Game Change: Create Your LifeWork Through Strategic Conversations: May 2014

Thursday, May 29, 2014

In Business Marketing is Everything -- What is Everything to Your Family

From Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson -- pages 193-194

ISBN: 9780-307-46374-6

According to this book, "Marketing is Everything." The authors believe the following:

"Everytime you answer the telephone, you are marketing."

"You send an e-mail, it is marketing."

"Every word you write that goes to the Internet, you are marketing."

"Marketing is the sum of everything you do."

Are you the sum of everything you do?
Can this be considered a form of marketing?

Monday, May 26, 2014

Achieving Balance

As one self-invents one needs to consider how to balance vocation, avocation, and lifestyle. This balancing becomes more difficult if you decide to marry or have a significant other. Other aspects of self-invention involve your commitment to faith and your commitment to community.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

As Your "Self-Invent" and "Self-Define, You Create Your Brand!

"Career Deciding" is a process as is the process of self-invention. It is a matter of how the choices we make define who we are and how we are understood and perceived by others. As Catherine Kaputa points out in the title of her book, "You are a Brand!"

Will Your Brand lead you to Success? How do you define success?

Here's a definition to think about -- "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal?" (Earl Nightingale)

What is your worthy LifeWork ideal?

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Even at the age of nine, a young boy recognized his need to "Re-Invent" --- "Strategic Conversations sometimes are synonymous with "Inner Work"

Recently as we drove back from Florida we listened to the audio book, Ireland, a novel by Frank Delaney. Following you can read the brief description of this novel. The text was copied from text description of the novel on Amazon.com.

"In the winter of 1951, a storyteller, the last practitioner of an honored, centuries-old tradition, arrives at the home of nine-year-old Ronan O'Mara in the Irish countryside. For three wonderful evenings, the old gentleman enthralls his assembled local audience with narratives of foolish kings, fabled saints, and Ireland's enduring accomplishments before moving on. But these nights change young Ronan forever, setting him on a years-long pursuit of the elusive, itinerant storyteller and the glorious tales that are no less than the saga of his tenacious and extraordinary isle." (Description from Amazon.com)

As Ronan started this journey he took time for introspective. Ronan realized that his nature was a bit angry and frustrated as he engaged others in conversation. He realized that if he were to be successful in his quest to find the storyteller, he would have to change. He would need to be pleasant and a person to be enjoyed as he interacted with others. With this new insight, Ronan realized he had to change and so he did.

Sometimes, it all about attitude and that you can change. We self-invent and when we realize that our initial invention need tuning up we change and we re-invent.

LifeWork and Strategic Conversations are all about this process we call "Self-Invention" and "Re-Invention."

A process that needs guidance and that ability to understand that changed is needed.

Ireland by Frank Delaney, a recommended read!

Supportive Literature: Content Support for LifeWork Imaging & Strategic Conversations

The years between 1988 and 1993 represent the time period when LifeWork Imaging was developed and presented at two national conferences. In 2008, Ken Hamilton and I presented at the Maine Career Development Conference. On June 6th, LifeWork Imaging will be rebranded with the powerful concept of strategic conversations. LifeWork Imaging's birth began with dream work associated with guided visualizations that were an integral part of HOPE Groups in 1988. LifeWork Imaging can be an empowering process for many as they self-invent or re-invent.

As this blog develops followers will be introduced to activities or topics that will serve as the basis for strategic conversations, career and educational decision-making, relationship building, exploring balancing vocation, avocation, and lifestyle. health and family, leading a successful life.

Questions can be e-mailed to Stephen Thompson!lifeworkgamechange@gmail.com

The resources listed below represent a selected bibliography.

Mindfulness by Ellen Langer -- ISBN: 0-201-52341-8
Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain -- ISBN: 1-880032-62-7
The Secret World of Drawings (healing through Art) By Gregg Furth -- ISBN: 0-938434-46-2
You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay -- ISBN: 1-56170-628-0
Your Mythic Journey by Sam Keen & Anne Valley-Fox -- ISBN: 0-87477-543-4
The Reinvention of Work by Matthew Fox -- ISBN: 0-06-063062-0
Inner Work by Robert A. Johnson -- ISBN: 0-06-20431-2
The Mentor's Spirit by Marsha -- ISBN: 0-312-18630-4
The Laws of Success by Napoleon Hill -- ISBN: 978-1-58542-689-8
The Essence of Success from the Earl Nightingale Library
ZEN and the Art of Making a Living by Laurence G. Boldt -- ISBN: 0-14-019469-x
The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge -- ISBN: 0-385-51725-4

Encore (Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life) -- ISBN: 978-1-58648-483-5

You are a Brand! by Catherine Kaputa -- ISBN: 978-185788-545-3
Give and Take by Adam Grant -- ISBN: 978-0-670-02655-5
Engage! by Brian Solis -- ISBN: 978-1-118-00376-3
Moments of Impact by Chris Ertel & Lisa Kay Solomon -- ISBN: 978-1-4516-9762-9
The Social Media Bible by Lon Safko -- ISBN: 978-1-118-26974-9

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Discussion Points: Strategic Conversations Leading to a Success Mindset

HOPE and Strategic Conversations

In their book, Ertel and Solomon state -- "There are just three reasons to call a strategic conversation: Building Understanding, Shaping Choices, or Making Decisions."

Guided HOPE Groups following a set of principles are structured to provide an open forum to explore life's issues. HOPE Groups begin with group members reading the HOPE Group Principles. Upon the completion of this reading, group members check in and if there is a new member, then each member introduces themselves to the new member. Their introductions include what brought them to HOPE.

HOPE Groups help build understanding and shape choices. However, decisions are left to each group member.

As I reflect upon my HOPE Group experience, my HOPE Group was a safe haven where I could share aspects of my life and do my inner work leading to attitudinal change and new understandings. The most important question asked, "What do you want to do with the rest of your life?" The rest of your life could be that day, next week, or years away. As I explored this question, the exploration was to create or re-create a life with meaning, value, and purpose.

HOPE's key question led me to the realization that our lives deserve Strategic Conversations. With loved ones, significant others, trusted friends, a HOPE Guide, or a counselor we need to take the time to design strategic conversations that will build self-understanding/increase self-knowledge, shape the choices that are critical to our happiness, and make those decisions that will make a difference.

As this work continues I will present the theoretical proposition of LifeWork Imaging, define the process of career deciding, and frame this work with strategies for success.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Foundations for Strategic Conversations for Success

Introducing LifeWork Imaging

Monday, May 19, 2014

Defining LifeWork

Most dictionary definitions of the word lifework state the definition as being "the complete or principal work, labor, or task of a lifetime."

The work of LifeWork Imaging purposely capitalizes the L and the W in LifeWork. In part to emphasize to the reader that one's life and one's work are of equal importance. LifeWork is the integration of the choices you have made in your life to live life and to live your life performing the tasks that bring meaning, value and purpose to your life. This work is done in a manner to achieve a balance in your personal life and your work life.

Our LifeWork, our families, and our futures deserve to be framed through this process known as "Strategic Conversations." We need to know the questions to ask ourselves and our loved ones.

Game Change: Strategic Conversations for Families, Careers, and Retirement

As this blog evolves, action statements will be created that will present the questions that will be model designs for strategic conversations for families, for career decisions, and for retirement.

Career Deciding -- Imagery -- Risk -- Life Style

"Career Deciding" is the often recursive process wherein individuals integrate the images of their lives and define the possibilities of work.

For best reading open these storyboards in a new window or under a new tab. Place your cursor over the storyboard, right click and select either open in new window or open in new tab.

The Action Themes of LifeWork Imaging

As individuals move through the early stages of LifeWork Imaging, they must acquire life skills that are captured by the concepts of hope, possibility thinking, visioning, and work as being "in-service to others." Through skillful thorugh application of these themes, individuals move through the developmental, yet at times, recursive stages of LifeWork Imaging."

The Theme of Hope -- "that memory you hold for your future"

Hope is the practical notion of "no matter how things turn our, they can make sense." Hope is not pie in the sky. Hope is fundamental to the human spirit and the dignity of all human beings. The notion of hope preceded by "I" is often the action verb of visioning and personal aspirations.

The Theme of Possibility Thinking

"Possibility Thinking" represents the frame through which we live our lives. Everyday presents opportunities for new possibilities. The frame which combats the overriding limiter of human potential is fear. Hope and possibility thinking allows individuals to create pathways for their futures. If we are to create and act on new possibilities, the we can not dwell in past problems nor can we be haunted by what may have been.

The Developmental Stages of LifeWork Imaging

Career Deciding is the often recursive process wherein individuals integrate the images of their lives and define the possibilities of work

The Four Cornerstones of Self-Invention

Our Lives Deserve Strategic Conversations

In 1988, I was diagnosed with 4th stage lymphoma. Surgery and chemotherapy healed my body, but my life was saved by my participation in H.O.P.E. (Healing of Persons Exceptional) that were guided by Ken Hamilton, MD. For six months while I was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, my wife, Nona, and I traveled to Portland each week to meet with others in a HOPE Group. Through content presentations, shared stories, and guided visualizations, I was able to re-invent and live a life with greater depth of relationships and a worldview that opened my heart to greater opportunities. As I look back at my last twenty-six years, I realize that HOPE created for me an environment that fostered the groundwork for strategic conversations. During this time period I created a theoretical proposition that I called "LifeWork Imaging." It is through this work, professional work until my retirement, and my later studies of success and career development that I plan to set out for readers a developmental lifework approach to success and decision making that is propelled by strategic conversations.

Upon the completion of the first draft of the LifeWork Imagng document, Ken Hamilton and Michael D. Shannon helped me to add greater depth to the concept. As a result, as a team, we presented a workshop titled, "LifeWork Imaging: A Theoretical Proposition for Putting Multiple Theories into Practice" at the national conferences of the National Career Development Association and the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee.

-- Stephen D. Thompson --

Professional Background

Stephen D. Thompson, a career development specialist, has been recognized by the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee and the National Career Development Association for his work in the field of career education and computerized career information delivery systems. A graduate of the University of Maine, Stephen served at Maine Career Education Coordinator for the Maine Department of Education and Cultural Services and as the Product Development Specialist and Training Manager for the Maine Occupational Information Coordinating Committee. Stephen graduated from the University of Maine -- with a B.A. in English and a M.Ed. in school administration with an emphasis in career education and organizational change.

With the love and hard work of his wife, Nona, Stephen recovered from his battle with 4th stage lymphoma. This was 1988. As a result of his cancer experience and work with Ken Hamilton, Stephen integrated his career development work with Hamilton's work as founder of H.O.P.E. (Healing of Persons Exceptional) to create the theoretical proposition of LifeWork Imaging which is the subject of this blog.

We have but one life to live. Let it be the best life lived!

Ken Hamilton, MD -- Professional Background

-- Ken passed away in February of 2022. His work impacted so many people who appreciated his presence and contributions. -- H.O.P.E.'s founder, Ken Hamilton, MD, grew up in a healing family environment of medical doctors, social scientists, and Christian Science practitioners. From his earliest years, he knew that health was somehow related to love and its Source, and the relationship fascinated him. during his teen years, he struggled to understand this. At 21 this became his life's goal, and he committed himself to becoming a physician and surgeon.

In the opening lecture of a major course in his second year in the McGill University Faculty of Medicine (Montreal) the professor advised American students that they would not be taught prognosis "because you do not have the right to limit your patients' lives. Rather, he heard, "promise them that you will do everything to help them get on with their lives."

To Hamilton, that instruction contained all of the essential elements of the Hippocratic Oath. He held to that belief through his entire career and into the 1987 formation of H.O.P.E. (Healing of Persons Exceptional), where it became H.O.P.E.'s Prime Directive: "First of all, do no harm. Rather, do some good; benefit people. Help them remember the 'worthy idea' that we all come with and that serving it is the healthiest thing we can ever do." That 'worthy ideal' idea was the brainchild of the great student of success, Earl Nightingale, who maintained that choosing attitudes made for success. Further, Hamilton met with two physicians, Bernie Siegel and Jerry Jampolsky, who stressed the importance and value of choosing healthy attitudes. The result of these meetings was the first H.O.P.E. Group Meeting in February 1987, and the subsequent 6000 H.O.P.E. Group meetings "guided" by Hamilton and others who learned the process from him.

Professional Background

As an educator, Dr. Michael Shannon has worked with Pre-K through doctoral students in public, private and community school learning settings. The common theme to his work in each setting is to determine the learner's level of growth and development and facilitate individual advancement.

Life and career development continues to be his central area of interest and study and was the focus of his doctoral studies at the University of Maine. Once described by Mary McCauley as "the ultimate ENFP," Mike has a breadth of interests, but always seems to be taking time to teach someone.

Professional Background

Nona L. Thompson received her M.Ed. in guidance and counseling from the University of Maine. Upon graduation she worked for the Bangor School Department for three years as their career education consultant coordinating the development of teacher designed career education curriculum, kindergarten through grade twelve. In Readfield she worked as a secondary school guidance counselor. For a number of years she worked as an associate editor for the Maine Sportsman Magazine and as the executive secretary for the Maine Associations for Supervision and Curriculum Development. For 24 years she worked as a middle school guidance counselor for the communities of Farmingdale and Hallowell. During this time period Nona also worked as a Crisis Counselor in Kennebec County.

Nona's experiences, skills and knowledge related to the counseling-guidance process, of middle school and high school students, and of school-based organizations will contribute greatly to the knowledge base of Game Change: Create Your LifeWork through Strategic Conversations.

Professional Background

Laura Thompson Brady, Ph.D. & founder of The Nourished Home, is a transformational life coach who teaches women and their families to put into practice her research on the power of living from your core values. Laura believes that all women are Mamas on a Mission and are here to birth their soul's work into the world. She teaches both mamas and mission-driven entrepreneurs from around the world to cultivate joy, connection, and soul-stirring adventure in their careers and family lives.

Laura is a multi-passionate woman: a transformational coach, singer, writer, motivational speaker, academic, entrepreneur, wife, and mama. She holds a Ph.D. in Human Development & Family Studies from the University of Delaware and certification in Holistic Health Coaching through The Institute For Integrative Nutrition. Laura's on a mission to inspire women to be seen & heard in their work and personal lives so that, together, we can do our part to heal the whole human family. You can learn more about Laura's work at The Nourished Home.

A Strategic Conversation

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Monday, May 26, 2014

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Monday, May 19, 2014