Author: Katie Darden

While the Boss is Away….

Today I’m just really grateful for a job that gives me a lot of freedom.  I know what needs to be done and for the most part I’m left to do it.  My boss appreciates the work I do, and praises me for the quality.

He’s often gone, and that gives me the time to get done what needs to be done while “holding down the fort” until he gets back.

If you have to work for someone other than yourself, do everything in your power to mold the job to suit who you are and the strengths you bring to the table. 

Right now we have a vacancy.  The other position is the same level as I am, but the focus of that job is very different – it’s 80% fiscal and data driven.  Mine is about 25% data and finance driven, with the rest mostly people driven.  I could do more of that other work, but it’s much less interesting to me than what I’m doing.

Thankfully, my current boss chose to keep the same basic structure when he came into the position.  My “previous” boss had hired me for the skills I possess, and luckily for me this one has elected to keep me in that role.

I am always grateful to be able to do what I enjoy and to get paid for it.  I would always rather work for myself, at my own pace, and hiring the temporary employers who allowed me to do so, but if I have to work outside the home, I’m VERY grateful to still do so on my own terms, and for someone who appreciates me!

Career Choices

A good friend of my husband’s came to visit with us recently.

He reminded us of the value of determining what is most important to yourself, and of keeping your word, especially with yourself.  You can read what I wrote while he was here by going to my Prosperity Challenge Blog.

My husband and I have been talking a lot about his visit in the past few weeks and the ideas it brought up for us.  We are scheduled to go to New Zealand for a month – both to visit family and take a vacation. 

That’s a long time.  I’ve NEVER taken a month off – especially for vacation!  And it’s been years since I was out of the country.  But it will be during February, our dreariest month – and we’ll be going to Summertime in NZ.

I told my dear hubby that I imagine it may be difficult for me to want to return to working in my office when we get back from vacation.  Not that I will ever stop “working”, I just prefer to work for myself since it’s the way I get to do what I want.

Since we are looking at all the options right now, I actually get to include “retirement” as one of them.  DH would be just as happy if I did retire now, even though he was the one who asked me to take a “steady” job working for someone else, which I have been doing for the past 3 years.

And if “retired”, I would probably just play for a year or so to get back into my own natural patterns and shake off the “corporate” structure that I’ve been working under.  For me that means spending a lot of time making glass beads and creating one-of-a-kind jewelry, with some time off to dye and paint fabrics!

Which brings me back to the subject here.  There’s nothing wrong with working for someone else.  There’s nothing wrong with working for security.  There is, however, definitely something wrong with working in a job that does not satisfy you – even if it used to. 

There is always a choice.  We live in a world that has mostly eliminated slavery.  If you don’t like a job, you can choose another.  If you don’t like the location, you can change it or choose another job in a better location.  If you don’t like the direction your work is taking you, you can quit, get another job, go back to school, start a business, “retire”, or even find a way to move your job back into the direction you started. 

The key is that you have a choice – and that’s where you become powerful – as long as you have a choice, you get to choose not only your ultimate outcomes, but also the steps along the way.  And you get to choose what you make of it all.  Your freedom and your choice are where your power lies. 

What are you choosing right now and how are you using that power?

The Blog has moved…and get another free ebook

Content of this post:

  • Cleaning Up
  • Moving On
  • Learning How to Communicate 

This past week I’ve been doing some housecleaning – I guess instead of Spring cleaning I’m doing the Fall cleaning thing.  I always did kind of feel like Fall was a new beginning – perhaps because of school restarting, and then, of course, my birthday is in late September.

So, I’ve been getting rid of lots of old stuff around the house – old files, old half-completed projects, old clothes, just about anything that didn’t feel “right” any longer. And it reminds me of an article I wrote some time ago that I called “Clearing Out Your Mental Attic”. 

Thoughts carry weight, unfinished projects require a certain amount of attention to maintain.  Letting go of what is obsolete (even if it was a good idea at the time) is the only way we can free up enough personal RAM in this information-overload era we seem to be stuck in.  And clearing out your space gives you room to reorganize in ways that suit you now.

So, part of the fun has been moving files and programs to my new computer (that had been sitting since I bought it in July), and reconstituting the projects that were a good idea and that still appeal to me. 

As a result I have pulled out some of my blogging information and decided to move this blog to the Career Life website, and to move my other blogs to the sites where they belong, too.  Once I got a little guidance from a very generous webdiva, I found it wasn’t as complicated as I thought it would be.

In the process of reading through some of the woefully backlogged business emails in my emailbox, I discovered another gem from Ken Evoy for those of you who are interested in improving the success of your website (or in starting one). 

This time it’s called, “Make Your Content PREsell“.  This book is kind of an off-shoot of “Make Your Site Sell”, but it focuses almost exclusively on one thing – communicating effectively with your audience.  Which is the secret to repeat visitors and satisfied customers who want to buy what you’re selling. 

And let’s face it, we’re all selling all the time – whether we’re trying to influence our children, win the job we want, share an important concept with others, or go out on a date with someone we’re attracted to, the only way we get the results we want is by communicating effectively with the other person.

And on the Internet it’s even more important because we lose out on the visual aspect of our interaction.  It’s limited to what’s on the screen, so it’s very 2 dimensional.  Learning how to satisfy our visitor/customer’s needs, and responding to their concerns, becomes a primary focus if we want people to stick around on the site, sign up for our newsletter, or keep coming back.

So here’s another opportunity to pick up a great little reference book – and no, it’s not 1500 pages this time!  Simply click here and you will be taken to the site.

That’s it for now.  Enjoy!

Katie