Manifestation schmanifestation. The law of attraction, abundance mentality, the power of vulnerability, getting in touch with your inner child, doing ‘the work,’ sitting with it, getting out of your own way, be the change…You’ve seen these phrases. New-agey pop culture is riddled with such self-help clichés.
 
“Codswallop!” I say! I owned my own welding shop, I ride a motorcycle, I do CrossFit, I practice handstands. I am made of sturdier stuff. I’m not going to send my intentions out into the Universe, I’m going to work! Hard work is what makes things happen. This is absolutely true. Ask your grandparents, ask anybody. But too much nose-to-the-grindstone work leaves little room for invention and possibility. In other words, all work and no play makes Jane a dull girl.
 
I speak from personal experience. Having become dull from uninspired, hard work, I got grumpy. My grumpiness lead to surfing motorcycle images online. Riding brings me joy and while Vermont is currently six inches deep in ice and snow, I can still find joy in seeing others ride, which inspires thoughts about my own future riding. I came upon a Facebook post about a women’s motorcycle tour in Vermont put on by MotoVermont (a terrific organization that helped me outfit my cross-country motorcycle trip two years ago). Each night before going to bed, I’d look at the women’s tour images and have the greatest dreams.
 
After three nights of such dreams, I messaged MotoVermont about the great dreams. MotoVermont messaged me right back: “Jane, you’re great! You’d love this trip. Think about signing up.” I thought about it and wrote back that he should consider adding a yoga component to the Women’s Tour. (I teach yoga when I'm not writing or riding.) MotoVermont messaged right back again: “Call me!”
 
Now it looks like I might be be organizing the yoga program for the Women’s Tour. The thought of it excited me so much that I could not stop dancing around my office. My dance was interrupted by work offers. Writing work. My ‘real’ job. In my delight, work came pouring in. I wrote a bio for a major social media influencer who is often featured in Forbes and HuffPo. I wrote two cover letters for a guy who was delighted by my writing. (Here is his actual response: “I love it!!  I read the draft this morning with a fresh cup of coffee, and my inner-self was jumping up and down and saying "Holy shit!  That's Me!!! That's MEEEEEEEEEEE!!"  Thank you so much again.”) I wrote a resume and LinkedIn profile for a woman who is leaving a job after a quarter century…Things just keep getting better.
 
Coincidence? I think not. It seems that Willie Nelson was right: “Once you start replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” Hell, I even bought a book by Brené Brown.
 
Certainly, my background, education, privileges, and hard work have all contributed to my ability to manifest more and more enjoyable work (and motorcycling), but there’s more to it now. My attitude is different. Better.
 
Gandhi is often misquoted as saying “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Really what he said was: “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” While it does not fit as well onto a coffee mug or T-shirt, it does get closer to the pragmatic truth of our modern manifestation mania.
 
Things do change when we change ourselves. The world’s attitude towards us changes, certainly, as we change our nature, we see things from different perspectives. Some call it manifestation, others pragmatism; others call it awareness or becoming attuned. In other words, when I look for beauty, I find beauty. When I look for pain, I find that, too.
 
Part of this is due to the neuroplasticity of the brain. The human brain is a creature of habit, it takes the easiest, most familiar path. By practicing seeing things in new ways or by practicing thinking new thoughts, we start to create new neural pathways in the brain. Over time, practiced positive thoughts trick the brain into a kind of familiarity with the new perception, and the brain actually changes. It becomes easier to behave in that new way. As Gandhi said, there is no need to wait to see what others will do.
 
Call it manifestation, good karma, growth mindset, wishful thinking, flow state, higher vibration, agency, or whatever you like. Thinking good thoughts beats the alternative. And who doesn’t want the divine mystery supreme of manifesting motorcycles?!
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Author C. Jane Taylor specializes in stories (LinkedIn Profile Development, Professional Biographies, Cover Letters, etc.) and motorcycles. She presents her clients in such a way that their stories shimmer and compel readers to act. ​

Yahoo! You followed their directions and have a snazzy customized URL… now what?

Here’s 3 cool things to do with it:

• Include the URL to your LinkedIn profile on your resume, up at the top with your name, email address and phone number.
• Include your LinkedIn Profile URL in your email signature.
• Add your LinkedIn Profile URL to your business cards.
  
  

Feeling like the rest of your profile could use a bit of a makeover as well?

If you haven’t maintained your LinkedIn profile lately then it may be time to set up a free exploratory call to see about having me work some profile magic so you get noticed in 2018 and beyond!

Are you actually qualified to do your job? Are you qualified to do the next one you might be considering? Really? If you think not, you are not alone. In fact, I’m shocked by how many people, women especially, hesitate to even try to secure their dream job because they fear they are not qualified. I’m also shocked that I am one of those women. Though I have been a professional writer for most of my adult life, I still sometimes hesitate to throw my fountain pen into the big ring. Until yesterday.
 
Like many successful, self-employed writers, I was surfing (sadly not the Yvon-Chouinard-Patagonia-style surfing). Searching the term ‘social media ninjas and gurus,’ I found an article on Entrepreneur.com suggesting I watch for the Top 9 Social Media Strategists in 2017. The list included names like Ellen DeGeneres and The Rock. I found this a little bit ironic as we are watching those people anyway, and not necessarily due to their social media prowess or their marketing credentials, though Ellen majored in communication studies at the University of New Orleans and The Rock got a Bachelor of General Studies degree in criminology and physiology.
 
I continued my surf to land upon the big wave of social media influencers for 2017. Top among them are Leonard Kim and Rachel Pederson. Neither has Hollywood, nor a degree, both are wildly successful. Kim was recently named Top Marketer by not just Inc., but also Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine. He fills his LinkedIn Profile summary with emojis of airplanes, skiers, and beach umbrellas. Though his profile shows he is currently a student at the University of Southern California, there is not much other mention of academic credentials. Pederson, who is recognized by Content Marketing Institute as one of the most influential online marketers in the universe, also includes only passing reference to academic achievement in her LinkedIn profile. Instead, she founds schools like Social Media United, the leading social media university for social media managers. And who needs a degree when you can found a school?!
 
Experience and chutzpah are what make Kim and Pederson shine. Neither has traditional credentials; neither has been held back by that fact. Both have great ideas and daring. Both made their way despite the odds. Today Pederson accepts new clients by referral only, whereas Kim is too busy to accept an invitation from Entertainment Tonight.
 
If Leonard Kim and Rachel Pederson can do it, why can’t you? Why can’t I? Fear. You have it, I have it. Why? The fear of success is something you can explore with your therapist or Dr. Google on Psychology Today. But fear of inadequacy is a different kind of fear, one born of both nature and nurture.
 
In part fear of inadequacy is linked to evolution of the species: we are afraid we are inadequate and so we keep working harder and harder. We need to keep evolving in order to continue the species, and so must work tirelessly for our own improvement. It’s part of our DNA. As to the other part of our DNA, nurture, we can thank people like our parents for such characteristics as perfectionism and unrealistic ideals – both powerful contributors to impostor syndrome. Thanks, Mom and Dad.
 
Stay tuned for our upcoming new webinar series on Impostor Syndrome. We’ll explore strategies to rephrase negative thinking and self-doubt and slay the demon fear of inadequacy. We’ll offer action steps you can take to better understand, celebrate, and utilize your experience, strengths, and abilities.
 
Your future is waiting. It’s time to slay.

Author C. Jane Taylor specializes in stories (LinkedIn Profile Development, Professional Biographies, Cover Letters, etc.). She presents her clients in such a way that their stories shimmer and compel readers to act. ​

​For most of the East Coast, today was a huge day for celebration.  The temperatures shifted (especially in Vermont) from -20℉ to 20℉. (That is 40 degrees, people!) After 15 days of bitter cold, it suddenly felt warm. Yesterday, it was rumored to be colder in some places on Earth than it was on the planet Mars…you know, the planet that is known for its COLD weather? Yes, we beat its temperature low by at least 20 degrees. That is cold. But seriously, we celebrated 20℉ today?
 
Um, 20℉ is cold, there is no way around it, but feels warm compared to what we had been experiencing. This perception made me think about how human beings can assimilate much easier to change and discomfort than we think we can. It took us only 15 days to become acclimatized to below-zero weather. It was not until the brutal weather lifted that we realized how, although it wasn’t easy or comfortable, we got used to feeling a certain way: COLD. We didn’t love it, but we got used to it.
 
What else can we get used to faster and with less discomfort than we imagine? Job change that might require a slight salary decline, but that offers more fulfilment? Leaving a relationship that is not serving you anymore, but you feel too scared to be alone? Starting a business based on your passions, but being so unsure where to even start, you are paralyzed? Change often brings discomfort. But discomfort is not death. Discomfort is short lived when you keep moving forward through the change. When we try to anticipate the discomfort of change, we often underestimate our ability to acclimatize to it.
 
So, if you found yourself celebrating the giant temperature swing today because 20℉ felt warm, ask yourself what else you could do this week to make a change that in 15 days could feel so much less fearful. Perhaps all you need to do is put on the proverbial set of extra mittens to start your change…trust me, in 15 days, any discomfort that you felt on the first day, will soon be long gone.

As Mark Twain reminds us, it is up to us to explore, dream, and discover. What's stopping you?

With “New Year’s Resolution Season” upon us, many rush out to change themselves with the turn of the calendar page – it is almost like with that one day change that takes you from one year to the next, you will suddenly gain all of the will power you need to make the change that has eluded you all year. Or worse, you think that suddenly you will become the person you have always wanted to be…overnight, just because you resolved to do so. But I invite you to consider this year, instead of making a “New Year’s Resolution” that you instead consider making a life resolution and hire a Coach.
 
Why a Coach? Because we think you are “enough” as you are. We believe that you hold amazing power, knowledge, and capacity as you are as a person, today. And that you are not broken and need fixing. Instead, we believe as Coaches, that you are enough and that the support that you need is about expanding that “enough”. We look to expand and reinvigorate the strengths you bring to the world every day. We remind you of the tools you already possess to not just set goals, but get them as well. We challenge you to not allow your “buts” (those excuses that often have the world “but” in the middle of them like, “I have always wanted to do that BUT I just don’t think I can survive on that salary) to get in the way of your dreams.
 
We believe that the change you seek is most often the product of steady, sometimes circuitous effort; that what we do every day matters more than what we do once in a while. Our job is to help you create an environment of success around that steady effort. We take the long view of the game of change instead of the “30-day challenge” but by making it an expanded view of possibility and opportunity, our clients find a great deal more success that lasts a life time, versus just a short New Year’s Resolution period of time. But most importantly, we make help our clients identify that THEY are the most powerful ones to support themselves in this journey of change. And the ones they can trust the most when they become committed in change, not just interested.
 
So instead of putting money down for a gym membership that you won’t use, a new pair of $200 sneakers that won’t make you want to run no matter their color, or invest in a new resume because surely is going to help you get clear about what you want out of life – contact a Coach. And let them walk through with you what is really important to you and let them help you see that you are enough as you are – and that change is indeed an important part of growth, let them show you how to navigate change to not only set the goals you want out of life, but get them.