Stevie Puckett

Tag: goals

  • The Bliss Or Bust Formula

    The Bliss or Bust Formula is a process that will help you experience what you want in life. Learn to apply it, and you will perceive the world differently. The next step becomes so easy and the feeling of overwhelm vanishes. Try it and watch the magic happen.

    Step #1: How do you want to feel?

    There are so many emotions to experience. It’s wonderful to feel happy, joyful, youthful, energetic, sexy, athletic, beautiful, funny, calm, confident, connected, creative. We could go on and on. This is the juice of life! The reason any of us want anything is because of how having it will make us feel good. The trick is to identify what you want to feel more of and then intentionally practice and notice that feeling. Use your imagination. Plan in advance to notice and enjoy the feelings you want.

    For example, if you know that you love to feel serene, you can easily have more of that feeling. Begin by planning to feel serene. Tell yourself, “I look forward to feeling serene more and more. It’s going to be so nice. I love to feel serene.”

    Take notice of all the serene things around you as you go through the next several hours. Now that you have clarity that what you want is to feel serene, be still and listen for it…feel for it. You will find yourself spontaneously feeling good several times a day. Take a second or two to spotlight that feeling when it comes around.

    Step #2: Feel it.

    Say to yourself, “Ah! I’m feeling so good right now. I love to feel good. I love to feel serene. I love this feeling right now, and I look forward to feeling this way more and more.”

    Anytime you think of it, intentionally feel serene. You can look forward to feeling serene more and more. Imagine and observe serene insects and animals as often as possible if only for a few seconds at a time. Smile at them. They are here to remind you that what you really want is to feel serene.

    Step #3: Take action when inspired.

    Learn to notice the feeling of inspiration. Recognizing inspiration to act will help you complete the next step easily and with perfect timing. Contrast that with pushing yourself forward with the brute force of discipline only and you can easily recognize the difference.

    There is a distinction to be made here between the feeling of inspiration which feels like a complete idea and subtle momentum to move versus inner dialog which feels worrisome and urgent. Inspiration is a subtle, calm, and fearless vibe. While inner dialog is a loud, urgent, and worrisome vibe.

    Be brave and begin listening more and more for the subtle voice. Move with inspiration. When you are tuned in to inspiration, there is no second guessing or devil’s advocate argument going on in your mind. You just know it and you feel the impulse to take action.

    When you move forward with inspiration on your side, things that once seemed overwhelming now become very flowing and easy. You can plan ahead to feel inspired too. Be it about what you need to get done in a day or a certain problem you want to solve (see step #1).

    #4 Only positive thoughts in your mind.

    Spend less and less time shaming yourself, feeling guilty, feeling sorry for yourself, worrying what others think, and/or generally looking at the negative side of things. Recognize those thoughts for the worthless mind clutter that they are and let them go. Get quicker and quicker at shutting those thoughts down by dropping them. Don’t fight them. Just give them a nod, smile, and let them go.

    There are many different things you can try to stop the energy-draining, resistance-building, mind clutter of negative thought. Following are some ideas to experiment with:

    • Ask your Higher Self to remove anxiety and worry from you, or simply to fill you with bliss or love or joy (which all trump negativity every time if you can allow them).
    • Have a phrase at the ready to release yourself from the struggle. Say to yourself, “Baby, you don’t need it” or “Easy does it.”
    • Listen to your favorite songs and turn them up. Let the music heal you.
    • Find a good place to sing, cry, or yell it out.
    • Exert your body with exercise or divert your mind with games.
    • Do a micro-meditation. Close your eyes and call for what you want to feel. For example, “I want to feel my patience right now,” or “I want to feel my love right now.” Then breathe and feel for it.

    #5 Only positive words from your mouth.

    Choose which words you say and what stories you tell and repeat wisely. Speak more and more about what you look forward to and what you enjoy. You spread bliss like this! Others may hear your words and feel the freedom and flow of inspiration too. But, no big deal if they don’t. Your main concern needs to be thinking and speaking about what you want and what you enjoy. It’s a habit that will enhance your life. It just happens to make you a force for good too.

  • Desired Things

    I love this poem. May it inspire you too.

    ***Video Transcript***

    DESIDERATA by Max Ehrmann

    Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

    As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.

    Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,

    even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

    Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are a vexation to the spirit.

    If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;

    for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

    Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

    Keep interested in your own career, however humble;

    it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

    Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.

    But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;

    many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

    Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.

    Neither be cynical about love;

    for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.

    Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

    Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

    But do not distress yourself with imaginings.

    Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

    Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

    You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

    And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

    Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be,

    and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

    With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

    Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

    —End Transcript—

  • Goal Setting Process

    There is joy to be had by deciding what you want to create in your life, setting a goal to achieve it, and knocking it out.

    Goal setting is personal. Finding what works best for you is a trial and error exercise. Most importantly, keep trying!

    Take the time to learn what works best for you. Make it a priority to learn about goal management techniques early on. If a method sounds useful to you, try it for a month or so. Check your motivation and results at the end of the month to determine if that system is a keeper.

    Keep this in mind too. When there is a goal you don’t reach by the deadline, it’s time to reassess whether that goal is still relevant and whether to keep it on next year’s list. If it is, no harm done, you just estimated wrong about when you could get it accomplished. So put it on the list again and spend time feeling what it will be like to reach that goal while trying again.

    If you determine that the missed goal is no longer relevant to you, let it go without worry. It turns out that it was not important enough to focus on in the grander scheme, or maybe the exercise of feeling for it reveals to you that it’s not worthy of your goals list after all. If so, again, let it go.

    Learning to let it go is a valuable skill. When you release what you don’t want, you make room for what you do want!

    Living in the moment and being fully present is a critical point to remember when goal setting. It can be easy to be distracted by anticipating a future goal or accomplishment that you must achieve before allowing happiness in your life, but be happy now! Even though it is good to outline goals and work towards achievements, it’s most important to enjoy the process.

    Goal setting is about creating more of how you want to feel in your life. Set goals to feel good and make your life better even while working to achieve them. If a goal feels as if it will inspire an adventure in your life that you want to participate in, it deserves to be one of your goals.

    It is not about shoulds or what other people set as their goals. It’s personal. Goal setting is about what you want, WHAT YOU WANT TO FEEL IN YOUR LIFE.

    Does the idea for a goal seem like a drudgery? If so, that’s a sure bet you aren’t ready for it. Take some time to change your attitude about it before you add it to your goals list. It’s also possible that something that seems like it should be your goal may never make your list, and that’s okay. It must be okay; otherwise you spend energy battling yourself and essentially holding yourself back from more enlivening endeavors.

    Tap into your creative power and set goals that empower you more, not less. When there is a feeling of increased energy and interest that accompanies an idea for a goal, that is how you know it goes on your list.

  • Informational Interviewing: A Career Research Technique

    Choosing a career direction is a complex process involving many steps, including exploring your interests, skills, values, and personality type, plus lots of time to learn and strategize a career development plan. After the beginning steps of self-assessment, you choose a few of the career fields that seem to have the most promise and do more intense research.

    Researching career fields begins with looking at the Occupational Outlook Handbook and the O*Net to learn more about specific career fields. If a particular career field is still being considered, it is time to go out into the field to learn more. One of the most important aspects of choosing a career path is to get out in the real world and study real people, people who are doing the kind of job that you might want to do someday. One way to do this is through informational interviewing.

    Typically, the informational interview process looks like this:

    • find people in the career of interest to talk to
    • schedule a time to meet with them for 30 minutes or so
    • ask questions about their career, and then
    • send a thank you note.

    There are several ways to find people for an informational interview. The best method is to use your network of contacts to find people in the line of work that you want to learn more about. Begin asking family members, friends, and other people who they know working in the career. For example, you might approach your aunt and ask her, “Who do you know who works as a civil engineer?” Once a member of your network knows someone to refer you to, ask for that person’s name and phone number. You will be surprised how many people your contacts know and how easy it is to find people to talk to about all kinds of careers.

    Next, call the new contact. Please give your name and how you know about them. Tell them that you are interested in learning more about their career field and hoping they could help. Ask if you can schedule a time to speak with them for 30 minutes because you would like to ask them how they got into the field and their recommendations for people considering entering the profession.

    Following are some questions typically asked in an informational interview. Remember, you most likely will not ask them all since you want to keep the talk to only 30 minutes. Be sure to take a pen and paper for quick notes and recommendations and to assist you with writing a thank you note the following day. Be sure to note the correct spelling of their name and their address by asking them the information and writing it down in your notes or checking their business card.

    SAMPLE INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

    • How did you develop your career path?
    • How did you get into this job?
    • What are your duties as a ____?
    • How long have you been in this position?
    • What do you like best about this career?
    • What do you like least about this career?
    • How would your strategy change if you were starting over in this field knowing what you know?
    • What are the educational requirements of this field?
    • What is the typical salary range for this career field?
    • Can you recommend some professional associations for this career field?
    • What do you read to stay up-to-date?
    • What further education do you like and recommend?
    • What are the advancement opportunities in this field?
    • What do you see as the future of this career field?
    • What is your career goal for the future?
    • What is happening in this industry?
    • What kinds of companies make up this industry?
    • Where has growth taken place in this field recently?
    • Who are your customers or clients?
    • How do you promote your products and services?
    • Who are some of your competitors?
    • What has helped to make companies successful in this industry?
    • What recommendations do you have for a person interested in this field?
    • Do you know others I should speak to about this career field?

  • Before the Job Hunt

    Often people get it backward. They arrive at a time when they need a new job, then the first thing they do is look for job openings. It may seem logical, but it is not the most beneficial way to go about it. Many of those jobs are not a good match for one reason or another. If they are not a match, then they are just distractions.

    Instead, flip the process around and begin with yourself. Engage in some pre-job hunt career research. Career research is a process of getting in-depth knowledge of yourself and how your skills and interests best fit the career landscape. The purpose of career research is to develop a career strategy and job hunt plan. So the process looks like this instead:

    1. Begin with self-awareness
    2. Study occupations
    3. Then industry trends
    4. Then company culture and job openings.

    There are substantial advantages to working a job hunt from this angle. The first is that you will get a better understanding of your personal brand along the way. You will be able to strategically network with others, knowing what you want them to remember about you. You also gain a deep understanding of what makes your heart sing and will be able to zoom in on opportunities that are more likely to work optimally for you. Lastly, you will come from a position of passion in job interviews and be more convincing and more likely to win the offer.

    An excellent place to start is with this career aptitude test based on the Holland Codes. It’s good, it’s quick, and it’s free. The results are useful and insightful. The same website also has some excellent career research resources. I love the way the information on each job title is presented. It’s easy to read, short and sweet, and particularly relevant. Of course, O*Net is a very good resource for career research as well.