But does that mean that we should be satisfied with “steady”?

The difference between a “steady” job and a great job involves the ability to personally invest yourself in your work: If you draw enthusiasm from what you’re doing, and you feel a personal stake in the success of your efforts, then you have a great job.  Keep this in mind:

Great jobs are part of your identity; steady jobs are just part of your resume.

Steady jobs are dangerous; they might be just barely good enough to keep you in a permanent holding pattern and stop you from pursuing that dream job. Your boss and your customers are never happy with the bare minimum, so why should you be happy with a job that is just good enough?

Ask yourself this: Is your job great, or just “steady”?

The Freelance Folder blog put together a great post that not only outlines a few of the author’s “bucket list” items, but challenges the reader to come up with their own.  It’s an inspiring read and will hopefully serveto get you thinking about what you really want to achieve to live your life to the fullest.

The Freelancer’s Bucket List

This is where having a workout routine comes into play.

It’s called a “workout” for a reason – it’s work.  You have to treat it as such.  If you didn’t show up for work when you were scheduled, you’d have to face the consequences.  Same goes with working out.  Both set of consequences could spell long-term trouble for you.

Freelancers may have an easier time consistently working out – they generally have a strong sense of self-discipline to call on and keep them honest.  That said, they may be “too busy” to do a regular workout.  Those who work at the office 9 to 5 will use the same excuse – or bring up plenty of others that fit the bill.

A site I like to check out for fitness tips is NerdFitness – and it’s fitting that the creator of the site, Steve Kamb, took the plunge this week by quitting his “safe” job to focus solely on the site.  He’s got the goods to make it all work, too.

So, what’s your workout routine?  What are your favorite sites to get fitness tips?  Let us know in the comments.

LottoMax is a weekly lottery where you pick seven numbers, from 1 to 49, for your chance to win.  The pot starts at $10 million, and once it hits $50 million it goes into super-fancy “maxmillions” mode, with additional $1 million draws on top of the main jackpot.   The other night there was one draw for the $50 million prize, and an additional 45 – $1 million draws.  No one won the $50 million.

The odds of winning are 1 in 28 million, but considering that there are only 33 million people in Canada – it’s surprising that it hasn’t been won yet, but not that surprising that it’s featured prominently in the news.

So what does this have to do with WorkAwesome?  I’m sure I’m not the only one to play the “what if?” game:

“What would I do if I won the big jackpot?”

How much would you need to win in order to quit your job?  Or would you keep working where you are if you had an extra $50 million in the bank?  Would you move on to something else altogether – something you truly love?

What would you do if you won the big jackpot? 

I use an Excel spreadsheet that lists all my past, current, and future writing assignments. Upcoming deadlines are in green and projects I’ve completed are in black. I reserve red for when checks are overdue, which (knock on wood) doesn’t happen very often. Admittedly, it’s rather low-tech compared to the other options out there, but it works. After all, Excel is pretty versatile.

What about you? How do you ensure that you never miss a deadline?

Don’t let the most famous manifesto dissuade you either. Yes, I know Karl Marx wrote one. But so did Guy Kawasaki, career renegade Jonathan Fields and designer Bruce Mau. In fact, there is a whole website dedicated to people’s manifestos on various topics ranging from change and achievement to creativity and how to give a compelling presentation.

A manifesto is a bold statement, or extended mantra, that sets a tone for your day, your career, heck, even your life. It’s a road map to awesomeness that should induce a surge of adrenaline pulsing through your body with each reading.

The Jerry Maguire Fiasco was an isolated incident.

But don’t confuse this soon be be penned narrative on your inherent greatness with the dreaded Jerry Maguire fiasco. That won’t happen. Sure, he had an epiphany, ran out in the middle of the night after writing his impassioned document to get it printed and bound at Kinko’s, only to hand it out to everyone, freak out, have second thoughts and then find himself having to scream “show me the money” into a telephone.

This isn’t your destiny.

(Note: Jerry did however win in the long run by sticking to his vision.)

And besides, your manifesto is for you and you only. It’s a catalyst for what is to come. Because the truth is that nothing can really stop you from doing what you want to do except a lack of passion. Your manifesto is food for that inner engine that will drive you forward. This is fantastic productivity fuel.

What is stopping you?

Now I want to have a really transparent, honest moment. Here’s a big secret, but it may be tough to swallow. This is also a confession. Okay, here goes: When I’ve had set backs, failures, disappointments in my career, at the heart of it all has been the bitter truth that I didn’t want it badly enough.

I trudged my way toward a goal because it seemed like the thing to do. There was no focus; there was no passion; there was no manifesto. I’ve learned my lesson. Now I write them all the time. And they don’t need to be etched in stone or on some elaborate bronze tablet for it set a tone. What matters is that you believe in your words and more importantly, that you believe in yourself.

Pen…Meet Paper.

All it takes is those first few words committed to paper and you’re on your way. So write. Get something down on paper, or in a word doc, a napkin might even be nice. Mine would have a coffee stain on it for effect. Keep refining your manifesto as you go. This is a living document, not dogma. But, it should inspire; the words should ring true. They should speak to you, motivate you and catapult you toward what you really want to accomplish.

This may seem an odd exercise, but some of the greatest companies on earth have manifestos, mantras, and driving principles that come to define the essence of who they are and these documents are foundational to their success. Why should you be any different? Don’t you deserve the same?

But, despite all of these passing, changing thoughts, few of us have paused and allowed our dream job the consideration it deserves. Ask yourself: Have you given any real thought or definition to your dream job? Would you recognize it if you saw it? Would you be ready to pursue it if it appeared? If you struggle with any of the answers, perhaps you should stop, sit down, and give the matter your full attention.

Make it “Tailor Made” and “Built to Last”

First, be honest with yourself. Don’t just regurgitate some generic version of an ideal job to yourself. Those clichéd versions of dream jobs are certainly not for everyone: Would you be ready for the punishing daily workouts and strict diet of a pro athlete? Would you enjoy getting up at 3:30 am seven days a week as a news anchor? Would you really want to be a rock star if you have stage fright? Probably not. So, instead of grabbing a shrink-wrapped “dream job” off the shelf or cobbling disjointed fragments like “high pay” and “lots of travel” together, think it all the way through.

Second, Don’t let short-term events have too much of an influence on your version of “the perfect job.” The question is not “how could your week be better?,” it’s “how could your career be better.” If this week was stressful, it doesn’t mean that your “dream job” is being a yoga instructor. If you struggled with some unbearable clients and coworkers recently, it doesn’t mean that your ideal job is void of all interpersonal contact. You’ll need a long-term perspective to envision your true dream job.

Dreaming of Being The Boss?

Many quickly conclude that they want to be an executive of some sort. They see all of the perks of the executive level, but they never see the hardship or risk involved in such a position. While you may want some more autonomy at your job, an executive might want less at his. An executive will never admit it, but they may be envious of those in the company who have clear, distinct duties and a supervisor to make all of the difficult decisions.

I’m sure you want the big office and the expense account, but do you want the rest of it as well?

Dreaming of Owning Your Own Business?

Many of us look around our current workplace and see a lot of room for improvement. We think: “This could be better. I would do things differently.” This naturally leads to visions of starting a similar business that runs flawlessly, complete with brilliant, happy employees, healthy profits and great prospects on the horizon. If you are going to take the plunge, it’s certainly a good vision to strive for. But, are you ready for the hurdles and headaches along the way? Starting a business can be seriously stressful. You have to put your whole livelihood (and your pride) on the line. If you fail as an employee, being fired is basically the worst-case scenario. But, if a business owner fails, they’re usually deep in debt, jobless, demoralized and reeling from the aftermath.

Starting your own business is a noble pursuit, but you have to pursue it wholeheartedly. Is it truly your “dream job”?

Dreaming of Doing Nothing?

At particularly stressful positions, the “dream job” becomes no job at all. If your workload is ballooning out of control and your duties barely fit into daylight hours, you might crave large amounts of downtime. This need for personal time can affect your idea of a “dream job” for obvious reasons; your ideal scenario is a blank schedule. The question is, is your dream job truly “nothing”?

A few days, or even a few weeks of “nothing” is almost always welcome. But, in larger doses it can be worse than your all-too-busy job. Gallup polls show that busy workers are generally more satisfied than bored ones. Boredom is also used as a punishment in prison. Are you sure you want a long, sustained period of “nothing to do”? Give it some real thought before you settle on “nothing” as your dream job.

Dream jobs don’t always miraculously appear, but you’ve got to be able to recognize yours if it does. Defining your dream job may yield a new understanding of your long-term plans and your career path. After all, it’s hard to know if you’re “going in the right direction” if you haven’t picked out a point on the horizon.

If that was to happen, are you prepared?  Regardless of how you feel your position stands in terms of security, you just never know – so it’s good to make sure you’re ready should the need arise.

But let’s take it one step further.

If your job was to disappear tomorrow, are you prepared to do something else instead?

What would you do if you were let go?  Would you simply move on, or re-create your work like in some form or another?  Would you go it alone?  Let us know in the comments.

As human beings, we thirst for knowledge.  Heck, it’s the message behind the opening dialogue over top of every Star Trek opening – ever.  We want to know more.  We need to know more.  How we do that is up to each of us…well, once you’re out of school.

Continuing on in school and taking courses (like night classes) is one way to do it.  You can even take many classes online now (they’re the new “correspondence” courses).  Those aside, you can learn from books that you buy or borrow.  The content on the web – like blogs – can educate as well.  And while learning on the job is likely the most common (and most cost-effective) way to learn in the present day, you may not necessarily be learning what you’d like to.

So, how do you learn?  How do you like to learn?  What’s your favorite way to learn new things and advance your knowledge in others?  Let us know in the comments.

It’s okay, let them stare. Because the truth is that your blank stare at the wall is just what the mind needs to slow down, clear out some of the clutter and give the creative brain the opportunity to open up to better thinking, greater creativity and maybe even the next big idea.

The Ire of Idle Hands

Corporate America isn’t built to accommodate dreamers. Traditionally, it’s been all about the volume of work. In this world quantity rules. Idle hands are tools of the devil, remember? Yes, but they’re also a sign of creativity at work. A Wired article about the productivity enhancing merits of Twitter and Facebook argued that, “regularly stepping back from the project at hand can be essential to success. And social networks are particularly well suited to stoking the creative mind.”

Great news, but little consolation when the boss chews you out for screwing around. If he knew what leading theorists in the field of creative intelligence knew he might just give you a nice daydream disrupting pat on the back.

It’s all about The Incubation Time

The creative process is kind of like applied mysticism. Ideas often come in a flash, out of nowhere and without warning even at the most unusual times – often times beyond the boundaries of 9 to 5 thinking.

Maybe this is because it’s only when we have traditionally been able to leave the office that our mind can relax and enter what is known as the incubation phase of the creative process. The incubation phase is where the aforementioned magic happens. During this time, “the preliminary ideas of the preparation stage are allowed to gestate for an unspecified period of time while the problem is not pursued consciously. The culmination of the incubation process is the explosive stage of illumination.” (Source: The Encyclopedia of Creativity, VOL II, pg. 676, Academic Press, 1999)

Sounds like “down time” to me. Here, too, is the origins of the coveted Aha! moment. Just one and you could be on your way to bigger and better things in your career. And all it takes is a little inactivity. Just a few cautious moments to let the mind do what it does best: create.

Go ahead…stare

Now that we’ve all seen the merits of stepping back, staring at a wall or computer screen and letting the creative wheels turn a bit, let’s talk about how to do this at work without getting talked about or tossed out before that Aha! moment happens.

For starters, remember that we have more opportunities to engage the idea generating part of the brain than we realize. And, the most important part is to get the idea in there and let it grow. The subconscious mind will take care of the rest. The problem is that we allow for very few gaps in our thinking. We’re conditioned to keep it filled with worries, concerns, fantasies and the latest water cooler gossip. Why not give it a rest?

Getting back to the Wired story on social networks and productivity, this is why there is a counterintuitive workplace benefit to measured social networking. That next tweet or Facebook can provide that gap and may just fan the creative flames to solve the next big problem at work (mind you, you can go wrong when using social networks at work as well).

Don’t Try This at Home, Use it at Work

As you can see, screwing around a bit at work has the potential to make you the most productive, creative and dynamic mind in your office. Here are a few simple ways – among others – to get started staring blankly into the vast depths of possibility:

1. Make Your Next Break Just That – When we get breaks during the day, even if it’s for just a few minutes, we have this tendency to fill it with random busyness. Instead, take a few breaths, close your eyes and let the mind just go. You might be surprised where it ends up.
2. The Extended Water Break – Take a few extra moments during the next water break and go for a quick walk. Try to walk mindfully and use the stroll to empty the head. If there’s a problem to solve, let it rest there during this time. This is one way to begin the incubation process.
3. Find White Space – Turn away form the computer screen for a few minutes and just stare at the wall. Before you do, take a few deep mindful breaths. Relax your shoulders a bit. Now, just let the mind rest. Repeat as needed.
4. Be A Lunch Loner – Lunch is a great time gossip with coworkers, an opportunity to run a few errands and if you’re determined to have the next big idea, it’s also great time to open the mind. Why not bring a lunch, get out of the office, find a quiet place and just disengage a bit?

You are now fully prepared to step back just enough that those great ideas and insights of yours have a fighting chance at work. Because the truth is that the next great idea can come from anywhere. You’re just as capable as anyone. Make it happen.