Go SMART into 2016

As we glide through the Holiday Season, here is a gift from me to all job hunters: five practices that will make you a SMART job hunter.

S = Sales: Why would an employer hire you? Because you are sold…on You! You told the best story. The story of Who You Are. And what you can bring to the employer’s organization. Your Story is your Brand. Telling your Story is the way you sell the prospect.

M = Market: How do you find potential employers? Like a Big Game Hunter tracks and snares his prey. With clear intent and unrelenting pursuit. You know what you want. You know your market. Because you know your Product. And the product is You. Remember: when you are in transition, you are in Sales & Marketing.

A = Acquisition: How do you rise above the rest of the job hunters out there? They want a job. But you are looking to acquire a company. Sure, you want a job too. But think about it for a few minutes from the point of view of the recruiter who is beating the bushes to find and attract some good candidates. You are doing the same thing from the other side of the equation. So get into acquisition mode.

R = Research: How do you wow the employer? By demonstrating how much you know about him or her. You did your research, using your network, LinkedIn, and other resources on the internet. You prepared a list of questions to ask. You know so much about the employer that you may actually stun the interviewer.

T = Tools: The well-equipped job hunter always carries his most trusty tools, especially business cards, a pen, a fully charged cell phone, and a box of “Thank You” note cards. But the Swiss Army Knife of all job search tools is one’s network, the people you know, the people you can count on, the people who are looking out for you.

Be smart, baby. Be smart.

Posted by Terrence Seamon, a veteran job hunter. For more ideas on job search, career change, and how to find the meaning and happiness you seek out of life, invite Terry to speak to your organization.

Follow the Recipe

Remember the Jimmy Webb song from the late 1960's called "MacArthur Park?" The enigmatic lyric says, "Someone left the cake out in the rain. I don't think that I can take it 'cause it took so long to bake it, and I'll never have that recipe again. Oh no!"

Some (especially Boomers who lived through the Flower Power times) love that song. Many (especially the generations that came after) hate it for it's soaring but baffling poetry.

So what was Webb trying to say? Though this may be an oversimplification, the cake is a relationship that went sour. And the recipe is the mysterious set of ingredients that produced the relationship in the first place.

What is the connection for Job Hunters? If you are looking for work, that elusive job is the cake you are after. And the recipe is the process you are following to find that cake, er I mean job.

What got this meditation started was a coffee meet-up the other morning at the Barnes & Noble bookstore on the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick.

We were talking about how challenging it is these days to find work, even when you have all the necessary ingredients, such as a resume, a business card, a cover letter, a list of target companies, a network, a LinkedIn profile, etc.

Then my friend said something brilliant: "Having all the right ingredients is not enough. You have to know how to combine them correctly. It's like making a pie or a cake."

His point was, In order to make a delicious cake, you need a specific process to follow. The right steps in the right order. 

You need practice and feedback. 

You need an accountability structure to help support you.

And it probably wouldn't hurt to have a mentor as well. Someone who has had plenty of practice baking mouth-watering cakes.

Terrence Seamon helps his clients follow the recipe for success. Follow him on twitter @tseamon

The VUCA Skills Needed In Today's Job Search

At the US Army War College and other similar schools, they teach the principle that "no plan survives contact with the enemy." Why is that? Because the world of planners and the world of soldiers is vastly different.

Planners set goals, develop strategies, and lay out timetables. On the battlefield, soldiers deal with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. This is known as VUCA and it requires a different type of thinking and acting altogether. It means moving from plans to planning.

Instead of holding to something fixed, anyone in a VUCA environment has to stay highly attuned to what is happening around him. He has to adapt on the fly. He has to quickly recover and re-orient himself. He has to learn continuously and keep moving.

Does this sound to you like the world of today's job hunter? It does to me.

Using VUCA as a model, job hunters need to develop skills in four areas:

V = Visibility - How to get (and stay) visible to employers. Without this new skill, employers don't know you exist! Three ways to increase your visibility are: 1) Get on LinkedIn and be active there; 2) Get out of the house and go to networking events and be active at them; and 3) Get in front of potential employers by using your contacts to introduce you.

U = Upbeat - How to stay positive and pumped up even when it seems like you are making little or no progress. This may be one of the toughest new skills. Job search sucks! And job loss may have damaged your self-esteem. The best way to stay upbeat is to get with other people and help them in some way. Volunteer some of your time for a worthy cause.

C = Connected - How to use connections to move toward opportunity. Perhaps the second most difficult skill is overcoming the reluctance to ask others for help. Believe me when I say that Others Want to Help! They are waiting to help you. They will help you without expectation of anything in return in most cases.

A = Adaptability - How to keep changing and learning on the fly. The good news about this skill is that most of us do this one naturally because we are learning animals. We have been adapting throughout our lives. The danger during the job search is that we may fail to un-learn and abandon old self-limiting beliefs that, if unaddressed, will hold us back.

So to sum it up, the skills that made us effective when we were working are not the same skills we need to develop quickly to execute a successful job search.

Note: For more on VUCA:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatility,_uncertainty,_complexity_and_amb...

Terrence H. Seamon is an organization development consultant who provides leadership and team development services to employers in New Jersey. His book Lead the Way explores the challenges of leadership. Additionally, Terry is a job search and career coach whose book To Your Success provides a motivational guide for anyone in transition. An alumnus of PSG, Terry co-founded and co-moderates the St. Matthias Employment Ministry in Somerset, NJ. He can be reached atthseamon@yahoo.com and via his website: http://about.me/terrenceseamon

Five Basics for Effective Job Interviews

Have you had a job interview lately?

Someone recently told me that he was not feeling great about a recent job interview. He said, "I just didn't feel comfortable or confident."

Job interviews are unnatural but you can go into them feeling good about yourself. Here are some ideas on doing better in interviews.

Number one, your mental preparation is key! Know why you are there: your purpose, your value, and why they should hire you.

Next, know the job opening: what do they need? Ask yourself, how you can fill the need?

Then, know the organization. Research it on the web. Find out what is happening there.

Be sure to develop your list of questions that you want to ask them. Questions about the job and the company.

Finally and vitally important, have stories of your accomplishments ready to roll. When the interviewer asks you "Tell me about a time when..." that's your cue for an accomplishment story.

Prepare your stories in the C - A - R format for Challenge, Action, and Result. For example:

"One time we had a rush request from a very important customer. So we formed a special team and worked hard to get the product assembled and delivered. The customer was so happy that we hustled to meet their demands that they became a regular client."

A well-formulated CAR Story will convey your skills and capabilities to the employer. It is one of the best ways to convince them that you are the answer to their prayers.

Terrence H. Seamon is an organization development consultant who provides leadership and team development services to employers in New Jersey. His book Lead the Way explores the challenges of leadership. Additionally, Terry is a job search and career coach whose book To Your Success provides a motivational guide for anyone in transition. An alumnus of PSG, Terry co-founded and co-moderates the St. Matthias Employment Ministry in Somerset, NJ. He can be reached atthseamon@yahoo.com and via his website: http://about.me/terrenceseamon

Job Search During the Holidays

The annual "Holiday season" here in the U.S. is underway!

A time of almost non-stop holiday commerce, including partying, shopping, eating, and drinking, it's the way that many Americans celebrate the closing of another year. We "ring out the old, and ring in the new."

Yet, these months can also be a rough time for many in our communities, a time of difficulty, stress, even sadness, depending upon what has transpired in your life. 

One group that often finds the Holidays to be a challenging time is the Unemployed. While others around them are shopping for presents and planning parties, job hunters may be weighted down by worry. Worry about money. Worry about the future.

Common questions that many job hunters wrestle with include, "How should I celebrate the holidays? Should I suspend my search at this time?"

While it is tempting to burrow into a hole and hibernate until after January 1, it's not a good idea. The holiday season is a festive time when many, even in business offices, lighten up and relax a bit. It's a time for office parties and even fun in the workplace.

It's actually a fine time to connect with others and share "tidings of great joy."

I'd like to suggest four ideas that job hunters can implement that will help during the festive period.  The four ideas spell out the word GIFT. Here they are.

Give - While children look forward to this time of year because they expect to get things, grown-ups know the joy of giving. And the greatest gift you can give is the gift of your self. Be the gift to others by giving your time, your attention, and your presence. 

There is a quote from Zig Ziglar that every job hunter must know: "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want."

Experts in networking have always preached that the secret to doing it well is to be self-less. It's paradoxical. To approach what seems to be a selfish endeavor (Gotta get me a job!) by turning it completely around (How can I help you?) may be one of the most puzzling aspects of the job search for many people.

When you go to holiday events, be a Giver:

• Show interest in the other person - A typical job hunter practices their "elevator speech" so that, in a networking interaction, they are ready to talk about themselves. The Giving Approach says, Shine the spotlight on the other person. Show interest in them. Let them go first. Prompt them to tell you their elevator speech. Listen and ask about it. Ask about the progress they are making in their search.
• Ask the other person how you can help - Although you are looking for people who can help you, the Giving Approach says, Ask the other person what you can do to help them. You may be in a position to help them connect to someone in a company they are interested in. You may be a sounding board for the other person to work out their action plans. Or you may simply be a sympathetic listener.
• Follow up with the other person - The job search can get lonely. Much of the time you are not in the company of others. It can be a long stretch until the next group meeting sometimes. The Giving Approach says, Keep in touch with the other person. Call them up. Check in and ask how things are going.

The underlying power in the Giving Approach is that you are building relationships based upon generosity of spirit. Be the gift.

Invite - If you get invited to a party, don't turn it down. Instead, accept the invitation. If you don't get invited to a party, throw one yourself! Keep it modest if you have tightened your belt. All you need is a group of friends. Invite them to your place. If each person brings something to eat and drink, voila! you have a party!

Friends - Don't withdraw from people. Even though you may feel like it, resist that urge. Instead, push yourself out there and get into the mix with friends and family. You will feel much better.

Time - The martial arts movie star Bruce Lee once said "If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of." If there is one theme that runs through this holiday season it is Love Life. Spend your time accordingly.

One of the maxims in effective time management is to ask yourself "What is the best use of my time right now?" You answer it by considering all the possible things you could do with the available time, considering such variables as importance, urgency, short-term needs, longer term goals, and the needs of others. 

At this festive time of year, Time itself, your time, may be one of the most precious gifts you can give.

Essentials of Marketing for Today's Job Hunters

How many job hunters know anything at all about sales & marketing? Unless you came from that field, the answer probably is "Not so much."

There is a marketing guru here in the New York area whose funny tagline is "Your marketing sucks."

I'm sure he's right.

I had a cup of coffee with a friend, talking about today's job search and more specifically our respective marketing efforts. I am not a marketing guy. He is.

His comment was that success is 90% marketing.

When I asked him to break it down for me, here is what he offered:

- Marketing is getting noticed by the people who can hire you.
- Marketing is demonstrating to them that you are the answer to the problems they need solved.
- Marketing is making it very clear that you are the right person for the assignment.

When I asked if he could be more specific, he said he is writing a book and did not want to give away his formula. But he did say this:

- You have to shift your thinking.

Essentially, you must create your own marketplace by approaching employers that you have identified as your targets and offering specific solutions to their problems.

So how do you get started on this?

Another friend of mine said to me, "Terry, I am of the old school that says the best marketing is a damn good product or service."

He reminded me of a classic model that pinpoints the four steps in any marketing effort:

1) Identify a list of the potential customers with a high likelihood of need for your product or service.

2) Develop a relationship with someone in that company. (Using your network, as well as LinkedIn, can help here.)

3) Show them what you can do, even if it is done for free at first. Deliver with excellence.

4) Sell them on hiring you as the solution to their problems.

Four steps seems easy, right. It isn't. Especially if marketing is not your area of expertise. 

Some experts say that marketing to one client can take years of effort to win a sale.

If you are a job hunter in this economy, you don't have years. You need work now. So the question becomes, How can you take these concepts of marketing and accelerate the process?

So let's get more granular in this post about some strategies that job hunters can adapt and use to accelerate their job search.

In 1997, the management guru Tom Peters wrote a classic article for Fast Company about marketing entitled "The Brand Called You." In it, he wrote:

"No matter what you're doing today, there are four things you've got to measure yourself against. First, you've got to be a great teammate and a supportive colleague. Second, you've got to be an exceptional expert at something that has real value. Third, you've got to be a broad-gauged visionary -- a leader, a teacher, a farsighted "imagineer." Fourth, you've got to be a businessperson -- you've got to be obsessed with pragmatic outcomes."

Though these words still ring true today, let's update his article a bit. Each of the following four strategies is an essential element in your marketing plan.

Your Team - Who is on your team? What? You don't have a team? In today's economic climate, you cannot go it alone as a job hunter. You must form your own support team. A team (even a team of two) can give you input, as well as to hold your feet to the fire and impel you forward.

Your Expertise - Everyone is an expert at something. How about you? This is no time for modesty. Pinpoint your expertise and bring it forward. Do not put your light under a bushel basket. Look for ways to put your expertise on display so that you raise your visibility and get noticed.

Your Vision - What work do you want to do next? Where do you want to do it? Do you want to go back inside corporate and work for a boss? Or do you want to work for yourself? Don't sell yourself short or paint yourself into a narrow corner. Think big.

Your Solution - Employers are looking for problem solvers. Are you the solution? Tom Peters says that everyone has a brand. What is yours? Your brand is the promise of the value that you will deliver to the customer. Think of it as the application of your expertise to the problems the customer needs to solve.

Note: To read the Tom Peters' article, click this link: http://www.fastcompany.com/28905/brand-called-you

Terrence H. Seamon is an organization development consultant and coach who provides leadership and team development services to employers in New Jersey. His book Lead the Way explores the challenges of leadership. Additionally, Terry is a job search and career coach whose book To Your Success provides a motivational guide for anyone in transition. His third book, Change for the Better, provides leaders with a guide to navigating through organizational change. Terry co-founded and co-moderates the St. Matthias Employment Ministry in Somerset, NJ. He can be reached at thseamon@yahoo.com and via his website:http://about.me/terrenceseamon

The Job Hunter's Tool Kit

My Dad was a handy man who took on all kinds of home improvement projects. I can remember when I was a kid, assisting him with mixing concrete for a patio project. Painting the front porch. Digging the backyard for a larger swimming pool.

In our basement, he had an area where he kept his tools. Today, in my basement, like my Dad, I have a tool bench where I keep all my tools. Some of which I inherited from him.

How about you? Do you have the tools needed to achieve your goals? If you are a job hunter or a career changer, it's important to have good tools.

Here are five of the essential tools of the handy job hunter:

Your objective - The importance of knowing what you want cannot be stated enough. As the great motivator Tony Robbins has said, in clarity of purpose lies your power.

Your weekly schedule - If you are out of work, you have time on your hands. Another way to look at it is that your time is yours to allocate. How will you use it? What activities will bring you the greatest return?

Your elevator speech - Can you communicate concisely who you are and what you have to offer? Can you differentiate yourself from the pack? Can you convey your unique value proposition?

Your LinkedIn profile - Are you fully exploiting the power of this online tool? Do you have a summary of your work history and accomplishments? Have you highlighted your specialties? Have you joined several groups of interest to you? Are you following companies you are interested in? Are you growing your connections every week?

Your business card - Do you have one that not only provides your contact information but also your brand?

Recruiter and coach Jeff Altman, the Big Game Hunter, is an expert in job search. He said that the skills you need to find a job are NOT the skills you need to do the job you are looking for. It's a great point. Job search must be learned, practiced, and honed.

I would add that the tools you need to find a job are fundamentally important. Make sure you have them...and are using them.

Terrence H. Seamon is an organization development consultant and coach who provides leadership and team development services to employers in New Jersey. His book Lead the Way explores the challenges of leadership. Additionally, Terry is a job search and career coach whose book To Your Success provides a motivational guide for anyone in transition. His third book, Change for the Better, will provide leaders with a guide to navigating through organizational change. Terry co-founded and co-moderates the St. Matthias Employment Ministry in Somerset, NJ. He can be reached at thseamon@yahoo.com and via his website:http://about.me/terrenceseamon

Job Search - A Fluid Situation

Have you ever heard the phrase "a fluid situation"?

You'll sometimes hear it in news media reports from war zones, crime scenes, and even from emergency sites such as Superstorm Sandy. In that case especially, you could see the impact of a fluid situation as roads, cars, and homes were washed away in the torrential fury.

The saying, however, originated, I believe, in descriptions of military campaigns. Battle scenes are frequently described as "fluid situations" meaning that conditions are highly unstable and unpredictable and highly likely to change from one moment to the next.

Sound familiar?

I'd wager that many job seekers, who find themselves suddenly out of work, would feel an affinity to this description.

When you are in transition, it's a fluid state. The previous solidity of old stable structures you once knew --such as an appointment calendar, an office with a phone, a coffee room, and a nice corporate building to go to each day-- have dissolved away, replaced by...well, that's the question.

So if job search is a kind of fluid situation, where it seems like there is little of solid substance to hold onto, what are some helpful implications?

No one will provide the replacements - Except for you! It's up to you to design and establish the new structures. One of the most helpful ways to do this is to establish a new routine that includes weekly participation in support groups. 

Everything is replaceable - Everything you lost can be replaced. Think about it. Your calendar. Your office. Your phone. Your coffee! Even the people you were used to seeing at the office. You can see people every week at networking events.

Anchors stabilize the fluidity - When you were working, all of the predictable elements were the anchors that stabilized your life. With job loss, they all vanished. But by replacing each one, you give yourself the needed stability to ride out the period of transition.

As long as you are in transition, things will still be fluid, i.e. subject to change. Actually, even once you land, things will still be subject to change.

As someone once said, Change is the only constant in life. You can count on it.

Terrence H. Seamon is an organization development consultant and coach who provides leadership and team development services to employers in New Jersey. His book Lead the Way explores the challenges of leadership. Additionally, Terry is a job search and career coach whose book To Your Success provides a motivational guide for anyone in transition. His third book, Change for the Better, will provide leaders with a guide to navigating through organizational change. Terry co-founded and co-moderates the St. Matthias Employment Ministry in Somerset, NJ. He can be reached at thseamon@yahoo.com and via his website:http://about.me/terrenceseamon

Reinventing yourself as a Consultant

The other day I was catching up with a client who is conducting a job search. While seeking a full-time job, he has successfully re-positioned himself as a consultant. So successful, that he is thinking of growing his new consulting business.

Not long ago, I read a cautionary article about calling yourself a consultant when you are out of work. While it is a convenient "gap filler," can you back it up, the author asks. Good question.

If, like my client, you are a highly experienced professional and you have just been fired, it's definitely something to think about.

So, if you are thinking of calling yourself a consultant, take some time to understand what it means to be a consultant.

One of the essential things to understand about consulting is that it is all about helping. Helping a client to solve a problem that improves their business. 

The next thing to think about is your "sweet spot." What sorts of problems are you very good at solving? What are you known for by people who have worked closely with you?  If the problem that your client is experiencing, is well within your "sweet spot" of expertise, your chance of success is great.

Another thing to know and deeply appreciate is that a highly effective consultant does more than solve the client's problem. He or she also leaves the client stronger and smarter than they were before your intervention. So a consultant teaches, develops, and strengthens the client.

You could say that a good consultant works him or herself out of a job.

There's a great deal more to learn about consulting. For some additional thoughts on the power of consulting:  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/power-consulting-terrence-h-seamon

Also here are some classic books that have been very helpful to me in my development as a consultant in the Organizational Learning and Development field, as well as in career transition coaching:

Peter Block's Flawless Consulting

Gerry Weinberg's The Secrets of Consulting

Alan Weiss' Getting Started in Consulting

Ethan Rasiel's The McKinsey Way

Ed Schein's Process Consulting and his recent Humble Inquiry

Terrence H. Seamon is an organization development consultant and coach who provides leadership and team development services to employers in New Jersey. His book Lead the Way explores the challenges of leadership. Additionally, Terry is a job search and career coach whose book To Your Success provides a motivational guide for anyone in transition. His third book, Change for the Better,  provides leaders with a guide to navigating through organizational change. Terry co-founded and co-moderates the St. Matthias Employment Ministry in Somerset, NJ. He can be reached at thseamon@yahoo.com and via his website:http://about.me/terrenceseamon

The First Things You Do After Being Fired

A friend of mine who I have known for years, having worked together at the same company a long time ago, posted this update:

"Just got laid off. I know it's a lousy way to start a new year. But not to worry. I have been through this drill before. I will be okay. I've already polished my resume and am busy contacting friends and associates."

I know he will be okay. He is a seasoned veteran of downsizings. He knows what to do.

But how about the next person? How about you? If you were suddenly laid off, would you know what to do?

The fact of the matter is that most people are totally unprepared for job loss. Why should they be? It's not something they teach in school.

And there is a lot to master quickly to be able to find another job. As Jeff Altman often says, The skills you used when you were working are not the skills you need to find your next job.

So what do you do? There is a long list of things. So in this posting, I want to highlight The 

First Three Things you must do before anything else.

1.Check Yourself - Are you OK? Someone once described a sudden downsizing as being like a "drive by shooting." You want to check yourself for bullet holes. Check your vital signs. Seriously. You may want to visit with a trusted advisor and talk out what occurred. Job loss can be stressful so you may want to see your doctor. Job loss can be traumatic. Keep an eye on yourself during the days and weeks ahead to make sure you are not suffering from any post-traumatic symptoms.

2.Check Others - You'll want to share this news with the others closest to you in your life. Your spouse for instance, or a significant other. Your children perhaps. Don't be surprised if they have a strong reaction to the news. They may get even more upset than you. Everyone agrees that change is hard. When it happens to you, the people that care about you may go on the warpath. Or they go into a depression. You may want to seek out a professional to help coach you though this passage if others take the news hard.

3.Check Your Situation - When you are ready, sit down with a pad of paper (or your laptop) and do an assessment of where things stand and the impact this job loss is going to have. Especially upon your finances. Will you be okay financially? How long will you be able to hold out if the next job doesn't materialize quickly? Will you need to cut expenses? Will you need the cooperation of others to make these adjustments?

Once you have done these three things, what's next? I recommend a Fast Start to re-employment:

Identify your Target Companies - Is there a company or other organization that you would like to work for next? Several? Do they know you are interested?

>> Fast Start Idea # 1 - Go directly to these employers and communicate your interest. Identify key decision makers inside these companies and send them an introductory letter. Then call them.

Use LinkedIn - Are you on LinkedIn.com? If not, consider doing so right away. It's the world's largest online professional business networking platform. And it's free. It provides you with a way to connect with others, research companies, look for jobs, and more.

>> Fast Start Idea # 2 - Connect on LinkedIn with people you know and then connect to people they know who can help you network into your target companies.

Use Indeed - Do you use an aggregator job search site like Indeed or SimplyHired? With thousands of job boards on the internet, the aggregators are a one-stop site that spiders over all of the others and delivers consolidated results that match your search terms. And it's free.

>> Fast Start Idea # 3 - Use the refinement filters on the left side of the results pages to find your target employers or similar organizations.

Identify some Recruiters - Do you know a few good recruiters (aka headhunters or executive search firms) who specialize in your field and industry? If not, ask your trusted colleagues who they would recommend.

>> Fast Start Idea # 4 - Contact several specialist recruiters to find retained searches.

Set a clear Objective - Do you know what you want to do next? For whom? Where?

>> Fast Start Idea # 5: Set a job search objective that includes Role, Company, and Geography.

Write your Positioning Statement - There are a lot of job hunters on the market right now, some with skills and experiences that are similar to yours. Do you know how to differentiate yourself?

>> Fast Start Idea # 6: When you are asked "Tell me about yourself," be prepared to deliver a positioning statement that goes like this:

~ About You Professionally (e.g. "I am a Human Resources professional with over 15 years experience in leadership roles...")
~ About Several of Your Key Capabilities (e.g "...with key capabilities in Training & Development, Performance Management, and Change Management...")
~ About Your Objective (e.g. "...looking for a challenging Talent Development opportunity in the pharmaceutical sector in NJ.")

Write a Professional Profile - With so many people on the market right now, hiring managers are being deluged with resumes. Do you know how to make yours stand out?

>> Fast Start Idea # 7: Have a strong professional profile statement, on the top of page one, right under your name and contact information, that follows this outline:

~ About You Professionally (e.g. "Seasoned HR leader with over 15 years of leadership experience...")
~ About Several of Your Key Capabilities (e.g. "...with key capabilities in...")
~ About A Special Quality or Achievement (e.g. "Author of..." or "Recognized winner of..." or "MBA from...")

Design your Business Card - Do you have a professional business card ready to go when you are networking or interviewing?

>> Fast Start Idea # 8: You can get business cards for free at vistaprint.com or 123print.com. All you pay is shipping and handling.

Terrence H. Seamon is an organization development consultant and coach who provides leadership and team development services to employers in New Jersey. His book Lead the Way explores the challenges of leadership. Additionally, Terry is a job search and career coach whose book To Your Success provides a motivational guide for anyone in transition. His third book, Change for the Better (forthcoming), will provide leaders with a guide to navigating through organizational change. An alumnus of PSG, Terry co-founded and co-moderates the St. Matthias Employment Ministry in Somerset, NJ. He can be reached at thseamon@yahoo.com and via his website:http://about.me/terrenceseamon

Don't wait. Live now!

Not long ago, I had a great conversation with one of my nephews, a 20-something. Until then, he seemed to me to be a bright and eager young man, but somewhat lacking in focus and drive. Well, all that is changing!

He told me about his epiphany. That last year, he became aware that his life was quickly passing him by. That he realized that if he was to accomplish something with his life, that he had to make things happen.

Bravo! I said to him. Tell me more, I inquired.

Excitedly, he started to reveal all the goals he was setting for himself, many of which he was already starting on, including learning about photography as well as how to box! He said he was inspired by his grandfather, my dad, who was a boxer in his youth, who boxed when he joined the Army in WWII.

As I listened to him, I felt my heart burn with pride for this nephew of mine, one of many nephews and nieces that I am observing as they grow up and enter their young adulthood. I want only the best for them. I want them to be happy and successful.

And to that end, I want them to live now and not wait until some future date. Years ago, in my generation, we acquired a myth that when retirement arrived, we could finally stop working and enjoy life. Now I know that enjoying life has to happen today.

I asked my nephew about travel and seeing the world. He said he has plans in that regard.

I was happy to hear that. Don't wait, I advised him. It is never going to get any cheaper. Bite the bullet and go. See the world.

Don't wait. Live now!

Terrence H. Seamon is an organization development consultant and coach who provides leadership and team development services to employers in New Jersey. His book Lead the Way explores the challenges of leadership. Additionally, Terry is a job search and career coach whose book To Your Success provides a motivational guide for anyone in transition. His third book, Change for the Better (forthcoming), will provide leaders with a guide to navigating through organizational change. An alumnus of PSG, Terry co-founded and co-moderates the St. Matthias Employment Ministry in Somerset, NJ. He can be reached at thseamon@yahoo.com and via his website:http://about.me/terrenceseamon