Via twitter friends @judynelson re @suziewelch:

A Stunning Excerpt to a Stunning Book!

I confess. I have to read it. But I am deeply embedded in the work-life balance query, and any woman who works for a living needs to read this post by Wallace Imman at The Globe and Mail's Report On Business:

10-10-10 A Formula to Make Smart Career Choices.

Here's the slice:

What's the concept of 10-10-10?

This is a decision-making approach that asks you to consider your options in 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years, and then bring to bear your deeply held values of who you are and how you want to live your life.

For a career decision, the question you want to answer is: "Knowing what I know now about all of my options and their consequences now and in the future, which choice will best help me create a career of my own making?"

With things changing so quickly these days, how can we know for certain that, 10 months or 10 years in the future, we will still believe and think what we do today?

There is nothing literal about the tens in the concept. The first 10 is basically right now. The second 10 is a point in the foreseeable future when the initial reaction to our decision has passed but its consequences continue to play out in ways you can reasonably predict. And the third 10 stands for a time in the future that is so far off that its particulars are entirely vague but from which you should be able to look back and see positive results of your decision. That's the future you want to create.

To be able to make a good decision, you've got to know what you really value to begin with. Situations can change quickly, but your values and beliefs are much more constant.

Don't people do this kind of analysis unconsciously anyway?

I wish they did. Some really wise people do it naturally.

I find that most people make decisions on what is most expedient at the moment.

They are trying to make everyone happy or they fear angering the boss or their spouse. They've left out their own values and ignored options because they were rushing to make a decision. And they just live with the consequences, rather than looking at what they really want.

What insights have you had about common factors people who use this approach ultimately discover about why their career choices are misguided?

I've found people discover that the picture they have in their mind is based on what they believe others expect of them.

By examining their values, they eventually have the eureka discovery that they are not living for themselves but for what they think their mother, their father, their friends think they should be like.

 

Absolutely love this.

Lisa