Web site update …

I spent this morning working on my web site, doing some minor content revision and design refinements.  I hope the slightly modified structure will be easier to navigate and make more sense to the first time visitor.

Your comments are always appreciated.

www.ManifestationCoaching.com

How to write a cover letter …

I decided this year, with the encouragement of a colleague, to pursue teaching in a formal academic environment.  In short, I’m going to be a college professor – part-time, but real classes and students in a real college.  I’ve done a lot of training in corporate and business environments, both with individuals and groups.  I’ve developed and taught both short- and long-term programs.  But I’ve never taught a class that led to a formal college degree.

Now that I’ve accumulated so much education and experience, it’s time to share it.  So I’m going to teach part-time in addition to my labor relations duties.

I’m sitting here working on a cover letter for my teaching applications.  I decided to share some of the resources I found as I brushed up my skills.

Here’s a simple template for a cover letter for a job application and resume.  How to write a cover letter.

Some experts question the need for a cover letter at all, but I think you should almost always include a cover letter when sending a job application or resume.  The resume and application are a pretty bare bones presentation of you.  The letter is one unstructured opportunity to focus attention on your strong points and let a little of your winning personality through.

Since I’ve been in human resources for many years, I’ve seen a lot of cover letters.  If I had to limit my advice about cover letters to one things it would be this:  eliminate spelling and grammatical errors.  No matter how earnest and sincere you sound, poor grammar or spelling will undermine you every time.  They say you are sloppy and don’t care about details.

Think about what the reader wants to see – a couple of quick phrases that powerfully sum up what you have to offer and why you should be selected, all contained in one page.  Throw in a request for an interview and you’ve got the winning letter.

www.ManifestationCoaching.com

Making Change …

One of the biggest challenges my clients seem to face when they talk about building their life is actually getting something to begin to happen. Getting out of the starting block for many of my clients seems to be the biggest challenge that they will face in their journey toward change.

"I know what I want to do," said Ben. "I've thought about it a lot. I just can't seem to get moving." Ben was a client who actually came to me with a pretty well thought out idea of where he wanted his life to go. But somehow, he just couldn't get it to go there.

For Ben, the barrier was time- and structure-related. He knew what he wanted, he knew what he needed to do, but he couldn't anchor it in his daily practicing reality.  Ben needed to learn how to take his ideas and turn them into action. Deadlines and the calendar became Ben's best friends as he overcame his inertia.

But each person has his or her own  initial hurdle to overcome, and for each person there's a different strategy for breaking the logjam.

Here's a few ideas to think about. See if one of them doesn't speak to you as a way to break that logjam of action that you've been experiencing.

Write it down. You've heard it said a million times and even so it's still true today that "talk is cheap." By that I mean talk is just that, talk. Don't get me wrong. I'm a talker from way back. I see nothing wrong with talking. It can help you clarify what you have in mind, make your goals more specific and specific goals are easier to accomplish.

But at some point the talk has to stop and action must begin. For many people, the first action that can set them on their road is to physically manifest what they've been talking about. And the easiest and simplest way to do that is write it down.

Some clients are most comfortable creating to-do lists.  For others, its more important to first write about their hopes and dreams, and then build task lists.  But either way, the very act of writing gives your thoughts physical presence – the first step towards full manifestation.

Before you dismiss this suggestion lightly, consider the significance that our US Constitution carries – because it's in writing. There is power in writing, and if you write down your vision for yourself, and what your goals are to get there, you've actually taken the first step of manifesting.

Exercise. Okay, I admit people who know me will laugh that I propose this suggestion. But to me exercise is a very broadly defined word.

Maybe you want to fill that extra 45-minutes that you normally spend sitting in bumper to bumper traffic commuting home from work with a quick workout at the gym near your office. Don't get scared. By "workout" I mean almost anything besides chatting with the desk clerk. Twenty minutes on the stationary bicycle would be a great start. But don't do it with your music earphones on. Don't hide from your thoughts.

Okay, so maybe you're not going to join a gym. Then take a walk. And don't say you don't have time. Park your car farther away from the office. Walk to the post office instead of driving. And again, don't do it to music.

You may ask me what I have against music and I have to say nothing. I listen to it all the time. The purpose of these exercises is not to listen to music but instead to listen to that voice inside you that will guide you to the next step you've been searching for.

If you find yourself longing for something to listen to or something to watch while you're walking or riding your bicycle or anything else, perhaps that's a sign that you're uncomfortable being alone with your thoughts. Maybe you need to take some time to get to know yourself a little better.

Volunteer. Sometimes the easiest way to figure out yourself is to stop thinking about yourself and try thinking about others for a change. Volunteering for any kind of activity can take you outside your preoccupation with the challenges that you face on a daily basis and show you other people's challenges. In the process, I guarantee you'll learn more about yourself.

Whether it's for your child's PTA or at the homeless mission soup kitchen, doing good for others always enlarges our view of life and of ourselves. You may be surprised at the skills and talents that you evidence, or the things that you enjoy during your volunteer activities. And these may give you valuable clues to what the next step on your journey should be.

Use deadlines. We all like to talk about the proverbial "someday."  But we also know that "someday" rarely comes.

For some people deadlines are not problem. They seem to have a natural sense of the flow of time and what they need to be doing when. I remember when I used to watch my Italian grandmother cook, she never used a recipe. She never used a timer. She rarely used measuring spoons or measuring cups. But darn it if she didn’t make the best food I remember ever eating.

But I believe those are truly exceptional people. For the rest of us, a recipe is a necessity. And so are deadlines. Time passes rapidly when you have something to do. You always will have less time than you think. The only way for most of us to keep time from slipping away and taking with it our opportunities is to tack your goals and desires to a spot on the calendar. In other words -- a deadline.

Always remember though, that deadlines are not sacrosanct, they can and sometimes must be changed. But never abandoned.  Deadlines can provide the valuable forward momentum that you need to keep on track and on time.

Get out of town. Well maybe not literally, but if you can actually leave town, that would be even better. Lots of folks enjoy a change of scenery and a change of scenery can make a change in you. Perhaps it's as little as driving to the other side of town spending some time over there; walking the neighborhood, perhaps stop and have a espresso at a small neighborhood coffeehouse.

Or maybe you want to get a little bit more ambitious and take a weekend out of town. Drive up the coast. Drive to the lake. Drive to the desert. (By now I'd guess that you see that I love driving.)

Meditate in the desert for a week, observing life all around you.  Or go fishing!  My point here is that you want to change your surroundings from what you're familiar with for more than just a minute or two.

Let go of perfect. Let's get one thing clear right up front: you're not perfect. Good for you; me neither. Too many people hold back for fear that their effort will not be perfect. And the result is that their effort is nonexistent instead.

Look at Microsoft. No matter how much research and money and publicity goes into marketing Windows, every new release is rapidly followed up with updates and security patches. Why? I mean, isn't Windows perfect when it's released???

Okay I know you understand how ridiculous that question is if you're a Windows user. But you see my point. Today's successes did not get there by waiting until what they had to offer was perfect.

Let's take a more recent example, but still in technology. Google. Nothing Google releases is ever out of beta. Despite garnering some criticism for the practice, Google benefits by eliminating a perception that the product is never completely developed. This gives them the freedom to experiment without risking severe or significant customer disappointment.

So feel free to think of yourself as permanently in beta and forget about being perfect. 

Get fit. There, I said it! But let's not panic. I'm not talking about ending up looking like Schwarzenegger. There's lots of kinds of fit, and if you're heading for a major life change you're going to need most of them.

Here's a quick list of 15 ways to get fit in preparation to change your life. They're all very simple and none of them involve going to the gym. But you'd be surprised at what small things can make a difference.

Remember that change is stressful, and stress takes a physical toll on you. Being in good shape physically and mentally guarantees you the better shot at achieving your heart’s desire through change.

Get organized. Whether by physical means or digital, successful people are organized. They keep calendars. These days there's no excuse for not having an appointment calendar and a listing of your important contacts and phone numbers with you at all times.

I'm old enough to remember when carrying a calendar meant adding 20 pounds. And my paper contact listing was hopelessly out of date because it was so annoyingly difficult to keep current. In the end it simply became the anchor point for millions and millions of post-its.

Now I carry everything in my cell phone. It's my brain. You don't need to go that far. My point is that it's important enough to be organized that there is little excuse not to be.

Use a coach. Every successful athlete works with someone more experienced than them to help them train to be their very best. We're familiar with an athletic coach, but sometimes it's hard to transfer that idea to one's own life.

And if you've done a lot of Internet research about life coaches, you may have noticed a distinctly "spiritual" aspect to many of them. For many people that spiritual aspect of coaching is an important element, but many more are using a coach, not to assist with their spiritual development, but to make real concrete changes in their lives. And to make those changes in ways that maintain their own personal and spiritual integrity.

As a coach I don't impose my any spiritual beliefs on my clients. Nor do my clients come to me for spiritual guidance. Instead we focus on the client, the client's life, and the client’s desires.  I have no secrets to give because there are no secrets.

I have experience, study, and talent. So do you. We put them together to help you create the dream life you've always wanted. Think of the coach who follows Michael Phelps along the swimming lane timing him, observing his form, making notes about what to talk about when the lap is done.

Now you be Michael Phelps, and I'll hold the stopwatch.

http://www.manifestationcoaching.com/

Half Full or … ?

Pundits are buzzing about a recent study that shows federal employee salaries ahead of private sector wages.  Count on the pundits using that difference to say government workers are overpaid.  You will listen in vain for anyone to conclude that the study means private industry paychecks have fallen too far behind and that private sector employees are underpaid – except maybe here!

First, when you look at the list of jobs in the study, you’ll find that a large portion of the jobs are unionized jobs in the government – the last bastion of traditional unions.  Almost none of them are unionized in the private sector in any significant numbers.  From this we could conclude that the study emphasizes the benefits of belonging to a union expressed in actual differences in earnings over time.

Or, given that we’re told that the top 1% of this country now controls more of its wealth than ever before in history (close to 50% some say), you could conclude that the study further illustrates the upward migration of America’s wealth to the uber-rich.  You could conclude that the study indicates that in those most volatile labor markets – the private sector – real wages have declined to rock bottom levels compared to their CPI-indexed colleagues in government.

But, no, that will not even be discussed.  I guarantee that you will hear the hannitys shrilly complaining that they are being robbed by that overpaid DMV clerk.  Meanwhile, political appointees and highly placed executives at the top of government make six-figure salaries while in government, and enormous fortunes when they revolving-door into lobbying their old agency.

Speaking of overpaying, if we’re really serious about recovering monies overpaid, leave the little piker employees alone and go after Wall Street where reports say we overpaid by about $78 billion for bailouts.  Yeah – that’s 78 Billion with a very big “B.”

www.ManifestationCoaching.com

Elementary My Dear…

Got a Sherlock Holmes fantasy?  Or are you outranged at the bubble economies excesses and looking for the responsible people?

Either way, AlterNet is launching an unusual experiment in social networking - investigating the “bubble barons” who “destroyed our economy.”

If you join the investigation, you’ll get your very own bubble baron to check out and gather all the information available in the infosphere about the baron.  The giant corporations run by these barons know all about you – maybe its time to turn the tables?

www.ManifestationCoaching.com

Sign of the Times

You know you’re seeing something important when the unemployed of this nation begin to band together and speak with one voice.  First, the fact that there’s enough to “band together” means there’s a lot of unemployed Americans!

But now comes a union just for the unemployed.  It apparently started just recently, but already has hundreds of members across the country.  The Union of the Unemployed is open to all.  There are other “freelance unions” out there, but they are mostly for access to benefits and services.  Even when they advocate, they don’t speak for the huge number of unemployed.

As a union guy, I should be happy about the formation of a union of unemployed.  But deep in the pit of my stomach, this feels like the beginning of political stratification by income not principle.  A workers’ party, in other words.

During our last depression, we had troubles with workers’ parties.  They all began with the best of intent, and ended up subverted for other purposes.  We should learn from history.  We can’t wait until the ranks of the unemployed swell to numbers that threaten our democracy.  And believe me, if there’s enough unemployment, democracy is threatened.

So while I encourage people to band together for mutual protection, especially when their government has abandoned them to the wilds of the contemporary robber barons, I worry about the unintended consequences of the politics of the purse.  The solution is to get people to work, even with deficit swelling (for now) public projects, and not to bloat corporate coffers.

http://www.manifestationcoaching.com/

Reconnecting on Valentine’s Day

Valentine's Day is coming and everyone will be looking for that special something for their special someone. It's a big holiday for greeting card makers especially. “The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas.”

But where did the holiday came from? There are those who say that long before the establishment of Valentine's Day as we know it, the Romans practiced a pagan celebration in mid-February that commemorated a young man's rite of passage to the god Lupercus. Of course in those days you didn't send a valentine card to your lover. Instead, you raffled off teenage girls to the male participants. “The girl assigned to each young man in that manner would be his sexual companion during the remaining year.”

Now, what was good for the Romans certainly was not okay for the normal Christian. That's why the Pope had to do something about it. So, after hundreds of years, around 490 A.D., Pope Gelasius made a very small change to the holiday. His great idea was that the lottery would now draw the names of saints instead of beautiful young prepubescent girls. While the change may have upset some young Roman men, through the centuries the new Christian holiday has become the time to exchange love messages and celebrate St. Valentine as the patron saint of lovers. “Lovers' quarrels come under his jurisdiction and, naturally, he is the patron saint of engaged couples and of anyone wishing to marry.”

On this day of finding mates and special friends, we think most especially of absent friends.

For many of us, absent friends are apparently the norm. "We are isolated more than ever before." A 2006 study by the American Sociological Review says that the number of confidantes Americans feel comfortable discussing important matters with has shrunk by a third.  20% of the respondents in the survey said they had only one person they feel comfortable discussing important matters with. Worse, 25% of the study's respondents said they had no one to talk to and that's more than double the percentage of the people who felt that way 20 years ago. "The greatest drop in confidants occurred in non-familial relations. Or in other words, our friends."

Valentine’s Day, then, is a great time to consider reconnecting with old friends. Reconnecting has never been more popular, mostly because it's become so easy. With the growth of the Internet, and the now ubiquitous presence of computers, it was probably inevitable that at some point some type of social connection would happen. According to Sarah Radwanick, marketing communications analyst at COMscore, Inc., more than 127 million Americans visit social networking websites each and every month.

Of course there's no guarantee that the long-lost friend you call in the middle of the night after you’ve screwed up your courage will welcome your call. And even if you do establish a friendship, it may consist of just the occasional chat on the phone or an occasional status update on Facebook, or maybe seeing each other for coffee once in a while. And maybe that's all it's meant to be.

And not every reconnection will bring only happy memories. "I guess my point is, reconnecting with old friends has put me in somewhat of a melancholy mood, wondering what would've happened had our roads not parted when they did."

Some of us will find that as we look back into our past to seek those long-lost friends, we won't see any people. "I started to reach further back in my past, to my school days, and had to face the damning realization that my most fervent and treasured companions of those days were the books I read."

But for those brave enough to embrace this new world of technology, there are a wealth of resources available. Though there are many websites on the Internet dedicated to reconnecting people from all walks of life, one site in particular seems to be rising above all the rest. "Facebook has been adopted by such a broad audience, and it accomplishes what sites like reunion.com and classmates.com failed to do."

Once you've decided to brave the world of technology and you picked the old friend that you want to try and reconnect with, how do you know they want to talk to you? Mercedes Smith offers her suggestions for reconnecting with old friends. Among other things, she suggests that when you establish communication, begin slowly. She suggests sending a casual e-mail and then waiting to see if they respond, then try meeting for coffee. One thing she emphasizes is that once you've gotten the relationship back on track be sure to keep the lines of communication open. "Make yourself available when they ask for Saturday brunches or the weekend barbecue."

And lest you think maintaining close friendships is just for girls, Bret and Kate McKay are convinced that reconnecting and establishing friendships has a long and cherished tradition, and makes you a better man. They cite the manly tradition of Abraham Lincoln and his friendship with Joshua Speed, and especially the friendship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams who though apart from each other for 14 years “kept their friendship alive by writing 158 letters to each other.”

Letter writing has a long tradition. And these days with Twitter and Facebook and e-mail and voicemail, writing an actual letter on actual paper with an actual pen and your actual hand may seem something of a throwback to the dark ages. But if you want to make someone feel special, there's no better way to do it than to send them a handwritten note on nice paper.
I know it sounds hokey. But I also know that there is no better way to guarantee a response than to send a carefully composed hand-written note on beautiful cotton bond paper, and in my opinion, written with a fountain pen.

No matter what your preference, whether it's by letter, or by phone, or even by e-mail, it’s time to contact that friend. You've waited long enough. You know that friend out there you've missed, and about whom you've wondered. How do you know that he or she hasn't been missing you too, hasn't been wondering what you've been doing and just hasn't gotten around to making that phone call or sending an e-mail to you?

It's Valentine's Day! Even if you have a special person in your life, after you've given that person candy and taken him or her out to dinner – spend an hour composing an e-mail or letter to long-lost friend whose life you will enrich by reconnecting. It will enrich your life too.

www.ManifestationCoaching.com