TAKE ACTION

You can take off. Be resourceful, set your goals, and get to work. It pays to be morally strong and scrupulously honest with yourself, and in your dealings with others.

Dale Carnegie extols the benefits of putting pen to paper, while Roman Krznaric suggests we cultivate the many sides of who we are.

DUCK FACTS

The wings are very strong and are generally short and pointed, and the flight of ducks requires fast continuous strokes, requiring in turn strong wing muscles.

WISE WORDS

Dale Carnegie

I have found from costly experience that it is much easier to analyze the facts after writing them down.

In fact, merely writing the facts on a piece of paper and stating our problem clearly goes a long way toward helping us reach a sensible decision.

As Charles Kettering puts it: “A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.”

From Carnegie's classic book “How to stop worrying and start living.”

Roman Krznaric

For over a century, Western culture has been telling us that the best way to use our talents and be successful is to specialise and become a high achiever, an expert in a narrow field.

But an increasing number of people feel that this approach fails to cultivate the many sides of who they are.

Take inspiration from Renaissance generalists like Leonardo da Vinci who would paint one day, then do some mechanical engineering, followed by a few anatomy experiments on the weekend.

Today this is called being a “portfolio worker”, doing several jobs simultaneously and often freelance.

Management thinker Charles Handy says this is not just a good way of spreading risk in an insecure job market, but is an extraordinary opportunity made possible by the rise of flexible working:

“For the first time in the human experience, we have a chance to shape our work to suit the way we live instead of our lives to fit our work. We would be mad to miss the chance.”

NEXT STEPS

• There is lots more excellent information about how to find fulfilling work at Career Shifters.org.

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