Author: Mike Balof

A retired Air Force Master Sergeant, Mike used to lay in bed at night and worry about what would happen if his plant closed or found himself without a job. One day his plant closed. Rather than panic and hysteria (OK, maybe a little) Mike found himself carried away on the adventure of his life. Mike started with the best job he ever had working at Home Depot. He spent 8 years working with job seekers at a local workforce center, helping them to find employment. He then started his own company developing courses, writing books and urging others to follow their own paths into the future. Mike holds a Master of Arts in Adult Education and Training and a Bachelor of Business Management, earned through the University of Phoenix and an AAS degree in Electronics Systems Technology from the Community College of the Air Force. Mike is a member of the Delta Mu Delta Business Honor Society.

Time To Explore

How many of us get caught in the same rut day in and day out? Not just the big things, the little ones too. How many of us wake up, hurriedly get dressed, and run out the door with little more than a cup of coffee and maybe a banana?

I used to do that. I would get to work in start having Low blood sugar symptoms by 10:30 or 11:00. By the time I got to eat around 12:00 or 12:30, I had difficulty thinking straight and was angry at everything. It’s not the way to work, and it’s not the way to live.

I have recently worked at eating better and started making avocado toast once or twice a week in the morning. It’s easy to do; an avocado is less than a dollar.  I mash it up, mix in a tsp of salad dressing and some bacon bits, smooth it onto some toast, and I have an excellent start to the morning with a great breakfast.

What could you do before work that would make your day?

Partnership

Ever start to do a small project? Write a book, build a course, coach a few people? And all of a sudden, you find yourself in a tsunami of more people who offer you help at a cost than you have ever thought existed.

Everybody means well, and everyone wants to help. As with most things these days, there is always a price. What do you do with all these people who want to sell you something? They mean well, and many of them are doing what you are working on, building a sound and viable product that will help others, and then finding people to buy it.

The answer is simple. The emails you get come from people, people running businesses, and they also need help in areas you might be great doing. You need to stop looking at everybody who writes you as someone who wants your money and start looking at them as someone who would be willing to pay you to help them do better.

Stop looking at others as someone who looks to squeeze you out of some money. Start looking at them as someone you can work with to a mutual benefit where you both succeed and grow.

The next time someone writes you offering a service, how will you help them become a paid partnership where both of you succeed?

What Are Your Plans

We have a new month about to come to us. The big question in my mind is what are we going to do?

You’re more likely to get something done if you make a plan and write it down. You don’t have to make earth-shattering discoveries. Sometimes the most profound work boils up from small ideas.

There’s a trick to getting things done. Figure out what you want to do for a given period, and write it down. Not in the back of some notebook that you won’t be looking at for the next three months, write your intentions down somewhere where they are in your face, and you see them every day. I often use a whiteboard, an affinity chart built with post-it notes, or my monthly calendar, which I carry and look at every day.

When something is important to us, we take the time to do it right. Everything has a cost, yet not all prices are monetary. Time and attention are two resources we need to spend with great care.

What are your plans for our upcoming month?

Do Wisely

Where I live, there is freedom of choice.  It puts us in control of ourselves.

We can live, work and do what we want, as long as we do not impose on the freedoms of others. We can share, learn and design the things we wish.

We are responsible for those things we choose and for what we do.

Choose wisely.  Understand what you want and what it will take to get there.  No one will stop you from trying, and no one else is in charge of keeping you on track.

Plan wisely, my friend, and follow through.

What greatness will you plan and accomplish?

What Will You Do

Yesterday is gone.  You cannot change anything about it. You can try to make up for errors or remember good actions, yet whatever happened there stays there.

Tomorrow is too far out of reach.  You can plan; you cannot complete those tasks today,  not if they will not happen until the future.

Today is the here and now.  Now you can stand up and do something.  Today you can change yourself and the world.  Today you can make and be the difference.  Remember, you can do this only if you get up, go out, and do so. 

Today is the day.  What will you go out and do that is good?

Do Not Stop

Never give up on your desires and what you want to do. We’re talking about the core of you.

You may have to pivot to go around a boulder, and you may have to realign goals to make the best use of resources. It often happens when you explore out in the woods. Many of us are entrepreneurs, and as such, we search the landscape of needs and sales to others.

We may need to polish or change our approach, product, or our marketing. Each of these changes helps our product to grow. We do not give up on our product if it is something that can help others succeed. And we do not give up on ourselves or the people who back us.

How will you position your products to do the best they can for others?

Slow Down

When your life gets super busy, and you find yourself running in circles, you need to slow down.

When you can’t find what you need to be working on, find the book you need, or find that you are booking various meetings one over another, you need to slow down.

When you get in such a rush, you fall down the stairs; you need to slow down.

A chief master sergeant once told me that I needed to slow down because I did not get something done in time. I thought he was a little bonkers at the time. The truth is he was absolutely correct.

When you are at the edge where you have too much to do, and no time to do it, the first thing you do is stop. You take time to sit down, prioritize, organize where needed, and set off to complete everything. This time you will get it done one item at a time, in a safe and sane manner.

What are you going to get done first, and where does it stand on the priority list?

Your Course

A course is a course, of course, of course.

Not all courses are the same, of course.

You should get to choose how your course is a course.

Please tell me. I am writing your course.

I am finishing up my course on using Critical Creative Thinking in employment.  I can not send this to the press without having your ideas on what you would like to see.  Please let me know.

Your Course

A course is a course, of course, of course.

Not all courses are the same, of course.

You should get to choose how your course is a course.

Please tell me. I am writing your course.

I am finishing up my course on using Critical Creative Thinking in employment.  I can not send this to the press without having your ideas on what you would like to see.  Please let me know.

Just a Peek

The text below is three paragraphs from my new book on finding a job which will be out in the next week or two.  Please look it over and let me know what you think.

You need a job.  The reason does not matter. The fact is clear you had employment which gave you pay, benefits, a feeling of necessity, fun in your life and any number of other things. It is no longer there for you. If you are over 40, it gets even more challenging. If you’re over 50, it can get downright ridiculous. Yet nothing is impossible.

Now is the time that you need friends. Now is the time not to be shy. Clean up, put on a smile, and let everyone know that you are looking for a new job. Now is not the time for stoicism and quiet. You are going to need all the help you can get to find your next paycheck.

Be sure to register with the local workforce center. Do not hang around there every day for weeks; they cannot hire you. Get the leads they give you and chase those leads to the companies. They are the people who can hire you.

Thank you for reading.  Please leave comments.