Recently in the Get Ahead Club, I was honored to interview Jenny Blake. Jenny is an author, career and micro-business coach, and traveling yoga teacher. She provides thought-leadership for entrepreneurs, Generation Y and beyond through her uplifting blog Life After College and best-selling book of the same name (which was featured in Target’s 2012 graduation display). Her passion is in helping people ditch the rigidity of yesterday’s career ladder, instead treating their careers (and lives) as dynamic as the constantly customizable apps on a smart phone. She also just launched her new website which you definitely want to check out at jennyblake.me.
Read Jenny’s book Life After College if.…. you feel paralyzed without a defined road map – or without any clue how to create one and you want to learn how to get what you want in your life after college. (P.S. This book isn’t just for recent grads, this is an amazing book for all professionals at any age!)
This is what Jenny wrote in the introduction of her book, “There is no manual for the real world. In high school and college we have teachers, guidance counselors, and course requirements. But the minute we graduate it seems we are immediately expected to understand where to go, what to do and how to get wherever we’re going next-even when we have no clue where “next” is. For the first time in our lives, we feel paralyzed without a defined road map – or without any clue how to create one.”
I have been watching Jenny for a few years now and have watched her change her life from working at Google, to becoming an author and now to becoming an entrepreneur. Jenny said that she made these big life changes because, “I felt like I needed to follow this template that society laid out for me. Buy a house, two kids, move up the ladder, etc. But I got sick and my body started to say that this wasn’t working. So I followed my intuition.”
Here are a few things I learned in my interview with Jenny:
- Think of the things you want to do, things you want to have, how you want to be or feel and new skills or education you want to get in the next 6 months, 1 year and 3 years. Jenny is a firm believer that writing it down is the first step in actually making it happen.
- What new skills would take you from average to absolute rock start? Create a 1 year mini-vision statement. Imagine yourself completing that goal.
- When you find yourself doing things for other people, like things you ”should do”, slow down and think about what do you really want. If you are already burnt out, focus on what you can do for yourself that is rejuvenating and restorative right now. Are you getting enough sleep? Eating well? Exercising? Getting outside? This is your foundation and it needs to be in place to manage the more stressful areas of our life.
- Two questions to ask yourself if you are feeling overwhelmed 1) What one thing would make the biggest impact in your life that really excites you? 2) What is one small tiny thing that you can do today? Work on it for at least 5 minutes, 5 days in a row and start at that micro level. Even our biggest life changes happen in a series of small moments and decisions. It all happens one step at a time so don’t be afraid to start small.
- Be disciplined because discipline creates confidence and momentum.
- Have a morning ritual that you can look forward to. Jenny meditates every morning and reads blogs she loves. She says, “I get to set the tone for my day and then I will jump into my work stuff.”
Want to get the interview recordings from the 10+ interviews I have already done this year and start taking action to get ahead in your career? You can try the Get Ahead Club for only $1 today and listen to the recordings from all the interviews, get the Cliff Notes and interact with over 30 other women in the Get Ahead Club community right now! Click here to learn more.
