Category: Work + Career

Systems Need to Change: The Future of Work, College, Education — and the Future of YOU?

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

What is the future of work? How about the future of education? Across the news, education reform and the way we learn seem to be undergoing a slow overhaul–or it still desperately needs one.  The future of work is constantly shifting as we untangle ourselves from the traces of our industrial past and figure out the implications of a mobile, wired, location-free global society. People are debating whether or not going to college is worth it; especially since the work landscape post-college looks fairly bleak.

Many of the systems and structures we’re using are broken. Not all of them are broken, and not everything needs to be redone, but I agree with the sentiment that innovation is desperately needed.

Innovation doesn’t come from a specific age, place, or group of people. We like to glamorize the entrepreneur as a college-dorm-room drop out, and Inc’s 30-under-30 lists sometimes make it seem as if you’re 31 or older; you’re toast. I disagree, and I think there is good news: innovation is popping up all over the place–New Orleans, Silicon Prairie, Start Up Weekends, etc. and Under 30 CEO’s recent (unofficial) reader rankings listed places like New Orleans, Kansas City, and Austin, Texas as great for entrepreneurship.

As TIME Magazine wrote in the 2009 special, The Way We’ll Work: “Who knows what jobs will be born a decade from now? Though unemployment is at a 25-year high, work will return eventually.” How it returns, however, has yet to be seen. In the report, Time suggests that managers and management will have to be rethought, women will rule the workforce, baby boomers won’t quit, and sustainability won’t be a fad–it’s here to stay. The topics of education and employer reform are too long for this post, however–and I’ve got some thinking on this topic that I’m expanding for other publications–but I’m not going to go into detail in this post. Beyond the aggregate, I wanted to share projects local and broad from friends and people I admire as a way to inspire you and as a way to get involved.

Want to get intimately entrenched in understanding how the landscape of work is changing? Want to change the world yourself? The best way to make something happen is to do something. It doesn’t just matter what’s written in Time. It matters what you do, both for your own career, as well as in changing work and education for everyone. Here are some of my favorite projects happening right now, by people all around us:

The Bold Academy – Amber Rae

Want to change the world, but not sure how to get started? Amber Rae is shaking things up by creating a new experience for college grads brimming with talent but confused “about what to do with their lives and how to contribute something meaningful.”  Rather than do the traditional coursework lined up in college semesters, the team aims to focus on skill sets like Self-Awareness, Integrity, Confidence, Risk-Taking, Resourcefulness, and Strategy. To apply, head over here. Applications for the first installment are now closed, (update: Applications are open until April 5.) and I’m excited to see what shakes out with the inaugural class. As they say in their opening line:

“The landscape of higher education is about to change.”

Encouraging Entrepreneurship: StartUp Weekend, Fix Young America and the YEC

Entrepreneurship is a buzzword these days, and new organizations such as Start Up Weekend, Three Day Startup and more are capitalizing on creating new companies, products, and executing ideas within a limited time frame. People travel from all over to join a small group of people interested in creating something new (I did it last August–StartUp Weekend, Los Angeles. I highly recommend it). In addition, the new campaign to Fix Young America by Scott Gerber and the YEC team looks to use youth entrepreneurship to tackle unemployment. In a recent article by Mashable, the#FixYoungAmerica campaign explains their mission to turn around the “twin epidemics of youth unemployment and underemployment.” Fitzpatrick writes:

“With youth unemployment at a 60-year high and student-loan debt nearing the $1 trillion mark, can anything be done by the technology sector to help young Americans struggling to find work?” 

The Future of Work – Lane Becker and Thor Muller

Lane Becker and Thor Muller are on a quest to document the “the stories of the obsessive makers, innovators and entrepreneurs that are leading the way to a new wave of business.” They launched a campaign just a few weeks ago to raise money for their cross-country RVIP trip to scavenge the country in search of people with the following character traits: “irreverent, adaptable, purpose-driven, and unattached to conventional categories.”

Part documentary, part exploration-adventure, and part innovation in itself, the pair will “bring together these doers in every town through the one-of-a-kind RVIP Lounge & Karaoke Cabaret [to] capture the larger movement, still in its early stages, that is transforming our fading industrial economy into something vibrant and more human.”

The project has 6 days left to raise funding, and they’re nearly there – two thirds of the way! Yes, I’m telling you to put your dollars behind this cause. 

Best of New Books

I’m really excited about a few books coming out very, very soon (stay tuned for book reviews!!). Each of the following books is related to the idea of entrepreneurship, the future of work, and developing your best self.

  • The $100 Start Up — by Chris Guillebeau, coming out May 18th. In it, Chris identifies 1,500 individuals “who have built business earning $50,000 or more rom a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less),” focusing on 50 case studies. As Pam Slim wrote in her review, the book “delivers exactly what a new entrepreneur needs: road-tested, effective and exceptionally pragmatic advice for starting a new business on a shoestring.”
  • Need, Speed, and Greed — by Vijay Vaitheeswaran.  I heard about this on NPR earlier this morning, in a conversation about globalization, Googlization and the new innovation revolution that is “more powerful than any economic force since the arrival of Europeans on North American shores half a millennium ago.”
  • The Fire Starter Sessions — Danielle LaPorte’s book comes out in just a few weeks, a collection of “soulful wisdom” to inspire and shake you up, helping you re-frame the way you approach your career, your life. As Martha Beck writes: “Danielle LaPorte is scary smart, yet so kind and practical that she kindles the fire in you without causing you to feel consumed by the flames. She has the knowledge you need to succeed. Lean in and listen close. What she has to say is what our spirits need to hear.”
  • Get Lucky — the precursor to their kickstarter campaign (tagline: “Go Luck Yourself”), Becker and Muller co-authored the book, “Get Lucky: How To Put Planned Serendipity to Work for You and Your Business.” Can’t wait to read it.
  • Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit From Global Chaos – by Sarah Lacy. I’m a few pages into it at the moment; it’s about “that top 1% of people who do more to change their worlds through greed and ambition than politicians, NGOs and nonprofits ever can.”
  • Overconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet — by William Davidow. What are the luxuries and pitfalls of the connected age? And, are smartphones and mobile internets making us smarter–or dumber?
  • The Work Revolution — Julie Clow’s first book comes out in three weeks, and I’m excitedly awaiting my copy for review to show up here in a few days. So far, I completely agree with the premise: “The Work Revolution is about changing the way the world sees work. By making simple changes to improve our relationships with work and each other, we can systematically ignite a work revolution everywhere.”

So What’s Next?

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited and inspired by all of the changes happening. There are a lot of systems that we’ve built over centuries that need to evolve; things that are outmoded, outdated, shifting. The pressures of an uncertain economy and the need for creative destruction can be difficult on an individual and community level, but it’s through hardship that true genius and innovation are often created.

Take a cue from these people above, who’ve created campaigns, ideas, books, essays: they’re just people like you and I, who have worked towards building something important. If you feel strongly that things need to change, then change is up to you. It’s not other people who are going to do something. It’s you.

What are YOU going to do?

What Your Job Is Not

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

What is your job?

Or, more importantly, what is your job not?

One evening, late on a Friday night, I asked myself what I was accomplishing, and what I was achieving. Who am I working for? What’s the bigger picture? How am I making this happen? 

Sometimes, to figure out what to do, you have to make a “do not” list. A “Your job is NOT” list.

So, frustrated, I scratched a few reminders and notes down in my journal. What am I doing? I thought. What really needs to be done?

Here’s a few:

  • Your job is not checking email.
  • Your job is not (just) making other people happy. 
  • Your job is not to stay late.
  • Your job is not to be miserable.
  • Your job is not to make other people miserable.
  • Your job is not procrastinating. 
  • Your job is not acting in a way that goes against your beliefs.
  • Your job is not to be bored.
  • Your job is not your life.

What is your job? 

  • Your job is something you do.
  • Your job might help you to pay the bills.
  • Your job is a place to create great work. 
  • Your job is to learn.
  • Your job is to bring your unique and necessary skillset to particular projects.
  • Your job is to excel.
  • Your job is to innovate, improve, and generate.
  • Your job is to to make your boss look great.
  • Your job is to use your judgment wisely.
  • Your job is to be the best professional you can be, given your knowledge, expertise and judgment.
  • Your job is to be a great teammate. 
  • Your job is to make others’ work better. 
  • Your job is to grow.

A Rant on Ridiculous Words and Phrases

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Perhaps it was my foray into Twitter and Google+ this past year, but I’ve found myself simultaneously overjoyed by the opportunities and connections, and also, now, a bit weary of repetition. Some of the same themes, ideas, and mantras crept up time and again, each time undermining their efficacy and usefulness. In particular, given the limitation of 140-characters (a typical tweet), I find that people keep using the same (awesome!) words (epic!) over (insane!) and (sweet!) over again (cue: Top Ten Things You Must Do To Become Cooler Than You Are Now).

Anyone else tired? Maybe, of course, I just need to shake it up and start following different threads. But for now, I’ll rant.

Here’s a list of what I think are the most over-used words from the past year. These aren’t the 100 most common words in the English language (words like “the,” “and” or “if”) — these are words that have crept into common lexicon and subsequently eroded their usefulness. Without further ado, I bring to you the list of most over-used words of 2011 (I, too, am guilty of these–please note locations where I’ve self-edited said words out of this post!). 

Words (and phrases) to eliminate from our vocabulary

Epic. Really. Epic? Is it really epic? Seriously. I’m sure. I’m certain that your blog post, or personal photograph, or even your dinner meal was epic. Or how about this: it definitely wasn’t, and I don’t care. Epic is for things like wire-walking. Or doing an entire iron man while pulling, pushing, and running with your disabled son. Or a dog jumping out a plane because of his sheer love and trust of humans, not because it’s a few words on another internet page (see this rant on photography, with a photo of the dog about halfway down). 

Amazing. To cause amazement. To induce a state of surprise and wonder. Really, see micro-rant from “epic,” above. The cosmos are amazing. The discovery of a helio-centric universe and it’s subsequent explanation and rebuttals by the church is pretty amazing. The internet is amazing. Physics and mathematics from the 16th century, aka Galileo, is quite amazing. The word debuted in 1530, so I’m pretty fairly sure Galileo (circa 1564) might have used the word once or twice. (I have included the original drafts’ use of “pretty,” which is a word I also think is overused–see below, and slap me on the wrist for that.)

Super. This one just makes you sound like you’re somewhere between the ages of twelve and eighteen, and no older. I’ve used it handfuls of times this year already, to dismissive and skeptical looks. Trust me, stop using this word. Like, that’s super! Yeah. Not so good.

Freaking.  A filler word used to make other words seem even more important, but usually has the opposite effect. That’s pretty freaking cool.

Outstanding. I’m a nice person. But most things aren’t outstanding. Things are well done. Good. In progress. Great. Incomplete. Very well researched. Time-intensive. Find another word that doesn’t erode the validity of this one.

Awesome. Just see “epic” and “amazing” above.

Like. Makes you sound … like… a valley girl. Want to know how to eliminate it from your speech? Videotape yourself while you give a presentation. Or just videotape yourself and try talking about anything. Have a friend count on their hand the number of times you use this word in conversation with them.  If you don’t mind them doing so, have them slap you each time. It’s a nervous tic, a habit, a lazy habit of speech that can be eliminated. Bring it to the front of your consciousness. Then, try to speak without using the word going forward.

Totally. What does this word even mean? I get the vague sense that it should mean complete, or full, or in total agreement. We use it to offer concurrence or acceptance of what someone else is saying, and we use it to prod someone to keep speaking (or worse, to finish speaking). What if you smiled and nodded instead? If you used your body language instead of flippant words to make a point?

Word. This should have died years ago.

Literally. If it’s not literal, don’t use it.

Seriously. Right?

“See what I’m saying” which is equally interchangeable with “Know what I mean?”  (see below). These phrases bubble up like nervous chatter and become filler phrases that indicate that you’re not sure if someone is listening to you.

“Know what I mean?” Equally interchangeable with, “You know?” as a question inserted at every breath point in a sentence, ending in a lilt, you know?, that kind of, like, you know?, drives the other person bat-shit crazy.

Ending anything with questions. For the love of God. If you’re going to say something, have the courage to believe in it. Say it with purpose. Intention. Belief. If you don’t believe in yourself, who will? At worst case, you could be wrong, and then you can issue a corrective statement. … right?

Bold. “It’s a bold new century.” Is it really now? Are you sure? Because I think it’s just a new century. We’re talking a lot of bold nonsense. Let’s get real.

Passion(ate). Your passion could eat itself off the page and sell you a job. In fact, I think you’re so passionate, I’m certain you’ve said it six different times in your resume and cover letter. Find a different word. In fact, skip the word altogether and go straight to the examples–the ones where you’ve volunteered, donated, started your own project, built, and succeeded in doing these things, and your passion rings true. You don’t have to say it anymore.

Social media. Two of the most generic words: media, how we communicate, and social, how we interact. So you’ve used “social media” to do … what, exactly? If you say you’re a social media strategist, I’ll look at you with glazed eyes, unsure if you just surf facebook or if you’re actually doing something more useful with your time. Tell me more specifically about who you are and what you do; what your objectives are, and what tactics, specifically, have worked in your industry and why. Everyone’s calling themselves’ a social media strategist nowadays. Don’t be one of them.

Just. Inserting the word “just” before any phrase undermines it’s strength. It’s a way of putting a clause in front of your work, of reducing the importance of what you do. I’m just a girl. I’m just an intern. I’m just doing my job. It’s an excuse, it’s bullshit, and if you’re just doing something, perhaps you shouldn’t do it at all.

Pretty. A filler word, used to reduce the value of other words. “Yeah, that’s pretty cool. … dontcha think?”

Kinda. See “Just” and “Pretty.”

If you use any of these words, imagine me hitting you each time you do it. Stop. And likewise, remember that bloggers usually write posts because they need to hear the words as well: give me a little nudge if I slide back into this lazy form of writing. I know that we can be more creative, more expressive, and more clear in our use of language to make the point that we’re trying to make. We have one of the most  a nuanced, elaborate language–a complex blend of German, Anglo, Saxon, Roman, Celtic, and multiple other influences.

There are a few recent posts I enjoyed — such as Alpha Dictionary’s 100 beautiful words list, which gives us 100 under-used words to add to our lexicon. Try them.

Thanks.

Any other terrible phrases, words, or commonalities that should be eliminated from our everyday vocabulary? Let me know and I’ll add them to this post if I agree. :)

 

When The Going Gets Tough…

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Hiking through urban Taipei, Taiwan as part of a landscape project.

You’re probably heard the phrase before:

When the going gets tough … the tough get going. 

Sometimes, when the going gets tough, I want to head home, curl up in my favorite blankets, turn the lights down low and eat cookies and watch TV. (That’s my escape, at least). Sometimes, I get so overwhelmed with the projects in front of me, with my dreams and aspirations, and with the sheer amount of work on my plate that I just want to give up, stop, quit, throw my hands up in exasperation, or just plain hide out for a while.

And, as a small confession: sometimes–actually a lot of times–I do hide out. I look at the person who was writing and smiling confidently a few days before and I peer out from behind the virtual mirror like a kid hiding inside a big store, wide-eyed in the corner, watching, and I wonder–I did that? I can do that? It’s not possible … it’s just me over here!–and for a short time I retreat back into my home space, escape the world with some good old-fashioned “Terrible Television,” procrastinate like mad, and eat delicious cookies. You might call it my vice.

But, when I’m done hiding out–or on the days when hiding out isn’t a proper option, because often, as much as we want it to be it’s not–I have to come back into reality and figure out how to deal with the tough stuff. This year has at times been a particularly tough one–and at the same time, an amazingly wonderful one. It’s like each time I make it through a challenge or adventure, life ups the ante. And yet each time I face the new obstacle, I have more confidence and gumption because I tackled those previous challenges and made it through most of them.

The best way to build confidence is by doing things. Not by thinking. Not by worrying.

Sometimes the hardest part of the race is getting started. One step at at time is all it takes. Ask anyone who’s already finished.

Breathe in, breathe out. There’s beauty in adversity. Maybe do a handstand or two. And get back into the ring.

When the going gets tough … the tough get going.

The 9-to-5 Doesn’t Always Make Sense. How I Work: Discipline. Differences. Structures. Boundaries. Freedom.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Sometimes my Grandpa says I work too hard. I try to tell him that my work is not the same as work used to be. I work late. I work early. I take breaks in the middle of the day.

He points to the clock. It’s 6’o’clock, he says, wobbling over his cane and tapping on the table where I’ve got my laptop opened. It’s time to stop working, he commands.

I agree, and I also completely disagree. I’ve just finished taking a half hour break to chat with friends and colleagues online–spirited discussions and meeting new people and reading and networking like a champ–and now I’ve got to get back into my grind and focus on the production, the creation that I do every day.

I live in a new world, perhaps, at least to my parents and grandparents. I work in bursts of creation, usually 90 minutes to 3 hours in length, inset by pauses for lengthy conversations, connectivity, explorations, learning, and movement. My days–my sometimes 16-hour days–begin with walks, meander through coffee with great thinkers, are sometimes propelled by spurs of insane connectivity in the middle of the day, outreaching and coordinating with editors and speakers and writers and clients–and then in between it all I nestle down for sessions of quiet solitude filled with reading, writing, creation, drawing. I shutter down each day from the internet, often hours at a time (forgive me, twitter, but I schedule you out at times to play along, but I’m a ghost; not really there as much as it might appear). During these shutter hours I focus, focus, driven by purpose and deadline, and mostly, discipline.

These structure and boundaries give parameters for freedom; space to think within the allotted lines, which inevitably bend and give way once I gallop and leap beyond them. Loose, dashed lines of constraints provide the discipline required for invincible creativity, and I thrive in the flexibility and structure provided by these bare-bone parameters. As Jonah Lehrer has written, one of the paradoxes of the human condition is that we are more creative with boundaries; our freedoms and productions tend to increase within constraints, to a certain degree.

The simple recipe of 9 to 5 has no resonance with me; many suggest that the 9 to 5 is antiquated, a thing of the past. I can neither sit still nor think for eight hours, let alone be in one place or with one task. Everything about that schedule is arbitrary–the start time, the end time, the things that we must produce within that set amount of time.  The only thing left is an antiquated system that we perpetuate because we don’t have the courage to think differently.

We have moved quickly, cleanly beyond an industrial age where outputs were set (“build 18 shoes, please, and send them down the conveyor belt”) a time when we knew exactly when our works’ work was done; beyond the infrastructure of the giant corporation, the relic of the 1950’s-2000’s, to today: today, we live in a world where information is ubiquitous and overwhelming, and being ‘done’ with work is never truly over. A world where information threatens to take over globally, yet somehow this collection of voices creates so much noise that it pulls us locally again, towards communities and coffee shops, to social circles that we can trust instead of constantly test (for being on top of information at all times takes far too much energy for the individual).  In all of this, creative and intellectual pursuits require exceptional discipline, or else these individuals can become swallowed by the banal of chasing information and products that yield no results.

The 9 to 5 schedule, too, strikes at the wrong hours of the day for my scheduling. For me, 9 am falls in the middle of my best hours, and 5 pm at the middle of my worst hours. In any given day, I probably only have 5 hours of ‘great’ work time, time when I’m focused on writing and complex problem solving; I regard these hours as fundamentally precious and push everything to the wayside during these times. I have time for lower-level thinking tasks (batch email sending, task responses, errands, etc) – and if I don’t match my energy levels to the projects’ needs, I’ll end the day frustrated, discouraged, and unsatisfied. Trying to write during the slump of a post-lunch warm afternoon is what I call awful.

And so, I have both a peculiar and wonderful schedule. I wake up early, sometimes really early. I write in the lonely morning hours, silent and still, peaking by 10am and entering the flurry of the working world–and my job–turning onto the networks for a while, answering calls as they come in. On a lucky day, I’ll close the office door, turn off the phones, and continue to write until 11 or noon. On a bad busy day, I’ll have meetings all morning, eroding the precious hours of productivity with talking. (I’ll amend that: the busy, coordination days are not my favorite, but they are what set the stage for later days of productivity and creation. It’s more likely than not that I need a balance of both, that one doesn’t exist without the other). Still, I take steps to arrange meetings only during times when my energy levels match the needs of collaborating with others. Knowing that I only have a few “good” hours each day makes me carve out time differently.

I am a fastidious multi-tasker; in that I do many tasks throughout the day and let some percolate in the back of my mind while focusing most of my energy on the job at present. (This is distinctly different from trying to do things at the same time. Rather, this form of “multi-tasking” is akin to multiple burners, one on high, several on simmer. I think you’ll burn the food if you try to cook it all on high at the same time; but you can have ideas brewing on the back burner, certainly). Through it all I follow my energy flows closely, watching when my exhaustion peaks, when my lethargy sits, when my vivaciousness is at a high; and I match the tasks at hand to the problems I need to solve.

When I switch from writing to design, the office changes again, transforming into a new space to produce: I design best to pulsating music, so my office–or my coffee shop, wherever I am working–turns into a pseudo-dance party, techno beats and rhythms coloring the flurry of my designs. Most days involve dancing, thinking, and dancing again.

Throughout it all, I set targets and goals and deadlines, knowing the importance of self-discipline above all else–and in the mornings, I write out fresh post-it notes with clear, tangible goals and deadlines. With each, I strive to hit the 4 pm or 5 pm mark, a practice I’ve honed over years of incremental steps. My habits are reinforced daily: I know now that the projects have to be finished; to me, it makes sense to then try to do everything I can to finish them early.  Deadlines are arbitrary; work expands to fill the space you give it. The sooner I get done with a design puzzle or a press release or a meeting, the sooner I can get back to precious creation. No sense in wasting time.

And then, to dream, to kick on my dreamers’ hat again, and to watch the world, grasping the importance of being and the inspiration that’s required for any good work, I walk. And I walk a lot, exploring and moving frequently. Usually at least once between 3 pm and 7 pm–these are the times when during a puzzlement of problems, or of mounting frustration, I’ll push back my chair, stand up, spritz sunscreen on, grab my hat and keys, and wander. I leave the closed, strange office environment and sometimes I break into a run or a sprint, and I run, work pants rolled up, shoes exchanged for sneakers hidden underneath my desk, blouse replaced by a long-sleeved shirt. And I’ll run until I’m out of breath, looking out on the Sausalito waters, shaking my brain’s thoughts around until they settle like loose chips in a bucket, falling individually into place. Within a half an hour, I’m back at work, back at the desk, and without fail, the brain is working again–

–and it’s like morning, when I get back from a walk, and I’m ready. I eat, and I sit, and I take the next chunk of time, usually 2 hours, and I figure stuff out and get it done. In a precious day, sometimes up to 3 days per week, I’ll hit a second stride and find a creative flow to work for 3-4 hours. And I’ll chase it, producing quietly and steadily, building a stream of writing and coloring my desk with designs and drawings, and I’ll sigh at the end, satisfied, full, and tired.

Each day is different. The days the focus stays, I’ll finish a project with a 4-hour stint, coming home late to a glass of wine and a quiet yoga session. Other days my brain is clouded and maxed and I leave early, taking the afternoon to rest and recover and interact and play.

And that, that’s what I can’t say with my eyes when I look at my Grandpa. It’s just one thing that’s different in the world from when he used to work and the way that I work. His calculus, diff-e-q, tangential brain sits me down and marks up notes on electrical circuitry and my infantile, kinesthetic self squirms at being forced to sit; I feel my skin itch and crawl with the inability to roam free; and I know that it’s not just the generational differences that are at play. I must be free. Free to create. And you? You, do what works for you.

Do Something

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I’m sitting on an airplane, staring out the window, reflecting on the year past and how quickly it seems to have gone by, and thinking about all the adventures I’ve been on. December is a time of pause: we can stop and look back, and, if we really do our diligence, analyze how we can improve and get better.

I’ve met so many people this year who want to do things, but something’s not working: there’s excuse after excuse after excuse; ideas that don’t make it off the drawing board; self-defeating mechanisms that work against you instead of for you. I can’t say that I know what I’m doing all the time, but I’ve developed a few tricks that have worked along the way. And here, on the airplane, I can’t help myself: I quickly scratch out a list of motivations, of voices that I wish you would hear when you’re working hard, when you’re trying new things. This is my manifesto for 2012: to making things happen. You need to make it happen.

Do something.

This is my mantra for the year, my vision behind my actions. You won’t get anywhere faster by sitting and thinking about them. (And I realize the irony of sitting and thinking about this, even as I do it: sometimes moments of reflection are prudent. But here on the airplane, the things I’m happiest about from last year are the actions I took. The things I DID.). And I know this to be true, from the life I’ve lived so far: you need to act, even in the face of uncertainty. You need to try new things. Fail beautifully. Fail miserably. Get stuck. Be frustrated. Make microscopic movements in better directions. But above all else, we must do something.

Do something.

Here’s the presentation: Fifty handwritten notes for you, as always.

With love,


DO SOMETHING

(Can’t see the presentation? Watch it on slide share). 

The One-Page “Career Cheat Sheet” — Free Download

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Do you like your job?

Do you like what you do?

I’ve spent time with a wide range of folks – people in start-ups, people in recently established businesses, people in small companies, and people in large companies. This question comes up a lot, yet you can’t seem to figure out whether or not to stay or go. Whether to try something new. If it’s possible to fix something that’s an existing problem.

Given statistics that say that as much as 80% of people don’t like their job, and some 25% of us are un- or under-employed, I scratched out a quick flow chart for questions to ask yourself about your current job — or a job you are considering. (To download a free PDF of this file, head over here, or click the image below to save as a jpg).

Reflection Questions: (Answer Yes, I’m Not Sure, or No)

  1. Am I my best self in this relationship?
  2. Do I believe in the product, organization, or service?
  3. How does this job make me feel? Good, Accomplished, Satisfied?
  4. Am I challenged to be my best?
  5. Am I growing and learning?
  6. Am I meeting or surrounding myself with good people doing interesting things?
  7. Are people in this organization open to new ideas and receptive to each other?
  8. Is this the best use of my skills and talents? Aka – Am I indispensible?
  9. Are there people I can learn from and look up to? Do I have good mentors or advisers?
  10. Do I want to become my boss?

If yes: (More than 5? Rock on! You nailed it!)

If I’m not sure or No: Ask the following follow up questions:

  1. Will this change?
  2. How long will this take to change?
  3. Is this non-negotiable?
  4. Is there somewhere else with more YES responses?

This is an exercise I do every few months, as well, to check in. Sometimes I’ll meet a friend for dinner and we’ll talk about what we want to achieve and what our goals are. I check-in regularly with my own progress, debating what the best career path is and how to keep myself up to snuff. Some of the questions I ask myself I find myself asking other people over and over. My focus is always on trying to figure out problems, understand how things work, and discover how to make tweaks to make things better.

And so, — voila! — a one-page cheat sheet of notes straight from the notebook in a dorky little flow chart. I use these periodically to determine whether or not to take on freelance work, whether or not I’m happy at my current position, and also to determine if your job is a good fit for YOU. By many accounts, it may be a great job — for someone else. If you have a few “yes” answers below and a few things to figure out; congrats, you’re in good shape. If you have more than half yeses, and a few things to work on, killer. And if you have all yeses, like the folks I recently bantered with about their new start-up, then you’re doing what you were made to do.

What do you think of this cheat sheet? Is it helpful? Let me know if you have other questions you would ask if you’re trying to figure out the right career fit.

 

20 lessons from starting a project, part two: launch week.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck


I’m breathing again, having just launched our website project this past week. Everything was set to go live early in the week – launch campaign emails, final website tweaks, coordination with the team, announcements to be sent, facebook posts, advance tweets. I woke up on Wednesday morning grinning from ear to ear – the first email blast sent out while I was sleeping, but (who am I kidding) – I was too excited to launch this project to sleep in. I woke up at 4:55 AM. (I didn’t get out of bed that early, but I was definitely up and ready.) Sometimes I get too excited to sleep.

About the project: If you want to know more about it – it’s for designers and non-designers who love cities and landscapes – I’ll let you wander over the website at your own leisure. Over the past year, we’ve been building a resource to better understand how landscape architecture and cities intersect – and the result is a published quarterly journal and image resource for information about landscape urbanism.

On this blog, however, I write about doing things. About the process. About the ups and downs – what it’s like to figure stuff out, to work through the hard bits, to learn. This blog is a collection of thoughts – notes on the process, if you will. So here’s where you get the behind-the-scenes picture.

Part 2: Launch Day.

I’ll start with three vivid stories from the past year. This- this- is what it looks like. For better or for worse, these are some of the memories of making this project happen:

Snapshot 1: I’m sitting outside of my apartment, after several failed attempts to get in. I’ve locked myself and my keys and my phone on the wrong sides of the door, respectively, and I’m now stuck outside an apartment, late at night, wishing desperately that I were inside, in bed, sleeping. I’m not. It’s cold, I’m exhausted, and I’m slowly gaining more compassion and sympathy for the homeless people in the streets of San Francisco. And, I have to pee. No matter. 2 hours, no computer, no jacket and a homeless and cold Sarah finds a locksmith to let her into her own apartment, $200 later. Deadlines are deadlines, and I’m working, tired, behind the computer, alone. This is glamorous and exciting … 

Snapshot 2: I’ve taken three sacred holidays from work, a vacation, and I’m in New York City, meandering through Prospect Park and talking with three editors about our vision for the website and our bigger visions about everything landscape urbanism, architecture – even forestry and dance.  I am reminded that parks are for people, and that parks and cities last longer than people. I’m not really sure how long a website lasts, or even an idea … but physical spaces, they are the foundation of future generations. I remember why I’m involved in this. People. Places. Doing things that matter. 

Snapshot 3: I’m drinking tequila and lime, laughing with new friends, grinning from ear to ear because somehow, remarkably, miraculously, we did it. A vision turned reality. A sense of satisfaction so deep that my bones and soul feel unstoppable.  I’m waiting in line at a bar in this city and a complete stranger turns to me and says, “Excuse me, but can I just ask you a question?” I nod, gleefully. He goes on, “Can you just tell me – why are you so happy?”

 It’s almost ridiculous. And I can’t stop laughing – because we got here. We did it.

Making things happen is beyond satisfying. It’s beautiful, it’s inspiring, and it’s down-to-the-knees energizing, because it shows you what you can do if you put a little grease to the wheel.

The Entre/Intra-Preneur’s Journey: 20 Lessons to Take With You

An entrepreneur is someone who does something. Someone who builds something that hasn’t been built before. A person or business who makes things happen. In a corporate job, a solo journey, or somewhere in between, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs challenge the status quo. I’ve been fortunate this past year to have several projects at hand to focus on – and while I’ll be analyzing and critiquing this project for a quite a while, here’s a bit more of an inside peak at what I’ve learned and gathered along the way: the lessons from this project, part 2. (For the first post, check out part one).

  1. People want you to succeed.Just when it gets tough, people step in and do the most wonderful things. Embrace your peers – people want to help. People want you to do well.
  2. People admire hard work.  Hard work is admirable. Hard work is gutsy. Hard work is courageous. When you work hard, people will help you out.
  3. There is an art to getting things done. I could not, simply could not, do everything on my list. Some days I had a short list of 10 big things I wanted to do, and by 12 PM at night, after more than a few 16-hour stretches, I had to put the pens and paper down and fall asleep. Glasses on face, lights still on, dinner plate uncleared – nothing spectacular or particularly beautiful. At the end of the day, despite how tired I was, I couldn’t let myself get bogged down by the disappointment of not finishing, of only getting 3-4 things done. Little by little, we carved away at the ambitious piles of work and made a dent.
  4. Each day, show up. Do something each day, even if it’s for a short time.
  5. Feeling stupid is part of the process. Feeling stupid on a regular basis is normal. At least, for me it is. The more I don’t know, the more dumb I feel, the more I can learn. I’ve spent an entire year feeling completely out of sorts and overwhelmed by everything. I’m hoping that (a) I’m not stupid or (b) I’m getting a heck of a lot smarter. Both are still to be determined.
  6. Learn as quickly as you can. Ask a lot of questions. The quicker you admit what you don’t know, the quicker you’ll learn. Pride has no place in growth.
  7. Become comfortable with uncertainty. Really comfortable.
  8. Frustrations can be high. Become comfortable with frustration. Learn tricks and techniques for staying level-headed even if your emotions run rampant. At times, I had to fight back angry tears because of things that didn’t go as expected – nights when a week’s worth of work was erased and we had to start over from scratch. Short of hitting my head against the bathroom wall, all those yoga exercises started to sink in, and I thought to myself (on many occasions): “Breathe. This too, is just a moment of discomfort. This too, is ephemeral.” Breathing helps.
  9. Plan for slow days. They happen. Don’t plan to work every day – it’s not possible.
  10. If you’re stuck, start smaller. Sometimes the projects and sub-projects seemed too big to tackle. Breaking it down in to smaller chunks is extremely helpful.
  11. Pivot. Iterate. Change. Ask, “is this working”? Test early and test often.
  12. No one else knows what’s in your mind. Telling people what you want is a really hard thing. Work on it. Ask for feedback. Strive for clarity.
  13. Disappointment is inevitable. Disappoinment occurs when your expectations don’t match the oucomes. Be sure to compare your outcome to your original state and be proud of what you’ve achieved, no matter what.
  14. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. I over-promised on many occasions and learned this lesson (as usual) the hard way. I had to stop saying “Yes!” and “Sure!” to things I wanted to do, because I was promising away all the time in my day, and then some. I learned how to politely decline, and how to strategize to be more effective.
  15. It’s okay to leave things unfinished. Focus on getting the best parts or most important things done first.
  16. The middle is the hardest. For me, the dip in May was really tough to get through. I sent a letter to my peers and nearly quit my project, packing it up and putting it on the shelves. I often wondered, “is this worth it? Is any of it worth it?” Doubts are always there.
  17. Form habits. Don’t rely on last-minute decisions. Having a rock-solid vision plan to get you through can be golden. Habits can be my savior. Some days, my ‘dumb days,’ when my brain couldn’t think through strategy, I’d switch to my to-do lists, start with the easy wins, and finish as many tasks as I could before 11am. Then, I’d take a break for the rest of the day, having conquered many small things. This habit – of doing something, even the smallest of things – always surprises me with what it adds up to.
  18. Surround yourself with good people. They are a tremendous source inspiration.
  19. It is an incredible amount of work. Don’t underestimate how much work big dreams can take. Be sure you want this as your dream before you start.
  20. It is worth it. 
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The lessons you need most, learning the hard way, and big dreams: part 1

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I’ll be honest,

My face hurts.

It might be from the lack of sleep, or the fact that my face is currently crushed against a table in a coffeeshop, where I’ve inadvertendly placed my head down for a quick snooze, and now I’m covered in drool and blinking rapidly trying to regain a sense of where I am – but no matter.

Actually, now that I shake it, my head hurts, too.

I went to the dentist yesterday and afterwards they gave me 4 advil – I asked for 2 extra – pounding headache, be gone.

… Shit, I’m getting distracted again.

Focus.

No one told me that start-up life as an intrapreneur and entrepreneur would be this glamorous, this fun. So exciting. Nevermind the pictures and dreams in your mind about making it rich and doing what you’ve always dreamed of doing – I’m sitting in a coffeeshop, sleeping in the middle of the day, boss only to myself — (and lest that sound enticing, let me tell you that being the boss of yourself is hard, taxing, challenging, and at times, disturbing) — try this on for size:

Go home Sarah, you’re working too hard.
You need to finish this project.
But you’re tired.
No one else is doing it.
True – that’s a good point.
In fact, we should make a map of all of these projects.
Sigh. Okay, yes, “we” should … I’ll get on it.

In the same vein, really – everyone’s my boss, I’m working for hundreds of people, the people that are my clients, the job that I am intra-preneuring at and being challenged on a daily basis, the team that didn’t exist yet, except now it does, because we’ve created something new that didn’t exist before. I’m working harder than I ever have, and probably disturbing the nice folks next to me enjoying their leisurely breakfast because, well, I’m snoring. And drooling. Damn it, I’ve dropped crumbs in my keyboard again.  Nice work, Sarah.

“The things worth doing are things that neither you or anyone else have done before. That’s why it’s terrifying. That’s the beauty in uncertainty.” – Jonathan Fields. 

All summer, my friends and advisors have been warning me to take it easy, to do fewer things, to uncheck a few boxes and slow down. I’ve got a hundred projects up in the air, and despite knowing – knowing – that I can’t keep up this pace, I still have the hardest time saying no to things that are in front of me. I couldn’t say no.

But then I had to.

I’m starting a big project – a big, crazy, dream-like project that is at the intersection of my professional interests (landscape architecture and city planning), my business and communication drives (building a website, being a writer, and heading up the communications team at my job), and my desire to form great teams and publish (oh yeah, by the way, I’m founding the organization and publication – um, wait. what?).

Ambitious? Yes. More ambitious than I even realized? Certainly. Probably – no, wait – Definitely.

This past month has been – how shall we say it – insane. Working a full-time job and a full-time start-up, while doing a few side projects and occasionally jumping into the Bay – well, it can be hard, although the word “hard” has lost most meaning to me, as I stare stupidly at white walls and try to recalibrate parts of my brain late in the evening. I never use to be a whiskey drinker, and then, now, well baby let me tell you (only sort of kidding). Part of me cringes to write this and share this, because I aspire to the “polished” version of me, the one who thinks she knows what she’s doing – you know, where we all believe that the world is a happy shiny place. I’m not one to shy away from hard work, because I think most of the things worth doing require a little to a lot of elbow grease.

I think most people can and should work harder, actually – because what’s wrong with hard work? – but this feels different.

I’m tired. I’m maxing out. I’m freaking out.

You know, the usual.

And I’ve been absent from this blog – my writing space, my thinking space – a little bit too much.

Trying to do Less.

I wrote an ebook, called Lessons from Less, and even though I sent it out to my friends and peer bloggers, got reviews and feedback, and edited it – I can’t seem to even put it up on this blog, because it turns out the one who needs the advice the most is still me.  It was hanging over my head like a hundred other things, taunting me with finishing it, wanting my attention, and I finally had to say:

Look here, project. I’m putting you on the shelves. I’m going to publish you next. Not simultaneously with this project. Next.

And it seems I need to learn this lesson again and again. Some lessons we learn, we must re-learn. They are life lessons we’re bound to dance with for the rest of our lives; they aren’t something that we check off once and say, well, why, yes – I did that. They sit and wrangle with us, teaching us time and time again to learn and re-learn what we haven’t quite got yet.

I’m still learning. I can’t do everything all at once. Not at the same time. There’s a lesson there – and believe me, I’m learning it.  I will certainly be releasing the e-book at a later date. It just is not the right time.  I just can’t push “send” on something that’s tertiary, peripheral, and not my focus. I can’t send work that’s 90% and not be 100% behind it.

And you know how that feels? Simultaneously awful and wonderful.

Awful, because I had to say no to things that I really still want to do. Three weeks ago, I cancelled my biggest swim of the season, a trans-bay swim I’ve been training to do all summer, a solo 10-mile journey across the San Francisco Bay, because I can’t do it all at once.

I just …. can’t.

Saying that makes me feel miserable, to be honest.

It’s mind-wrenching, numbing, impossible feeling, and part of me feels like I’m letting myself down. There’s nothing quite as deflating as pulling the plug after working so hard. And swimming … swimming is my sanity, my blessing, my space away from life, to sit and be. And yet I had to call it. And say, you know … not right now. Just not right now.  I spent a long morning running aimlessly and ended up down by the bay, watching the water quietly in the early morning, wondering if I was making the right decision, wistful and worried.

Awful, because I’ve now written almost two books, one e-book about lessons I’ve learned, and one book on swimming. I have aims to publish, and I’ve called it quits on each of them. Something’s not right. I can feel it. Not now. And I’ve got to listen to this instinct of mine, despite the angst of having spent so much time working on each of these projects. And saying no to my ambition, listening to my quiet feeling in my gut – it still feels really unsettling.

But what is it that they say in business, in finance? Don’t throw money after sunk costs. In life, it’s the same lesson. Just because you’ve already spent energy on it doesn’t mean you should continue to spend energy on it. And the same with projects, it is with our minds and brains. Free up that brain space. Stop worrying about things that can’t be fixed. Let your mind be free, as they say. Let go.

And then, even though I feel awful – even though this is a bittersweet struggle, a chess play I’ll debate for a bit and reflect, wondering how and what I could have done better – at the same time, I feel wonderful.

Wonderful, because I feel like I can breathe again, slowly, even though insanity is still mounting like a dense fog and I’m threatened to be engulfed in it again. But focused, like I can now focus my energy on two things: my one job, my one project, and then go home and face-plant on the bed every night and get up and do it all over again.

Exciting, isn’t it? Let me tease and entice you with the ways of entrepreneurship next … 

With that said, however, I’m taking a short break here, writing only once per week (more if I can! but I had to insert some sanity parameters into my life recently) and building up some momentum to launch my big project, my crazy thing that I’ve been working on, which started out just by dabbling on the side, which is finally, I-still-can’t-believe-it, nearly ready to go live and I’m in the sidelines, biting my nails and tearing out my hair and then walking out in public, smiling, hiding that fear behind my eyes because frankly,

Frankly, for the record, I have no idea what the heck I’m doing, either. And I’m really glad you’re here with me.

Lessons from the side-hustle-turned-dream-project, part 1:

In the spirit of learning, here are a few tips and notes I’ve jotted down in my notebooks as I’ve gone through this part of the process. It’s unfinished, uncut, more’s coming, but here’s what I got for you:

  1. Not everyone will understand your dreams.
  2. You have chosen a different path than many of your friends.
  3. Put your health first.
  4. If you try to do it all alone, you’re an idiot.
  5. Find good mentors.
  6. Ask questions.
  7. Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know. Sometimes, that’s everything.
  8. Set constraints and parameters.
  9. Have a solid vision plan. A rock-solid vision plan. You’ll need it in the thick of things.
  10. Surround yourself with great people.
  11. Generosity and kindness are always good.
  12. Tact and grace are never inappropriate. Grace under pressure is learned only under pressure.
  13. Choose. Make choices. Cut ruthlessly. Do only the most important thing.
  14. Get sleep whenever possible, and it’s not always possible. Take care of yourself first, as much as possible.
  15. Balance flies out the window, and then sometimes comes back in short stints.

Launching a Project – and a short hiatus.

I’m going to be launching my big research project – a year-long endeavor to study the ins and outs of cities and our urban spaces, particularly the green spaces and the invisible systems that make cities work – and I’m going to post less frequently on this blog for the next month or so: I won’t promise frequent updates, or a return date (although it will definitely be before the end of September).  This is me, trying to take it …. easy?

The project has been more work than I ever dreamed and more fun that I ever could have imagined. The people I work with are incredible. Adjectives fall short. There is brilliance in their capabilities, and I am thrilled, honored, and lucky that they come together to work together with me. Somehow in the span of a year, we’ve assembled over a dozen universities, thirteen people on our team, five editors, and over 40 people featured — we are launching an online journal. There will be six issues of the journal this year, each exploring the ideas of cities, urbanism, landscape architecture, and design.

Why? because where we live – our environmental context – is important to who we are. To me, we are two things: we are what we think, and we are what we surround ourselves with. Once you step outside of your brain, if that’s even possible – looking at the environments that shape our behavior is fascinating. Cities are possibly the most interesting manifestations of being human – they represent how we design systems, how we work together, they hold history in their building walls, and they change daily, yearly, and live beyond any single human life.

A city is analogous to a human body – each with metabolisms and invisible systems and throbbing, vibrant heartbeats. Cities would not exist without people.

And so, in my day job, the one that lets me explore what landscape architecture is and what urban planning is – I’ve taken it upon myself to launch a journal, and issue one is published on September 14th. This Fall, we will be going to the Urban Land Conference, the American Society of Landscape Architects Conference, Green Build, and Blog World, to name a few.

Wish me luck.

If you want to watch what’s happening, check out: www.landscapeurbanism.com, the facebook page, or the twitter page.

To figuring things out, how to start, and how to grow.

XOXO

Sarah

Finish or Punt.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Ever have too many projects and don’t know what to do?

Friday was a bit of a panic. I’ve got 8 projects overwhelming me right now. I honestly thought I’d drop all 8 balls and let them come smashing to the floor in a bit of Awesome Failure Glory. Panicked. You know, the “I’m going to be an exceptional failure and never do anything right” kind of day.

So I sent a long letter to the president of my company asking for advice on one of the biggest projects that’s currently on my plate. It was a hard question: I asked if we should pull the plug on a project I’ve been working on for over a year.

He said, take the weekend off. Don’t do anything related to the project and don’t touch a screen, folder, email, idea, notebook, or pen related to this project.

So I took the weekend off. And of course, while not thinking about it, the (metaphorical) table full of projects in my mind seemed to start to organize themselves. And I asked three really smart people around me for advice.  Here’s what the advice came down to, in a nutshell:

Finish or punt.

Pick up one project at a time, give yourself a time limit (for example, a week or a month), and then finish it or get rid of it. Don’t let it sit there.

Unfinished projects sit in your mind, in your space and fester and grow, invading your space, your creativeity, and your time.

Get rid of projects that aren’t working. Finish the other ones and call them done. Make space to work on new things.

Projects without deadlines expand to fill all of your remaining energy. Fix a deadline.  Make a decision. Finish it. Learn from it. Go on and build something else next. More importantly, have the guts to punt when it’s not good enough to finish. Be okay with getting rid of the project. Or finish it.

Just don’t let it sit there.

Oh Heyyyy yeah.