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Happy Valentine's Day from Blue Sage Career Strategies! Give your career some love and sign up for The LifeWork Project™ - a new 40 day e-course to help you design a life and career you love. You'll take the Myers Briggs Personality Inventory®, explore your personality and passions and create your own LifeWork Career Design Plan. Find out more about The LifeWork Project here! Introductory pricing available for a short time - sign up today!
Are you feeling stuck in your career, burned out, and ready for a change - but you’re not sure what steps to take next? Are you still trying to choose a career path but not sure what direction to take? Are you excited each morning to get out of bed and head off to work or do you drag yourself out the door just hoping for Friday to arrive?
Are you ready to make the leap into a life you love?
Spring is just around the corner. It’s time for a change, time to hit the refresh button on your career, or to begin the process of finding a career you love. Maybe you’re bored out of your mind in your current job and you’re looking for a new challenge that better fits your life and dreams. Maybe you’ve been out of the job market for a while - in school, at home caring for others or just can’t seem to figure out what’s next for you. Maybe you just need a change.
If you’re ready to take some real steps to figure out what’s next for you, take a look at the newest offering from Blue Sage Career Strategies. It’s The LifeWork Project™ - a 40 day e-course designed to help you find the work of your life - work that leads to a lifetime of challenge, satisfaction and success. The e-course will include weekday emails delivered straight to your inbox with a LifeWork discovery reading and a question of the day to ponder. Each week you will be guided through a series of exercises, journal writing prompts, and other activities to assist you in discovering your personality, identifying your strengths and transferable skills, clarifying your values and creating a career design plan with action steps for moving forward. You will complete the full length Myers Briggs Personality Inventory (MBTI®) and receive a personality profile plus career information tailored to your personality type. With individual email support from Anita, you will be guided through the Best Fit process for your personality type and career. You will spend time looking back and learning lessons from your past plus taking time to complete a frank and honest assessment of your current situation. Finally you will design a plan for moving forward toward the career you’ve always wanted.
Limited introductory pricing is only $64.95 and includes:
The LifeWork Project™ begins on March 6 and registration is now live. Space in the first class is limited. Take advantage of the introductory pricing on The LifeWork Project™ and sign up here today. Get started on your new career and life!
What should you be worried about if you are an international working in the US during these rapidly changing times? How will the changes in immigration policy affect you at work or as you travel? As a career coach, I have worked with several international professionals and have been hearing some questions and rumors about what is happening today. I asked immigration attorney James Hollis for some clarity and wisdom. James helps us separate fact from fiction and provides tips for internationals working in the US. He tells me the situation is very fluid and changing quickly. I received an update to add to the post before I even hit publish. Make sure you read to the end for important information if you're thinking about changing jobs or getting a DUI! Here's his guest post for Blue Sage Career Strategies. Thanks James!
If you’re living and working in the United States as a permanent resident (i.e. you have a “green card”) or as a nonimmigrant (i.e. H-1B, L-1, E, etc.), you were likely shocked by the news as it unfolded at the end of last week. Without notice or warning, nationals of seven countries (Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Syria, Sudan, and Somalia) were banned from the United States and all immigrant and nonimmigrant visas from those countries were revoked, meaning that people who had already gone through the long process of getting visas from those areas will now have to go back through that process once the ban is lifted.
The effect of this executive order should not be understated. When changes like this are made swiftly, we see bad implementation which has a human cost. That cost is paid first by the people caught in airports or stuck abroad after they were denied preclearance to board their flights to the US. It means missed births, marriages, funerals – it means families being kept apart despite following all the rules. However, it also has a second cost, one that the rest of the immigrant community in the United States pays. Because of the stories that people hear and the fact that immigration law is particularly arcane, worry and rumor blossom into fear and people not impacted by the ban live in fear that their nationality might be next or, out of pure confusion, they think the ban is going to keep out their family member who is traveling abroad.
The first thing I want to do is separate the fact from the fiction and then I’ll discuss some tips for immigrants living in the United States during this time.
Let’s talk about the executive order from 1/27 banning immigrants from seven countries from the US. Below are the specifics of what the order did:
If you were glued to the television last week like me, you’ve seen the lawsuits and you may notice that what’s happening on the ground is different than the language of the executive order, so I’ll explain where we are as of Thursday, February 2, 2017. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is the immigration benefits organization that approves most visas and renewals, has stopped processing almost all cases (excluding the N-400 naturalization application) for nationals of the seven countries. Green card holders from those countries are no longer being denied entry to the US – good job lawyers on the front lines – though many are still facing significant questioning during inspection from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers. Airlines, who are fined if they allow people without the right travel documents onto planes heading to the United States, are stopping anyone with nonimmigrant or immigrant visas from the seven countries. Note that an immigrant visa is different from a green card. The immigrant visa is what someone gets to travel to the United States for the first time – they receive the green card in the mail once they get here. (**UPDATE** A court yesterday placed a temporary restraining order against the revocation of immigration visas, so immigrant visa holders from the seven countries should be able to enter)
This is the current state of affairs. Any other rumors – such as countries being added to the list - that you’re hearing are speculation and we’ll have to wait and see. If you’re a national from a country on the list of seven, I suggest talking to an immigration attorney to discuss what’s going on, making sure that you’re maintaining your status and getting tips for your specific situation. If you’re in the U.S. from one of these countries, I suggest not traveling outside of the US until the ban is lifted. If you’re not from one of the seven countries, you should continue as normal.
I suggest the following tips for everyone who is working in this country as an immigrant or nonimmigrant.
The situation is very fluid and changing quickly so it's important to keep tabs on the latest information. Contact an immigration attorney for more specific advice and information.
James Hollis is an attorney in the Nashville office of Siskind Susser PC, where his practice focuses exclusively on immigration and nationality law. Mr. Hollis represents businesses and individuals in several areas of immigration law, with a concentration on immigration for entrepreneurs and startup businesses.
Mr. Hollis can be reached by email at jhollis@visalaw.com, on Skype at jameshollislaw or via Linkedin.
Full Disclosure: James Hollis is also the son-in-law of Anita Flowers, owner, consultant and coach at Blue Sage Career Strategies.
Gather your courage, strap on your parachute and jump the canyon.
Happy New Year from Blue Sage! Ok, so I’m not actually jumping the canyon in that pic. My husband and I were mountain biking in the canyons of Sedona, Arizona a few years ago - which in itself was a challenge for two cyclists from the South Carolina Lowcountry. We bike on flat land at sea level. The altitude in Sedona is 4500 feet. Enough said. My husband swears he will never mountain bike again. I'm still hopeful.
It’s that time of year when everyone is making resolutions for the New Year. I have to admit I’m a sucker for resolutions and goal setting and the beginning of a new year seems the perfect place to begin again. It’s a new year, a new beginning. Anything can happen. Bring it on!
There are two ways to make resolutions. The best advice is to take baby steps. Break your goal down into specific, positive steps that are achievable on a daily or weekly basis. Instead of planning to lose 25 pounds in a month, make a resolution to eat 5-6 servings of vegetables each day or walk 10 miles a week. If you’re on the job hunt, create a goal to make 2 contacts each week (phone calls or emails). Baby steps are a great way to achieve a bigger goal. Sometimes looking at a big goal be overwhelming and can lead to procrastination and resistance. I encourage all my clients to use baby steps to achieve their goals in life and in their careers. Baby steps are a great plan and a great way to move forward toward your goals.
But sometimes… you need to jump the canyon. Last year, I jumped the canyon when I created and developed Blue Sage Career Strategies. I’ve done life and career coaching (and before that individual and family counseling) with other groups for years- but this time I’m completely on my own. My business. My ideas. My success or failure. Jumping the canyon works when you have a plan in place and a parachute at the ready.
I’ve worked with clients who have taken the leap to start their novel (and are now published authors!), with clients who have taken the risk to talk to their boss and change their job for the better, and with others who have left a profession that was sucking them dry to begin a new creative endeavor that makes them happy to go to work in the morning. It’s a leap of faith that can literally change your life. Is it time to take the leap?
Gather your courage, strap on your parachute and jump the canyon that is between you and the life you want to live. Talk to your boss about a promotion. Enroll in grad school. Buy the ticket to Australia. Ask him to marry you. Do the big thing that scares you but will turn your life in a new and better direction.
Today carve out a few minutes, find a quiet place and write down your goals for 2017. It’s a new chapter, a new year, a new beginning. Are baby steps best for you - they always work and are a great way to achieve your goals - or is it time to jump the canyon? Either way, resolve to believe in yourself this year and make those dreams a reality. I believe in you.
Small steps work almost every time. (And this year my resolutions are baby steps!) Jumping the canyon works when you are ready for a big change and have a plan in place. Don’t forget the parachute! I’ll be writing more about moving forward with baby steps and jumping the canyon for this first week of the New Year. If you need a coach to help you jump the canyon or work those baby steps, for the month of January, Blue Sage Career Strategies is offering a 25% discount on all coaching packages.
Just a little Friday wisdom. Amidst all the advice to follow your bliss, it's important to remember to take your brain with you. By all means, explore what makes you come alive in life. Take a good deep look at your personality and passions and find work that makes your heart sing. But remember to put on your practical hat as well. Before you quit your job to follow your heart and open your own business or move to Nova Scotia or whatever your dream is, it's important to ask the "Is your dream realistic?" question. Is is possible? There may be a lot of answers to that question - and you may have a lot of nay-sayers in your life giving you the wrong answer. But often the underlying question - or the question you need to ask is - "Am I really willing to do what it takes to achieve this goal? Am I willing to pay the price, to put in the work, to make this dream a reality? How far am I willing to stretch myself?"
Take some time to do the research and find out what it will really take to make your dream a reality. Talk to people who are doing it. Make a list of pros and cons. Identify the first steps you would need to take. Get out your calculator and run the numbers - the real numbers. As you do this, take note of your excitement level. Are you still passionate about this dream? Feeling a little scared is good, but does the anxiety keep you awake at night? Do you get more excited as you work the details? Are you even more committed to this new path now that you have a better idea of what it will entail?
Follow your heart... but take your brain with you. You might just surprise yourself and make your dream come true!
“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.” - Gilda Radner
Are you feeling lost in the in-between? You know a change is coming and maybe you’re not exactly sure what it will be. Are you looking for a new job or position? Thinking about going back to school? Moving to a different place? Focusing your career in a new direction? Are you dealing with corporate changes you have little control over?
I’ve had several conversations recently with people struggling with that in-between place. They’re spending lots of time and energy searching and longing for (or sometimes dreading) what’s ahead but they don’t know what to do with their present life. What do you do with the waiting time? It’s that time when you’re not sure what the winds of life will blow your way and you find yourself wondering and worrying about the future, rather than being fully present in your own right-now life.
This in-between can be a place of growth if we don’t hide from it - if we allow ourselves to sit with the grief of what was and the scary anticipation of what might be. It’s a place to process all the uncomfortable feelings about not knowing. If we can turn our attention away from the seductive mystery of the future and focus on the present moment, we can savor the in-between and enjoy the journey from what was to what will be. Listen to the space that is created - that rest note in the musical of your life.
The key is learning the art of living in the moment. What is good about your life right now? It may be something as simple as porch sitting with a fresh cup of coffee or finding time for a walk with a friend. Practice setting your focus and your attention on what you are doing right now - even how you are feeling right now. What could be one thing you can be fully present with today? What can you learn during this in-between time? By sitting with the process and learning how you cope with not knowing, the “delicious ambiguity,” as Gilda Radner calls it, you can recognize and name your own strengths (and sometimes your growing edges that still need some work). Practice small moments of mindfulness each day. Each moment will help you find the calm in the center of the busy traffic of your mind.
You can also use this time to learn new skills - take that photography class, learn to code, practice your Spanish. Make a bucket list for your life right now - before the change comes your way. What have you always wanted to do in the place where you are right now?
Practicing mindfulness and learning to savor each moment, accepting even the impatient “let’s just get on with it” feelings, can deepen our understanding of who we are and even help us figure out the answer to the what’s next question. Thich Nhat Hanh says it best:
“‘Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.’ ~Thich Nhat Hanh”
Every year at Christmas, as we are packing up the decorations, I pack two boxes and label them HURRICANE. I fill the boxes with ornaments we have collected in our travels, hand carved Santas, and nativities given to us by friends. The naked angel ornament from Bali goes in - along with the giraffe from Africa and the moose from Canada. I include those ornaments made by my daughters when they were young, like the popsicle stick reindeer with the missing eye and the construction paper snowflake with a school photo pasted in the center. All those treasures just can’t be replaced. So I pack them up, hoping each year that the boxes will remain tucked in storage until the next Christmas. But not this year.
With Hurricane Matthew bearing down, we made the decision to evacuate. In truth, we had already planned to leave town for a wedding in upstate SC. But with a Category 4 hurricane barreling up the coast toward Charleston, it seemed especially prudent to leave. So we packed the hurricane boxes into the car - along with old photo albums, artwork given to us by our children and friends, handmade quilts and my daughter’s wedding dress (special request). All irreplaceable. We loaded it all up, checked on our neighbors and elderly friends, and drove away to safety. I'm all too aware that this was a privilege. We had the means and resources to get ourselves to safety. The people of Haiti never had that chance (but that’s another blog post!)
It was a still a lesson in values - like an old church youth group game. A hurricane is coming, your home could be destroyed, and all you can save is what will fit in your car. (This is assuming that all your people and pets will be safe!) What would you take? I recognize that these are just things - inanimate objects that we are sentimentally attached to. But the things we fill our homes with become part of our story. They reflect our values and the things we hold dear. I couldn’t take my grandmother’s piano - but I could save our wedding photos and the quilts my great grandmother made.
When I look at the items I chose to take - I can identify some of the values I choose to live out in my life everyday. Family. Friends, Relationships. Connectedness. Creativity. Spirituality. Travel. It’s an interesting exercise to try. What would you take? What would you leave behind? What do those choices tell you about yourself?
Postnote: For those who are wondering, we’re now back home in recovery mode. Our house escaped damage - other than the loss of some screening on the back porch and a downed tree in the backyard. We were so very lucky. Others in our region are still underwater, with breaches in dams and rising rivers creating on-going flooding. Houses and businesses are ruined. Some in the US didn’t survive and Haiti was devastated. All of that leaves me with a feeling of commitment to help those who have lost so much… and deep gratitude for all that I have.
You’ve decided it’s time to find a new job. Whether you’re a new college graduate or just ready for a change, it’s tempting to slap a resume together and start hitting apply on every job position you see on Indeed. But there are a few essential steps you need to take before hitting that SUBMIT button. Completing these basic steps will make your job search go more smoothly and will greatly improve your chances of landing the job you’ve always wanted
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Hello and welcome to Blue Sage Career Strategies. In this blog, I'll be writing about everything career related. You can look for some upcoming posts on finding a job that makes your heart sing, job search and interview tips, what to do when you're ready to "take this job and shove it," conversations about work and life and family, and resume help. When is it time to quit your job and move on to a new adventure? What is ASCII text and when is it essential to use in formatting your resume? All this, and so much more!
I began career counseling while doing private practice counseling over 20 years ago when I created a career workshop called Dreamcatchers. I'll be putting all those years of experience and garnered information together in one place here at Blue Sage Career Strategies. I've realized I'm at my best when I'm helping others find their passion and live it out. Yet, I'm a practical realist, so in this blog, I'll be combining ideas for finding your passion and living your dream job with some positive and practical ideas about living in the real world of work and life.
And just for new blog launch fun, I'll be offering a free giveaway each month through December 2016. In September, I'm giving away a free Myers Briggs Type Indicator Career Report - chock full of helpful personality insights and careers tips based on your own MBTI type ($125 value). You'll take the MBTI online, I'll email your individualized report and then we'll follow up with a phone call to confirm and discuss your results. You can sign up here for the giveaway.
I work with clients in person or by phone so don't let location get in the way of talking with me about your next, best career step. Give me a call or send an email. I'll be glad to talk with you about what's next for you!
Strategic career coach specializing in career coaching and resume building for professionals searching for new careers and jobs. Services available by phone or skype for locations worldwide. Career strategies and services include coaching, job interview practice and job search advice, resume reviews and editing, and resources for work and life issues. Life coaching also available.
OVERLOOKING THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE IN SOUTH AFRICA
I'm glad you're here. I'm Anita. You'll find tips about everything career related - how to find a job you love, career search strategies, resume help, conversations about work, life and family, and much more. You can find out more about me here.
If you're interested in working with me, contact anita@bluesagecareers.com.
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