By Mary Lloyd, CEO, Mining Silver LLC

NOTE:  This post first appeared in the March 2010 edition of Barbara Morris’s online newsletter Put Old on Hold.

Every so often, a new guru advocates “Do what you love.”  It’s the best career advice ever, whether you’re just starting your work years or getting ready to throttle back for retirement. 

But what if you’re already doing something you don‘t love?  Most of us can’t afford to just implode what’s paying the bills.  How do you get from what you are doing now—which you may literally hate—to what you really want to do without totally starting over?

• It doesn’t have to be a jump over the cliff.   We tend to think either/or on this.  Keep doing what you’re making money at now or take a massive, scary leap into the unknown.  You can do a lot on your current job to prepare for that better work life.  Think remodel rather than demolition. 

• Get real about what you want to do.   Flesh out your dream job right now so you know what you’re getting into.  If you fantasize rather than taking a serious look, you see only the minuses of your current job and only the pluses of your dream job.  Be honest about that new work and thorough with the details. You’ll either be creating momentum for the day when you can make the transition or learning that your “dream job” isn’t all that much better—or maybe even different—than what you’re doing. 

• Become a virtuoso at what you can now.   Many of the skills you need for your “perfect work” can be developed in any job.  Follow-through, time management, writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills are all transferable. Patience, tolerance, and persistence are attributes that are golden anywhere.  Work at becoming a superstar at these kinds of things right now.

• Find the center of the sweet spot.  What’s most important about your dream job?  Sometimes the crux of what you yearn for can be part of what you are already doing.  If you can’t find a way to put it in your current work, give yourself that special thing in a hobby or with group involvement.  Doing so will whet you appetite for more and create the motivation to take bigger steps eventually.

• Educate yourself in small doses.  The word “educate” conjures up expensive, time-intensive options—college degrees or formal training for accreditation of some sort.  That thinking makes the dream unachievable because the “entry fee” is more than you can handle either in time or money or both. 

Get your education in smaller doses.  Read books.  Surf the Net.  Make friends with people who do what you want to do.  Join groups involved in that profession or interest area. You can learn a lot in doable steps if you get rid of the  idea that learning has to be in some kind of formal setting.  Plus as people in the field get to know you, you develop a network that you’ll need later. 

• Don’t wait.  Staying in a job you hate indefinitely is self-inflicted slavery.  Anything you can do to help yourself move toward something better is healthier emotionally.  

Getting your feet wet has lots of benefits.  People in that field get to know you and start to appreciate you.  Your focus becomes sharper as you get more depth.  And if you do eventually decide to seek that formal credential, the coursework will be easier because you are already familiar with the terminology and the concepts.

Anybody can say “I hate my job.”  And any job is going to be awful on occasion.  But if you really need something different to make your heart sing, the only one stopping you is you.

You can change that.

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Mary Lloyd is a speaker and consultant and author of Supercharged Retirement: Ditch the Rocking Chair, Trash the Remote, and Do What You Love.  Her passion is in capitalizing on the potential of those over 50.  For more, please visit her website http://www.mining-silver.com.  She can be reached at mary@mining-silver.com.

by Mary Lloyd, CEO Mining Silver

This article originally appeared in the January 2010 issue of Barbara Morris’s newsletter Put Old on Hold.

Here we are again, at the beginning of another year.  And this year, we have a zero at the end of it, which means it’s a big deal year for many of us–a year to do “great things.” 

“I resolve to be a better person in 2010.”  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.

New Year’s resolutions don’t get us very far. All those newbies at the gym Jan. 2 are usually back on the couch watching TV in a couple of weeks.  Why?  Because those resolutions are typically based on seeing something wrong with ourselves.  It’s no fun to be flawed.  Much as we’d like to do better in certain ways, when the motivation to do so is mired in negativity, it’s hard to stay at it. 

Plus we tend to be rather global in how we phrase them.  “I’m going to find my dream job.”  Or “Be a better parent.”  That’s a lot to do with very little specific direction for doing it.

The start of a new year is a great time to stop and assess where you are and where you want to be.  It’s a great “landmark of time” to help us remember to take stock.  But the kind of planning common to New Year’s Day (or somewhere near it), tends to come across as inalterable.  That’s another reason New Year’s resolutions don’t work.

You don’t need “New Year’s resolutions,” you need goals if you want to make change really happen.  Goals are based on what you want rather than what’s wrong with you.  Plus, you can construct goals out of Spandex instead of January 1 cement.  As you work toward a goal, you learn more about what’s realistic and you modify the goal accordingly.  Sometimes that’s a case of reaching higher; sometimes it’s a U-turn from where you thought you needed to go.  Goals can flex.

So what does a good goal look like?

It states specific action.    A goal is about action; resolutions are about good intentions.  A goal defines how you are going to make the change.  For example “I will take a two-mile walk at least four times a week” rather than “I’m going to get in shape.” 

It’s measurable.    One of the keys to staying at something is being able to see progress.  When the change you are trying to make has milestones to it, you get an extra boost to keep going every time you pass one—sort of like mile markers in a race.  When you set a goal to lose ten pounds, losing that first pound makes you believe you can lose the second one, and so on.  Yes/no is a measurement, too.  Did you write that query letter?  Stop having lunch with the toxic gossip at work?   Get home from work by 6:00 four out of five nights a week?

Part of your measurement is a deadline for when you are going to have the goal accomplished.  You may need to modify the deadline, but don’t leave it off.  Goals without deadlines are much harder to make happen. 

It’s achievable.  Being realistic is another key to successful goal setting.  Commit to things that you can reasonably make happen in the time frame you set.  Telling yourself you are going to lose 50 pounds before Valentine’s Day is unworkable.  Set yourself up for success by establishing a pace for what you want to do that’s reasonable to accomplish.  If you get things going faster than you expected, you c an always change the goal to reflect the faster pace.

It’s relevant.  It’s got to be important to you for you to stay with it.  If you goal is to please a certain person (e.g. boss or spouse) including things they want instead to what makes your heart sing may work, but you will find much stronger motivation in laying it out according to your own value system.  Maybe “your health” isn’t so important, but your ability to continue to play your favorite sport is.  If so, cloak your health goals in what you need for your sport.

Find goals that excite and energize you—that make you want to start right now.  Resolutions just make you feel bad when you forget about them.  Goals have power.  Now’s a great time to set some.

Happy 2010!  May it be meaningful, satisfying, and full of joy.

Mary Lloyd is a speaker and consultant and author of Supercharged Retirement: Ditch the Rocking Chair, Trash the Remote, and Do What You Love.  Her passion is in capitalizing on the potential of those over 50.  For more, please visit her website http://www.mining-silver.com.  She can be reached at mary@mining-silver.com.

by Mary Lloyd, CEO, Mining Silver

With the current economic challenges, having a job is a big plus and keeping it is a must.   But sometimes, the wrong job can be even more emotionally destructive than having no job.   What do you do then?

Those of us who can at least see retirement on the horizon are legitimately even more skitterish.  When an older worker loses a job, it takes longer to find a new one.  Plus, once you are on the sidelines for a while, being older means being more vulnerable to losing confidence in yourself and letting go of work by default.  So we hunker down and keep the job we hate. 

We need to get smart about finding that next thing instead of remaining a victim of the lousy economy and horrid work situation.

The first step in a good job transition is knowing where you want to go.  If you need to find something else, be sure you are clear about why you need to change things.  Assuming that the reason work is bad is the boss or the company, when you hate that kind of work altogether is a ticket to a repeat of the job angst.  Take some time to think about what doesn’t work about this job and what’s behind that.  You may think your boss is the Ultimate Bossilla until you listen to what you friends and peers are saying about their bosses. 

Learn all you can about yourself so you have some certainty about what would be a great job for you.  Also be sure you’ve gotten to the actual core of why the current situation isn’t working.  If it’s just that the economy has slowed things down, planning an exit is a case of “out of the frying pan and into the fire.”  But if you have lost interest in the work you are now doing, maybe you need a new direction to get your mojo back.  Check this stuff out–and don’t just make a bunch of assumptions without getting real information.

The next step is to identify realistic options for working elsewhere.  Be forewarned, if you need to jump ship, you might end up starting a whole lot farther down the ladder with the new outfit.  This may be the best thing you ever did, but take the time to think about it.  Also think in terms of where you might be able to move within  your current company if it’s really a matter of bad boss or co-worker chemistry.   

This step has an unexpected and immediate benefit.  Sometimes when you take a close look at what else you could realistically do, the job you are doing becomes a whole lot more appealing.

Then figure out how to be really good at doing what you want to do next.  This may be by taking classes on your own.  It may be by talking with people who are already doing that kind of work.  It may be by applying yourself on your current job more diligently so that you develop skills needed for the next job.  As Thomas Edison said, “When opportunity arrives, many people miss it because it’s wearing overalls and looks like work.”  Do the work to get good enough to be valuable in the new arena. 

Build your network to include people with that interest and expertise.    Networking is not about collecting business cards from people you don’t know.  It’s about getting to know people–as friends–who are doing what you want to do.   You don’t have to like them personally or have the same politics to become good business buddies. 

The smartest thing anyone can do in a down economy is to be helpful in the business context.  If you see an article that someone else would appreciate, send them the link.  If you note a problem developing that a business friend needs to know about, give them the heads up (unless it involves a conflict of interest to do so).  Being kind is always in vogue, regardess of what the Wall Street stereotype is played like in the movies.

As a strategic capstone, keep doing your current job to the very best of your ability.  That is called integrity.  It doens’t make any difference if the whole rest of the world has lost it (which it hasn’t), operating to the best of your ability will keep you saner, happier, and more appealing as an employee–and a person

No matter how old you are, if you want to work, you can find work.  The best way to set yourself up so that you call the shots with that is to do what you love and be good at it.  So if your current job doesn’t give you that, you may need to change long term.  If you do, doing these things can make a big difference.

by Mary Lloyd, CEO, Mining Silver

When it comes to job performance, most of us would prefer to be in the dark.  We see even the best critique of what we are doing for the company as criticism that isn’t fair or necessary.  But there’s gold in getting that feedback.  Knowing what you need to improve makes it a whole lot easier to work on it.

Younger workers want to believe they know it all when they’ve only had the chance to scrape the surface in terms of being good at the work they do.  But older workers can get complacent just as easily.  So anybody who wants to be really good at what they do (which is the best job insurance you can find) needs to have good systems in place for getting that feedback.  There are three realms of information that you can use.

Formal Performance Reviews:  Large companies have policies and procedures that require some kind of employee review, typically annually.    Most of us dread these.  Try not to.  Even if your boss is awful at them–which is too often the case, they are a place to start.  The trick is to not let that one feedback session be where you stop.

Take in what’s said, ask questions, and try to avoid the “yes but” reactions.  Supervisors are not always right, but arguing about the quality of your performance is not the way to change his or her mind.  To do that, you have to PERFORM differently.

So be sure you understand what you’re being told needs to change and then pursue additional information from other sources to confirm and expand on that.  Make a plan for how you’re going to improve and have another conversation with your boss about your intentions.  Then follow-through, even  if you are the only one keeping track of it.

Ideally, a supervisor gives feedback on performance on an ongoing basis.  If you are blessed with this kind of miracle, pay attention to what you’re being told.  But if you are not being told anything, don’t assume all is well.  Being good at what you do will make a huge difference in your job security; so take responsibility for it yourself.

Input from Peers, Clients, and Vendors:   You work with a lot of people on your job.  If you are paying attention, they are offering you feedback all day everyday.  Did one of your clients call Shipping directly instead of asking you to figure out what’s going on as your job description indicates?  Ask what made them feel that was a better way of doing it.  Encourage your customers to give you feedback.  Saying something like “I’m working on being sure I’m as accessible as my clients need.  Have there been any problems with you on that?” will both give you important information and create a better bond with that client.

Getting gentle feedback all along about things you need to improve on avoids that “hammer over the head” of being let go because you weren’t pulling as much weight as you thought.    Keep your ears open and follow up when you have the chance to learn what you could have done better.

And remember, it’s very comfortable to hear the nice things people see in you, but that’s not the feedback you really need.

Numbers, Ratings, and Reports:  Every job has something that you can quanitify and those numbers can help you keep track of how well you’re doing.  But be careful with this stuff.  Looking onlyat sales figures (or some other trackable performance number) isn’t wise.  But numbers have a quick, “snapshot” quality to them that makes them great for doing comparisons over time.

What dimensions of your job can you keep track of?  Sales calls?  Billable hours?  Test scores of your students on what you taught them?  Time between ordering and receiving the espresso drinks you create for customers?  Find ways to measure what you are trying to improve though, rather than trying to use existing but irrelevant numbers.  Keeping track of something will only help you improve if  the number relates to that aspect of your performance.

Bottom line to all of it is this:  Feedback on how to do you job better is far more important to your career than the “atta boys” we all love and seek.  The best job insurance is to be good at what you do. And to do that, you have to learn where you need to improve. 

There are ways.  Lots of ways.  Use them.

by Mary Lloyd, CEO, Mining Silver

Right now, having a job is, in and of itself, a reason to be thankful. Very very thankful. But gratitude is one of those things that easily gets lost in the stress and bustle of actually doing the work and having a life simultaneously.  Try not to let that happen.  By happy about the work you do.

Why? 

Well, for starters, it’s just plain dumb to take a negative attitude toward anything.  There’s plenty of research to support the claim that thinking positively keeps you healthier.   It’s a better way to live.  Period.

But thinking positively about your job no matter what you’re doing on it is also an important part of your overall strategy for staying employed as long as you want to.  Being positive about your job means you will do it better.  And in this economy, the better performers are the ones to keep.  Better performers are the ones other employers snatch up if they do get laid off, too.  Grateful people are easier to work with and to have working for you.

So if you want to stay employed, put some effort into being positive and upbeat, even if  you do have a heavier work load than seems fair.  Even better:  Don’t start telling yourself it’s “not fair.” That kind of judgment is just negativity in a self-righteous wrapper.  It doesn’t make any difference what’s “fair.”  It’s your job.  For the time being, you want it, you need it, and you need to do what you can to keep it.

The cornerstone of that is being happy you have it.

I can hear your “yes but’s.”   The “You have no idea what I have to put up with” rebuttal seems so justified.  But it isn’t.   How awful the job is or isn’t is not the deciding factor in whether you can be grateful for it.  Deciding to grateful is.  Your attitude toward your job is 100% up to you.

There are offices who manage to do the impossible day after day because the people who work there believe in what they are doing and are happy to be doing it.  There are other offices with more flexibility, pay, and perks who are full of complainers and unmet business goals.  Which kind of place are you creating with your own attitude?  How much negativity are you buying in on without realizing it?

That’s another piece of this you need to pay attention to.  Getting sucked into a negative group mind set at work happens so automatically that you don’t even know it’s happened.  You just end up going home grumpy every day and start to dread the next one–unless it’s the weekend.

Work is never perfect and there will be days that don’t go at all well.  You can still be pleased and grateful you have the job.  You can still be cheerful.  You can still do your best to do the work as well as possible. 

Even if we don’t need money, we end up working at something.  It’s a basic part of being human.  If you are doing work as a job, make sure part of how you approach it is to be grateful.  It’s easier to hold a job when you have that attitude.  And easier to keep one.  Or find another. 

Work is good.  Be grateful.

By Mary Lloyd  CEO, Mining Silver

Last week I got my carpeting replaced.  I live in a small house, but there’s a lot of carpeting.  And it had been there for twenty years, so pulling it up could not have been a very pleasant job.

But the two guys who did the work conversed pleasantly, with lots of good-hearted laughing, whenever they were working near enough to talk to each other.  What an unexpected lesson in how to work happy!

They both seemed very pleased to be doing what they were doing and did it well.  But they also did it in a way that took them home in a good mood.  How many of us approach our work that way?  If I’m not paying attention, I can make myself grumpy getting the simplest things done and I’m my own boss! 

I wish I could tell you the secret of their attitude effectiveness, but I can’t.  I understood the laughter, but I didn’t grasp one word of what they were saying.  They were speaking Russian.

If you are ready to suggest that they were probably making fun of me, my choice of carpet, or my house, shame on you!  I’m a psychologist and a screenwriter by training.  I can deduce a lot from tone of voice and pitch.  These guys were happy.  Open.  Enthusiastic.

When I spoke to the salesman who sold me the carpet about them after they finished the job, I learned the lead guy is willing to work every day of the year if they want him to.  He will work 18-hour days if needed.  He trains other young Ukranian guys in his trade so they can have a good future in this country as well. And in his spare time, he’s building a house for his parents–since he’s already built one for his own family.

This isn’t about how unique this guy is–much as he is.  This is about the power of wanting to work.  It’s a mindset that’s gotten very little encouragement in the last fifty years in the US.  With the economy retching and writhing, perhaps we are getting back to it.  That would be so good.

Maybe those of us who’ve been blessed with all this opportunity will start to see work as a plus and a joy again.  And maybe we will be healthier simply because we have relearned how to be happy at work.

by Mary Lloyd,   CEO, Mining Silver

A while ago I wrote a piece on how being good at what you do is the best job insurance you can ever invest in.  Being good at what you do makes you too valuable to let go.   It makes you the best candidate for the new, bigger challenge.  And it makes you want to go to work–and enjoy being there.

Sounds like that should be it, right.  End of helpful suggestion, friendly advice, or whatever you want to call it.  However, most of us assume we are good at what we do without ever bothering to work at it.  And without looking for feedback to confirm our comfortable assumptions.

You don’t want to believe that you’re one of those, right? We all do it.  So the first step toward being really good, instead of just thinking you are, is to adopt an ongoing attitude of wanting to improve.

Perhaps you’re thinking that’s just not worth the effort.  When the economy is sour and pink slips are flying like snowflakes in January, the ”safer” inclination is to keep your head down.  To do what you are told and not try anything more.  Out of sight, out of the axeman’s mind, right? 

Not really.  The more you do to help the company make it through the bad times, the better your chances of being there–and on a fast track–when things improve.  That’s true whether you’re 23 or 63.

So…what can you do to be better at what you’re doing than you are today?  How can you know more–about the product, the customer, the competition?  How can you gain better skills–at telephone communication, writing effective e-mails, calling only essential meetings?  How can you do better with the paperwork?

Even in the perfect job, there are things that aren’t exactly bliss to accomplish.   If you’re good at what you do, you get them done timely anyway–without anyone having to hound you.  People who are good at what they do prepare.   And they follow up.  Are you an ace at all of that?

It doesn’t make any difference if you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or the volunteer who gives cookies to donors once they’ve given blood, being good at what you do makes whatever you are involved in better for those you interact with.  That’s one payoff–people like working with you.

It also makes whatever you are doing better for you.  The phrase “half-hearted effort” says it all.  If you don’t care about what you are doing, doing it leaves you with half a heart.  It’s a case of prostitution in a way.  You’re selling your effort to something you don’t care about for some other benefit–money, social acceptance, being considered “holy,”  whatever.  

If you don’t like what you are doing, you need to find something else to do.  Something that you WANT to do–and want to be good at.

There are many aspects to this quest for excellence, but the first one has to be that you WANT TO BE GOOD AT IT.  You can be ten years old with your first paper route or ninety-two and playing roles as a patient for med students at some university–or smack dab in the middle of an “ordinary” career with too much work and not enough resources.  It doesn’t make any difference where you are when you decide to honor yourself by seeking to be outstanding at what you do.  It just means that you have found a path that will sustain you for your entire life.

Being good at what you do gives you traction externally, by being a valuable resource to the compnay and its customers.  It also give you more power internally because it helps you feel competent–and confident.   

So that’s the first step:  WANT to be good at what you’re putting your effort into.  I’ll offer more in the next few weeks on ways to do it–finding good resources, getting accurate feedback, and staying the course after a not-so-stellar performance. 

No matter what your age, being good at what you do is worth the effort.

By Mary Lloyd, CEO, Mining Silver

This article originally appeared in the Oct 2009 edition of Barbara Morris’s online newlsetter Put Old on Hold

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This idea that we must focus exclusively on advancement as a career path needs an overhaul.  We sacrifice “out” into a broader life experience and “around” into a more meaningful context when all we worry about is  “up” in our work lives.

A while back I did a presentation about giving older workers a way to keep working on a flexible basis.  That’s important, but it’s only part of the picture.  A wise 40-year old who spoke to me after the speech hammered this home when he said “You need to do something for those of us standing in line who deserve a chance to lead, too.”  He’s right.  This is not  just a case of letting the venerables of the company show up when they feel like it.

“Career” entered the corporate lexicon in the 1960’s.  Since then, the assumed career path is “Work hard, climb the ladder.  Work harder.  Climb higher.  And higher still if you can.  Then retire.”  And fall off the ladder instantly.

The going-up is full of stress and the going-down is WAY too abrupt.   Why do we keep doing it this way?
 
The current economic mess makes us yearn for the up….up….up.  But is a rocket the best analogy for fashioning a career?  It assumes one launch and then a climb into the stratosphere in a steady trajectory to great things–and then oblivion.  We miss so much using this image. Careers can have any shape.  The best is allows you to live the rest of your life at the same time. 

So back to the dilemma of giving retirement-aged workers meaningful opportunities AND young lions the chance to prove themselves as leaders.  We need to do both, but to get to that point, we need to change our sense of career trajectory.  A good career is not just a case of going up and up and up.  It also needs to include a well-thought stage of coming back down.    The way we currently do it is an  ascending straight line with a precipitous fall once we get to retirement. 

An inverted “U” with salary changes in sync with workload would be far more effective.  This would be good for employers who wouldn’t be paying fulltime salaries to people who are starting to throttle back unconsciously.  It would be better for employees since they could stay involved longer abd not deal with the abrupt changes and resulting physical and emotional perils of the traditional version of a career end.

Eventually, companies large and small will use their most experienced people as mentor and coach long term so the company gets the most benefit from their extensive experience.  Then younger leaders shouldering top roles will have access to wise counsel in their decision-making and fatr more extensive resouces for learning what their new roles involve.  At the same time, older workers will know their expertise is valued even as they are paid for fewer hours.

We need to get rid of the idea that throttling back implies a demotion to make this work though.  Cutting back on workload–with a resulting reduction in pay–in late career should be an assumed part of a career path.  If we were REALLY good at this, going to half time when kids are young or to care for a sick loved one would also be accepted practice.   We need to learn to value this kind of flexibility rather seeing it as a flaw or mistake when somone adopts it.

But we’re still fixated on rockets—launch, go into orbit, and stay there.  In reality, careers are more a series of attempts with varied outcomes and additional launches.  Consciously deciding what level we are shooting for each time we launch would be so much smarter.  With a young family or an ailing loved one, we shouldn’t shoot so high.  When we’ve already achieved a lot, moving from leading to giving wise couns–and making room for other things in your life–can be energizing.

A career is more like the space shuttle than the booster rockets that get it into space.  Yeah, there is a big deal launch, and a lot goes into getting ready.  But a shuttle does more than one mission.  It handles the garbage as part of its return duties.  It corrects problems it didn’t create.  And sometimes it gets into dilemmas that weren’t supposed to be part of the mission.  But most to the point, it’s really good at COMING BACK DOWN. 

We need to learn to come back down as part of a career path.  To throttle back as needed so that the rest of life occurs for the entire trip.  We need to launch more than once and when something doesn’t work, launch again without any of the current “failure” mindset. 

The ultimate value of a career is not in the height of the trajectory.  It’s in the quality of the life you lived while you were in it.

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Mary Lloyd is a speaker and consultant and author of Supercharged Retirement: Ditch the Rocking Chair, Trash the Remote, and Do What You Love.  Her passion is in capitalizing on the potential of those over 50.  Her website is http://www.mining-silver.com.  She can be reached at mary@mining-silver.com.

by Mary Lloyd, CEO, Mining Silver 

Assuming retirement is the only way to get balance in our lives is silly.  But achieving balance while employed fulltime takes some effort—and courage.  Would your life be better if your work was shaped differently?

Some basic questions:

Does what you do have to be done during regular work hours?   The “9 to 5” job is essential when the next guy is adding a bolt to the assemblage you just worked on.  It was also best when the fastest way to share information was to stop at the desk of the coworker you needed to talk to.  But today’s “product” is often information and the quickest way to get it to someone else is electronically–even if you’re sitting next to him. 

If you work with information, you might well be able to do it just as well in the middle of the night.  If what you do is independent of what others do for the majority of the process, when you get it done might be negotiable—as long as you know how to do it.  

Does your work have to be done at the Company’s physical location?  Working at home is far more productive for many employees.  Some companies have reduced the amount of space they lease for doing business by using this strategy.  Both Company and individual worker can benefit big time with telecommuting arrangements if they are carefully crafted.  What would you lose by working off site?  What would the Company gain?

Is it essential to work for someone else?  Yes, you need a paycheck, but lots of people do very well pursuing them as freelancers and contract employees.  Being your own boss gives you the most flexibility for meshing work with the rest of your life. 

But there are risks.  If you think working for yourself is the answer, do your homework.  What’s the market for what you want to do, who will hire you, will that kind of work go on indefinitely, etc.

If you decide to go for it, there’s set-up work to be done to get it right.   Success hinges on the following, at a minimum:

• Prove to your boss that you are productive without constant supervision.  You have to be a “self-starter” to be able to not work at the office.  From this day on, get things done without asking unnecessary questions, calling avoidable meetings, and otherwise wasting time—yours and others’.  Get on with the task before someone checks to see if you are working on it.  (Waiting to start until a supervisor—or the person who needs it—asks how far you are on a project will imprison you in that cubicle forever.) 

Work smarter.  Get hints from the “old pros.”  Don’t spend work time on non-work activities (personal phone calls, texting, online games, social sites).  How can your boss trust you to work at home if you’re playing solitaire every time she walks by your desk?

• Be incredibly good at what you do.  Learn your craft and develop an in-depth knowledge base.  Learn the interpersonal territory well, too–be it as a sales person, a supervisor, or a troubleshooter.  Become aware of how well you are doing the job relative to others at your company and beyond.  Strive to excel.  Do this before you utter one word about working from home or with unconventional hours. 

Being really good at what you is prime job insurance.  It’s also going to be your ace when you start talking to your boss about a different way to work.

• Design your nontraditional strategy so that improves your quality of life rather than just complicating it.  Everyone else is still going to be working the old way.  Set boundaries so their inefficiencies and interruptions don’t invade the time you’ve opened up for other things.  

Be accommodating on legitimate requests.  But get proficient at saying “no” to the people who want you to do their jobs because you know more than they do.  (This is the one negative of being good at what you do.) 

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This post originally appeared as an article in the August edition of Barbara Morris’s online newsletter Put Old on Hold.

Mary Lloyd will be discussing alternatives to the “Golden Years” version of retirement at:

Third Place Books
17171 Bothell Way NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
206-366-3333

Saturday, July 11, at 6:30 PM

She will also be signing books.

Come! Ask questions, share concerns, or just hang out with some interesting people–and learn more about her book: Supercharged Retirement: Ditch the Rocking Chair, Trash the Remote, and Do What You Love