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The Excellerator

Think. Plan. Excel.

July 2009

Greetings!

Welcome to our latest monthly newsletter for your reading enjoyment. Finding your passion in life and aligning it with your work is priceless. Many people search for years, even a lifetime, but never achieve this alignment. In this issue we offer some helpful insight into how you can find out what your passion is and connect it with work that will fulfill that passion.

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Happy reading!

Dave Vogelpohl
919-544-3787

dave@excelleratesolutions.com

Bill Spreitzer

919-388-3600

bspreit@excelleratesolutions.com

We welcome your comments and feedback on our newsletter and would love to hear from you on how we can be of service.

Tell Your Story in a Powerful Way

Occasionally I have a coaching client or friend who is interested in making a career or job change and they ask me to review their resume. To add more value in these conversations, I recently attended a two day workshop conducted by Richard A. Hart entitled "Make Your Resume Talk". Dick is a well-known author of a book with the same title. He conducts numerous workshops to help people apply the principles reviewed in his book. He has literally helped hundreds of people find work that engages their passion and helps to fulfill their lives.

One of Dick's primary messages is that your resume is an advertisement, not an obituary! It should tell the story about how good you are and why you deserve an interview. It's a very positive document. To prepare for telling your story in a powerful way you need to determine the answers to the following questions:

Who am I, what are my passions?
What do I offer?
What are my strengths and weaknesses?
What are the main contributions I can make?
Who do I want to target for engaging my passion?

Every resume should tell the story about why you are good for a particular position; therefore your resume will change for every targeted position. The objective part of the resume is the most important part. It matches the job description advertisement to what you are good at, your skills and experience - the YOU factor. Dick's coaching tells you how to do this clearly and briefly and how to make you stand out from others.

There are five important factors in creating a powerful resume and having a successful interview:

Believe in yourself: be clear about what you're good at, what you've done to demonstrate how good you are and how well this positions you for what you want.
Attitude: stay positive, you have even more talent than what is on the paper!
Be persistent: show up at your targeted company and show an interest that makes you stand out. Let them know what you're made of.
Prepare: research the company, the position and the hiring people. If you are changing careers, conduct informational interviews with people in your targeted industry.
Relax: if you do the above items, you are in a position to be successful. Let the real you shine!

There are many other tips offered in Dick's book and workshop. Ask yourself what you enjoy about your work, what are you passionate about and find a position that offers what you want. Bill's article in this month's newsletter provides insight about how to probe answers to the first question. Happy reading!

By: Dave Vogelpohl - Excellerate Solutions, Inc.

Working for What You are Passionate About

First Examine your Desires, Legitimate Needs, and Unique Talents

Over the past year, more and more friends, family members, clients, prospective clients, and colleagues are longing for the answer to the question, what line of work or profession will generate passion in my life? All of us would love to thrive and be passionate about our work - jumping out of bed before the alarm goes off, being surprised at how fast the hours and days seem to go by, and being anxious to share our day with our loved ones. But yet the answer to this important, timely question seems to elude most of us.

According to Matthew Kelly in his book The Rhythm of Life, if you are willing to put forth the effort and seriously examine your:

Desires - "what you are passionate about",
Legitimate Needs - "what you need to thrive", and
Unique Talents - "what you were born to do",

you will find that living every day with passion and purpose resides at the intersection of these three life circles.

Desires
Many of us are often plagued by our fear of failure or our fear of success. This self imposed fear often keeps us from uncovering our deep desires or the dreams we have for our life. One way to open up our thinking is to answer this question - What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail? More specifically, what do you truly desire most in the major areas of your life (i.e., Health & Fitness, Family, Career, Relationships, Spirituality, Education, Finance, Charity, Vacation, etc.)?

Challenge yourself to create a written list of the "Top 5" desires or dreams in each area of your life and authentically share them with a loved one, a close friend, or a trusted colleague. These desires should serve as guideposts for deciding what profession/career will generate passion in you and that will further the fulfillment of your life dreams.

Legitimate Needs
Of course we all have primary needs of food, water, shelter and safety that must be met in order to survive. But this article and the coaching Dave and I do isn't about surviving at life but rather "thriving"! A legitimate need is what you require to thrive in life vs. a "want" which is a "nice to have" but not essential.

So let's look at your legitimate needs in the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual domains as set forth in The Rhythm of Life by M. Kelly.

Physical - Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep - What do you need to incorporate into your daily routine to have a body that supports you in living an extraordinary life?
Emotional - Acceptance, Sense of Belonging, Authentic Friendships, Intimacy - Who do you need in your life to be your very best
Intellectual - Ideas, Knowledge, Wisdom - What do you need intellectually to inspire you beyond your comfort zone?
Spiritual - Silence, Solitude, Simplicity - How much of these do you need to hear the gentle and true voice within you?

Make sure that your work, your chosen career allows time for these legitimate needs to be met.

Unique Talents
What are those talents and strengths that you possess that set you apart from everyone else? What is your "genius"? As human beings, we are all gifted in one or more ways. Spend time identifying your unique talents and strengths and then select those professions that truly exploit your "genius". (Note: I recommend that your read or re-read Dave Vogelpohl's article entitled: Optimize and Improve Your Strength)

In closing, I urge you to engineer a life that includes a profession that you are passionate about, that addresses your desires and dreams, legitimate needs and that honors your "genius".

By: Bill Spreitzer - Excellerate Solutions, Inc.