The Unknown – Get to Know it a Little Better

By Pat Meehan

“Managing change is the art of breaking down unknowns into predictable and hopeful visions of the future.”

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Fear of the Unknown … That phrase doesn’t really make much sense does it? Fear is not measurable or tangible. It is a feeling people have, but they can’t really pinpoint what it is attached to. Fear is usually based on ignorance or lack of knowledge … the unknown. A person will say “I’m afraid.” When asked what that person is afraid of, the answer usually is “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure.” Fear is a skeptical feeling like in a horror movie. You just think something bad is going to happen, and you sit on the edge of your seat and wait for the unknown.

Change brings unknowns with it. Managing change is the art of breaking down unknowns into predictable and hopeful visions of the future. How far can you go? You can go as far as you can see.
When you become blind with fear, you can’t go anywhere. You can go as far as you dream. Through self-accountability, we take on self-awareness, and move forward through self-improvement. We become self-knowing individuals, continuously growing, and learning more through exploration. We maintain a drive to learn more, know more, become more self-aware, and more self assured. In this manner we conquer fear, allowing us to see forever, dream the greatest dreams, and become triumphant in times of great challenge.

Reactive people have barriers that stop them, and they become victims of their barriers. Proactive people have challenges, and through accountability, self-awareness, and self-improvement, these challenges are transformed into opportunities.

How far can you go in your career? You can go as far as your challenges are challenged. This message is for those who want endless growth, balanced with general happiness in career, family, and sense of accomplishment. There are no barriers that block your career, unless you allow them into your life.

5 Basic Steps Crucial to Your Job Search

By Pat Meehan

Basic steps are more important than more detailed steps because if a candidate falls down on the basic steps of a job search he/she will not get to the detailed steps that lead to a job offer.

BASIC STEPS CRUCIAL TO YOUR JOB SEARCH:

1. Answer the phone, as a habit and be friendly. So many candidates screen calls and prefer texting. Missing one call could be the last call that you get from a recruiter or HR Representative.

2. Listen to your own voicemail. Is it warm and friendly or uncaring sounding. Replace your voicemail and include stating your name, sound friendly, and say thank you for the call.

3. Return voicemail calls the same day, even the same hour whenever possible. This shows courtesy for other people's time and shows interest and politeness on your part.

4. If you are married and have kids, teach your spouse and you family how to take messages for you. Make sure a note pad and a pen are always available. They should take name, number, and the message the caller might leave.

5. Use your lunch hour to return calls if you are at work. Don't wait until you get home. The person that called you went home too.

Friendliness with a little common sense goes a very long way. If you become very skilled at these five steps, your likability factor will always rank towards the top of your competition. Technical skills are important, but people hire people they like.

Happy job hunting !

The Career Continuum

By Pat Meehan

When you say “Where do I go from here,” and get there, you will find yourself repeating that process again and again. You will continue to be more accountable, more self-aware, and more self-improved. Your career becomes a continuum, moving forward towards life’s unlimited opportunities. Life becomes a continuous adventure where burn out does not exist, and enthusiasm shines brightly.

One road almost always leads to another and when it doesn’t, we build new roads. That is what accountability is all about … building new roads of career adventure, and miles of opportunity for an endless career continuum. Life is so much fun when you are heading in a direction. Whether you are in the last chapter of a book, or the later chapters of your life, there is always another road to lead you in your direction.

Accountability is now your way of life. It is something you can teach to others, and something to pass down from generation to generation. By achieving a career of a lifetime, your experiences are carried on through the many others that have been continuously networked with you. Through all of your accomplishments, and through the lives you have influenced, you are leaving your legacy for many others to continue down that road of accountability, self-awareness and self-improvement that you have paved. You will always be remembered by the life you lived, the people you touched, the value you added to the world, and the brightness that shined from your light.

You have carved your name into stone along with the values of networking and communication. You are leaving for your grandchildren the lesson that your whole career is a conversation, no matter how sophisticated their technology gets. You are leaving your mark in life, through your lesson to others, that being as good as, or better than anyone on the team, or in the office, is a value to hold high with a sense of accountability, and a sense of honor.

Your career is a continuum that that you have passed on to many others to help them reach their dreams and goals. Your circle of influence, which was once very small, is now almost infinite, and is still growing with the expansion of your boundaries. In your life of networking, the goodness you have received from others didn’t stop when you received it, but you passed it on to other people, as your gift to them.

A career of a lifetime is not a place or a thing, an amount of money, a fancy car, or a diamond ring. A career of a lifetime is a state of mind, a circle of influence, and an ocean of friends. A career of a lifetime is a full and prosperous life filled with purpose and adventure, and an endless chain of network partners that was built, one person at a time, with more emphasis on giving, than on taking. You have built credibility through the many “deposits” that you have made in your “emotional bank accounts.” You have built this credibility through your trustworthy behavior. You have found your career of a lifetime, and you have discovered that it is here to stay, and to grow continually though the people you have touched, and through the people who will touch them.

All of this is yours because “You became accountable for your success!”

The Grieving Cycle

By Pat Meehan

Grieving is a natural process that helps us to work through the impact felt by a loss. We grieve at the death of a spouse, child, friend, relative, or a pet. Grieving comes with a loss, a death, a divorce, a bankruptcy, an illness, and the loss of a job.

In 1963 the nation mourned the loss of a young president, John F. Kennedy. An entire country and most of the world experienced the grieving cycle as a result of this tragic event.

When we lose a job due to a downsizing it is a painful experience. The grieving cycle allows us to work through the pain and into new positive visions of the future. These new visions are called hope. Although the grieving cycle is a built in defense mechanism to help us through hard times, it is very important to fully understand how it works. Without this understanding we can get trapped in the grieving process. Relax now, as we move through the four stages of grieving.

Stage One: Denial

Denial is a built in pain reliever or tranquilizer that comes to us very quickly following a trauma. It is a form of temporary amnesia that allows us to be numb or temporarily pain free from the trauma or shock we have experienced. After a loss a person will go into the denial stage. Let’s use the example of a lost job and look at the frame of mind of a person in denial. Here are some symptoms of denial.

- Refusal to even talk about the loss
- Will not admit to feelings of sorrow
- May abuse alcohol or drugs
- Will not relate other problems as being related to the loss
- Will sometimes show a happy-go-lucky attitude

Stage Two: Resistance

When a person moves through the grieving cycle naturally, reality sets in and the person becomes consciously aware that there is a problem and pushes away from it in a variety of ways. When a person moves from denial to resistance here are some of the symptoms.

- Anger
- Blaming others, self, God, or their environment
- Irritability, rigid personality, nausea, headaches, etc.
- Tenseness, anxiety, depression
- Embarrassment, shame, guilt, isolation.

Stage Three: Exploration

A person who moves through the grief cycle in a healthy way will eventually come to grips with the feelings experienced in resistance and move to exploration. In exploration a person is starting to turn the corner of the grieving cycle and will show the following signs.

- Agreeable to sit with another person to discuss the loss
- Willingness to get outside help
- Learning to take one step at a time to move in a positive direction
- Accepts the reality of the loss and shows willingness to let go of control
- Starts to wonder out of the defense mechanism mode / starts to trust others
- Willingness to follow direction to be self-starting

Stage Four: Closure

In the final stage of the grieving cycle the person has explored new ventures and opportunities and finds himself/herself seeing options and solution of which to choose a new way to continue living in a positive way. A person in closure will show the following signs.

- Readiness to move forward again
- Cheerfulness and energetic attitude
- Self reliance and self assuredness
- Decisiveness and good decision making ability
- Replacing the loss

Working through the grieving cycle it is not a lonely undertaking. It is quite the opposite. There are many resources that can help us improve our lives and our careers. These sources, just to name a few, are mentors, former co-workers or bosses, and network partners, support groups, and professionals in counseling.

What We Can Learn From Kids ... A Father's Dream

By Pat Meehan

In my life I have coached 9 different 5th & 6th grade basketball teams. This is a wonderful age to coach young boys because they are at an age in which they are still boys but they have developed the competitive nature of men. In all of those 9 years that I coached, there were only 2 years in which I had my son on a team. Before I had kids, I was a non-parent coach. I always said that when I had a son, if God granted that, I would not coach the team(s) he was on. However, when my son Jimmy was in the 5th grade, the school booster club found out I was a 5th & 6th grade basketball coach with all winning seasons except for one out of 7 years and they asked me to coach.

It was 1997 and they came at me hard to coach my son’s team. This was a unique situation because in the entire 5th grade class there were 23 girls and only 6 boys. I took the job because with a 6 man team, I could not be partial to my son.

I will tell you in advance that we had a winning season. I will also tell you that we played our last game of the season with the undefeated team in the league that had beaten us by 28 points in the 1st game of the season. I promised my kids that if they could beat this team on this final game I would take them all to a college basketball game. Little did they know that I already had the tickets and had already planned to take them regardless of the outcome of the game.

Two weeks prior to the game we planned a strategy to slow the game down, conserve our energy and be aggressive on outside shooting. We also planned a very tight, packed inside zone 2-3 defense with an occasional swarm tactic on a signal from the bench. These 6 young men delivered on their training for the game and they controlled the pace. In addition they became very assertive on outside shooting with no fear of missing the shot. Missing the shot was totally acceptable.

Long storey short, in each quarter the score went back and forth and the game was very close. With only 28 seconds left we hit two free throws and gained a 3 point lead. As the other team came down the floor, our defense was in place and with 12 seconds left, a player on the other team shot a 3-point attempt and made the shot and drew a foul from one of our players. Now the game was tied with 12 seconds left and the undefeated team was on the foul line for one shot. The tension mounted and the other team shot an “air ball” and we gained possession. Our point guard brought the ball quickly down court and passed to a forward who passed to Jimmy, my son, and he took the ball inside and made the layup.

We had beaten the undefeated team of 17 players with our little 6 man team. In the story of David and Goliath, a very similar thing happened there. There is no impossible feat in 5th grade basketball or in anything we do in life. We all can rise to the occasion and be the victor if we believe in ourselves with the God given talents we have. It is amazing what lessons we can learn from 6 ten year old boys. It was a day I’ll never forget.

In hard times we get beaten up pretty badly, but with a little help from upstairs and faith in our ability to pull out our best efforts, we too can prevail. It is so amazing what kids can teach us.

Was FDR a Hero or an Opportunist

By Pat Meehan

Did FDR save us from the Great Depression? Below are unemloyment rates from 1929 - 1939. Your call... Please post your comments.

1929 3.2%
1930 4.2%
1931 15.9%
1932 23.6%
1933 24.9%
1934 21.7%
1935 20.1%
1936 16.9%
1937 14.3%
1938 19.0%
1939 17.2%






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Networking - Trust - Relationships

By Pat Meehan

Building a network over a lifetime is the most accountable thing we can do. It is the epitome of being a proactive person. Day by day, we build on this chain of meaningful personal relationships to which we can exchange the gifts of our ideas and influence. We should value these relationships and put great trust in them as they continue to develop. Stephen Covey teaches that a relationship is like an “emotional bank account.” We must nurture this emotional bank account by making more “deposits than withdrawals.” For example, we might take the time to have a mentoring discussion with a co-worker prior to that person’s internal interview for a promotion. We share our wealth of knowledge with this person unconditionally, and in a total sense of giving. This is truly making a “deposit” into that relationship and a tremendous step in building credibility, or “trustworthiness.”

What, on the other hand, would have happened if that person showed up to have that discussion with you and you forgot to be there? That person would have felt let down and slighted. His/her faith in you would have been greatly diminished. You would have just made a huge “withdrawal” from that relationship. With too many withdrawals, you will find that you have lost your network and your credibility through your “untrustworthy behavior.” If you are truly accountable, your nature will be much more of a giving one than a taking one.

In relationship building, it is very important to share each other’s goals and aspirations, and encourage each other to achieve those goals and dreams. Through having this type of openness, coupled with an attitude of giving, many people will take notice, and your name will become ideas of opportunity in other people’s minds. Therefore, that tap on the shoulder you received from your boss one day to discuss a promotion wasn’t a coincidence after all. It was a direct result, or dividend, of all the “deposits” you had been making in your “emotional bank accounts.” Your accountability to yourself allowed you to have that keen sense of self-awareness that attracted your network partners. This magnetism is the leadership quality that you have developed through accountability, self-awareness, and self-improvement. This leadership characteristic will continue to evolve and become more powerful each day.

Self-awareness is your compass that leads you in your path through life, as your network building capabilities continue to develop. It is a part of the well rounded cycle of being totally accountable. You can’t know where you are going unless you know where you are. Proactive people consciously build their networks on a daily basis. Day by day, month by month, and year by year, they build new relationships and continually improve their current ones.