Check this out.

One of the easiest ways to carve out more time for yourself so you can learn more about what you should be doing with the rest of your life is to steal it from one of the time-wasters we all have in our lives.

Here Jeff Cobb from Mission to Learn covers 15 places to look for a time saver or two.

They add up…  and, with enough of them, you may find enough to create a new work life for yourself.

Good stuff, check ‘er out.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Jeff Gitomer, love him to pieces… check him out.

From his latest newsletter:

BIG QUESTION: What are you “accepting” right now that you might be able to change if you took a few more risks, or were willing to put in a bit more (or a lot more) effort?

BIGGER QUESTION: What are the three of four things in your life that you “wish” were different than they are now? And what the hell are you waiting for? Don’t you hate waiting? Traffic. Late flights. Long lines. On hold. Slow service. You do everything you can to avoid a 10-minute or 60-minute wait, yet you’re willing to wait YEARS to achieve your life’s desire. Not me. I’m not waiting for anything or anyone. I don’t accept waiting, either in a doctor’s office or in life.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Hey.

I’ll show you mine, if you’ll show me yours.

Quest that is.

Where are you heading and what are you trying to do with your (work) life?

Can be big or small.

Tell me your goal and A STEP (just one) you’re going to take to move toward that goal.

Examples:

1. I want to own and run a restaurant, so I’ll do anything to get started.  For the next month, I’m going to spend five hours a week looking for a part-time job — any job — in a restaurant.
2. I want to become an outdoor trail guide, but I work in a cubicle creating marketing materials all week long.  For the next six months, I’m going to organize and lead a monthly trail walk (and invite friends and their friends) for free in areas near my hometown.  If I live a large urban area, I’ll create and run urban walks.
3. I’m a salesrep for a software company, but I really want to become a high school math teacher.  I’m going to work out a deal with my employer so that I can take my vacation time in very short chunks (one day a week for the next several weeks, for example) and sign up as a substitute teacher in my local school district on those days off.

Okay, so that’s it.  Goal and step.

Eazy peezy.

Give it to me, Dream Jobbers!

Popularity: 36% [?]

I love Bob Brezny and his Free Will Astrology.

Because my horoscope for this week relates so closely to our work here at DreamJobsDialog, I thought I’d share it with you:

As the season of riddles kicks into high gear, I present you with a two-part quiz.

Part 1:  Since it has taken you your whole life to become the person you are today, is it reasonable to expect that you can transform yourself in a flash?

Part 2:  On the other hand, since you are more creative than you give yourself credit for, and in a phase when your ability to change is greater than usual, is it reasonable to assume that you must remain stuck in your old ways of doing things?

Yummy stuff, and a Top 5er to boot.  Check out Bob’s stuff.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Don’t know what you wanna do?

Lots of ways to find out, and we’ve covered many of them here at the Dialog.  Dig around and find them.

Here’s another one:

Cheat.

Find someone you really look up to and admire, for what they do in their world of work.

Then, do what they do (even if you have to volunteer somewhere to start out), and put your own personality stamp on it. Over time that “job” will become you, and you the job…  and it won’t look anything at all like the person you stole if from.

Popularity: 44% [?]

I wish I would have followed my instincts earlier in my career rather than looking for others’ approval.  While it’s easy for people to be their greatest critics, it took me years to become my own advocate.

Ellen Langas Campbell, President, NouSoma Communications and author of the Girls Know How book series

Source:  Success Magazine

Popularity: 84% [?]

Having something go viral is the dream of every entrepreneur.   Going viral, as related to working on the Internet, relates to having a product, promotion, or some other activity be perceived as something so incredibly special that it gets passed around, usually via email, from one person to another to tens of thousands or millions of people.

So, literally, word spreads — like a virus — about you and your product, usually without you having to do anything.  This is the marketer’s nirvana.  The dream world.

And, I’m pleased to say, I’ve had a recent experience with something going viral.  But, the interesting thing about what I learned is that you cannot plan for something to go viral — it just does.  Oh, I’ve tried to come up with all sorts of clever ideas that I thought would go viral — My goodness, I say to myself, how can others not realize how brilliant I am here? — but none never have.

Until recently, when the whole idea of viralness (yup, that’s a word) never even entered my thoughts.

At InfoSource Learning, we created a product called SimpleAssessment that is designed to test the digital literacy skills of school kids.  Now, this is an important thing these days because the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) statutes from the federal government mandate that kids have these skills by the 8th grade.  Consequently, schools need a way to assess their students.

Enter SimpleAssessment.

We decided to give it away (as a way to introducing ourselves to new customers, who we hoped would buy something else from us later) and our lives have changed dramatically.  We simply can’t keep up with the demand that has been created for SimpleAssessment, and the freebies are now turning into paying customers.

My point is that we didn’t set out to get people passing our offering around; we were simply immersed in trying to create something that we thought we could share with the educational community.  We’ve been creating and selling educational products for over 25 years, and this was one small thing we could do to give back.

And, the dang thing has gone viral on us.

Which got me thinking about what it might take to get your own personal dream job to go viral.

Let me ask you this:  Are you obsessed with finding and having your dream job?  Because, like getting something to go viral, maybe focusing on it too much is not such a good thing.

Here’s an idea for you, then:  Whatever your dream job passion, just start working on it, even if it’s a few hours a week.  Just plug away at it.  Don’t obsess over the fact that it’s not your entire life just yet.  Work at it, sow some seeds, do a little more every day.  Maybe, just maybe, who knows, you might turn around in a few months and find that your work has gone viral and you’re actually working full time in your dream job.

Popularity: 90% [?]

Sometimes we get so hung up on the proverbial trees that we miss the forest.

Are you so hung up on the daily tasks of making a living that you’ve forgotten, perhaps, that you’re here to make a life?

Where are you going with this thing (life), anyway?

Are you climbing the ladder as fast as you can, and not taking the time to figure out if your ladder (and I hope it’s a Werner ladder, by the way) is propped up against the right wall to begin with?

Are you missing the obvious in your life and career search?

TAKE THIS TEST — it’ll take you just a few seconds.

So, Dream Job Seeker, are you missing the obvious?

Popularity: 34% [?]

I always wanted to be a ___________________ [fill in the blank with your favorite coulda-shoulda-woulda dream job] but I couldn’t ever quite get there because ________________________ [now, fill in that blank with the excuse/reason/person/whatever that kept you from your dream job].

Ya know, if I ever hear someone tell me that again, I think I’m going to barf all over myself.  Really.  I just don’t want or know how to accept these kinds of comments.  As Bill Cosby might say, “Come on, People.”

I mean, really.  Do you believe that there’s really anything other than yourself who’s holding you back?  Unless you’re physically locked up, strapped down, or held hostage, I just can’t believe there’s not a way out and on to your dream job and the life that you want outside of cubicleville or burgerland or whatever other trap you’ve found yourself in.

So, it was with such incredible joy that I came across this passage from my favorite historian, David McCullough, in his gem of an essay called No Time to Read? and here it is:

Once upon a time in the dead of winter in the Dakota territory, Theodore Roosevelt took off in a makeshift boat down the Little Missouri River in pursuit of a couple of thieves who had stolen his prized rowboat. After several days on the river, he caught up and got the draw on them with his trusty Winchester, at which point they surrendered. Then Roosevelt set off in a borrowed wagon to haul the thieves cross-country to justice. They headed across the snow-covered wastes of the Badlands to the rail head at Dickinson, and Roosevelt walked the whole way, the entire 40 miles. It was an astonishing feat, what might be called a defining moment in Roosevelt’s eventful life. But what makes it especially memorable is that during that time, he managed to read all of Anna Karenina. I often think of that when I hear people say that they haven’t time to read.

All right now, Dream Jobber . . . you don’t have time to sink your teeth into prepping for something — a change in career — that you’ve wanted your whole life?

Come on, People!

Popularity: 43% [?]

Are you a risk taker?

If you’re not, you probably should be working for someone who is.

You see, there’s this myth out there (and I’m not really sure who the they are who promulgate this damn thing) that says you should follow a fixed course in life, that your surroundings, friends, parents, or partner have laid out for you.  And, that there’s a safe way to live — the job with the perfect benefits, the home in the “right” neighborhood, the ideal partner, yaddy yaddy yadda. Read more »

Popularity: 24% [?]