We all know how important it is today to owning your career today.  That means that you have to look at your career and your working life differently.  While our parents worked at the same job most of their life, we have to look at multiple jobs, multiple training, and multiple careers.  A series of multiple careers is basically what we have to navigate through.  The other important point to realize is that in our society, we tend not to value people over 50 years old!.  So if you plan to work past 50, you must be thinking about how to build a platform that will endure until you decide its time to quit!  The important thing is that you are in charge of your future.

I was recently talking with a lawyer who works in industry and represents clients, primarily men in their 50’s who have been discharged from their company.  He said, that this age group of men is the number one age group that get terminated and replaced by someone who is younger!   Most men in their 50’s are at their prime and have more to offer, but are more expensive.  So when companies are looking to improve their bottom line, they look to cut this group of wage earners.  Therefore, this concept of owning your career is extremely important to this age group.

The next strategic step in “Owning Your Career” is to Hire an Architect!  In a previous post, we talked about building your platform or foundation, and step number two is to find a mentor, or life coach, or work together with someone who has become an expert in the area that you are passionate about.  Part of owning your career means that you should be working in an area of your passion, your gifts and often times, this requires someone to help you stay on task.  And, with all of the social media and technology, it is critical to understanding how to keep your career going while using these platforms.

It is very important to understand how to harness the power of social media and to build a loyal customer base from social media.  It is equally important to build a platform that no one can take away from you.  It is important to design and build a product line and product suite that no one can take away from you.  It is important to learn the tools necessary to monetize your intellectual property and to be able to market it using blogs, webinars, podcasts, e-books , you tube and all available platforms.

In the next post, we will discuss how to Design, Develop and Own your brand and your products.  This is step number 3 in the five secrets to “Owning Your Career”.

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On the previous post, I explained the 5 secrets to owning your career.  Lets take a look deeper so that you can take decisive action TODAY!  The first secret described was to Build Your Foundation!  Here is what I recommend no matter what age you are!

First, have a firm idea of where you are in life.  If you are young, make sure you start to build your foundation properly.  A proper foundation will allow you to launch your brand  and know that no matter what happens, you have it covered.  So, the very first thing is to dust off your Bible.  I know what you are thinking, but I am amazed that most young people don’t understand that the first order of business is to look at the owners manual.  God gave us his design procedures in the Bible. He taught us what to do in every situation that we will encounter in life.  SO, it makes sense to read it through and just check it out!  Use the Bible as the GO TO for every situation. There are more than 3000 promises available for us if we take the time to receive them by faith.

Next, analyze who you “hang” with and determine if this group of friends will help you or inspire you to get to the next level in life!  Your friends you “hang” with are often whom God uses to create Divine Intersections that will either take you forward or create a detour for you.  Either way, you can reach your final destination and purpose, but it may take you much longer than expected.  And remember, we often times chose our betrayer in life. I know I did and Jesus did as well!

Think about every thing in your life not only on what you can “see” in the physical but is happening in the spiritual.  So, instead of thinking about “luck“, replace it with intentional spiritual meanings.  When bad things happen, re-frame them and ask yourself, what is God trying to teach me or show me?  When you begin to see what happens to you in view of God’s perspective, you get excited about living each day regardless of what happens.

Pray that God helps you build this foundation on a rock!  When the storms of life come, and they will for sure, you want to make sure the storm doesn’t take away your house!  You want to make sure you and your brand and your career are still standing!  When you build your career and your personal brand on a rock, no one can take it away from you.

Train, and learn everything you can.  Be a life long learner.  Get that degree or skill and keep going back for more training and education.  This is part of your foundation and your success.  If you can’t afford to do that, learn from free webinars, blogs, libraries, podcasts, and whomever you come into contact with.  Instead of asking a person what they do for a living, ask a person about their perspective and how they became successful and what they recommend!  So many people get impressed with what a person does but the real issue is how they managed it and what you can learn from them.  Go deeper and ask better questions.  The quality of your questions determines the quality of your life.  The intentional and deeper questions result in better answers and better results.

Stop watching trash on the television and the radio!  The way to build a solid foundation is by using quality materials.  What you put into your brain and your eyes and your ears is directly related to your ability to be successful.  I am not a mind expert, but I do know that you have to be very consequential what you put in.  Garbage in equals garbage out.  Watch, read and listen to  media and movies and music that brings you closer to God.  Not the devil!

Enthusiasm and energy for life is contagious!  If you want to build a foundation of peace, energy and success, you have to look for those people and those experiences that saturate your brain in this environment.  I am not talking about just going on expensive pleasure vacations, but simple things.  For example, listen to classical music daily.  Dress up with a suit and tie weekly.  Write at least one handwritten letter weekly to a friend or someone you admire or want to learn from.  Clean your house and clean your closet!  When your place is a mess, it destroys your peace and sends a message to others that you don’t value them.  Polish your shoes daily!  You always feel better when your shoes are polished. Eat better and healthier foods.  Exercise daily by either walking, riding, swimming, jogging, dancing or even running the sweeper, but do something.  Gardening and pulling weeds can even be an outlet for great exercise.  Bending over to pull weeds is therapy for me. I think of every weed that I pull and throw out as something that I am trying to rid myself from.  Attach a bitter or sad experience to that weed and then throw it out.

Reboot yourself weekly.  Whether it is church, visiting family, or whatever, but look for ways to add value to people and learn from everyone.

The next post will talk about “Hiring an Architect”.  IF YOU WOULD LIKE THESE POSTS DELIVERED DIRECTLY TO YOUR EMAIL,PLEASE FILL IN THE FORM IN THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER ON MY SITE.  AND AS ALWAYS, PLEASE FORGIVE ANY TYPOS or GRAMMAR PROBLEMS!  LOL

Well, of course, there are more than 5 secrets to “owning your career”, but there are things that everyone must do to get started.  Here are the 5 secrets:

1. Build Your Foundation–  You have to look at your career and your potential earning in a different manner today.  With pensions, stocks and money difficult to get your hands on today, you have to think about working until you die!  This doesn’t have to sound scary.  The Bible never talks about retiring.  Think about what God wants you to do today that will take you to the end of your days on this earth.  And to make money doing it if you need to.  You must start to think of the foundation that your career is set on.  Is it on sand, or is it on solid rock?  That is the question that you must answer.  Many folks are working and working, not realizing that there is something they could be doing in addition to their current job to take them into a new level of prosperity and significance. The key is to analyze your foundation and have it inspected.
2. Hire an Architect– If you have ever traveled through an old neighborhood, you often see houses that have had additions put on without proper planning and design. Roof lines and pitch lines don’t match, and attention to architectural details are missing from the original house to the addition.  You need to hire a professional, to help you with a set of blueprints that helps you get the proper result.  Owning your career requires planning and hiring an architect to help you get it right.  This can come in the form of a life coach, personal trainer, or can simply be re investing in yourself on a continual Basis through webinars, podcasts, reading blog posts, or being part of a membership training program.
3. Design, Develop and Own “You”-It is very important to “own” you!  And you must  learn how to “own” you!  Specifically, I mean owning your career, your brand, your products and your ability to monetize that until you decide to finish! It is imperative to never delegate your ability to live a life that God has destined you to live. I call this living “OnPurpose”. And in today’s technical world, it is easier to design, build and Own your brand and your career, despite the economy and the facts about middle aged men in the marketplace.
4. Run the race God Intended You to Run– You must redefine success for what it truly is.  The old saying that the man who has the most toys wins is a complete lie.  The man who has the most toys actually dies!  Success is having peace in your heart and the ability to re-frame anything that happens to you.  My friend from university emailed me yesterday about two of our friends dying at 55 and leaving their families.  We all have to ask ourselves: “How do we want to be remembered when we die”.  And then take steps immediately to make sure you are running the race that God has you to run.
5. Add Value daily– The older I get, the more I embrace the concept of adding value to people’s lives.  With so much happening in our world, negative politics, international trouble, and difficult people, the ability to add value will always give you the ability to own your career and to monetize your content.  We need to all help people find Strength, Solace and Motivation.  We need to encourage difficult family members to make peace not war. We need to role model what that means daily to our children.  We need to understand and deliver value to everyone.  And with technology today, that has made things much easier.

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