journey Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

03
Jun 21
-

New Journey, Does It Happen Every Day?

Tags : celebration journey new beginning opportunity

Are you on a new journey? Have you ever felt stuck, or feel like you’re at the end? Perhaps not everything is as it first appears.

Late May or early June is typically about graduation. Young kids from grade school, teenagers from high school and those who have completed certificates or degrees in college. It signals the end.

It might also be true for wedding season. While marriages are a bond and are visionary for what lies ahead, they also include an ending. The ending of the single life and the old ways of navigation.

We see many other endings in life. Selling a car, leaving an apartment, or selling a home.

Most of these things represent a chosen path. A conscious ending point, a milestone.

In some cases, we seem to be more reflective of the end, instead of a new beginning.

New Journey

Is a graduation ceremony a marker for the end of a journey, or the celebration of a new one?

A similar question might be asked about a wedding or starting a new job.

What is the feeling at sunrise or sunset? A new beginning, closure?

It seems that when something signals a perception of ending, we take a breath, we reflect, and then we start to prepare for the next chapter in life.

There may be cause to celebrate, or even to mourn.

Yesterday something ended, perhaps it felt like just another day. Once in a while though, there will be a bigger event. Something that will be recognized as a marker, a turning point, an opportunity for what is next.

For most cases a new journey starts right after the ending of a different one.

Instead of focusing on what is over, remind yourself to focus on what is about to unfold.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

07
Apr 21
-

Target Destination and How You Should Travel

Tags : career destination journey navigation

What is your target destination? What did you pack or how will you travel? If you believe your career is a journey then you should be thinking about how you will get there.

Have you ever asked someone for directions and their response seemed to make you feel more confused than you already were?

Go straight down this road, then turn left at the fork in the road near the old tree stump. Then go up the first hill and across the old stream. Well, it’s not a stream anymore, they changed it a couple of years ago but you’ll see where it once was. After you cross the old stream look to your right and you’ll see a cornfield, right after the cornfield take the second right-hand turn. You’ll probably see this old guy either in his garden or sitting on the porch of the next house you see. Don’t turn in there. Go a little bit more until you pass the barn and then make an immediate left.

Or if you are in the city.

Go about six blocks and make a right at the 3rd red light. After you turn go to the first alley and make a left, you’ll go about 2 blocks through the alley. At the red brick building make a right, it is just beyond the dumpsters and if there is a lot of trash there you may miss it. Go down that alley to the 3rd steel garage door. That’s where you can park.

Bad or difficult directions often seem like they offer little to no help and might even be a little bit scary at the same time.

Target Destination

When you are on a journey it is important to clearly understand the direction you are headed. It probably starts with a vision, having a solid idea of where you want to end up. If you can’t decide, you never really start. You are just wandering.

When you have a specific destination in mind you probably need to apply it to a timeline. How long will it take and where will your stopping points be along the way.

Creating a map is valuable. Studying it is even more important.

A navigational tool can help. One that talks to you and gives you feedback when you’ve made a wrong turn or alerts you to construction zones and traffic jams. Feedback is valuable, not a waste of time.

You’ll need to consider the sign posts, mile markers, and what you’ll do about detours or unexpected setbacks.

Consideration for what happens after you’ve reached your destination will matter too. What will you wear and what will the weather be like? Although you may be in a new place, you’ll want to be comfortable and be able to fit in.

Without a target destination, you won’t get very far. You may end up looking back and realizing that while you were moving around a lot, you didn’t really go anywhere.

Identify your destination, plan appropriately, and most of all avoid getting directions from someone who can’t really tell you how to get there.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

06
Aug 18
-

Are You Taking The Best Career Path?

Tags : career destination journey path

It is the question that people ask before they start, the question along the way, and sometimes the question asked as they near the end. “I am on the right path?” The best career path has many variables. What is your path?

Time Matters

We hear it often and sometimes we say it. Life is short. Your career is even shorter. If your career or earning a respectable living is important to you here are a few things to keep in mind.

Most paths are fluid. Many people describe career shifts or changes throughout their lifetime.
Career paths are not always linear. Different than staying fluid, sometimes you may have to navigate sideways, or for a short time backtrack, to get to where you’re going.
While any career may at times feel painstakingly difficult, staying on the wrong path costs more than changing paths.

Best Career Path

What is the best career path? It is may be as simple as suggesting that it is the path you are currently pursuing. People often express the significance of their journey as providing more value than what they experience after arrival at the destination.

Destinations can change. If you leave New York in a car planning to drive to San Jose, California, you can change your mind in Cheyenne, WY and go to Santa Rosa, CA instead. Doesn’t really matter.

On the other hand, leaving New York, and driving to Tarpon Springs, FL, and then deciding your real destination should be Portland, OR, could be more problematic. The longer you are in the wrong direction, the costlier things become.

If you are a carpenter, deciding you want to be a heart surgeon when you are 45 years old is probably going to be difficult.

So, the best thing may be to make sure you are on a road that seems to support your general direction. Know where you don’t want to be.

Everything else may be just part of the journey.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

03
Apr 18
-

Career Advancement: When Will You Arrive?

Tags : arrive career goals growth journey

Finish school, go to college, do an internship, get a starter job, and be persistent. That is the advice of many. It isn’t bad advice but when will you arrive?

What do many people who are serious about their career do? They follow the advice of others. They observe those who appear to align with their definition of success. Perhaps in some ways they attempt to mimic or follow a similar path. Will this lead you to the point where you will arrive?

Faux Arrival

I remember in high school when I thought I had arrived. I had a full time job with benefits before graduating at the mature age of seventeen. At the time, I thought I had arrived.

Within a very short twelve-month period, I realized that I hadn’t really arrived. I needed to do something more. I enrolled in a community college, attained a two-year degree, got a full time job in my field. At the time, I thought I had arrived.

Life continued. Chasing positions, titles, and ever increasing income. Each time I thought I had arrived. Each time later, I realized I hadn’t.

As a non-traditional (thirty something) student I pursued a bachelor’s degree and got it. I enrolled in a graduate program, pursued that degree and got it. For sure, now I had arrived.

Still after each successive advancement, I felt the arrival hadn’t yet occurred. I started a business, pursued my passion, had some incredible experiences, made some money, made some mistakes, but still felt I needed to arrive.

Do you see a pattern here? It has taken me my entire career of more than thirty years to both see and understand when people really arrive in their career. When will you arrive?

Define Arrival

For everyone who is pushing, everyone who is dreaming, those goal oriented unstoppable people who are pursuing more in their career. The answer is simple.

Just like the GPS device offers, there is always another journey. Another chance, a different direction, an alternative route, the route someone else chose, the detour, the storm, the straight road, high road, swampy road, and the one with the most curves.

When you arrive, that is it. You’re finished, but only for now.

As it turns out, for many, it has never been about arriving, maybe because there is still something more, something to pursue, a goal or a bucket list.

On the other hand, maybe it isn’t about arriving at all. Perhaps it is much more about the life you lead along the way.

Will You Arrive

You can relax more when stop asking yourself when you’ll arrive. Your career really is not made upon arrival.

Your career is made each and every day you continue to pursue the arrival.

The journey is more important. You’ll arrive at your final destination only when you stop.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

28
Dec 17
-

Why Most Career Paths Are Unknown

Tags : career education journey path Talent

Working for years to discover your career path is common. Certainly pursuing meaningful work, continuing your education, and even taking some risk is important, but most career paths are not known, they are discovered.

Spirit of Career Paths

SharkTank is in its ninth season. Its popularity represents something that many believe is part of chasing the American dream. Entrepreneurs of all ages, backgrounds, and interests pitch a panel of venture capitalists in an attempt to continue building their dream.

People who care deeply about their career are working towards a dream. It may be doing something they love, trying to build financial freedom, or sometimes it is the final stretch of preparing for retirement. Many will tell you that they didn’t see the path until they started walking it.

Perhaps the most important news for career seekers is that there aren’t any shortcuts. What looks like a shortcut is probably a path that is already taken, saturated, overused, abused, or headed for decline.

Navigating the Pivot

The business climate is shifting. Technology has created opportunities that no one knew existed ten or twenty years ago. The people who are on their own journey will shape what is next. It is the path not yet discovered but one that is unfolding over time.

When your career is important to you, you’ll take the appropriate steps. You’ll do the work, put in the time, learn the skills, analyze the market, and jump in. All of that is good because standing still won’t make much happen.

Your Plan

Will it go exactly as you planned? Probably not and for a really good reason.

That reason is that your best work develops from your talent. It develops from your interests, the things others have suggested you do well, and from doing the things that feel natural.

That isn’t all though, your talent also develops from the twists and turns, the in’s and out’s, and how you performed and endured when things turned upside down.

It seldom is how others described it, how someone forecasted it, or what the text book suggested it would look like.

Most Career Paths

Your best work, the work that shapes your career, will come from your heart. It’s where the best work occurs, it creates luck throughout your journey.

There is a good chance that most career paths are unknown because you don’t really train for it, you become it.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: journey

Jun 21

-

New Journey

Apr 21

-

Target Destination

Aug 18

-

Time Matters

Best Career Path

Apr 18

-

Faux Arrival

Define Arrival

Will You Arrive

Dec 17

-

Spirit of Career Paths

Navigating the Pivot

Your Plan

Most Career Paths

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