Life Coaching and Career Coaching

Today, many people find their lives thrown into chaos when they loss of their jobs. The loss is more than a stream of income, it is a threat to their self identity. For most people, their job defines who they are. Is this you?

Losing your job is like graduating high school and waiting to hear about going on to college, applying to the military and waiting to be accepted, or looking for that first job all over again. You were somebody in high school and now you are nobody, or so you think. But are you?

You are the only one who knows what you are worth to yourself. Other only see you for what you might be worth to them.

As a freelancer most of my life, I have been employed and unemployed many times. It happens every time a contract expires and new one has not yet come through. I have learned to use these times to step back, evaluate what I accomplished, and reassess my goals.

I also use it to assess my environment. I see this as an opportunity to take charge of my fate. I ask myself: Where is market for my skills and interests going? Is it time to change my employment strategy? And in this process, I have made a personal discovery I want to share with you.

I am the sole/soul proprietor of my life. My life is the time God has allocated to me in this world. It is a gift card with an undisclosed time limit. I own it and I can sell it. I sell part of it every time I take a job, form a relationship, or use it for myself.

How much is my time worth? It is worth what I need to accomplish what I want to accomplish in my time/life.

Too often, especially these days, we don’t have the time to reflect on where we are going or where we have been. It is like being caught in the wrong lane on the freeway at rush hour. Sometimes we miss our exit and when we finally get off we are lost, just like Tom Hanks in Bonfire of the Vanities

God gave me the freewill to be the sole proprietor of my soul. It is my responsibility to make the best of it.Taking the time to know what I want to accomplish, and what I have accomplished, has been a critical step in my life’s journey.

Janus says

If unemployment depression is setting in, I suggest that you find a mentor, or a life coach, at this time. Don’t be afraid or ashamed to ask for direction. He or she can help you find direction to bring you back to the life path to take you on the journey toward your goal.

Januslifecoaching.com is one such service you can turn to for help.

Life is a challenge.
Every day we face problems that must be solved; issues, we are asked to take a stand on. As a free, sovereign individual, you and I are expected to make decisions for ourselves, to take responsibility for our decisions and to be held accountable for the results of our decisions. That is, we have choices.

Decision making involves making choices. Choices are value judgments, and value judgments are subjective, relativistic evaluations of our experiences. Our evaluations are not always rational although we may try to rationalize them to ourselves and others.

Economists assume that humans are totally rationale creatures. They act in their enlightened self interest based on perfect knowledge about the situation. Such creatures act to maximize the “utility” or value of their choices. If you or I acted this way, we would be the perfect “economic man/woman.”. This would make the life of economists so much simpler.

But we are not, Thank God!

We are animals, albeit, the TOP ANIMAL, on the planet. Part of our animal nature is to respond emotionally to the challenges in our immediate environment. We are biologically and psychologically programmed to make decisions that favor our survival — “the survival instinct.”

Here the economists are correct in their assumption that the “individual” acts in his/her own self interest. But, what that “self-interest” is, does not always prove to be rational. That is, it is not rational in a long term or from the “economic man or woman” perspective.

Survival is a short term challenge, while Life is a long term goal. Survival calls for action; life calls for planning.

When we respond to our immediate fears, we are responding emotionally to some perceived survival threat. “I won’t raise my hand, so I won’t be noticed.” “I really don’t think I want to go there or eat THAT food.” “No way, I’m going to New York with all that violence I see on TV.”

When we satisfy our short term wants and needs, we also respond emotionally to some perceived survival opportunity. “I just can’t miss this sale.” “That dessert looks soooo good! I’ll diet tomorrow.” “She/he has the sexiest hot bod I’ve ever seen, I’ve got to …”

Each choice we make, no matter how small no matter how apparently inconsequential, has long term consequences. Each choice sets the conditions for our future choices. Each choice is the starting point for the next challenge and next decision. This how we create our own fate, our karma. The consequences of our choices shape our attitudes toward ourselves, others and the world. The consequences of our experiences slowly form the layers of our personality. Like the rings of a tree, the layers of an onion, or the strata of the Grand Canyon, our experience form the layers of our perceptions, habits and biases. These become the standards we apply in our decision making and evaluation of our choices.

We have choices.

You have choices.

What choices are you making?

Are you still making the same old decisions? And, are you still getting the same undesirable results?

Janus says

Understanding why and how you make your choices is the first step in learning how to make better decisions in your life.

The Janus Life Coaching approach helps you to peel away the layers of perception and begin the process of making better choices and achieving better outcomes.

How long do you want to live? What do you want to achieve in your life time?

The two most important questions that you can ask yourself.

Do you have answers for your life?

JanusLifeCoaching.com is founded on the principle and belief that our lives are judged by our actions. Success  and failure are determined by how well we use the time and talents we have been granted.

I have lived long enough now to have witnessed a number of funerals. Regardless whether rich and famous or poor and lonely,  one question comes through in celebrating the deceased’s life . The celebration focuses on what was accomplished and what might have been accomplished had things been different.

In our 21st century youth oriented culture, we tend to focus on and try to perpetuate the youth phase of our life-cycle  and to ignore or hide the fact that we are aging. Medical science and medicine are giving us the tools to perpetuate the allusion of youth. Our pharmaceutical companies offer wondrous new creams, pills, dyes, and gels, to slow down, hide or reverse the appearance of  age.  Our commercial culture bombards us with images and products celebrate that wondrous youthful phase — 20 - 30 when we are/were young and healthy enough to do anything and old enough for society to allow you to do it.

But in today’s emerging global society, age and longevity are real issues for society, government, families and individuals. Technological and demographic changes are disrupting the established order. Cultural chasms are breakout and separating generations. They are breaking the traditional chain of growth and transitions in society and its parts. A growing, aging population threatens to overburden the health care system in many of the advanced nations, while a population explosion in the developing world threaten the very core of traditional cultures and institutions.

Life Expectancy at birth (years)

Life expectancy at birth (years) world map including:
1) 191 United Nations member states (all except Montenegro)

2) Republic of China - Taiwan

3) Western Sahara territory

4) 27 non-sovereign entities marked with a white hyphen (-) or a black asterisk (*):

- 23 dependent territories

- Hong-Kong and Macau: Special Administrative Regions of the People’s Republic of China.

- Occupied Palestinian Territories: West Bank and Gaza Strip.

There is not much anyone of us can do to change the tide of global development nor the evolving human impact on the planet. However, we can have a impact on that small piece of the universe which is under our personal control. For example, How we will treat those around us? How we will will treat our body? How we will use our talents and gifts, i.e. our minds? How we will use our spirit and energies? These are under our person control –IF we are willing, on the personal level, to responsibility for HOW we will use the time we have on this planet.

The Janus Lifecycle Strategy is based on the idea that, like the Roman god Janus, each of us is one body (head) with two faces. One face is looking back at the past as we perceive it and the other in looking into the future as we envision it.

The past and future are in the moment from Janus point of view

In this moment, you and I have an opportunity, as we have always had, to influence how long we each will live and what we can accomplish in the time reexamining to us. But to do so means taking responsibility.

How do I take responsibility?

Janus says

Start by taking  proactive control over your life today, by asking the question — how much time do I have left?

And once you have answer that question for yourself, take stock of where you are in your life and what you have accomplished and what you want to accomplish.

Why is a life cycle approach a powerful tool for evaluating and planning your life experience?

A recent news story ,  “Recession might make young investors gun-shy”, reports on studies that show people who start their investing or continue to invest in their retirement plans today in the depressed stock market stand to gain in the long term while those who invested at the height of the markets stand to loss if they withdraw today.

I can relate to this. Years ago I had the opportunity to be employed in an organization that offered a retirement program. I contributed to it regularly and stayed there long enough to become vested in the program. The small personal investment I made through my contributions were doubled when I became vested.

Over the next 30 years this initial investment grew. And while I have not contributed to the plan since leaving the organization — today that plan has accumulated enough value to provide me with a cushion in my retirement.  Had I started investing 5 years ago, or even 10 years ago, I would not have weathered the recent economic meltdown.

Just as investing at the right time can make a big difference in later retirement or family plans, any decision we make will have a differential playoff depending when we start or stop some action or activity.

Taking up golf when you are in high school or college will open opportunities that starting at 50 will be closed to you. Waiting to have children until your late 30’s or early 40’s will produce a different experience and challenge than having your children at 15, 25, or 30.

The choices you make, and when you make them, strongly impact your life course and your chances for success and failure.

Sometimes it seems like we are in control.  Other times, it seems like fate is in control. We exploit our opportunities. We withdraw or defend ourselves against threats. Our hopes and  fears are made real by what, when and where we exercise our choices.

We are always making choices in our daily lives. More often than not, these are made in the spur of the moment and with not much thought about the longer term consequences. This is our habituated behavior. This is not only natural, but it has had survival value for our Homo sapiens ancestors as well as the modern shopper.

But not today, not in the emerging global economy and cybernetically networked virtual world of  human/machine interface.

An event that once traveled slowly over relatively short distances, now travels instantaneously globally. Choices made in a moment of passion or despair and soon forgotten, now become sealed in the global memory forever, or at least until someone pulls the plug.

The life you want to lead and the life you live are determined by how you use your time and when you use it.

I speak from personal experience. If we are not aware of the natural cycle our life is following — we risk losing out on many of the joys and challenges that life offers.

When we say that YOUR LIFE IS YOUR BUSINESS, this what we mean. Your life up until this moment is a record of what you have done — it is your balance sheet in the game of life.  Do you know your score?

Have you taken the time to check your balance sheet?

Janus says

Maybe it is TIME that you did.