“Phoning It In” is a phrase used to describe the process of half-assing it at work.  It’s when you do just enough to get by so you can go home and get on with your life.  I hope you don’t “phone it in” at work.  It’s a recipe for career suicide.

You can phone it in from time to time, but you can’t make it your typical practice.  Well, that is unless you’re looking to have a stagnant career.  If you’re inclined to phone it in at work, you’re likely in the wrong job and/or career.  No matter how lazy a person is, if they’re working at something they’re passionate about, they’re going to bring energy and passion to their work if they love what they do.

Remember, if you’re half-assing it at work and feeling like you’re getting paid to do nothing at work all day, you’ve got two options – wait around for the pink slip to be put on your desk one day down the road or find your true calling and pour your heart into your work.  Your choice.

Do you really know what your boss thinks of you or do you think you know?  What do they say about you when it comes time for performance reviews and evaluations?

A quick way to find out is to, get this: ASK.  Ask your boss to be 100 percent honest and upfront and give it to you straight.  Say “I’m looking forward to getting to the next level and I would love an honest view of where I stand in the organization.”

Be silent and wait for a response.

Dig deeper into any superficial answer, even if it’s uncomfortable for you (or your boss).  This is your career we’re talking about, so you want to get to the brutally honest feedback now, rather than years from now.

Follow-up with “I really want you to give it to me straight and not sugar coat anything.  What do I need to work on and take-on in order to get promoted and be seen as a high-performer here?”

Be silent and wait for a response.  Let your boss do most of the talking.

The sooner you have these kinds of open dialogues, the sooner you’ll find yourself on the fast track to the promotion you want.

Are you where you thought you’d be at this stage in life?  Yes, no, maybe?  Do you know?

I’m sure you played the Goals Game when you were fresh out of college and working at your first job.  You read some book (or maybe a dozen) that expounded on the need to have goals.  So you promptly wrote a bunch of goals, one of which included getting to a certain level (manager, director, VP, Sr. VP) by a certain age.

Lots of “certain” words in there, but there are no certainties in life.  You might not even be in the same career path that you were in five years ago.  So how are you doing in life?  Are you cool with where you are in your career?  Have you achieved or surpassed your goals?  Does it matter?

Of course it matters, right?  It’s your career after all, but perhaps you should think about where you actually want to go in life versus what you of five or ten years ago wanted to do.  What’s really important to you?  Are you creating that life NOW for you and your family?  Are you living the kind of life that has the right balance of work/family/play/enjoyment or are you overly focused on your goals from the past?

“You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.” – Joseph Campbell

Give up the past goals and set some new ones.  Don’t be so firm with the dates or the goals themselves.  What am I talking about?  An example might help.

Instead of the goal to be a millionaire by age x, why not have a goal to save x percent of your income?  This is more manageable and doable and not dependent on getting promotions to increase your income or a certain return every single year from the stock market.

Instead of getting promoted to VP by age x, make it a goal to do GREAT WORK and inspire others.  Yes, less solid and exacting, but more reachable and enjoyable along the way.

By the way, you can keep the original goals if you want, just be sure to add in a few goals that are truly within your control and focus on designing a life worth living and being proud of, no matter what your title and how much cash you have in the bank.

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” – Lao-Tzu

There are many roads in life and you’re currently on one.  Maybe you know where you’re going because you have goals and you’ve been good about making sure that you’ve been making progress.  If you’ve got goals and you’re making progress, great, you’re probably on the right track.  I say probably because you have to figure out if the road you’re on is even the right road to be running down.

Sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it?  You’ve got your goals and you know you’re making progress, so how could you possibly be on the wrong road, right?  Easy.  When you’re achieving success, but you’re not enjoying the process, you’re on the wrong road.

You can take detours, slow down and find alternate routes and still end up ticking off a few of your most precious goals and that’s pretty cool.  Enjoy what you’re doing.  Figure out what makes you the happiest and try doing more of it every day.  Life is not a drama or a horror story.

The point of this post is to tell you that you have to enjoy the ride and not get obsessed with just making money and reaching goals because one day you might find that aside from a fat bank account, you don’t have much in the way of solid relationships, close friends, your health and dozens of the “smaller” things that make life so rewarding.

Sorry to be such a downer.  Blame it on Sir Richard Branson and his Five Secrets of Business Success.  I came across this article where he shared his five secrets and the first one just clicked for me.  I’m sure it will do the same for you (along with the other four secrets).

Richard Branson: Five Secrets to Business Success
Written about Startups, but I’d say they apply to established corporations (and employees) as well:

No. 1: Enjoy What You Are Doing.
No. 2: Create Something That Stands Out.
No. 3: Create Something That Everybody Who Works for You is Really Proud of.
No. 4: Be a Good Leader.
No. 5: Be Visible.

Go ahead and read the rest of the article.  Sir Richard never lets you down.

Love this quote.  I came across it in an article in the Washington Post about studies in innovation.

“If people don’t make one decision a month that they are sweating about a little bit, you’re probably not pushing the envelope forward.” – Tim O’Shaughnessy, chief executive, LivingSocial

How would it apply to your daily work and approach to your projects?

No seriously, what kind of changes do you need to make in your attitude toward your work and the decisions you make on a day to day basis to live up to this lofty mindset?

No, you don’t have to go all MAVERICK and make rash decisions, but sometimes you have to get nervous and the palms have to sweat to know that you’re moving outside your comfort zone.

The only way to grow in life is to consistently step outside of your comfort zone and face your fears.  Facing your fears by doing things we’re not comfortable with or experts in is what will further develop you and get you to the NEXT LEVEL in your career.

Some previous thoughts about getting out of your comfort zone that I’ve written about in the past might be worth the read.