I'm the boss of me a guide to owning your career

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv Chapter 1 You Are Who You Are Because of Your Choices . . . . .1 A Challenged Beginning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1   Building Resilience and Strength. . . . . . . . . 3   Empower Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 How Successful People Create Their Success. . . . . . 7   Contrast Shows You What You Want . . . . . . . 8   Contrast Doesn\'t Need to Be Big to Work for You. . . . . . . . 9   Push toward Change or Shrink from It,   It\'s Your Choice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Choose Love When Fear Calls. . . . . . . . . . . . 12   Two Operating Models: Love and Fear . . . . . . 13   Stay Out of the Bubble, Stay Off Autopilot . . . . 15 A Bucket List for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Build the Self-Empowered Road to Success . . . . . . 17 Happiness First. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Getting Down to Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Chapter 2 You Are a Work in Progress-Challenge Yourself to Get Better . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Give Up the Idea That the Way You Are Now   Is the Way You Will Always Be. . . . . . . . . . . . 25   Practice Self-Control Because It Doesn\'t Come Naturally. . . . . . . . 26   Use Self-Talk Plus Self-Control to Choose Your Operating Model. . . . . 28   Using Emotional Intelligence Helps You   Connect with Yourself and Others . . . . . . . . 29 Don\'t Check Your Feelings at the Door . . . . . . . . 33 Build Self-Awareness So You Can See Where You\'re Going . . . . . . . . 35 Avoid Artificial Limits So You Don\'t Get Lost. . . . . . 39 Courage and Resilience Will Support You When Things Get Tough . . . . . . . 41 Focus and Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Using Discipline to Make Progress . . . . . . . . . . 49 Getting Down to Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Chapter 3 Do You Know What You Want from Your Career and Life? . . . . . . . .53 Let Curiosity Lead You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Discovering Your Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55   If You Don\'t Know, Experiment! . . . . . . . . 57   Exposure Is the Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60   How Parents Can Help Their Kids and   Students Can Help Themselves . . . . . . . . . 62 Understanding the Work Environment . . . . . . . . 65   Outside: The World of Work and   Where It Is Headed . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65   Inside: Your Strengths and Interests . . . . . . . 74   Finding Your Strengths. . . . . . . . . . . . 77   There Are a Few Archetypal Jobs . . . . . . . . 83   The Need for Both Soft Skills and Technology Skills. . . . . . . . 84 The Future Is Uncertain, But You Don\'t Need to Be. . . 86 Creating a Blue Ocean Career Strategy. . . . . . . . 90 What\'s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Chapter 4 Vision Strategy Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . .95 Vision, Strategy, Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98   Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99   Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112   Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Map Your Career to Make the Most of Your Desires . . 122 How Do You Keep Momentum in a Career? . . . . . 124   Build Next-Generation Skills . . . . . . . . . 126   Driving Awareness and Your Personal Brand . . . 129 Chapter 5 Becoming Your Vision: Aligning Your Behavior . . . .131 Use Contrast to Drive Learning. . . . . . . . . . . 134 The Learner\'s Mindset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135   Learner\'s Mindset and Growth Mindset . . . . . 139   Be a Learner to Stay Engaged in Your Work. . . 142 Many Ways to Learn and Work . . . . . . . . . . . 143 How You Hold Yourself Back . . . . . . . . . . . . 146   Blind Spots: Overconfident and Under Sighted . . 148   Blind Spots: Under Confident and Over Sighted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Blind Spots: Ego Nurturer . . . . . . . . . . 150 Learning as a Core Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Love, Emotional Intelligence, and Mindsets. . . . . . 154 Chapter 6 Becoming Your Vision II: Articulating Your Brand and Building Your Bench. . . . . . .161 Communicating with Others About Your Vision - Sharing Your VSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162   Developing a Personal Brand Statement. . . . . 162   Value Proposition and Making the Match . . . . 164   Gathering Information and Writing Your   Personal Brand Statement . . . . . . . . . . 165 Socializing with Your VSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170   Working Through the Fear and Enjoying the Process . . . . . . . . 171   Purposeful Networking. . . . . . . . . . . . 176   Spheres of Influence. . . . . . . . . . . . . 178   Invest in Your Relationships. . . . . . . . . . 181 Building Your Bench. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184   The Close-In Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . 186   Mentors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187   The Advisor Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189   The Alliance Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Chapter 7 Attitude, Altruism, and Altitude . . . . . . . . . .191 Attitude and Altruism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192   Living with Intention . . . . . . . . . . . . 198   Tame Your Mind, Feed Your Heart . . . . . . . 199   How Choosing Love Over Fear Supports   Altruism and Propels You to the Next Level . . . 203 Taking Flight with Outside-In, Inside-Out Thinking . . 208   The Inside-Out, Outside-In Career Process . . . 210   How to Create Your Dream Job. . . . . . . . 221 Chapter 8 Myths and Murders: Getting Past Roadblocks and Barriers . . . . . . . . . .225 It\'s Not About You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Obstacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228   The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of   Mental Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230   Problem Fighter or Problem Solver . . . . . . 236 Disengaged or Just in the Wrong Job?. . . . . . . . 237   Being Miserable in Your Job . . . . . . . . . 238   Self-Destructive Spirals . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. . . . . . . . . . . . 243   External Limitations: Mailroom Syndrome . . . . 247   Feeling Trapped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Working with Intention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 Chapter 9 Planning and Making Choices. . . . . . . . . . .255 Planning for Balance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257   A Case in Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260   How Planning for Balance Works on the Personal Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 To Plan or Not to Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 Blending Your Life and Experiences: An Older Lifestyle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 Saying No Means Not Having to Say You\'re Sorry . . . 271 Beyond Saying No. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276   Saying Yes or No to New Roles and   Stretch Goals: Know Yourself. . . . . . . . . 278   Balance Requires Trust. . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Contrast and Stress Are the Teachers, Balance Is the Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 Chapter 10 Self-Leadership 2.0: Success in the Face of Obstacles . . . . . . . . . .287 Self-Leadership When Things Don\'t Go Your Way . . . 289   -Isms: Sexism, Racism, Ethnocentrism, and More. . . . . . . . . 290   Begin with Understanding . . . . . . . . . . 291   The Need to Bridge Differences . . . . . . . . 294   Self-Fulfilling Prophecies. . . . . . . . . . . 297 Handling Gender Bias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 Handling the Cultural Bias Toward Extraversion . . . . 301 What Do You Do When Things Go Wrong or You Can\'t Influence Someone? . . . . . . . . . . . 302 The Benefits of a Third-Party Perspective . . . . . . 302 Working with Differences in Thinking Styles . . . . . 306 Working Around Subtleties in the Workplace . . . . . 308   Build Your Bench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309   Do Your Homework and Share It . . . . . . . 310   Volunteering: How Can I Help You? . . . . . . 312   Working Around Cronyism. . . . . . . . . . 312 Being Open About What You Want, What You Can Deliver, How You Want to Grow, and Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315   Creating Inspired Success for Yourself and Others. . . 320 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .323 9781587204326, TOC, 6/3/2016