Stuff Strife, Gimme Life!

By Paul Hichens

About the author:
Paul Hichens transformed his own mundane office-block existence into doing something he loves in a fantastic location, and has since helped and guided thousands of people to change their job / career and improve their lifestyle.

Question:
Are you content to just plod on in the same job, place and lifestyle until retirement?
Or do you want something more stimulating, exciting and enjoyable?

Not your typical career book:
Not all career books are the same! This comprehensive guide isn't just more engaging and incisive than the norm, but it also provides easy to follow advice and guidance (complete with real-life examples) to help you make the most of your life now - before your 50 work years have zipped by and you curse not doing it when you could.

Dramatically Improve Your Job, Career and Work Life Balance!
Seize the moment. Act today with Stuff Strife, Gimme Life!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Hichens
• Release date: Nov 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781915257086

Paul Hichens

I'm adventurous with an international outlook and a very unique style of writing. You'll have to read my novel Butcher Boy Blue to see what I mean, but essentially it's crime but funny and with more mystery and bigger twists - and you won't have read anything like it anywhere else.I've kept to my Northeast England roots for Butcher Boy Blue but the world is a big place and we'll see where my intriguing hero Mo lands next. His family hails from the USA and I've a French connection so maybe one of those places...In addition to writing my other passion is creating music.Feel free to check out some of my songs at http://www.paulhichens.comBooks include:Butcher Boy BlueThe One Page CV (published by Pearson Eduction)Stuff Strife, Gimme Life! (improve your job, career and work-life balance)

Book preview

Stuff Strife,

Gimme Life!

Improve your job, career and work-life balance today

By

Paul Hichens

Stuff Strife, Gimme Life! by Paul Hichens 

Published by Ardour Publishing

Copyright © 2021 Paul Hichens 

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. or UK copyright law. For permissions or sales, contact [e-mail]

Ardour Publishing is a trading name of Writing Services Limited

ISBN: 978-1-915257-06-2 (print) | 978-1-915257-08-6 (eBook)

First Edition

For more information on the writing and music of Paul Hichens visit

www.paulhichens.com

For Sophie Alicia

Preface

More than just a typical career advice book

This book is no ordinary career advice/job application book. Typical books of this nature provide just that; typical advice. This book instead gives you a whole lot more; not just a greater understanding of your career, and how to make the most of it, but also the tools, motivation and know-how to help you identify and achieve your goals - and enjoy a more satisfying work/life balance than you ever imagined possible.

Additional aims

Many career books read like instruction manuals and can be heavy going. One intention of this book is to make the reader experience more engaging than the norm.

Who would benefit from this book?

This book is ideal for anyone - regardless of age or status - who wants to improve their career and work/life balance. Whether you are just beginning your journey, are in mid-career, or are near the height of your profession commanding a seven-figure salary, then this book can give you direction, motivation and ultimately solutions to help you to find and land the right job for you.

Empowering you personally

Rather than just preaching to the masses and telling everyone what to do en-masse, this book instead has been designed to help you make more informed decisions about what you want from your career as well as how you personally can achieve your own career goals. To help you achieve this, I’ve also included practical sessions.

About the author

Paul Hichens is master’s degree qualified with a wealth of career sector experience. As founder of CVSucceed.co.uk and head writer at leading executive CV firm, ExecutiveCVServices.co.uk, Paul has helped thousands land their perfect job.

In addition to this book and his ground-breaking CV book The One Page CV, Paul has also written many articles, given masterclasses and spoken on the BBC as a career sector expert.

Real-life examples

Like most people, I didn’t just magically fall into my ideal job. The chances of landing your ideal job purely by chance is infinitesimal. There are important things to recognise and understand, as well as right ways and wrong ways of going about things. How do I know that? Because I, my acquaintances and my clients have all been through this, and the sooner you strategically act, rather than leave things to hopefully fall into place, the quicker you will achieve your goals.

Rather than just hypothesise, I’ve instead given real-life examples - including some of my own. True, just listing theories, models and rhetoric from afar would have been more comfortable than exposing my soul and shortcomings to the world, but I do believe that it’s easier to relate to real-life examples. I’ve therefore opened a little window into my personal world in addition to my professional one. Hopefully you’ll find that more authentic, interesting and useful than the more distant/theoretical alternative.

The inspiration behind this book

Whilst others had told me that I should write a book to improve people’s job prospects and careers, it wasn’t until the head of a successful rival company came to me for advice that I seriously considered it. He knew I got results for clients and was keen to discover how. The more he probed me on career anecdotes, tips and my special CV writing methods, the more I embraced this book idea (even though I knew it would be a slog to write)! However, I love helping people so, I see this book as an opportunity to share some of my knowledge and secrets to help a wider audience – including you!

Part I - Deliberation

Chapter 1: Work, Play or Both

For better for worse

As you will discover in this book, there is a lot more to jobs and careers than meets the eye. Indeed, in many cases your job/career choice can be one of the most important decisions you ever make. Like marriage, career choices change lives; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. You therefore need to choose wisely.

Typical books of this nature underestimate the importance of this decision and rush the reader into applying for jobs without appropriate consideration. Not only that, but in many cases, the reader is neither given enough options, nor treated as an individual with different needs and abilities. Consequently, job-seekers are often cajoled into applying for a job too hurriedly, without a fraction of the deliberation and actual reflection that is really necessary.

This has two effects; firstly, the reader has less chance of landing the job they seek because not enough attention has been given to the best ways of applying for and landing jobs. And secondly, even if they do land a job, often the job in question is not right for them, or it is not as good as they anticipated.

Some other books of this nature feed the métro, boulot, dodo (‘underground, work, sleep’) cycle. For them, the this isn’t work philosophy does not come into the equation. For them, it is a matter of getting the reader to apply for a job – any job!

This book, on the other hand, aims to be far more effective in assisting you to identify the best job for you. Not only that, but hopefully it could also do a better job of helping you actually physically land your target job. More than that, this book can help you discover the this isn’t work philosophy and possibilities which are open to each of us.

You only have one life, and for many people, their career is a huge part of it. You therefore need to give serious consideration to your job/career choice if you are to avoid falling into the métro, boulot, dodo spiral, and instead discover a life where work is more enjoyable, rewarding and stimulating than most people imagine it could ever be.

Light at the end of the tunnel

No matter how old you are, what you do for a living, or how successful (or unsuccessful) you are, the very fact that you are reading this book suggests that you may be feeling that there is more to life than your current job, and that perhaps you need some kind of change. It does not matter whether you are a successful executive in your forties, or a teenager who has just left college; if you are thinking about a new job or a career change then this book can help give you the ideas, encouragement, belief, direction, practical advice and guidance to realise your dreams and full potential.

If you are unsure about your career direction, or are currently stuck in a rut then you are not alone. Indeed, a great many people worldwide share your sentiments. If this applies to you then you have two choices; you can stagnate and feel sorry for yourself, or you can be positive and do something about it. Many people resign to their fate and plod along their closed-groove rut, but for those who are proactive, there is the possibility of light at the end of the tunnel.

Yes you!

Pretty much everyone is good at something (even though they don’t always know it). The right career is there for pretty much everyone too; it is just a matter of finding it.

This is easier said than done, but is not impossible. Jobs that are enjoyable for some people are clearly not for others. For example, Justin Sullivan has been very fortunate to find his ideal career in music. On the other hand, I was at a hotel recently where the band could not have looked more miserable if a bomb had been ticking underneath the drum kit.

Personalities differ and so do peoples’ perceptions of jobs. Many people plod on in a job they do not enjoy simply because they have not explored all the options, given serious consideration to all the alternatives, or had the necessary belief and commitment to realise their real career goal. I know several extremely talented musicians who work rather begrudgingly in typical 9-5 jobs, but who undoubtedly have the talent to work as a professional musician if they so desired. These people freely admit that they would love to work as a musician, but for one reason or another they have not got around to doing anything concrete about this ambition.

Whilst these people still have not done anything tangible about their goal, at least they know what the ideal career is. Many people do not even know this. If you are one of the many people who are unsure about the job/career direction you wish to take, or how to get there, then this book can help you.

I guarantee that some people’s lives will change for the better as a result of reading this book. So, if your career is going nowhere, or even if you are simply not totally satisfied with your current job then keep reading; it could be one of the best things you ever do!

Chapter 2: Exploring Your Toolbox

The finger of destiny

Some people are just born for certain jobs. It is hard to imagine Lionel Messi doing anything else other than playing football, Clint Eastwood working in any environment other than films, and it is inconceivable that anyone other than Winston Churchill would have been able to lead Britain to victory in WWII. Sometimes a higher power just seems to point a finger at someone and say, It’s you!

Even then, some highly talented people still do not realise what job they were born for. Whilst Winston Churchill always had a sense of destiny, and Messi’s talent is such that he must have known from an early age that he was destined to become a top footballer, Clint Eastwood did not always know that he would become a famous actor. Indeed, at one stage he was studying business administration but decided to follow his gut and quit to pursue his dream.

Realising realisation

Sometimes it is not enough to have all the talent in the world. You first need to recognise your talent, and then work on it. Many highly talented people go through life without even realising they have a talent until it is too late or almost too late. For example, some amazing artists do not realise they can paint until they retire at 65 and pick up a paintbrush for the first time.

You could be reading this right now and have a huge talent for something but do not know it yet. I talk from experience here; I did not know that I had any creative writing ability or any creative skills whatsoever until after I left university. This is despite while I was at university I even took a psychometric test and was told that I was very creative. At the time, I quickly dismissed the result as wrong because I was stronger academically in scientific subjects, and the only creative thing I had tried doing until then was drawing, and I was terrible at that.

However, I was wrong about not being creative. Since then, I have not only discovered my creative writing ability, but I have also created graphic designs (albeit with the aid of computer software) which sold for thousands of pounds. On top of this, I have also discovered that I can write songs, sing and play the guitar and piano far better than I could ever have imagined. Whilst I am a long way off topping the charts, I have had praise nevertheless, and have performed my songs live in various countries. Not bad considering I was not even taught music at my school because music lessons were reserved exclusively for pupils who played in the school band. Indeed, I didn’t realise I could play a single note until I was in my twenties.

Okay, so I may not be as good a musician as Justin Sullivan (frontman of one of my favourite bands New Model Army) who has performed to audiences worldwide, but that is beside the point. What I want to press home here is that pretty much everyone has talents; even though these talents may be hidden deep within sometimes. Not only that, but hidden talents often have a commercial value which can lead to highly rewarding, as well as extremely satisfying careers. Even if you already know that you have a talent (for example you may be an excellent accountant), if you do not enjoy using that talent then it may be worthwhile exploring your other talents to find something that will ultimately give you greater job satisfaction.

It took me a long time to realise that I had creative ability, and an awful lot longer before the penny dropped that I could make a living from something I enjoy a lot more than the typical 9-5 job I held previously.

It therefore makes sense to explore your talents. Not only could you be pleasantly surprised at the things you discover, but if you can realise the commercial value of your talents you could even be sitting on a fortune!

Discovering the hidden you

So how do you discover your talents?

Well, if you don’t try you will never know. Another tip Clint Eastwood gave was to not be afraid of trying new things. He followed his advice to good effect, and despite doubters, he not only played a wide variety of popular roles during a long highly successful acting career, but he also became a well-respected film director (and musician) in his own right.

But how do you know what to try?

Well, there is no point in trying things you know you will not like. It would be a waste of time seeing how good you are as a surgeon if you faint at the sight of blood, and it would be pointless to try to become a roofer if you suffer from vertigo.

Probably the best place to start looking is an area in which you are already interested. For example, if you are passionate about sport and would love a career in sport then that is a sensible first port of call.

But what sport? You do not know how good you will be at something until you try. Rowing was not the first sport Sir Steve Redgrave attempted. Fortunately, he kept trying a variety of sports until he found something he excelled at, winning five Olympic gold medals into the bargain.

Obviously, not everyone has the physical attributes or natural ability to forge a career as a professional sportsperson. In fact, only a very small proportion of people ever make it to the top (or even near the top) in most sports. But you don’t know until you try. Someone who is terrible at football may be a world-class golfer, and someone else who is hopeless at golf could have the potential to be a leading formula one driver.

Even if you are convinced that you would love a career in sport, but know that you do not have the talent or physical attributes to excel in sport, if you look deep enough you may find that you have hidden talents that will allow you to work in the sports arena in a related profession you enjoy. For example, you may find that you are an excellent sports photographer, or have first-rate commentary skills, or have natural coaching ability. There are many ways of getting a foot in the door of the sporting career sector. You do not necessarily have to have a toned body rippling with muscles; all you really need is talent and proficiency in an associated discipline (direct or even indirect).

The same applies to just about any career sector. For example, if you would love to work in fashion, but do not have the figure for the catwalk, then there is nothing to stop you from being involved in the industry in a different capacity. There are a whole host of possibilities including fashion designer, critic, agent, photographer, reporter, magazine editor, makeup artist, and many more related jobs.

So far, I have mentioned jobs that are mainly perceived as quite glamorous, but the same principle applies to typical everyday jobs which do not always get the same hype. For example, I have a friend in his seventies who is a brilliant carpenter. He has done this for decades, and there is nothing he cannot make or fix using wood. Under normal circumstances, he should have retired ten years ago. However, his love of carpentry is such that he continues to work every day, and he says that he enjoys every minute. Many people who have a