.  

Are you unemployed, underemployed, or just plain finding that your corporate job is slowly sucking the life out of you?  Are you gasping with this suffocating sense of being stuck with just enough air to breathe, yet barely enough to thrive?  Is some combination of your income, lifestyle, family relationships, and health suffering because of dissatisfaction and frustration with your present work situation? 

Starting a business isn't just for people with business degrees and experience.  Motivation, hard work, and a willingness to learn serves any budding entrepreneur. 

Plan ahead for starting your business off right.  In time, you'll ease into the transition.  Sometimes it is thrust upon us from necessity.  Regardless of whether it is a retirement, layoff, job elimination, or simply what you want to do, starting a business is a smart move. 

Here's my list of ten compelling reasons I see many of my clients have for starting small businesses:

1. Escape the rat race.  Get out of that corporate job and transition to more meaningful and enjoyable work.
2. Personal expression.  A business can be a creative outlet for a hobby or passion.
3. Independence.  Set your own hours, decide who you want to target as your customers, and don't have a boss. 
4. Retiring to work.  Retirement looms in a few years so growing a business represents a smooth transition and new sense of work identity.
5. I need the income.  Your small business may provide extra income to cover the bills for braces, college, and vacations.  As it grows it can replace your current salary and become full time.
6. Tax breaks.  A small business is a vehicle for deducting some existing expenses from your tax return.  Consult your CPA, but when the business picks up a fair share of the bills, it can ease the household budget.
   
7. Ambition: A small business can become a big business!  Put your ambition to work.
8. Change the world.  A business can be the means for you to truly change the world with your business idea, invention, or service.
9. Plan B Security:  A sour economy can be a ripe time to start a business.  In such times it may be the means to provide for one's family and self in the event of a job loss or cutback.  Security matters.
10. I can do better: Many businesses have begun because the founders knew they could do better than their employers or what was offered on the market. I've seen women-owned business blossom simply because the founder wanted equal pay in parity with men and to do better for her family.

    Image by Joi via Flickr

Do you need to be the next Steve Jobs of Apple or Bill Gates of Microsoft?  Not really... but what if you could be?  Are you ready to trust your dream?

It may be one of your smartest moves yet.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

 

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Christian Women in Business: ONPURPOSE@WORK: Join me live on air Oct. 19!

Christian women in business face unique challenges. Whether you're an entrepreneur, president, or CEO or simply dreaming of a small business start-up we'll explore the many opportunities and pitfalls of business ownership. (Men are welcome too!)

Jory Fisher has graciously invited me to be her guest on her radio show October 19 (Scroll below to call in and listen).  We'll address how you can be ONPURPOSE@WORK. I'll be awarding a scholarship to ONPURPOSE@WORK to a deserving entrepreneur so you'll want to tune in to listen so you can learn how to earn by being yourself, prospering, and making a difference. 

Be On-Purpose!
Kevin

 

Details about Heart & Soul for Women of Faith

Heart & Soul for Women of Faith airs live Wednesdays at 12 noon Eastern / 9 am Pacific. To listen live online, click on Heart & Soul at BlogTalkRadio.com. To listen by telephone, please call 1.347.326.9296. If you wish to participate in the discussions either by phone or in the chatroom, you must register your name and email address first with BlogTalkRadio by clicking on “register” on the home page of the site.

All shows are archived on my BlogTalk Radio host web page for 24/7 access and for iTunes and MP3 downloads. They are also available on my website: www.womenfindpurpose.com