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In The Box Podcast

Episode 43: Leaving Your Job For Your Passion, Work Satisfaction, Creativity And More (Podcast)

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast we talked about what sets us back in our creative minds, if continuing education classes are worth the money, one tip for leaving your job and starting your passion, when to feel satisfied with your work and how to deal with someone who is falsely positive. Enjoy and subscribe.

Episode 43: Leaving Your Job For Your Passion, Work Satisfaction, Creativity And More

False Positive – One tip on how to deal with someone who is positive in a false manner?

Satisfied – Is there a right time to be satisfied with your work?

Work to passion shift – What is one tip you would give someone wanting to stop working and transition just to their passion?

Creativity – What do you think is the biggest destroyer of creativity and how do you combat it?

Bonus – Are continuing (non credit) education classes worth it or are you better off spending time in the library?

 

Stay Positive & When Are You Satisfied?

In The Box Podcast

Episode 32: Talking To Other Generations, Getting Out Of Ruts, Credentials And More (Podcast)

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast, we discussed the importance of credentials for work, how to communicate to people from other generations, whether you should take feedback about your work personally, one way to get out of a rut and whether all change can be considered progress.

Episode 32: Talking To Other Generations, Getting Out Of Ruts, Credentials And More

Credentials – How are important are credentials when entering an industry?

Generation – Best technique to communicate with other generations?

Not taking things personally – Should you take criticism about your work personally?

Ruts – What is one thing you do to get out of a rut you’re in?

Bonus – Is all change progress?

 

Stay Positive & Check Out This (And Other) Episodes Here

In The Box Podcast

Episode 6: Relationship Marketing, Institutions & Systems, Keeping Memories And More – Podcast

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast, we shared views on memorabilia, discussed if it’s true you need to know someone at a company to get a job there, talked about having a plan B, ranted about academic writing, fashion standards, and institutionalization. Enjoy.

Episode 6: Relationship Marketing, Institutions & Systems, Keeping Memories And More

Memorabilia – Is there a significant point to retaining memories through objects and other memorabilia?

Relationship Marketing – The only way to get a decent job is to know someone who works there. True? False?

No plan B – Are people who resort to Plan B, changing their destination, weak?

Academia – Why do a lot of academics write in a way that is difficult to grasp if you are not a scholar in their field?

Fashion – Can you wear blue with black?

System vs. Individual – Does blaming the system/institution too easily excuse the actions of people within a system/institution?

 

Stay Positive & What’s Something You’ve Saved And Why?

Keep A Job

Garth Beyer

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Maybe it’s not your current job, but keep a job while you follow your passion and make your art.

If you hate your current job. Find another that you can bear, that you at least like, that gives you flexibility with time. For two reasons.

1. You need the flexibility of time to work on your passion. You may even discover that you can use your job time to do the real work of your passion.

2. When your focus is to excel in your passion rather than your job, a surprise promotion, raise, bonus, or even donuts on Friday morning are ever the better.

Don’t think you need to drop everything you have to focus on your passion. That’s just dumb. And if you think that’s what it will take for you to succeed in your passion, you may want to reconsider the passion you have.

 

Stay Positive & You Can Do Both (what pays the bills + follow your heart)

Garth E. Beyer

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How To Cope With Criticism

Garth Beyer

At one of my current occupations, I get to give kids money to go to college. It’s a pretty enjoyable time when I look at it like that. However, part of what I do is handle hundreds of phone calls and emails a week, call it customer service if you will.

Of course, those contacting me are doing so because of a problem they have, whether it’s from a lack of information, understanding, or what it sometimes feels like, they just want to blow up on someone.

This means I’m using a special kind emotional labor from day-to-day. I have to disassociate my personal feelings with every interaction while still keeping an open heart and willingness to help.

In other words, I continuously work on not taking anything personally.

To put it in more perspective, I seldom get a call to tell me I’ve done a good job or get an email just to tell me, “Thanks for all your work, we really appreciate it.” Occasionally I get a thank you letter from a student, maybe two a year on average.

I’m human, but even if I wasn’t, doing what I do without any pat on the back or thanks could still bring me to resent my work. Of course, it doesn’t. And for one simple reason.

Each day I remind myself that while I may receive 30 calls in one day, there are 90,000 students and 200,000 family members of students who don’t call, that things are going smoothly for, that have no problems. 30/290,000 is a pretty good ratio, wouldn’t you say?

Another current occupation (in which I am most artistic) is Writer. The majority of the time when I produce an article, when I get published, when I deliver, I get criticized. Similar to my work as a Grants Specialist, those who agree, who understand, who have been given the intended message, rarely leave feedback.

It’s not often people read to connect, but to learn and understand. I don’t see it, but there are hundreds (hopefully thousands?) of people nodding their heads in agreement and understanding while reading my work.

The few people who I hear from are those who disagree, who have a different opinion (that they would rather share in relation to my article rather than doing the hard work of writing one themselves), and yes, also those who just feel like trolling.

I once told a friend that if there was a point to complaining, they would call them com points, but they don’t. However, here is a point. (two actually)

We are criticized for two reasons. One, to broaden our minds, to self-evaluate, and to be aware of possible mistakes. In other words, to learn. Two (and most important), to be given a ratio. Not having a ratio doesn’t mean you’re doing everything right, it means you’re doing something seriously wrong.

Counting the number of critics you have is meant to remind you of all those who aren’t. I’ve never been one for math, but this is one ratio that makes it easy to cope with criticism.

 

Stay Positive & No Critics Usually Means No Art (and that’s on you, not them)

Garth E. Beyer

For The Most Of Us

Garth Beyer

For some, they’re able to quit their jobs to focus completely on their passion. For some, they inherit work that is paralleled with their passion. For some, their passion has been all they’ve ever known.

But for most, we have to earn our right. We have to conform a little to be able to be our true selves. We have to do a tad of the safe work, the work we may not want to do, the work that we get paid by the hour for, all in order to be able to do what we truly want.

The trouble is, people get stuck. Safe becomes comfortable. “The groove” becomes their future. They take what they are given and buy the idea that they aren’t special with it. They buy the idea that they can’t work on creating their art (doing their passion) simultaneously while working.

It’s a great excuse – the job – to not do the work that really matters. A job takes time, energy, focus, muscles, brainpower. It’s easy to say that you spent all your willpower for the day on your job and pushback your passion to tomorrow, or the weekend or after you finish this big project at work.

This is where being stuck meets being confused. Those who are stuck confuse their passion with something they have to do, much like their job. Whereas, by definition, your passion is something you get to do, get to feel, get to create – not something you have to.

Being able to separate work and your passion takes practice, but it can all begin with a constant reminder that work is what you have to do and your passion is what you get to do.

No day is fulfilled without having done both.

 

Stay Positive & Fulfill More Of Your Days

Garth E. Beyer

The Greatest Life Lesson From Getting A Job

Garth Beyer

After the struggle of searching for places to apply at, applying, and going through the interview process, you arrive at your new job. As crappy as it is, most will say, “a job is a job.”

While there is plenty to learn from the process of acquiring a job, what I would like to point out is in regards to the training that everyone must go through. Once you’re hired, the next step before you start – beside the paperwork – is to train, to learn what you will be doing.

You may be handed a small manual. You may be told to shadow someone. You may be shown what you will be doing and asked to run through it once or twice. Other than that, there isn’t much more to the training. In fact, I would bet that after training for any job, you will be nervous about not doing what you need to do right, efficiently, or flawlessly. Simply because you weren’t trained well.

You won’t master anything even with a manual. You won’t master anything by watching someone else do it. (How great would that be if we did though!) You won’t master anything by doing it once or twice. In fact, I wouldn’t even call any of that training. Training for something results in a sense of preparedness which this doesn’t produce.

No employers care about that though. They shouldn’t. Actually, they’re smart not to!

Employers – and now you – know that there is no better training than training on your feet. By that I mean getting thrown into what you need to do and being expected to do it right even with the haunting lack of preparedness.

As people, the best way to learn is to do. We can read, we can watch, we can shadow, we can even give something a shot or two, but the most effective and quickest way to learn anything is to jump in and do it.

For the next time you have an interest in doing something, catch yourself when you begin to “train” for it too long. And to simplify it for you, I can even tell you how long “too long” is. If training for something as important as a job only takes a few hours (maybe a day), then whatever you are training for better be more important than a job if you are training longer for it.

I could have told you from the beginning to not spend much time researching stuff and instead, do. But that would be an insult to the way the world works. The same way that skipping the barely helpful training for a job would be.

 

Stay Positive & For Best Results, Do

Garth E. Beyer