January 22, 2020 – JOLT – Check your bottle at the door?

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“New weapons require new tactics. Never put old wine into new bottles.” – Heinz Guderian

For another few weeks, probably,

we will all continue to hear references to starting the New Year in a new way.

I’ll likely wind down my own references to it soon, and then, as mentioned in a JOLT two weeks ago, we’re back to the fact that we’re ALWAYS in the midst of change and improvement ALL the time…not just at the flip of a calendar page.

As that change is taking place continually, the scriptural reference to putting new wine in old bottles could not be more relevant and worthy of consideration.

Did you put your New Year goals and intentions inside of an old you, with the same beliefs and ways of operating as you had last year?

If so, consider this a wake up call…before all that luscious new wine of hopes and dreams ends up all over the floor.

An old you can’t hold or ferment a new result.

So, as those new goals start pressing against the walls of the old you bottle, know that the goals are not the challenge…but the re-bottling of you may be.

For this year, rather than cast aside your intentions when they seem to be going nowhere, look instead to where and how you can design a new bottle in which to let them brew.

And, even if old the bottles must break at times, an ongoing commitment to re-bottling will mean that at least some new wine will be created in this New Year of New You.

Want to do a bottle check at the door of 2020? For a new vintage review of your career or business goals, schedule a session here. You’ll move forward faster with a committed listener (and master bottler) involved.

Got re-bottling efforts?

“It is an age of stir and change, a season of new wine and old bottles. Yet, assuredly, in spite of breakages and waste, a wine worth the drinking is all the time being made.” – John Galsworthy

January 15, 2020 – JOLT – Really want to achieve those goals? Buy this insurance!

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

Self trust is a golden quality to cultivate…

and not enough can be said about developing a sense of inner guidance and self-championship.

However, there’s also something to be said for recognizing one’s own human-ness when it comes to the daily engagement with the ego.

Not to bash the ego, because ambition and drives are part of what moves people and life forward. However, the ego often has a very tricky way of keeping our “self” safe and comfortable…and sometimes inside our “own private Idaho.”

The ego generally drives us for more and better, but can often sabotage our efforts by attachment to old ways of seeing the world, worn out and familiar challenges, or limiting beliefs in our capabilities.

If you or I want to accomplish something we’ve never done before, we simply must act differently and think differently than we have before…and those changes don’t happen inside our comfy, fixed-beliefs bubble.

The answer? Masterminding and accountability.

No matter how smart and effective you already are (or aren’t), there’s only one direction that earnest, vulnerable, and open-kimono engagement with others in a mastermind setting can take you: progress.

Opening the kimono and being willing to reveal your rawness, because it goes against the ego’s desire to “look good,” is a hurdle…but a blessing.

Getting input outside of your own, internal committee of “best thinking” can be challenging…but liberating.

And, committing to another person certain actions you’ll take to move yourself forward — with a “by when” — is a secret key to real growth.

So, given that you are now 1/24th complete with 2020, ask yourself, “Am I serious about these 2020 goals? How will I get the new information I need to support their achievement? And, who will hold me accountable for making the baby steps to get there?”

Find a group. Join a group. Start a group. Masterminding accountability: it does a goal good.

Miss the New Year/New You starting gun? Already have a New Year/New Decade busily in full swing…with seemingly no time to get freshly goaled up? No worries, there’s still time.

For a year-end/year-start review of your career or business goals, schedule a session here. You’ll move forward faster with a committed listener (and questioner) involved.

And for a virtual team of players to hold your goals and commitments moving forward, find out about the upcoming PlayGame™ Mastermind Accountability Alliance here.

Got goal insurance?

“None of us is as smart as all of us.” – Ken Blanchard

January 8, 2020 – JOLT – Fit for forwarding your 2020?

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“The preparation for the ritual is the ritual.“ – Kate Green

So, now that the annual ritual…

of reflecting, recollecting, reconstituting, resolving and renewing ourselves from one year to the next is behind us, where do we go from here?

Forward. Always forward.

And, ritual or not, that’s the only direction we’re ever going. Yet, how cool is it that life created an arbitrary and invented break in eternity called the “New Year” so as to give us a stop in the regular action for such a valuable game huddle.

Now, just like it was before December, our goal is to keep playing and finding new ways to bring our best-is-yet-to-come onto the field.

A couple helpful concepts to remember, as you bring about the New You/New Year/New Decade, are…

Compassion: remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day…nor will your New You show up after only a week of being in the 2020 arena. (HINT: if you’re really intent on meeting a totally unrecognizeable You this year, he/she will likely only show up in 11 months or so.)

Baby Steps: a pyramid started first with an idea, then with a lot of ingenious thinking of how to get big boulders down a river and across hot sands, and then a system of construction, etc. If you’re interested in creating something to last, accept and nurse the baby steps it will take.

Team: keeping all those acts of initiative and creation to yourself is one sure way to have them fail. “There is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans”…and that is that your commitment to yourself alone will be weaker than your word given to another. Have a team hold you accountable for what you say you want to accomplish.

2020 has arrived. See you at the races!

Miss the New Year/New You starting gun? Already have a New Year/New Decade busily in full swing…with seemingly no time to get freshly goaled up? No worries, there’s still time…and getting support will help!

For a year-end/year-start review of your career or business goals, schedule a session here. You’ll move forward faster with a committed listener (and questioner) involved.

And for a virtual team of players to hold your goals and commitments in check, find out about the upcoming PlayGame™ Mastermind Accountability Alliance here.

Got ritualized and forward-fitted you?

“We make ourselves up as we go.” – Kate Green

December 25, 2019 – JOLT -A universal season for a reason?

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.“ – Zuzu Bailey

Although it’s been said many times, many ways…

Merry Hanukkah…

Happy Christmas…

Joyous Kwanzaa…

Cool Yule…

Spectacular Solstice…

Rockin’ New Year…

to You!

Find your 2020 TEAM.

I’ve been running local mastermind groups full of folks producing amazing results…and plan to offer the same opportunities virtually in 2020. If you’d like more information, simply respond to this email expressing your interest. We’ll chat personally to assess your 2020 vision and TEAM readiness.

And, if you’d like to explore the impact of a coach on your sidelines as you look to play bigger and better, schedule a session here. Even the pros — especially the pros — have a coach in their Big Game.

Got the universal season?

“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer someone else up.” – Mark Twain

December 18, 2019 – JOLT – When you spread a bruise among a TEAM…you don’t even feel it

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“A bruise is a lesson…and each lesson makes us better.“ – George R.R. Martin

As we continue to look forward…

to the most ritualistic time of the year for becoming the new and improved version of ourselves – making New Year’s goals, intentions, resolutions, etc. – we want to remember what we are also committing to: bruises.

If you want to grow, then there is an unstated commitment you also make to…
-falling on your face
-building scar tissue
-a bruised ego
-over-stretched capacities
-mental, emotional, and spiritual challenges

The game of becoming the next-best version of ourselves ain’t for sissies. There’s real bumps, trip ups, knock downs, and even tears that come with the territory.

So, in deciding whether to play BIG or stay the same in the coming new year/decade/era of your life, it pays to go in eyes-wide-open.

A good Big Game plan would involve not only a coach — to help you see the game from another perspective, your strategic assets, your blind spots, etc. — but also medics on the sidelines — to remedy and treat the unavoidable bruises that will come from playing.

So, before the Big Game begins (should you choose to play one) in only a couple short weeks, start to consider…

1) Who will be my coach, and a team to play with, in moving by best-self goals forward inside a 2020 perfect vision?

2) Where will I set up my medics on the sidelines, and who will I turn to for support when my various parts of Self get bruised?

It’s an often overused acronym, but it bears reminding that Together Everyone Achieve’s More.

Find your 2020 TEAM.

I’ve been running local mastermind groups full of folks producing amazing results…and plan to offer the same opportunities virtually in 2020. If you’d like more information, simply respond to this email expressing your interest. We’ll chat personally to assess your 2020 vision and TEAM readiness.

And, if you’d like to explore the impact of a coach on your sidelines as you look to play bigger and better, schedule a session here. Even the pros — especially the pros — have a coach in their Big Game.

Got bruise readiness?

“It is better to go bruised to heaven than sound to hell.” – Richard Sibbes

December 4, 2019 – JOLT – I hear that train a comin’…

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“Ready or not, here I come!“ – 2020

When you look back…

did you ever really feel ready or prepared to…
-pick a career?
-have a kid?
-launch a business?

Maybe your answer is “yes”…but I’d say, for the most part, many aspects of your life came about by simply moving forward, doing the best with what you knew at the time, and taking a shot.

Sometimes your shot landed, and sometimes your face landed. But, by simply moving forward, even if that meant falling forward, you went a direction: forward.

2020 is almost here. This particular New Year and new decade is giving motivational folks a lot of kitschy and playful themes to play upon, my favorite of which is “Seeing Clearly.”

You may not feel ready or prepared for a whole new game coming in a few short weeks. And, honestly, there’s no new game coming at all if you don’t want one. It’s everyone’s choice to either choose the made-up ritual of New Year transformation or not.

But, if you ARE interested in getting on the inspirational growth train for your own life, even as it revs up to leave the station, there’s no time like the present to start seeing clearly for New Year/New Decade/New Opportunity ahead.

Next week, I’ll have some tools available for you to begin your take-myself-to-the-next-level prep. Heck, if you email me back directly, I’ll even send you a starter exercise right now.

Yet, no matter where you go, there you are. So, if you’re going into 2020, ready or not, which you will you bring? I suggest the one that’s as ready as possible.

Where, when, and how can you fit your New Year/New Decade/New You planning into your busy holiday schedule? When will you do that? Who will you tell who will hold you accountable? These are GREAT December 4th questions to ask yourself!

If you’d like a year-end/year-start review of your career or business goals, schedule a session here. You’ll more likely move forward when you have a committed listener involved.

Got ready you?

“People get ready, there’s a train comin’.” – Curtis Mayfield

November 27, 2019 – JOLT – Thanks!

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.” – Alfred North Whitehead

Of all the things you’re doing today…

reading long, inspiring, freedom and self-expression inducing emails is probably not a priority.

So, just a quick note to say THANKS for GIVING me the opportunity to reside in even a small part of your busy and robust life.

Heck, allowing me into your inbox on a weekly basis is actually no small part!

I appreciate your trust in me to regularly give you a little something that may brighten your day and your prospects for a better day tomorrow.

Heads up: based on your recent answers to the CareerGuy survey (thanks again to all respondents), I’ll be finding ways to more pointedly address your greatest needs and desires in the coming months…so watch out for opportunities to go beyond inspiration into effective action on what matters to you most.

Again, thank you, God Bless, and enjoy all that there is in your own life to be thankful for…today, tomorrow, and every day.

If you’d like to get a leg up and plan in place for taking your career or business to the next level in the coming New Year/New Decade, schedule a session here. Taking action in the first minute always beats waiting to the last.

Got thanks giving?

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” – Meister Eckhart

November 13, 2019 – JOLT – Shaking up the status quo…as you grow

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“When people tell you you’ve changed, it’s only because you stopped acting the way they want you to act.” – Unknown

Most of us want to grow but, at the same time…

feel subtly constrained by the environment we created while we were being who we used to be.

OK, what???

Think of it this way. You want to grow, so you pursue growth. Ideally, that growth produces a new and improved version of you.

However, you bring that new and improved you out into the world in which you’ve lived the previous you — the relationships that still exist, the job or business that still exists, the community or connections that still exists — and that environment is so used to the old you that it gets thrown off by the new you…and maybe even resists the new you.

On the one hand, real friends will always advocate and support your growth. But, even with real friends, there’s an adjustment period…because we’re all initially caught unawares by change. As personally developed as we can be, there’s still a part of us that looks for steady and predictable in the people and things around us.

On the other hand, fair weather friends will be gone, in a continual and futile search for that which is changeless.

So, if you’re gonna grow,
you gotta know
that your existing environment may flow
when you tell them what’s so.

You trained your environment to interact with you the way that it currently does. When you change, retraining your environment is simply part of the package.

Understanding the necessary changes that your personal growth brings about in your environmental structures is just part of the game…yet it pays to know going in. But would you, could you, have it any other way?

I have a personal investment in today’s message in that I, too, will start showing up a bit differently as CareerGuy and our services grow to best meet your needs and desires.

Last week, I conducted a survey of our CareerGuy community of subscribers, to learn what you most want and need. Thanks to all who contributed, and Chris Kauffman was our gift card winner. (If your voice wasn’t heard, you can still speak up for a limited time here.)

As we culminate a decade and move into a new one in only a few short weeks, I’ll be changing things up a bit in how I deliver what I have to best serve your career, business and personal interests.

What environment of your own can you shake up today as a testament to your own growth? And who do you want to show up as in the next decade to come?

If you’re up for some shaking and stirring of the elements of your career or business moving forward, schedule a session here. Sometimes a master mixologist is all you need.

Got growth-induced environmental shakeup?

“People say to me ‘You’ve changed.’ and I say ‘Haven’t you?’ People change. It’s just life.” – Jake Bugg

November 6, 2019 – JOLT – Your own mini-surveys check your reality

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“Embrace reality even if it burns you.” – Pierre Berge’

There’s this place called a Private Idaho...

that many of us can find ourselves living in.

For the sake of believing what we want to believe, operating in a way that suits us, and staying in our warm and comfy zones, there’s no better place to be.

However, if you care about anything outside of your silo, your own Private Idaho is the bad part of town…because there’s no information getting through. All means of communication with the outside world are locked down by egoic, totalitarian rule.

That may all sound so broad and poetic, but let’s just look at our jobs, our businesses, and our relationships. Do we really know how we are being perceived by the boss, the spouse/significant other, the employees, or the customers? Not if we don’t ask.

The rub with asking is that we may hear something we don’t like. That’s the egoic, totalitarian rule: fear. We all like good feedback vs bad. Yet, is not knowing worth the pain that comes from only finding out later that we coulda/woulda/shoulda benefited from input way earlier on?

Here’s the short and sweet message today, just like the mini-survey below: take an area of your life which you consider most crucial and solicit some feedback.

“Just wanted to check in: is there anything I should know or anything you’ve been thinking to communicate with me that you haven’t?”

The trick is, ask…and then shut up and listen. Don’t argue, don’t debate, don’t fix, and don’t even respond with anything but “Thank you. I appreciate your honest input.”

Brave enough to play? Wise enough to play? Let’s see what surprises and unexpected opportunities lie in store for you today!

Please take literally a minute to answer 7 brief questions to help us best serve you…and enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card as a thank you for helping us out. Take the mini-survey here.

Got mini-surveyed reality check?

“The road to success is always under construction.” – Lily Tomlin

October 30, 2019 – JOLT – Woke habits go bye bye

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Warren Buffett

There’s always talk about self-limiting beliefs…

but what about self-limiting habits?

We could say that beliefs and habits are intertwined in that one’s beliefs may reflect in their habits.

The problem with rising from either is that you mostly never realize when your self-limiting beliefs are dictating life, nor do you notice when you’re in the process of acting out your self-limiting habits.

It’s those beliefs and habits taking place unconsciously that can never be healed.

So, what do you do if you want to grow to be a bigger person today than you were yesterday?

Wake up to what’s unconscious! Begin to notice when beliefs and habits are playing out…and stop there!

The “stop there” part is critical because, otherwise, you use your adroitly gained insight as a hammer to slam down the tiny opening to freedom you just gained.

The worst thing you can do when you notice an old belief or pattern that no longer serves you is to judge and bash yourself for still having that damn belief or pattern.

The very reason you still have it is because every time it’s shown up to reveal more about itself — so you can understand, appreciate and embrace it — you made it feel like public enemy #1.

(Believe it or not, it was actually birthed inside of an effort to protect you and keep you safe.)

To actually ever heal a persistent belief or habit, it first takes consistent, non-judgmental awareness when as it shows up over and over and over again.

It helps to simply consider visits from age-old, limiting patterns and beliefs to be a sign that you’re becoming more awake and free. With that greater awareness, those once frequent visitors may actually realize — without any forcefulness from you — that they’ve worn out their stay.

What you resist persists. What rusty old habit can you observe and embrace today?

Woken habits is the first stage to moving beyond them. So, be grateful when you catch yourself doing it yet again!

If an age-old habit is waiting until things have gone awry in career or business to get help, notice it…and then schedule a private session here.

Got woke habits?

“I learned to be with myself rather than avoiding myself with limiting habits; I started to be aware of my feelings more. rather than numb them.” – Judith Wright