October 29, 2014, TGIW: Unhumping Hump Day - CareerGuy.com

October 29, 2014, TGIW: Unhumping Hump Day

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

Oct 29

“You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.” –Jan Glidewell

Life brings us many perfectly-termed and metaphoric lessons when we’re awake to it.

My Outlook browser recently crashed. It was where I stored most every correspondence to do with my life. Though I keep most files separate from the emails they came or left in, I generally maintain various folders within Outlook for communications around the business activities and interests of my life.

So, it was as if my “life and times” had been wiped out in one fell swoop.

[Before we get to the punchline, take the hint: backup now!]

Like many of us have experienced (especially through recent times), I was facing a “starting over” process…with the last 6 years of communications eliminated. Not an exciting prospect.

I tried to think affirmatively and had all my friends praying as I brought my computer to the “miracle worker” shop I had used for years.  Yet, I had a sick feeling, from past experience, that a frozen Outlook file spelled disaster.

Sometimes we need to get the “lesson” being offered before conditions can shift…so I began looking. Again, it amazes me how literal our lessons can be.

It was time for a new “outlook”, one not based on the past, what had been done before, what had been said before.

Immediately I got the hit that my “Outlook” file would be recovered…yet I wouldn’t be able to interact with it: only to view it and use it for reference when necessary, but not operate based out of it.

Sure enough, lesson learned, and the old file is now accessible in “read-only mode.”

I truly hope the lesson was indeed learned (this time), and I offer the same restorative inquiry to you:

How can your dusty records of “life and times” get a wipe-out makeover, so you have a new “outlook,” informed by the past but not based on it?

Got new outlook?

“What’s so fascinating and frustrating and great about life is that you’re constantly starting over, all the time, and I love that.” –Billy Crystal

About the Author

DARRELL W. GURNEY, Executive/ Career Coach and 20-year recruiting veteran, supports people at all levels to make fulfilling and profitable career transitions. His first book, Headhunters Revealed! Career Secrets for Choosing and Using Professional Recruiters, was winner of the Clarion Award for Best Book by the Association for Women in Communications and was reviewed in Publishers Weekly. His newest book, Never Apply for a Job Again: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Rest, has been endorsed by bestselling thought leaders such as Harvey Mackay, Keith Ferrazzi, and Dr. Ivan Misner. A personal and business brand strategist, Darrell’s Stealth Method of networking has helped folks expand their reach within both careers and new client circles. He speaks, leads workshops, and is a media expert on subjects such as recruiting, networking, and finding one’s passion. He was recently named Networking Expert for BeyondB-School.com and offers webinars and programs that get MBA students and working professionals out, connected, and landed.

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