2009 Grads...Yikes!

College seniors are scared. Worried. Uncertain. Even depressed.

The bad economy and lack of jobs comes on top of worries they have about the health of the environment and the lack of morality in our world today.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1882979,00.html?cnn=yes

They are thinking.
• Will I be able to get and find a job?
• Will I make enough money to survive?
• How am I going to pay off my student loans?
Along with
• Will my kids have a healthy world to live in?
• What about my dreams? Do I have to give them up?

If they are watching the mainstream media, they are getting barraged with all the stories of difficulty and ugliness. But there is another side of the challenges.

There is hope. There are possibilities. There are people doing amazing work in the world – more and more every day. Ironically, in this day and age when communication and access to information is exploding, it is hard to find them.

But people with ideas and a positive perspective are out there. Dan Pink is an example of the kind of thinker who can really help. Listen to this:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/BiznikLive/2009/02/25/Interview-with-Dan-Pink-A-Whole-New-Mind-Why-Right-Brainers-Will-Rule-the-Future

When you begin to fill your brain with information that talks about what is possible instead of what is wrong or how bleak things are, amazing possibilities open up.

For more access to good stuff going on check out:
www.odemagazine.com
www.yesmagazine.org


The kind of people who will be successful in the future are the ones who are able to be in hard times and keep themselves moving forward. If you get swept up in the difficulty and give up it makes you even less appealing to a potential employer. In order to get hired (and then to stay employed) you will have to be ready to learn. You will have to be accountable, responsible, and creative. And probably most of all you will need to be an excellent listener. When you treat people with dignity and respect you will differentiate yourself from others.

Feeling Funky

I have been feeling funky this week. Worried about making money. Doubting whether what I am offering is useful. Feeling the weight of the systemic economic and environmental challenges we face.

I was “on it”.

And while I kept moving forward by doing the little things – exercise, biking, being with the kids, hanging with friends, and sharing my ideas, I could not see how to get past it.

I even remembered a teacher of mine who said “it is not that I don’t get on it, but I am able to get off it way faster than you and others”. His perspective is that the way people find meaning and fulfillment is that they are able to get off it faster than others.

The idea was there, but I remained stuck.

And then I got an email from a friend – who was on vacation - about a radio interview he was doing with Dan Pink...on vacation? Dan Pink happens to be one of those people whose ideas get me inspired and engaged. So I listened to the show.

And the ice melted. The funky feeling began to fade. And my positive, powerful, inspired self emerged again.

I coach my clients that when they are feeling funky to get their Play Huge Notebook (where inspiring and powerful items are captured) and get themselves going again, but I had forgotten.

As soon as I began to fill up my brain with possibilities, ideas, and challenges the powerful part of me emerged again. Now, a day later the possibilities are flowing and I feel reconnected to my aliveness and drive to make a difference.

Now its time to capture how to help you and others awaken your spirit.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.