This past week I heard a song playing in Starbucks that stopped me in my tracks. At first I couldn’t quite place it, but then I quickly recognized the voice of James Maddock, a terrifically gifted singer/songwriter that I’ve known for years here in New York. He even played at my birthday party once. But hearing him on the radio like this for the first time literally gave me goose bumps. “Ah,” I thought to myself. “He’s arrived!”

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As I referenced in my last newsletter, change is difficult for most of us. And trying to alter any hardwired habit usually requires a great deal of courage and individual effort. One of my clients who is about to leave his job recently described to me the feeling of quitting as similar to what he felt when he first went skydiving. The idea was something that he had carefully considered and grew excited about for years. Yet when the actual time came for him to jump, staring out into the abyss below, he was gripped with an unimaginable fear of the unknown. The instructor had to literally push him out the door.

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Intensive Workshop with Ann Mehl and Michele Woodward

The rules of work have changed.

No job is secure any more.

But the only person with power over your career is you.

Whether you are looking at a total career overhaul, or simply a mid-
career tune up, join us for a one day intensive workshop on Career Invention.

Give us 3 hours and we’ll give you the tools to:

- Gain clarity and conviction on your goals

- Develop a plan to get started

- Expand your thinking about the possibilities of work 

WHEN: May 15, 1-4pm
WHERE: IGC, 16 West 23^rd Street, 4^th Floor
COST: $179; Refreshments will be served.
REGISTER HERE 

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One of my clients (we’ll call him George) came to me because he wanted to lose weight. He desperately wanted to lose weight. Over the course of ten years sitting behind a desk, he had gradually packed on an extra fifty pounds which, he painfully admitted, had become an encumbrance. His knees and back bothered him most of the time and he was often winded. With a very demanding work schedule involving a lot of travel, room service, business dinners – there was scarcely any time left for his wife and three children, let alone for self-care. I suggested a shift in his priorities might be in order if he was to be serious about tackling his weight loss goal. “But I don’t have time to exercise!” he protested. It’s a familiar refrain that most working adults can identify with.

After looking at some of the reasons why he might like to lose the weight, he confessed that the real motivation was that he was afraid he would not be around for his kids as they got older. Not only that, but he was envious of other dads with greater energy who, unlike him, were able to chase after their toddlers in the park without serious risk of a heart attack. At last, we were getting somewhere. Like a lot of men his age, George was torn between what he saw as providing for his family, and being with his family. “I commute 3 hours door-to-door, I work 10 hours a day, where am I gonna get an hour to spend at the gym?” he asked pointedly.

As a banker, George understood better than most the principles of saving and investment. I suggested he think of exercise as time invested rather than time spent. Why is it that when someone is working themselves into an early grave (as George clearly was), we say they are “investing” in the future? But when someone makes working out a priority, they are “spending” time at the gym? Maybe this is part of the problem. To George’s way of thinking, hours spent exercising was a luxury he simply couldn’t afford. I suggested otherwise: it is a down payment towards his future that he needed to make NOW.

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