I didn’t know what I was going to blog about this morning, then I saw this on Lucretia Pruitt’s Facebook page. I want you to watch it all. Trust me, it’s so entertaining you won’t even notice it’s a bit long.

Impersonations by Kevin Spacey (Inside the Actor’s Studio)

It’s no secret that Kevin Spacey is one of the best actors of our time. Not convinced? Well, if you haven’t seen The Usual Suspects, The Shipping News, American Beauty, or any of the other 60-some-odd films he’s been in, then you need to. Then come back and tell me he’s not one of the greats. Not only that, but as you’ve seen above (you did watch the video, right?), Mr. Spacey is also extraordinarily talented at impersonations. But don’t get too hung up on his ability to change his voice to match Clint Eastwood, Marlon Brando, and yes, Katharine Hepburn, because there’s so, so much more to it than that. What makes Kevin Spacey such a great actor is his absolute attention to detail.

Don’t just do. Be. Go back and watch a bit of the video again if you need to. You’ll notice something interesting. You see Kevin just being Kevin, smiling, laughing, and blushing Then suddenly, host James Lipton asks Jimmy Stewart a question and there is a sudden shift. Kevin isn’t just preparing to talk like Jimmy Stewart – he becomes Jimmy Stewart. His body position changes. He starts to move his hands a certain way. He somehow shape-shifts parts of his face to be more “Jimmy”. He’s Jimmy, before a word even comes out of his mouth. Then, when he does speak, he answers the question, not as “Kevin Spacey doing Jimmy Stewart”, but as Jimmy Stewart would have answered the question.

It’s this fine attention to detail that is so impressive. There’s no doubt that Mr. Spacey has spent countless hours watching his fellow actors, studying, in detail, the precise habits, mannerisms, intonations, and expressions they use. Then, he probably spent countless more hours in front of a mirror, perfecting his impersonation. Sure, talent has some to do with it – the guy’s most certainly got an aptitude for this whole acting thing. But attention to detail is what wins him the fans. He’s not just “doing” acting. He’s “becoming” his characters. Big difference.

Are you doing, or being? As you go through your days, are you just floating from one task to the next, doing this, finishing that, so that at the end of the day you look back and can’t really see what you’ve accomplished? Or are you being your work? Are you getting into the finer details of the things you’re doing, and really studying? If you start to pay attention to the fine details of what is in front of you, something amazing will happen. You’ll notice different things. You’ll see how all the little pieces fit together to make the whole. You’ll be able to read between the lines, and your end result will be much, much better quality. Be present with your work, and focus on the detail of it, until you get it right.

Make it look easy. Kevin Spacey makes acting look easy. In that video, he shifts seamlessly from Kevin to character and back again. He brings all the pieces together – body language, humour, expressions, tone of voice – and the complete package is presented flawlessly. But at the end of the video, you see Kevin do something, even though it’s sort of in a joking way. He fans himself, says “whew”, pretends to look worn out by this ordeal of having to play so many characters at once.

It is not easy to do what he did in that clip. It takes crazy amounts of concentration, confidence, experience, and wit – more than most people have. I can bet that it would take a lot out of a performer to have to perform on the spot like that. But Kevin’s a details man, and he’s not about to let the minutiae slide, that’s for sure. He’s practiced, prepared, and paid attention to detail, and he makes it look easy.

Are you a teacher? A public speaker? A musician? A consultant? Your goal should be to make what you do look easy, even though people know it’s hard. And that takes an absolute dedication to detail. It takes practice and knowledge and comfort with your subject matter. When you make things look easy, you’re not trying to show people that things ARE easy. You’re showing that you’ve mastered something, and if you’re a master, people will want to see more. Maybe they will even want to hire you for what you know how to do.

Making something look easy is hard, and it takes lots of practice and a bit of talent and oodles of time. But focus your energies on working hard at making it look easy, and people will start to respond. Remember, most people just see the easy. Details people see what it takes to get there.

How much are you paying attention to the fine details of things? Are you reading between the lines? Studying, re-reading, preparing, practicing? Or are you just going with the flow and stopping when something is “good enough”? I know I’d rather see Kevin Spacey do a remarkable impersonation of Johnny Carson than one that’s just “good enough”. Wouldn’t you? Then why would we ever expect just “good enough” out of ourselves?

Perhaps we should all try to be a little more Kevin Spacey.

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Do you have a zillion things going on? Yeah, me too. Work, school, side projects a-plenty, friends, family, house stuff…I’m swamped. And I don’t even have kids – so I have no idea how you parents do all this stuff AND manage little ones. Kudos to you on that!

I’m often asked how I manage it all, and I’m telling you, it’s not easy. But I’ve learned over the years, especially after suffering stress-related health issues in the past, that having control in the midst of chaos is critical to not only my success but is directly linked to my sanity.

We are all extraordinarily busy. We all want to have the time to focus on what’s important in our lives. We don’t want to be slaves to our inbox, or our telephone. But when information is being hammered at us every hour of every day, how do we keep from losing control altogether?

You are what you eat. Oh, my Mom’s been telling me this for YEARS. My biggest downfall (and the biggest contributor to my waistline) is that when I get too busy, I don’t eat properly. I work and work and work, and put off eating until I’m famished, then because I’m starving I make poor choices (i.e. PB and J or boxed mac and cheese for supper instead of something green). Day after day I continue to eat poorly, and then suddenly I start having trouble. I feel tired all the time. I lose concentration. My tummy troubles flare up. I get anxious for no reason. Then I realize that I haven’t eaten a vegetable in 5 days, and it all becomes clear.

It’s hard to prepare food and eat well when you barely have enough time to get a shower in the morning. But I’m getting better, and it starts with planning meals for me and my husband. I like to cook, but I hate cooking when I don’t know what to make. By laying it all out at the beginning of the week, then grocery shopping based on the list, I’m able to actually enjoy preparing meals again. The tools are simple (and it’s not about the tools). I use my desktop calendar (iCal) to write in the meal for each day. Then I use ShopShop on my iPhone to poke in the grocery list based on what I need to make the meals. Meals that we like get put into a list in Evernote, so when I make my weekly meal plan, I can refer to that list for ideas. My parents have done a low-tech version of this for years. And you know what – it totally works. We’re eating less takeout because we’re not stuck at 4pm trying to decide what’s for dinner.

Live and die by your calendar. I’m a spontaneous person, and that’s a good thing, but sometimes it causes havoc in my schedule. I double book, or end up with six 15 hour days in a row without a break. Mostly, that happens when I fail to write stuff down. So, I’ve started a system of incessant scheduling. I write something in the calendar as soon as it has a date associated with it, even if it’s tentative. I even schedule exercise. (e.g. 4pm walk the dog, 6am do yoga). It’s the only way that important stuff gets done around here. It also helps me to balance my weeks – I work from home a lot of the time, so booking “meeting days” helps me to balance my ‘office’ time with my ‘out and about’ time, so I’m not always racing back and forth to things.
Get your calendar in shape – it doesn’t matter whether you use a paper daytimer or an electronic calendar, but what is most important is that you have a calendar you can carry with you all the time. Because if it doesn’t get in the calendar the minute you think of it, chances are you’ll forget and double book. And, once it’s in the calendar, you can forget about it. One less thing on your already busy mind.

Write it down. I think one of the major causes of stress is that we have so many things we need to remember to do on a daily basis. And if those things are all fluttering around inside our head, we’re having to revisit them mentally over and over again until they are done. Have you ever had a bunch of daily errands, one of which was to take your pants to the dry cleaners? And while you’re out running around, all you can think is “I’ve got to get these pants to the dry cleaners”. Then, when you finally arrive back home, you hop out of the car, look in the back seat, and there are your pants? Ironic, eh? The very thing you obsessed about doing is the very thing that didn’t get done.

The solution to getting more accomplished is to write it down on a list. The secret to succeeding with lists is to be specific. Don’t just write “Go to dry cleaners”, or “Work on marketing plan”. That’s not detailed enough. If you just write “work on marketing plan”, then your mind will still be occupied with “I’ve got to first get the strategy down, then decide my vehicles, then the timeline etc.”, before you even get started! Be specific. Write down EXACTLY what you need to do. “Take pants to dry cleaners”, “Write the strategy and timeline for my marketing plan”. Not only will the task actually get accomplished once you set out to do it, you’ll be able to forget it entirely until it’s time to do it. Your mind will be clear for other things. You’ll be more focused. Try it!

Keep it clean. I like things to be tidy, but sometimes it gets away on me. My desk starts to resemble a tornado zone, with papers and books piled up so high they are tipping over. When I feel closed in physically, I’m way less productive. You may think you can work amidst clutter, but that’s not really the case. If your desk is cluttered, you’ll be more distracted, either by those books you haven’t had time to read, or the business cards you’ve yet to file. So, schedule time to clean up your desk once in a while. It’s liberating – you’ll throw out a bunch of stuff you don’t need, file the things you need to keep, and clear a space physically so your mind can be cleared as well. Schedule it in your calendar now, and set a recurring appointment to clean your workspace once every couple of weeks (or days, if you’re really messy). It’s important.

Down time = sanity. Last, but definitely not least, rest. The #1 way to put my sanity over the edge is to not get enough rest. When I was younger, I used to think that pulling all-nighters or working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week was some sort of badge of honour…until I ended up spending the better part of 1994 either in the hospital or home sick in bed. It took months of bad health for me to realize that working hard and working all the time were two different things.

Today, my philosophy is this: when you’re working, work your butt off. When you’re resting, rest your butt off. But most importantly, define what it is that you do for rest. It doesn’t have to be flaking out on the sofa all weekend (unless it is). For me, rest is spending time having coffee or dinner with my friends and family, traveling to crazy conventions in the Midwest with my husband, socializing online (yes, Twitter isn’t ALWAYS about work for me!), reading, writing, being outdoors – all active things. It’s about getting your brain out of your day to day and into something different. Whether you’re being a couch potato or going for a run, down time is as much about resting the brain as taking care of your body.

Having trouble finding the time for down time? Go back to point #2 – and schedule it in. Not only will it be more likely to get done, you’ll have something to look forward to.

There you have it – that’s how I keep control. But what about you? Please share your tips in the comments!

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How are those New Year’s resolutions coming along?

We set such high expectations of ourselves, don’t we? We want to do more, see more, experience more, save more, and yet…3 weeks into it we’re already feeling the pressure creeping back in. We just don’t seem to have enough hours in the day to meet all of those goals we set last month.

I’ve been thinking a lot about time the last few weeks. Perhaps it’s a side effect of watching too many back-to-back episodes of Doctor Who over the holidays, but at any rate, time is one of those elusive beasts that none of us ever seems to have a handle on. The title of this post, “How to Control Time” is probably somewhat of a misnomer. None of us really has control over time itself, after all. We’ve all got 24 hours in a day. What we do have control over, is how we use those 24 hours.

In the past few days, a couple of people close to me have asked if I’m “spreading myself too thin”. I’ve got a lot going on, it’s true. A few years ago, I don’t think I’d have been able to handle this much stuff at one time. But I’m learning what it takes to make the most of every 24 hour period that I’m given. I am hoping it might be useful to you if I share some of what what I’m learning.

Stop separating. I used to think that in order to achieve the perfect work/life balance, I had to have a distinct line drawn between what was “work” and what was “life”. Since I’ve been self employed, that line has blurred significantly…and I’ve realized that’s not such a bad thing.

I’m not talking about being a workaholic (though I’m often accused of being that). Certainly we all need to have down time (more on that in a minute). I’ve got a lot going on, as do you…if I add it all up, between my company, teaching, freelance work, blogging, community projects, musical endeavours, and networking/socializing with friends and colleagues, my “work” week probably totals somewhere around 80-90 hours. But see what I did there? I lumped in things like “blogging”, “community projects”, “music” and “networking” to that mix. Why? Because all of that stuff, even the stuff I don’t get paid for, the stuff many people consider “life”, is all part of my “work”. But, it’s also all part of my “life”. That’s how the line gets fuzzy.

Once I stopped defining my activities as either “work” or “life”, and started to mesh them all together, a really strange thing happened. Suddenly I had more hours in the day. I wasn’t waiting till my “work” day was done to think about community projects or networking activities or music. I was incorporating them into my day, and as a result, accomplishing more.

I realize this is not always as feasible depending on the type of job you have (i.e. you can’t spend time when you’re supposed to be working doing personal emails and calls and networking or practicing your guitar). But..there’s no rule against thinking about stuff while you work, right? AND, you are allowed to take breaks? Maybe, instead of spending your lunch breaks or coffee breaks hanging out at the water cooler, try planning that web project you’ve been meaning to get to, writing a new blog post or connecting with your network.

Listen to your body and mind. The only downside of this new way of looking at “life” and “work” is that it’s easy to get caught up in it, and spend all those 24 hours thinking, planning, networking, and doing. It happens to me all the time – I get so excited about everything that I can’t stop thinking about it. I become enamoured with possibilities. It becomes difficult to shut down.

As much as getting control of how you use your time is beneficial, sometimes it can be difficult to slow down. The most important thing you can do in this case is force the issue. Make sure you plan your down time just as much as you plan your other time. If you have a day off coming up on the weekend, do everything you can to protect that. You almost ALWAYS have a choice. Even if you have kids, remember that down time with family is still down time! I often look at my week in advance and keep one day open for doing things I want to do. Sometimes that’s sleeping. Sometimes it’s hanging out with my family. Sometimes it’s Doctor Who marathons. Sometimes it’s even working at things I enjoy. But nothing gets in the way of that day. It’s sacred space.

I’ve burnt out more times than I can count, so I’m well aware of the limitations of my mind and my body. I was a bit sick this weekend. Not a full-fledged illness, but I was pretty tired and achy and stuffy. I knew it was my body trying to tell me to cool my jets for a bit. It was saying, “Sit down, take a breather. Rest.” I listened. Didn’t go out much. Stayed in, drank tea. Ate well. Spent time with my husband. If I’d pushed it, I’d probably still be a bit sick (or a lot sicker). But I’m not.

It’s okay to be busy, on the go, doing lots of different things. That’s the point of this life, to DO things. But balance that with the limits of your body and your mind. We all have a different limit. Find your balance. Listen to it. The result? Your productive time will be more productive. Your rest time will be more restful.

You know…we might not be able to control time (yet). That’s probably a good thing. But we can ultimately control our use of time. Use every minute of every day as well as you can (even if you’re doing something that sucks). And before you know it…good things will start to happen. That’s just the way time works.

No time like the present to get started, eh?

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I’ve had a horribly unproductive day. I did a few things I had to do this morning. I had grand aspirations to do a whole lot of other things today too. I’m doing a bit of freelance work this week. I’m planning my  projects for 2010, coming up with three words, setting goals. I’m getting caught up on my reading. I’m prepping for a new semester of school. I’ve got no shortage of things to do.

Instead, I had a nap, played Rockband, practiced my guitar for 2 hours, and watched some stupid shows on TV. I felt terrible about it, but I simply couldn’t move my brain or my body in any other direction today.

I was riddled with guilty feelings over the lack of achievement. I usually feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment at the end of every day, as I check things off my list and feel the satisfaction of forward movement. I am extremely uncomfortable when I’m unproductive.

Then I stopped and thought – what if this day was meant to be exactly as it was? What if for once, I wasn’t forcing myself to be doing, doing, and doing some more? What if this was really just my body and mind’s way of telling me to slow down for a few hours? What if I told myself it’s ok to do this? Then I stopped worrying about what I wasn’t doing.

It’s funny – just because I decided to do what I did today (stop doing), the world did not end. People did not give up on me. I didn’t fail. I didn’t miss the boat.

It dawned on me that this time of doing “nothing” had not really been unproductive. In fact, it’s possible that I’ve been very productive. I rested (the nap), I did mindless things (video games and dumb TV), and I challenged myself creatively and technically (as evidenced by my extremely sore left hand due to learning some new guitar techniques).

My perceived lack of “doing” today actually did a lot. It forced me to use my mind in a different way. It forced me to unwind these thoughts that have been swirling around the past several days and figure out how they really fit. And now on the other end of it, I’m feeling really, really clear.

It’s the end of the year. Things are moving pretty slowly right now, and perhaps we should look at the pace of the next few days as an opportunity to truly reflect, refresh and recharge.

We are all moving so fast towards a finish line we can’t see yet. It’s all fine and well to plan and prepare and set goals and come up with words and define things for 2010. But we don’t have to always be moving. We’re allowed to stop once in a while. We’re allowed to slack off a bit. In fact, we should probably all do it a bit more often.

So, as you close out another year, maybe try to find some time (a few hours, or a few days) to just do nothing. You’ll probably find that it will do whole lot. It did for me.

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Have you ever had a really bad day? Of course, that’s a ridiculous question. We’ve all had really bad days. Sometimes, the bad days truly are bad – some circumstances are just awful..things happen to all of us occasionally, such as the death of a loved one, losing your job, a falling out with a close friend. Fortunately, these events are less than common for most people. These kind of bad days, though terrible, are few and far between.

So, if that’s the case, then why do people seem to have so many “bad” days? Why do so many people talk about how “stressful” and “challenging” and “irritating” and even “horrendous” their day has been? If nobody’s died, your job is still intact, your friends still love you….what is it that’s dragging you down?

Most of the time, people’s bad days revolve around their work. What I’ve been observing lately is that people who are stressed and challenged and irritated are that way because of something that’s happend through the course of their work day. Ever notice how fewer people tend to have “bad” days on Saturday? Yah.

You might respond to that question with “Well, not everyone likes their job.”. In fact, it’s true that some people downright hate their jobs. I can see how it would be difficult to have a good day in that situation. I’ve had jobs I hate. I know what that’s like.

But here’s the thing. I believe that 99% of the “bad” days we have don’t really exist. Yup. 99%. (1% is reserved for catastrophic situations like natural disasters.) Why’s that? I’ll show you.

It’s all in your head. Ever had a day when you wake up in the morning and your mind is immediately racing with all of the worries you have for the day? “What if my computer crashes during my big presentation?” , “What if the boss hates my designs?”, “What if nobody shows up for the conference?”, “What if that agent doesn’t call me back in time for tomorrow’s shoot?”. The next time you have worries about your day, write them down. Then, at the end of the day, go back and review your list. Odds are, most or all of the worries that woke you up with did not happen. You can’t predict the future, so stop trying. You can only control the now. Stop worrying so much. You’ll have far fewer bad days.

You wouldn’t talk to ME like that. The problem with stress is that it compounds. The minute a stressful moment pops up in your work day, your brain automatically goes in to fight or flight mode. You either want to defend your every move or run and hide under the bed till the storm blows over. Thing is, all this stuff is – you guessed it – mostly in your head. Example – you have to present your design wireframes to your boss this morning. Your boss is notoriously picky. You walk through the scenario over and over in your head. You’ll walk in. Show him the designs. Your boss will go into a rant about how you don’t understand the concepts or even the basics of how this company is run, and you’ll never understand. In your head you think, “oh, here he goes again, what a jerk, he is such a bad communicator”. All the excuses why it’s your bosses fault. You feel like the worst designer in the world. You frickin’ no talent hack. Loser. You’ll never get anything right. The pit in your stomach grows.

Oh wait. You haven’t even had the meeting yet, and you feel awful. Imagine if you said any of those things to someone else. A colleague, family member, friend. Calling them a no-talent hack. A loser. Of course, you’d never do that! But we do it to ourselves all the time. We make up entire scripts, play out the entire episode before something even happens. When you think about it, it’s pretty ridiculous.

Next time you find yourself making up the script, stop. Take a minute. Think to yourself…would I talk to my Mom like this? My brother? My wife? My friends? If you can’t imagine doing it, then stop talking to yourself like that. Immediately. Stop making up stories and assumptions. If you go into a situation with a clear mind, 9 times out of 10 it will be more favourable than you can imagine. It works. Just try it.

Like I said, we all have bad days. Sometimes it’s out of our control. But most of the time, deciding whether our day is good or bad is simply about adjusting our view. Get out of your head. Get into your life. Once you’re there, the possibilities are endless.

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I’m not blogging much.

It’s not because I don’t want to, it’s because I’ve discovered that my brain, though very capable at multitasking most things in my life, is only good at so many things at once.

For the next 6 weeks or so, I’m going to be working on a part time contract that’s going to be taking up a few extra hours in my week. Combine this with my regular job of co-running a busy production company, and my other part time job as a college professor, and I’ve realized that something’s gotta give.

You may see me around here a bit less for the next few weeks. I haven’t forgotten about you! It’s just that all the spare parts of my brain are being eaten up by my extra projects, and the part of my brain that is the writing I do on this blog is getting crammed in the corner a bit.

At first I was a bit stressed about it. I mean, after all, I LOVE writing here. It opens up my mind to new concepts, helps me clarify things in my head, and of course, lets me have great conversations with you. Then I realized, if I’m not going to be giving it 100%, and writing stuff I truly care about…if I’m only going to be writing because I think I HAVE to…then it’s not going to be worthwhile for me or for you.

So, forgive me if I’m not around as much. I’ll still be hanging around on Twitter, and of course I’m always available via email or Skype, or IM. Just drop a line and say hi. Things will pick up here again shortly. I’ll probably blog my brains out in a couple of weeks at Podcamp Toronto. And I’m sure my muse will be by for its 3am visit at some point too.

Keep creating, sharing, and being brilliant, and I’ll see you soon!

(BTW – I wrote this post partly because the last time I didn’t blog for a week, my Mom called me in a panic because she thought something had happened to me. So, Mom – I’m okay! Just busy. Love you!)

xoxoxo
Suze

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I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about how work has changed over the past several years. When I was growing up in the 1980′s, society was still in the mindset that “setting yourself up for success” meant graduating from high school, going to university to get a degree, then finding a good, stable, secure full time job with regular hours and good benefits. Worse, women were still (yes, even in the 80′s) expected to finish school, work for a while, find a husband, put their career on hold, have a bunch of kids, then try to “reintegrate” to the workforce after 10 or 12 years.

If that was the secret to success, then I suppose I’ve failed miserably.

OK, I did graduate high school. But I decided on community college instead of university, since they couldn’t teach me how to make TV shows at university. I got a job after college, but the pay was crappy, the benefits were just okay, and the hours were anything but regular. During those early days of my career, the elusive husband I was supposed to nab was nowhere to be found. In fact, I would wait till I was 34 years old to finally tie the knot (Does that make me an old maid?). As for having a bunch of babies, well, I look around me and nope – don’t see any babies. Therefore, no reason to put said career on hold, I guess.

The one area where I suppose I did succeed (in the 80′s definition of success) is that after my first job, I came to my senses. I proceeded to have a string of jobs that were 9-5, Monday to Friday, corporate grind type jobs, with good pay and good benefits. Naturally, the rebel in me wanted nothing more than to bust out of that grind and do my own thing. As time went on, I came to a very profound realization.

I really do believe that the way people look at work is changing. The lines between what is considered “work” and what is considered “outside interests” are blurring.

***THIS JUST IN***

As I was writing this, I came across this morning’s video post by Chris Brogan on work vs. play. I just want to be clear – what I’m referring to here is not really work vs. play. I think work vs. play is different than work vs. outside interests. First, go watch his video, because Chris is a smarty pants and he makes a really great point. Then come back and I’ll explain myself.

You’re back. Good!

When I was doing the corporate grind thing, I worked hard and cared about the work I was doing (most of the time), even enjoyed it (some of the time), but there was a definite line between my “job” and my “outside interests”. In fact, I worked really hard to keep my personal interests personal and my work stuff at work. I thought that work/life balance was all about that separation. I’ve realized that this was a serious error in my thinking.

Perhaps things are different now because I work for myself. I’m no longer held to a particular schedule, I get to choose the projects I work on, and I have had the freedom to choose and to be able to nurture relationships with people that are based on both friendship and professional ties. But what I’ve noticed, over the past several months, is that my To Do list contains a lot of crossover between what one would consider “personal interest” and what is “work”.

For all the hours and hours of work I do on paying gigs, I’m finding that I’m doing more and more work on things that don’t pay. Just in the past few weeks, I’ve helped shoot a music video, helped to edit some protest/awareness videos, and agreed to help produce a new technology podcast. I’ve talked with friends about playing music more, perhaps at open stages, maybe even a gig someday. I’ve also written a pile of blog posts. All of these things are work to me. Sure, they don’t have a monetary payoff, but who says that work has to bring in money all the time? Isn’t it possible that some work can be done for the pure experience and enjoyment?

I also lump networking into this mix. Back when I was working for other companies, I used to get paid to go to networking events, conferences and meetings. Now that I’m self-employed, I don’t really get paid to go out to meetups, meet people for coffee, or attend Social Media Breakfasts. But I do it anyway. It’s right there, on my To Do list. It’s part of work – a very important part.

The truth is, what constitutes “work” for me really has changed. I’m no longer bound by “I must do THIS so I can get paid THIS.” I guess that is what makes what I do for a living so much fun. At times, I think my work IS play. And vice versa, I suppose!

Sure, in the old-time definition of having a successful career, I guess I really have not “made it”. But what I have done is carved my own path to success. It’s been hard work; I’d even say harder work than the old fashioned way of doing things. But I definitely wouldn’t have it any other way.

How has work changed for you?

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Back in the 50′s, when my parents were entering the workforce, choices were different. Many people dropped out of high school in Grade 10 or 11 and got a JOB.  JOBs were things like working in a factory or working for your Dad in his hardware store. Or selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door. If you didn’t want to do any of those things, you could join the Army. If you were a woman, you had even fewer choices: you were either a housewife or you went to business school and became a secretary.

Getting a JOB in those days offered a few extremely important things. Benefits. A steady paycheque. Bonuses. Security. The makings of a happy life.

These days, we teach our young people to stay in school. Go to college. Get a CAREER.  I used to have a CAREER. I was a high-tech worker. It had benefits. It had a steady paycheque. It had bonuses. I falsely believed it had security. I gave it up.

Now, I believe that what I do for a living is not a JOB or a CAREER. These labels don’t fit anymore. Now, my work is what I DO. It’s how I survive, not just financially, but spiritually, and emotionally too. I knew I didn’t fit in to the corporate world. Oh, sure, I did a good job. I got just as many pats on the back as the next guy. But at the end of the day it meant nothing to me. I was doing it for someone else, and that left me wholly unfulfilled.

Perhaps we should be teaching our young people that it’s okay if they don’t want to fit into the mold of a CAREER. But more importantly we should be teaching them HOW to make it on their own if they want to. I certainly didn’t learn anything about owning a business in high school or even college. And that’s not right.

I’m not saying that everyone has to be an entrepreneur. Of course there is room for more than just the self employed. Otherwise, nobody would have any employees! But we need to be giving our young people options. We need to make them aware of all of the possibilities.

On the flip side, there’s nothing wrong with having a CAREER if that’s what you want. Case in point:

A good friend of mine has made a CAREER out of what many would consider a regular JOB. He started many years ago working at a convenience store. In fact, that’s how we met. I lived in the neighbourhood and was a regular customer. I loved watching my friend work, he was so happy in it. He loved helping customers, would strike up conversations with anyone. As a result, the store he worked at was like the social hub of the neighbourhood.  After about 10 years as a convenience store clerk, he moved on to work for a large retail chain – a job that pays more but is still, what some would consider, just a JOB. There isn’t anything else he’d rather be doing than working in retail, serving customers. He will absolutely be doing it until he retires.

I bet if you were to ask him, he’d tell you that his work isn’t just a job. It is what he DOES.

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I’m inspired this morning by Mitch Joel of Twist Image. In his latest blog post, “How Hard Do You Really Work?”, he mentions a line he uses when he does his public speaking events. “…most people I know are trying to make it to the weekend. I’m trying to make it.”

Wow. That is a great line, don’t you think? It pretty much sums up how I’ve felt most of my working life. I’ve had a lot of jobs over 18 years or so, some great, some not so great. But I always found a way to be passionate about what I’m doing, and to put everything I had into the work. Even if it sucked.

Here is a brief summary of the types of work I’ve done over the past 18 years:

• Produced television shows
• Coordinated, designed and taught adult education programs
• Technical Writing for optical data networks
• Waited tables at a popular neighbourhood pub
• Presented technical training to rooms of 400 people
• Designed user help systems and interactive web portals
• Receptionist/Administrative assistant at a Seniors’ Recreation Centre
• Traveled the U.S. teaching specialized training development software
• Wrote 2000 page proposals for federal government contracts
• Graphic Design for corporate marketing projects
• Designed and deployed communications strategies for large corporations

It’s a pretty wide range of stuff. Some of the jobs were tedious and long, (proposal writing) but rewarding when the proposal was successful. Some were exhilarating (I love teaching because of this). Some I’m just not well-suited for (the admin assistant job was the only job I ever got “disciplined” for because I was trying to take too much initiative – ACK!). I’m a really lousy waitress. I mean I suck at it, bigtime (but, I made a lot of friends at that pub). And some jobs I’ve loved because I’m truly passionate about it (TV production, web design/development and communications).

But what I have in common with all of these jobs is I always brought everything I could to them. Even though, at times I was just doing it for the paycheque, I still showed up with the attitude that I was going to work hard and give my all to what I was doing. Not because I owed it to the company I was working for, but because I owed it to myself to not be just another cog in the wheel trying to “make it to the weekend”.

Successful work means hard work, but hard work doesn’t have to burn you out or take away from your quality of life. What Mitch Joel is referring to is the dedication and commitment one should have when they set out to do a job, no matter what it is.

I’ve been a full time entrepreneur for almost a year now. It’s been a crazy ride so far, with lots of ups and downs and twists and turns. We have totally exceeded our expectations so far and continue to do so. I’ve learned more in this past year about myself and what I’m capable of than ever. And me and my partner have worked really really hard. Not 100-hour-weeks-burn-yourself-into-the-ground-just-to-get-ahead-hard, but we’ve had the passion, dedication and commitment to get the job done and get it done well. Sure, we’ve worked till 3am on occasion. Sure, weekends haven’t always been free of emails and phone calls. But we still take most weekends off. Easter is coming and we have no intention of working our way through it.

Hard work is easy if you have passion. If you have passion, you don’t see the time passing. It doesn’t mean you aren’t going to have crappy days, challenges and scary moments. That comes with the territory in any job – heck, in any life! It does mean you can have it all, no matter what you do for a living, and it’s simple. Just have passion. And if you can’t have passion, then do something else.

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