All Posts by Darrell Gurney

June 23, 2021 – JOLT – Some Bombs Do More Good Than Harm

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” – Roger Crawford

We all know that adversity is a part of life. . .

but how many of us go around looking for trouble?

Of course, human nature is to move away from pain toward pleasure, from challenge toward comfort, and from uncertainty towards safety. We for sure don’t invite hardships into our lives.

BUT, when they do come, as they inevitably will, how we relate to them makes all the difference in living powerfully.

Just what if every challenging event or influence that’s ever happened to you was only a higher level of YOU inviting you into becoming the fullest YOU you came here to be?

What if the “Becoming Bombs” that have landed around or on you were only to get you on track for the real plan you always had in (some grander) Mind?

If you apply this simple idea to your career, relationships, healthy, finances, dreams and sense of purpose, what do you see?

I guarantee that you won’t see any victim in the mix.

I’ll discuss this more today in my regular Wednesday Facebook Live video for our new group (see the link above and join us).

Lemons to lemonade, “Becoming Bombs” to major life pivots. . .call it what you will, but one thing’s for sure: it’s not what happens in life but how you perceive it and engage with it that tells your life story.

And, though we don’t invite hardships, if we know that we’ll come out of them a whole new upgraded human being, it takes the fearful sting out of super-cautiously avoiding them, doesn’t it? 

If the chaos of the last year impacted moving your career forward in the way you want, check out a new program my HR executive wife and I put together to get folks ramped up for the BEST career transition time upon us: summer!

Yes, you’d be amazed how, beyond a good resume, your being in a position to meet the thought-leaders, hiring professionals and executives sitting beside you at the beach or an outdoor cafe can actually initiate way more traction than you’d imagine. . .when most people think summer is the time to lay back.

Check it out here – https://www.careersecrets.com/dream-job-landing-pad – and let me know if you have any questions.

BTW, it’s a BRAND SPANKING NEW program with some polish, nips and tucks to be implemented. . .which is why we’re offering a HUGE discount for our initial beta testers.

This is the structure that will have you becoming stronger and better out of whatever career challenges you’ve been through: https://www.careersecrets.com/dream-job-landing-pad.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Got becoming bombs direction? “You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.” – Bob Marley

June 9, 2021 – JOLT – Smelling Out Shinola

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“Life often turns to sh*t before it turns to shinola.” – Jen Sincero

The old saying, about knowing the difference. . .

between sh*t and shinola is well known. But, on the flipside, can we always smell out the shinola from the sh*t?

I do a weekly Facebook Live video on Wednesdays for our new group (see the link above and join us) and took some time today to remind myself and others that, though we all have challenges to face every day — especially when we’re playing for big outcomes (but even if not) — how we perceive those challenges makes all the difference in what comes out of them.

Do we perceive them as crummy circumstances getting in our way just when we thought we might have a good day?

or

Do we see them as situations, conditions or effects that have somehow befallen us and allow ourselves, even in the most internal of voices, to claim that we’re a victim?

or

Do we see them as the necessary refinements to ourselves, our skills, our character, our personality traits to actually have us best prepared for attaining our goals?

or (and even best yet)

Do we see them as the absolute PERFECT and BEST things that could ever happen to us so that we become who we came here to be and do what we came here to do?

PRO TIP: None of the above possible perceptions (or any others you can come up with) are “true” but only possible interpretations. Yet, the choice of the filter through which you see your world impacts your experience of that world.

Take a look at any challenge you’re going through right now, or any particular “negative” thing that’s happened to you in the past, and run it through each of the four possible perceptions outlined above. Which ones leave you feelin more powerful? Which ones leave you believing that your life has rhyme and reason to it?

PRO TIP: Pick that one to view your life from.

Perhaps inside of any sh*t that has, can or could ever come your way, there’s all the shinola in the world just waiting for you to see it.

If some sh*t has involved moving your career forward in a powerful way, on a budget and with velocity, check out a new program my HR executive wife and I put together to get folks ramped up for the BEST career transition time coming: summer!

Yes, you’d be amazed that, beyond a good resume, your being in a position to meet the thought-leaders, hiring professionals and executives sitting beside you at the beach or an outdoor cafe can actually initiate way more traction than you’d imagine. . .when most people think summer is the time to lay back.

Check it out here – https://www.careersecrets.com/dream-job-landing-pad – and let me know if you have any questions.

BTW, it’s a BRAND SPANKING NEW program with some polish, nips and tucks to be implemented. . .which is why we’re offering a HUGE discount for our initial beta testers.

This is the structure that can get you moving if your career is in any sh*tty holding pattern whatsoever: https://www.careersecrets.com/dream-job-landing-pad.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

 

Got your shinola out of your sh*t? “You don’t need a new day to start over, you only need a new mindset.” – Hazel Hira Ozbek

May 26, 2021 – JOLT – Best Way To Have An Exciting Future? Invent It.

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” – Søren Kierkegaard

The second half of 2021 is coming. . .

in only 35 days? Are you ready?

Sure, it only means something if you want it to mean something. Yet, New Years intentions and half-year course corrections can be powerful rituals in truing ourselves up for what we said we want to achieve in the year, in life, etc.

Without rituals, it’s all weeds. Without big-picture views, it’s all minutia.

Within a couple weeks, my parents will leave their home of 60 years to start a new life four states and 825 miles away. . .at 80 years old!

That takes chutzpah and, whether they know they have it or not, they’re detaching from the past and creating a new future. In the midst of the moving (weeds) there needs to be a vision (big picture). I’m not sure they’ve sorted that out yet.

A lot of times, life forces detachment on us. Because of something unexpected, we have no choice but to let go and turn our eyes forward.

But, what might be possible if we weren’t at the effect of unexpected and untoward events needing to pound us into submission to make the changes we truly already want?

Is it the long-awaited career change? Is it the move into a new field, new location, or new relationship (and leaving of the old ones) that’s been staring us in the face. . .that we’ve conveniently avoided the gaze of?

What if the only way outside the grips of the comfortable, safe and comfy (though it’s really not) past is to create and invent a new future?

New futures don’t just fall in your lap. They require effort, because the pull of the past-oriented psyche is just too great. You’ll never default into a radical new future. It requires intention. It requires action.

As you begin your 30-day climb to the next half of 2021, look to see what’s been nagging so fervently that it would pay for you to invent an action plan to tackle it NOW.

Then, call me. 2021 has a helluva lot to deliver if an when you operate inventively.

If the nag has been around moving your career forward in a powerful way, on a budget and with velocity, check out a new program my HR executive wife and I put together to get folks ramped up for the BEST career transition time: summer!

Yes, you’d be amazed that, beyond a good resume, your being in a position to meet the thought-leaders, hiring professionals and executives sitting beside you at the beach or an outdoor cafe can actually initiate way more traction than you’d imagine. . .when most people think summer is the time to lay back.

Check it out here – https://www.careersecrets.com/dream-job-landing-pad – and let me know if you have any questions.

BTW, it’s a BRAND SPANKING NEW program with some polish, nips and tucks to be implemented. . .which is why we’re offering a HUGE discount for our initial beta testers.

This is the structure that can get you moving if your career is in any nagging holding pattern whatsoever: https://www.careersecrets.com/dream-job-landing-pad.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

 

Got a second-half (of the year; of life) created future? “The future into which you are living gives you being in the present.” – Werner Erhard

May 19, 2021 – JOLT – What Does It Take To Get You Moving On Your Moments Of High Resolve?

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“Keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve. Despite the dullness and barrenness of the days that pass, if I search with due diligence, I can always find a deposit left by some former radiance.” – Howard Thurman

Ever notice how the very idea of a change. . .

in your career, business, relationships, health, finances, eating habits or even decluttering your closet space can take forever to consider, much less implement?

What is it that pushes you over into commitment and action?

It’s all so understandably human that we shy away from the good-intentioned and bettering-our-life changes until they’re urgent because, well, change doesn’t come easy to a human psyche based on comfort zones and safety.

And there’s nothing wrong with that: it’s just the way we’re wired.

But, knowing that lay of the land when it comes to true change in our life, how do you counter the pull toward procrastination, mediocrity and immobility?

Not by yourself, for sure!!

That may be the biggest delusion that humans face, thinking that we will somehow at sometime get to the point of firing up our engines of change on our own.

Sure, sometimes those self-directed initiatives do gain legs and, for sure, when fire is under our ass for something that has to happen NOW, we may get it done.

But what if we could move forward 70% of the time we are inspired versus 20%?

It happens by telling others. It happens by asking others to hold you accountable. It happens by putting yourself into structures that force you to place your butt on the line with no excuses.

What in the life and times of YOU finally deserves that ACTION that you’ve been considering for so long?

If it happens to be around moving your career forward in a powerful way, on a budget and with velocity, check out a new program my HR executive wife and I put together to get folks ramped up for the BEST career transition time: summer!

Yes, you’d be amazed that, beyond a good resume, your being in a position to meet the thought-leaders, hiring professionals and executives sitting beside you at the beach or an outdoor cafe can actually initiate way more traction than you’d imagine. . .when most people think summer is the time to lay back.

Check it out here – https://www.careersecrets.com/dream-job-landing-pad – and let me know if you have any questions.

BTW, it’s a BRAND SPANKING NEW program with some polish, nips and tucks to be implemented. . .which is why we’re offering a HUGE discount for our initial beta testers.

This is the structure that can get you moving if your career is in any holding pattern whatsoever: https://www.careersecrets.com/dream-job-landing-pad.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Got high resolve for change? “Determination is the wake-up call to human will.” – Tony Robbins

May 5, 2021 – JOLT – Do Your Goals Suck? The Big Ones Always Do

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“Everybody has their own Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.” – Seth Godin

Ever notice how having a big goal sucks. . .

you into becoming bigger than you’ve been before?

You simply can’t get on the other side of a big goal — or even close to the finish line — being the same person you’ve always been.

Though there’s often an initial, internal (and sometimes external) “Uggh!” that comes when you realize that things are just going to keep being same ‘ol same ‘ol until you say otherwise, you’ve no doubt experienced the almost immediate energy transformation when declaring that something beyond “this” is possible. . .and commit to it!

Then, if engaging and operating true to that commitment, you begin to hear a great sucking sound pulling toward you all manner of conditions, circumstances, situations and events that require you to become other than who’ve you’ve been so as to overcome those challenges.

Don’t you just love playing big??

Of course you do!

So, declare a BIG future today that you’re going to create in some area meaningful to you — career, business, relationship, health, finances, purposeful dreams, etc. — to shift out of same ‘ol same ‘ol. And get ready for suction.

Yet, if you find yourself reading this and agreeing in principle but NOT declaring anything bigger, find someone to pull it out of you. . .because becoming is the best game in town.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Got big goals that suck? “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn

April 14, 2021 – JOLT – Time For Spring Gleaning?

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“The world’s favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible.” – Edwin Way Teale

Sure, we aren’t out of the woods yet. . .

but have you noticed the itch?

Of course, many of us have been itching for over a year.

The freedom to connect unreservedly again, the license to look outward at who we want to be, what we want to do, where we want to go.

There’s cautionary measures still to be maintained, no doubt, but the psyche is anticipating it’s rise from isolation. Time for spring gleaning!

What are you rising into? What have you learned? Where do you start afresh?

Our traditional New Year all-things-possible mentality was overshadowed by continued darkness a few months ago, but now we have a new quarter and new season of the year calling us to awaken. And 15 months calls for a lot of awakening!

Your “new year,” new intention, new expression, new YOU can start right now. It’s time to spring forward and design the next best version from all that you’ve experienced.

You’re still here. It’s for a reason. Spring your gleaning into action!

Clean out the covid cobwebs, declutter the limited mindset, and create something extraordinary to tell your grandkids came on the heels of your world shutting down for a bit.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Got spring gleaning? “Spring is nature’s way of saying, Let’s party!” – Robin Williams

March 31, 2021 – JOLT – Special Sale: Making the Most of Foolish Times

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“Tomorrow is April Fool’s Day. Believe nothing and trust no one. Just like any other day.” – Unknown

OK, the joke’s on me, but it came a day early. . .

as I found out both of my main websites had been hacked with malware. Too bad the hackers weren’t just playing a mischievous trick. 🙁

As in all of life, however, we take the good with the bad. The good news is. . .

My publisher of Never Apply for a Job Again: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Restnotified me yesterday that Amazon had ordered a lot of extra inventory and therefore had put the book on a special sale! I’ve never seen it priced this low, and even bought copies for myself because they’re cheaper for this limited time on Amazon than buying directly from my own publisher! 

SO, if you or anyone you know has had a challenging time around work this last year — or is even considering making a conscious, well-thought-out and highly informed career shift — THIS would be the time to get a copy. . .or 4 (the purchase limit)!

There are SO MANY folks slogging through the frontdoor of career transition these days — struggling with resumes submitted online to be one of THOUSANDS applying for limited roles — that anyone having this education in a “backdoor,” stealth approach will always come out better and land quicker.

It’s not about “informational interviewing,” (which all but says you need a job) but about connecting through relationships into the “hidden” job market. Given that 80% of all jobs are filled before they’re ever posted, the backdoor is the way into the biggest piece of the employment pie.

And, little is it known that a stealth, behind-the-scenes, research-based approach to educating oneself and connecting with executives and thought leaders in one’s areas of passionate interest has been even BETTER during Covid times. . .because those executives and thought leaders are working from home, like everyone else, and way more reachable.

And did I mention endorsements from Harvey Mackay, Keith Ferrazzi, and Dr. Ivan Misner, to name a few?

So, if you’ve got $3.32 to put toward yourself or someone you care about (or 4 x $3.42 to put toward four people you care about), today would be the day to grab some copies!

Tell you what, to sweeten your gift to them, for every receipt you forward to me from your purchases, I’ll give you a one-time code for a 25% discount on the companion online program I created to go along with the book, Dream Job Lifeline. You can forward those discount codes to your friends, helping them even more.

Now, that’s looking out for friends in need in today’s recovering economy. And that’s making the best of foolish times.

Happy April Fool’s.

Think differently, play a better game.

Radically,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Got the best of foolish times? “Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else.” – Will Rogers

March 24, 2021 – JOLT – Urging for Emerging?

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“I embrace emerging experience. I participate in discovery. I am a butterfly. I am not a butterfly collector. I want the experience of the butterfly.” – William Stafford

The image of the butterfly looms large. . .

as we continue to crack out into the world ahead.

It won’t be “normal.” It won’t be a “new normal.” It will be mysterious and unpredictable.

Of course, that drives us crazy. We don’t want to have to think or be constantly alert. We believe that by some whack-a-mole process of knocking down one problem after another we will somehow arrive at peace.

But, as in the actual Whac-A-Mole arcade game, peace only comes and the moles only subside when the game is over.

Perhaps some serenity can be found in the midst of the game by accepting that moles ARE (and will forever be) and whacks are NECESSARY (and will forever be). Even holding this thing called “life” in the context of a GAME can be a source of peace in the face of ongoing moles and whacks.

A couple major holidays are on our doorstep, both involving the theme of emergence. As we embrace them, and our world-community emerging from a historical whack, perhaps we can find some hope in the idea of new beginnings.

Even as times are all so serious. . .perhaps a side wink, nudge and smile directed at one another in acknowledgment of the butterfly game we all signed up for can create some much needed space for the mystery to unfold.

Think differently, play a better game. Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Got urge to emerge? “You are emerging from the cocoon of your former self. There are no limits to the extent of the transformation that’s possible for you.” – Marianne Williamson

March 17, 2021 – JOLT – Checkin In: Last Days of Learning Opportunities Approaching!

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.” – Pema Chodron

So much anticipation is brewing. . .

as the world goes through the lunging and retreating cycle, making its way toward being free again.

Cruise lines are now charting “trips to nowhere” for vaccinated patrons, while whole countries are instituting full lockdowns again. Some states are flinging wide the doors while, at the same time, warnings of variant surges dominate the airways.

It may come sooner, it may come later, and there’s definitely still a long road ahead, but there’s a flickering light emerging at the end of this chrysalis-of-a-year tunnel: freedom is on it’s way!

The question is, what You is coming out of this cocoon? What do you have to show for your Self?

Dorothy was told by Glinda the Good Witch, at the end of her adventures with The Wizard of Oz, that she could have gone home at any time, but she had to learn that for herself. Scarecrow then asks Dorothy what she learned.

Her answer was hers, but what’s yours? What can you list as your new gifts, values, directions, awareness or insights for living? How is a better version of You coming forth?

As we all eventually bust out of this encasement and stretch our new wings, getting a clear sense of your Self that flies beyond these times will somehow make it more bearable. . .if not eventually worthwhile.

It sure beats being a victim to it all.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Got last-chance learning opp? “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” – Robert Frost

March 3, 2021 – JOLT – Feeling Comfortably Uncomfortable

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“The more you seek the uncomfortable the more you will become comfortable.” – Conor McGregor

There’s a dance which many resist learning. . .

which is the dance between authenticity and growth.

Authenticity is at a premium today, and people/prospects/potential partners smell it out.

We’re bombarded by ads and emails and social media so much that our nose sniffs first for authenticity before we put more than a split second into any distraction from our day. . .which promotions always are. Are they real? Are they selling something? Can I trust them?

Yet, there’s an actual learning process to be authentic! Think about it: we’re not raised to be authentic. We’re raised to make sure we look good, do things right, look like we’ve got it together and things under control. . .which is completely inauthentic.

But any venture of becoming a better version of ourselves involves us doing things differently than we have in the past. Thinking differently. Acting differently. We only grow outside our comfort zones.

And, for many, that feels weird and “not me.” But that’s only if you base your definition of the authentic “you” on who you’ve been in the past and the ways you’ve operated in the past (aka, “comfort zone”).

No easy answer here, and yet the dance of growth relies on giving up old comfort zones of being “myself” so that a greater “my Self” can arise. Which means trading in an old sense of authenticity for a new one. . .that may feel really weird for a while.

In what area of your life can you dance toward a new authenticity today?

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell
CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

Got comfortably uncomfortable? “Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. It may get tough, but it’s a small price to pay for living a dream.To make progress, you have to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable.” – Peter McWilliams