Contents
Purpose of this resource list
We are not responsible for the organisations, people, articles and tools we reference here. However, some of them will be worth you looking at to see if they will help you. We stress we don’t always agree with the content of these sites/articles.
- However, they are in areas associated to Defined Purpose, so this list represents a ‘primer’ for what is ‘out there’.
- Specifically, Defined Purpose distances itself from get ‘rich quick sites’ where the main goal is assumed to be wealth generation.
- We also want to distance ourselves from the messianic gurus and their directive or quick fix approaches.
Articles
All Change
By Jessica Twentyman and Amy Duff Article in the IoD Magazine Director. “However well we plan, life has a habit of throwing us off course every once in a while. But when things go wrong in our personal lives, we can use the lessons to improve our businesses.” External forces, especially tragedy, force reappraisal of life priorities, often with radical actions and beneficial outcomes.
http://www.director.co.uk/MAGAZINE/2008/7%20July/all_change_61_12.html
Deciding What To Do With The Rest Of Your Life
By Joe Hodowanes, Career Strategy Advisor, JM Wanes & Associates. Examples and proposed explanation for career downshifting by ‘The Discovery Generation’.
http://www.net-temps.com/careerdev/index.htm?type=topics&id=219&op=print
What Am I Going To Do With The Rest Of My Life?
By Soni Pitts. Five questions that everybody should ask himself or herself before starting out on any new path. You must create specific answers. Argues that ‘trying to find your “one, true purpose” is a waste of life’ but instead aim for a ‘Groundhog Day-Proof Life’.
http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Am-I-Going-To-Do-With-The-Rest-Of-My-Life?&id=1194
Inventing the Rest of Our Lives
By Suzanne Braun Levine. Looks at how our personalities change as the years go by. Excerpt from Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/PersonalBest/story?id=386699&page=1
Related books
We have found all these books useful – many have been ‘processed’ to inform the method, such as extracting the factors to assess candidate life options.
| Author | Title | Year published | Format | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
(Author not given) |
Balance your Life and Work |
2005 |
Paperback |
978-0747577386 |
|
(Author not given) |
The Mind Gym – Wake your Mind up |
2005 |
Paperback |
978-0316729925 |
|
Adrian Bourne, Colin McCrudden & Chris Lyons |
You Unlimited: Enjoy The Rewards Of Your Unique Talents |
2005 |
Paperback |
978-1852524944 |
|
Anita Houghton |
Finding Square Holes: Discover Who You Really Are and Find the Perfect Career |
2005 |
Paperback |
978-1904424840 |
|
Barrie Hopson & Mike Scally |
Build Your Own Rainbow: A Workbook for Career and Life Management |
1999 |
Paperback |
978-1852523008 |
|
Barry Curnow & John McLean Fox |
The Chance to Live More Than Once: Developing Future Lives and Careers |
1996 |
Paperback |
978-1852522865 |
|
Caitlin Friedman & Kimberly Yorio |
The Girl’s Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch): Valuable Lessons, Smart Suggestions, and True Stories for Succeeding as the Chick-In-Charge |
2007 |
Paperback |
978-0767922852 |
|
Carol Eikleberry |
The Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People |
1999 |
Paperback |
978-1580080750 |
|
Caroline Righton |
The Life Audit |
2006 |
Paperback |
978-0340924440 |
|
David Allen |
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity [‘GTD’] |
2003 |
Paperback |
978-0142000281 |
|
David Marcum & Steven Smith |
Egonomics: What makes ego our greatest asset (or most expensive liability) |
2008 |
Paperback |
978-1416533276 |
|
Diane Houston |
Work-Life Balance in the 21st Century |
2005 |
Hardcover |
978-1403920621 |
|
Duncan Bannatyne |
Wake Up and Change Your Life |
2008 |
Hardcover |
978-0752891415 |
|
Edgar H Schein |
Career Anchors: Instrument: Discovering Your Real Values |
1985 |
Paperback |
978-0883900307 |
|
Edgar H Schein |
Career Anchors: Self Assessment |
2006 |
Paperback |
978-0787984281 |
|
Edward de Bono |
How to Have Creative Ideas |
2007 |
Paperback |
978-0091910488 |
|
Graham Green |
The Career Change Handbook: How to Find Out What You’re Good at and Enjoy – Then Get Someone to Pay You for It |
2008 |
Paperback |
978-1845282813 |
|
Guy Kawasaki |
The Art of the Start |
2004 |
Hardback |
978-1591840565 |
|
Henry Cloud |
The One-Life Solution: The Boundaries Way to Integrating Work & Life |
2008 |
Hardcover |
978-0061466427 |
|
Jim Barrett & Geoff Williams |
Test your own Job Aptitude: Exploring your Career Potential |
1992 |
Paperback |
0140168346 |
|
John Adair |
The Art of Creative Thinking |
2007 |
Hardback |
978-0749447991 |
|
John Lees |
How to Get a Job You’ll Love, 2009/10 Edition: A Practical Guide to Unlocking Your Talents and Finding Your Ideal Career |
2008 |
Paperback |
978-0077121808 |
|
John Micklethwait |
The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus |
1998 |
Paperback |
978-0812929881 |
|
Jonathan Reuvid |
Working Abroad |
2008 |
Hardback |
978-0749450571 |
|
Jonathon Porritt |
Capitalism: As if the World Matters |
2005 |
Hardback |
978-1844071920 |
|
Julie Jansen |
I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know it’s Not This: A Step- By-step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work |
2004 |
Paperback |
978-0749925253 |
|
Kjell Nordstrom & Jonas Ridderstrale |
Funky Business |
2000 |
Paperback |
978-0273645917 |
|
Lucy Martin & Bella Mehta |
Make it your Business: The Ultimate Business Start-Up Guide for Women |
2006 |
Paperback |
978-1905862009 |
|
Maggie Craddock |
The Authentic Career |
2004 |
Paperback |
978-1577314387 |
|
Marcia L Worthing & Charles A Buck |
Escape the Mid-Career Doldrums: What to do Next When You’re Bored, Burned Out, Retired or Fired |
2008 |
Paperback |
978-0470115152 |
|
Mike Pegg |
The Magic of Work |
2002 |
Paperback |
978-1852524005 |
|
Nicholas Lore |
The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success |
1998 |
Paperback |
978-0684823997 |
|
Nick Clayton |
The Guardian Guide to Working Abroad |
2008 |
Paperback |
978-0713684056 |
|
Nick Williams |
The Work We Were Born to Do: Find the Work You Love, Love the Work You Do |
2000 |
Paperback |
978-1862045521 |
|
Nigel Cassidy & Philippa Lamb |
Jumpstart your Career – Essential steps to a brilliant future |
2006 |
Paperback |
978-0563520023 |
|
Paul Tieger |
Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type |
1995 |
Paperback |
978-0316845229 |
|
Po Bronson |
What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question |
2005 |
Paperback |
978-0345485922 |
|
Rebecca Jordan & Kirsty Weir |
In Good Company: The Essential Start-Up Guide for Women |
2006 |
Paperback |
978-0713676266 |
|
Rhonda Byrne |
The Secret |
2006 |
Hardcover |
978-1847370297 |
|
Richard Koch |
Living the 80/20 Way |
2004 |
Paperback |
978-1857883312 |
|
Richard Nelson Bolles |
What Color Is Your Parachute?: A Practical Manual for Job-hunters and Career-changers |
2008 |
Paperback |
978-1580089302 |
|
Robert Greene |
The 48 Laws of Power |
2000 |
Paperback |
978-1861972781 |
|
Robert Shemin |
How Come That Idiot’s Rich and I’m Not? |
2008 |
Paperback |
978-0749928674 |
|
Stephen R Covey |
7 Habits of Highly Effective People |
2004 |
Paperback |
978-0684858395 |
|
Stewart D Friedman |
Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life |
2008 |
Hardcover |
978-1422103289 |
|
Susan Jeffers |
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway |
1992 |
Paperback |
978-0449902929 |
|
Suzan Lewis & Cary Cooper |
Work-Life Integration |
2005 |
Paperback |
978-0470853436 |
|
Suzanne Braun Levine |
Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood |
2005 |
Paperback |
978-0452287219 |
|
Tal Ben-Shahar |
Happier: Finding pleasure, meaning and life’s ultimate currency |
2000 |
Paperback |
978-0077123246 |
|
Timothy Ferriss |
The 4-hour Work Week: |
2008 |
Paperback |
978-0091923723 |
|
Tom Rath |
StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now Discover Your Strengths |
2007 |
Hardcover |
978-1595620156 |
|
Traininglibrary / |
Resume and Interview Preparation Guide / Self Study Book |
2009 |
Download including templates |
No ISBN (buy online) |
|
William A Charland |
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Changing Careers |
1998 |
Paperback |
978-0028619774 |
Life options & role models
Experience Matters
A consultancy “specialising in motivating and energising the 50+ to maintain peak performance. Through coaching and innovative workshops including dramatisations, art and music, participants become confident, revitalised and empowered.”
http://www.experiencematters.org.uk
Women In Business Network
WIBN is an organisation “dedicated to business women and business owners. It offers “both business support and encouragement to women in business around the UK.”
The 4-Hour Workweek Timothy Ferriss
“Experiments in lifestyle design.” Create an attractive way of life by working less and outsourcing much more, exploiting global price differences. Note cost reductions often rely on spending a high proportion of your time in low-cost countries. A complimentary resource for people whose preferred life option is travelling.
Working Families
Charity for family-friendly working practices. Formally Parents At Work & New Ways to Work.
http://www.workingfamilies.org.uk
GivingWorks
Encourages individuals/businesses to get involved in philanthropy/micro-trusts
Coaches, self-help & personal growth
Life Designs - Annabel Sutton, Life Coach
An effective life coach we know and respect.
Life With Confidence
A site by Catherine Pratt, a professional author (not a coach), with articles on topics such as Goal Planning, Life Purpose, Life Direction, Procrastination and Reasons Why We’re Afraid to Change.
http://www.life-with-confidence.com
Partnership for Change - Jane Ellis, Life Coach
“What is it that you feel is your life purpose?”
http://www.partnershipforchange.co.uk
Pathways Coaching - Andrew Leigh, Life Coach
“Life Direction Coaching” by an accredited coach and mentor, based in Sheffield, UK.
http://www.pathwayscoaching.co.uk/life-values
| http://www.pathwayscoaching.co.uk/wellbeing
http://www.pathwayscoaching.co.uk/personal-development-checklist
Success Track - Beat Procrastination
The programme 121 Success Track has 16 one-on-one sessions of 1 hour each.
http://www.beatprocrastination.com/programmes/121-success-track
Personal Development for Smart People Forums
“The place for lively, intelligent discussion of all personal growth issues – physical, mental, financial, social, emotional, spiritual, and more.”
http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums
The Life Audit by Caroline Righton
A self-assessment of how you spend your time – so you’ve time to achieve goals. Based on her book (978-0340924440). Wide goal setting such as number of cigarettes a day. “Become a member and access Your Life Audit where you’ll be able to fill in daily time charts online, create your own interactive time-use and consumption graphs.” Extensive links to well-being sites (organised into Zones eg health, relationships & image).
The FranklinCovey Organisation
“Stephen Covey’s material is founded out of a principled centred paradigm, or belief system, as opposed to the ever more seemingly popular glitter of the personality trait that we are exposed to more and more through glossy magazines which have now become so typically representative of modern life – advocating quick and easy short cuts to achieving a quality of life, a sort of get happy quickly fix, reward without work.”
http://covey.championsclub.org.uk/
The Work - Katie Byron
Aims “to teach people how to end their own suffering”. ‘Four question’ tool. ‘One belief’ questions. ‘Judge your neighbour’.
http://www.thework.com/about.asp | http://www.byronkatie.com
Time Thoughts - Rodger Constandse
Effective time management and personal goal setting, stress management techniques and project management software. Comprehensive comment and resource lists. Especially see:
-
the concept of a ‘Major Definite Purpose’ (Napoleon Hill)
http://www.timethoughts.com/goalsetting/major-definite-purpose.htm -
free Productivity Start-Up Kit & Ten Deadly
Productivity Killers
http://www.timethoughts.com/productivity-kit.htm - Goals to Action newsletter: http://www.goalstoaction.com
Audible - audio books by download
Categories include health, personal development, travel & adventure. Such as Make Every Minute Count by Brian Tracy who only distributes via audio books, not paper ones.
Veoh - video network
Free videos online. Source of training, motivational and success videos. Some are seminars that have been recorded, including audience questions.
Headhunters, recruitment & career consultancy
Virtus Search
Specialists in Financial Services recruitment. Pete Gwilliam, founder, consultant & headhunter, is an enthusiast of Defined Purpose.
InterExec
Work exclusively for executives with salaries from £125k to £1m+. Advice and access to the hidden senior market.
Career/transition coaching - The Icarus Partnership
Established company with an unusual model of networking to find jobs for candidates. Orientated to getting you back into work, not necessarily downshifting. Defined Purpose would help you to set targets first, to ensure a new corporate job is the right life option.
http://www.icaruspartnership.com
Career/transition coaching - AGM Transitions
Provides transitional career management exclusively for senior individuals. Established network with boardrooms, headhunters and private equity. The AGM Berkeley Club is a private members networking & thought leadership club. If you are looking for a salaried executive role, or possibly to start up a company, a good place to start.
http://www.agmtransitions.co.uk
Career Energy
Career development consultancy.
Personal Career Management
Career coaching, outplacement and career development services.
http://www.personalcareermanagement.com
University Careers Guidance
Usually free in the UK. Alumni can sometimes ‘go back’ to their old University for advice. Vocational Guidance departments usually have connections to employers, including not-for-profit agencies. May also be able to advise on the implications of taking a gap year.
Redundancy & outplacement
Outplacement is a specialist service to get people back in work. Note it is sometimes based on psychometrics, but these can break down in times of change/upheaval.
BBC information on recession
Special information on the downturn.
Redundancy Help
Large set of resources and articles to attract people to their paid services – legal advice and compromise agreements.
http://www.redundancyhelp.co.uk
Outplacement consultants - Penna
Recruitment, interim HR & career transition consultants with a high-profile brand and a specialism in outplacement - getting people back into work. Corporate organisations often pay their fees when laying people off.
Outplacement consultants - Proteus Consultancy
Assessment, development, career management & outplacement, connecting candidates to jobs.
Software including assessments
Achieve Planner from Effexis Software
A complimentary tool that supports similar objectives to Defined Purpose (but not at all in the same way). It has generic support for the information typically necessary for a life evaluation project – stakeholders, objectives, visions, values, dreams, risks, strategy, team, issues, metrics and progress. You can download a fully functional, time-limited, free trial. Note there is no explicit method for setting, generating or evaluating different goals. However, you can: develop a mission statement for your life areas; record your values and guiding principles for each area; break your goals into smaller steps, identifying regular actions you need to take; use an algorithm to help select the best tasks to work on across all your projects; keep track of relevant measurements for your goals using metrics; view a graphical report of your progress for each goal. Achieve Planner is a strong tool that would help people who are orientated to tasks/processes to achieve their goals.
http://www.effexis.com/achieve/planner.htm
Career Resource Network (CRN)
Lee Hecht Harrison (part of Adecco) debuts its online career transition tool. Helps individuals going through a career transition to explore their options, define their objectives, conduct a job search, pursue business ownership or consider active retirement. Organised resources with selectors, such as CV templates or relocation advice.
http://www.lhh.com
http://sev.prnewswire.com/computer-electronics/20081111/AQTU08811112008-1.html
Harrison Assessments
Mainly for employers, Harrison Assessments provides tools to assist in the selection, recruitment, and development of employees. Career Module provides insight into an individual’s suitability for various careers. The Career Options report provides a list of careers that are most suitable for an individual. The careers are listed in descending order of suitability. The system searches on more than 600 career and identifies the careers that best match the person’s task preferences, interests, work environment preferences and personality patterns. The report can be restricted to levels of education required.
http://www.harrisonassessments.com/Careers.html
Llamagraphics
Site for people looking for help with time management and work/home balance issues.
Self-Directed Search from PAR, Inc
Psychological Assessment Resources. A ‘career interest inventory’, based upon the theory that people can be loosely classified into six different groups. The assessment report provides a list of the broad job roles (such as Business Manager, Financial Planner or Retail Store Manager) that most closely match your interests. Quick to complete and inexpensive. If you are fully committed to an employed status, without thinking wider, this might be a more suitable approach for you. Alternatively, it can be way to learn about yourself and your life/career choices before completing Defined Purpose.
http://www.self-directed-search.com | http://www..parinc.com
StrengthsFinder from Gallup
“What makes you stand out?” Online, web-based, interactive assessment that helps you find what you are good at. More personal strengths than life priorities and values. Defined Purpose clients might use this to find whether they have the strengths to pursue their preferred life option, if it involves a new job.
http://www.strengthsfinder.com
TreeAge Software - Decision Tree Software
May be supporting software for your decision. Decision trees could express risks on different life option paths, with probabilities, variables and ability to calculate the best path based on likely outcome (such as salary). Also good for sensitivity analysis.
Resources for start-ups & small business
You may feel the best way for you to develop your life is to go independent (ie self-employed) or start your own company.
Defined Purpose will help you if you uncertain about being (say) an executive, an interim, a contractor, a consultant, an associate, a counsellor, a franchisee, a mentor, an NED, a coach or an entrepreneur.
However, if you are clear, and ready to start up, note most small businesses are resource-starved. We have compiled some useful resources for start-ups and for self-employed service professionals. These are good but often unknown resources, so we point them out in case one of them makes a difference. Many are free; the others are low cost and good value for money.
-
For an iconoclastic but pragmatic and experienced view of
starting up, this is the best book.
The Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki, 978-1591840565 -
A celebrity figure in business (Dragons’ Den) with a
straightforward view, including the fact that, for some people,
entrepreneurship is the only practical option. See:
Wake Up and Change Your Life, Duncan Bannatyne, 978-0752882871 - For inexpensive business cards, self-designed but printed professionally, see VistaPrint. Resist the temptation to go for the free ones – the message on the back will just make you look uncommitted. Pay a few pounds to have a blank back, or spend the extra for your own information on the back. http://www.vistaprint.co.uk
- To understand how a small company should pitch to large organisations, read the excellent free content and subscribe to the newsletter from Jill Konrath at: http://www.sellingtobigcompanies.com
- To understand negative/positive stereotypes - and how to exploit them - when pitching a new idea, I recommend you buy the Harvard Business Review article How to Pitch a Brilliant Idea by Kimberly D Elsbach. http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2003/09/how-to-pitch-a-brilliant-idea/ar/1
-
For good advice on presenting a technology product, see the
online article How to demo your startup by NEOinc (The Northeast
Ohio Incubator Collaborative):
http://neoinc.org/2008/09/29/how-to-demo-your-startup/ - See Business Balls (the name compares business to juggling) for a huge, eclectic collection of articles, models, terms, acronyms, templates, quotations and games in the area of organisational development and personal learning. http://www.businessballs.com
- For an unusual website specifically aimed at service professionals, see: http://www.actionplan.com
- Most marketing theory is grounded in FMCG. For a different approach closer to a knowledge-based business, see Truth and Lies: Myths in Professional Service Marketing, free report from QuickArrow at: http://www.quickarrow.com/truthlies
- Note 3Cs is an excellent community of entrepreneurs, investors and professional advisers that helps entrepreneurs that need coaching to make them investor-ready. Many entrepreneurs have a good idea, but are not necessarily adept at market analysis, creating business plans, pitching for large investment amounts or filling gaps in the founding team. The network connects start-ups to advice and relevant professionals such as engineers, IP/patent lawyers, non-executive directors, financiers and marketeers. Entrepreneurs can test the water, learn from other pitches, pick people's brains, find service providers or missing team members and rehearse their pitch. When ready, they can apply to be one of the three companies pitching at each meeting, and get highly informed feedback on their proposition in a positive and supportive environment. The community works on a pay-it-forward basis - see the website for more information if this is new to you. Membership to 3Cs is free, though there is usually a (small) door charge for meetings. http://www.3cscommunity.com
- If you need money, best of course to self-fund with mortgage, loans or sale of assets. Then, early stage investors (or in the jargon “fools, friends & family”). For small capital amounts, there is little point approaching Venture Capitalists (VCs). They are usually hard numbers men, who know how to raise 100 million but have no idea how to raise 100 thousand. If you need external funding at the early stage, better to seek angels, for two reasons. First, they are often more emotional investors who will take a punt if they like you or the cause, even if return is risky. Second, they are more likely to get involved in the management of the business as board members, so you can simultaneously plug skill gaps. One way to reach angels - without spending huge amounts of time and money on the exercise - is the web-based Angels Den: http://www.angelsden.co.uk
- The executive networking group TEN is for senior managers to network (Board level and one down). They have a SIG for Entrepreneurs and another for Interim Managers), the SIG had a presentation which covered raising bank finance. http://www.theexecutivenetwork.org
- If you are thinking of becoming an interim manager, but are unsure how to start, talk to Shirley Soskin, Founder of Silverhawk Partners: http://www.silverhawkpartners.com
- For an inexpensive (free with limits) online project management tool (including documents & task lists) see Goplan. It is good free and better even at the entry-level Personal subscription: http://goplan.org/account/upgrade
- For a similar service see Projectplace. This is better in one respect, if important to you. It is secure and encrypted (HTTPS) even for the free version (limited by number of users) see: http://www.projectplace.com
- If you end up doing promotional seminars for teachers or educational departments, I can strongly recommend the Eventbrite web-based event management service. Eventbrite is free to register and free to use their templates to create an event. They charge commission on 'ticket sales' but waive this if the tickets are free (which yours might be if a promotional event). It also has built in front and back end event processes such as invitations, delegate lists and name badge printing, which you can choose to use or ignore to taste. http://www.eventbrite.com
- For an inexpensive but excellent knowledgebase for general management topics, look at People Alchemy. See the entry-level Single User Edition. You can get a 14-day free trial anyway. Mention my name to founder Paul Matthews and you may get a longer trial. http://www.peoplealchemy.co.uk
- For off-the-shelf business process and procedures for small businesses, see Business Reviews for Small Businesses from Quality Information. A comprehensive guide to how small businesses operate and how to carry out a business review in order to help them grow and prosper. http://www.qualityinformation.co.uk
- Training Library has generic material, such as facilitation workbooks, if you are running workshops to train your customers. http://www.traininglibrary.org.uk
- SuccessTrack 1,000 business owners worldwide who “will be receiving the best business building information available, attending private members days and joining the SuccessTrack community of business owners”. Founded by Jonathan Jay. http://www.successtrackuk.com
Some light relief
Jobs Worth Cards
Some brilliant imagery and captions for people disenchanted with corporate gibberish.
http://www.jobsworthcards.co.uk
HardlyFamous.com - everyone started somewhere
Frank Sinatra once worked as a riveter in a shipyard. Johnny Depp was a pen salesman. Browse by surname initial, or search.