When you were young, did mom or dad ever promise you something important, and not deliver? Or, did they give you something, but it wasn’t what you thought you were going to get?
Government entities have promised their workers, in most cases, a pension. Pension benefits, some of which are quite generous, are one of many reasons people take government jobs, often at lower salaries than they could make in the private sector.
But states, cities, counties and, yes, the federal government are all worried they may not be able to keep the promises they made to those workers.
Government revenue is down. Government workers are losing their jobs in relatively large numbers. And some public officials are taking action to ease their pension burdens.
Allysia Finley interviewed San Jose, Calif., Mayor Chuck Reed for an article in the Nov. 30-Dec. 1 weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal. Reed sees the crisis in the city’s pension obligation. It is now spending $45,263 each year per worker on pensions, according to the article. Reed sees that as unsustainable.
He is offering workers a choice: pay 16 percent more of your salary toward your pension – about 27 percent of a police officer’s salary – or accept lower benefits in the future. The choice circumvents state court decisions that protect workers’ vested pension rights. In other words, he can’t take their pensions away totally, but he can put more of the burden on the workers and less on the city.
The public employee unions are not too happy with this idea, as one might expect. Reed’s and other ideas from administrators and elected officials nationwide all but ensure that if you are young, and work for a government entity, chances are very good that you will not see the retirement benefits your older colleagues are seeing today.
Or, you’ll have to contribute more toward those benefits. Either way, government entities cannot sustain the status quo forever.
So, if you are that young, government worker, you have to begin thinking differently about retirement. Perhaps you will have to work longer than you’d planned. The idea of retiring with full benefits after 20 or 25 years of service – no matter how old you are – may not be in the cards. Yes, there are some jobs – firefighters and police officers, for example – that may not allow you to work past a certain age. So, you have to think differently.
That pension may not be enough for you to pursue a hobby, or second career, at your leisure, while you are relatively young. Instead, you may have to start now to set up your situation well ahead of retirement. You might even be able to set up something that won’t require you to work another job in your off time.
You hear people talk about investing and saving at an early age. That would be wise, but your government salary – and/or paying more for your pension benefits – may not allow as much flexibility to save much. Even if you can put away $5 a week, plus most, if not all, of any raises you get over time, and not touch it, you could have a pretty nice nest egg. Will it be enough?
There are lots of good ways to earn extra income while you are still on the job. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. If you and your friends in the same situation could lock arms, you all could not worry about making Reed’s choice, or deal with your promises not fully delivered.
Young folks in the private and public sectors all have to worry about how they will be employed for as long as they want to work. Unpleasant circumstances may intervene. Promises may be broken. If you presume they will happen, you can better prepare. Fighting valiantly to keep the status quo, as your union representatives and others may do, ultimately could be a waste of energy. Complaining about it is even a bigger energy waster.
Good things can come to those who prepare. The writing is on the wall. Eventually, Reed or some of his compatriots in government will reform pensions. Their decision(s) probably won’t benefit individual workers greatly. But they could benefit everyone into perpetuity. So get ready. Take action. Your future may depend on it.
Peter
Author Archives: pbilodeau01
ECONOMY WILL COME BACK IF WE ARE OPTIMISTIC
Most leadership experts and motivational speakers and authors talk about the power of thought.
We become what we think, the adage goes.
As Frank Daniels III, community conversations editor for the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville put it, 10 years ago, we lived in fear. We had to sleep with an eye open because we had no confidence things would get better. That kind of thinking, Daniels wrote in a Dec. 8, 2013, column, is the most debilitating factor in our economy.
Income gaps between rich and poor are growing. People who want work can’t find it. Some who are working are not earning enough to support themselves or their families.
Technology and other progress helps companies do more with less. But those who lose their jobs because of technological advances pay the price.
All these things are circumstances – many of which we can’t control. But we can control how we react to them.
Though things in one’s past may have been really good, the past is gone. We have to believe that the future is going to better. Author and speaker Andy Andrews, in “The Noticer Returns,” says that perspective is everything. We have to be actively grateful for the good things in our lives. Gratitude begets optimism.
Too many people are walking around with anger, frustration and pessimism. They believe the world and their lives will get worse, not better. Andrews would call this a period of confusion. Things are changing, and we don’t know what’s coming next. We have a choice: we can look at this confusion as opportunity, or we can fear the confusion and try to stay out of it.
Staying out of the “confusion” leads not just to malaise about the world, it will likely seal one’s dismal future. If you are optimistic during this confusion, you will take the action you need to make your life better.
Our thoughts lead to actions. Optimism, followed by action, produces a good life. It may not happen overnight. Our “confusion” can last for years. But we have to see this “confusion” as something we can work through.
The question for each of us, of course, is how does one work through the “confusion.” If you are out of work, your chances of finding another job that pays you what you made before, or better, are slim. It’s not your fault, but you probably will have to think about operating with a lower salary, or do something else to enhance your income.
There are lots of vehicles out there to enhance one’s income without a traditional job, or while working a traditional job. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. Consider it a test: if you check out other sources of income, and walk away from them because you are “confused” about them, stop. Perhaps what you are looking at is not “confusing” at all. You may just need to tell yourself, “Wow! I know I can do this.”
So think long, hard and optimistically about your future. Instead of waiting for the next shoe to drop, build a dream board. Instead of believing the world will get worse before it gets better, reflect on the good parts of your life NOW. It will help you see the future in a better light.
We can’t go back to the way things were. But we can go ahead to bigger and better things amid our current “confusion.”
Peter
P.S.: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
LEADERSHIP: KNOWING WHEN TO LEAVE
A person who reaches the pinnacle of leadership not only keeps leading, he is aiming to leave a legacy so that when he steps down, a high quality leader will follow him.
In John Maxwell’s “The 5 Levels of Leadership,” the leadership pinnacle is the fifth level. Leaders reach that level not only by developing other leaders, but by creating a situation that people follow him for who he is, and what he represents.
Maxwell says that a person reaches that level by continuing to develop leaders at all the other levels. By having a team of great leaders that the Level 5 leader has developed, he knows that he can step down, and the organization will still succeed like a well-oiled machine.
One of the main mistakes a leader can make at this level is hanging around too long. A Level 5 leader, Maxwell says, leaves before he has to. Most who get to this level have matured, probably had great financial success and may be ready to take on other challenges – or just retire and do something fun.
There’s a philosophy in any job to stay until they throw you out. But really great leaders don’t wait to be thrown out. Because they are so humble, they leave BEFORE they may want to.
So, perhaps you aren’t a CEO with a great nest egg. Are you hanging around a job waiting to see whether they throw you out? Do you see the day when they just might throw you out? Do you think that you are so great at what you do, they will NEVER throw you out?
In today’s working world, EVERY job is at risk. You, as an employee, are just one bad manager, or one reorganization, away from a potential end to a career. The job you are so good at perhaps can be done by someone who would earn less than you. Perhaps technology will advance quickly enough that a machine will replace you. Today’s worker cannot wait around expecting his employer to keep him until he can retire.
You have to keep your eyes and ears open for new opportunities. Those opportunities may lie in areas you may not logically gravitate to. Perhaps learning a new skill will increase your career options.
Chances are very good that someday, you’ll walk into work to a surprise – the company has reorganized and you’re being laid off. Never expect to be tipped off to this. It will come when you never expect it.
Or, that great boss you had has left the company, and his replacement is someone with whom you don’t hit it off. Perhaps this person sees you as a threat. Perhaps he just doesn’t like you. He can make your situation untenable.
Though the Level 5 leaders of which Maxwell speaks can usually control their own destinies, you may not have that luxury. But that doesn’t mean you can’t think the way they do. Perhaps you may not WANT to leave a job yet. But you may have to.
What to do to prepare for that? Have a Plan B in place to give you income if a career killer visits you. There are several good Plan Bs out there. To check out one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You could be building a legacy of your own while you work. You could work your way up to a Level 5 leader, without interfering with your career. If the end of that career comes suddenly, you can leave with a smile.
Peter
WE NEED RISK TO GROW
Everything is risky.
Getting in a car, an airplane, even going to school as a child is risky. We only have to look at the number of shootings and killings at schools in recent times to realize that.
With so much risk out there, why don’t we crave it?
Growing up in the 1950s or 1960s, we learned to love security. By security, we meant a job, with benefits and a pension. Companies and employers didn’t change much during these times. As long as you worked hard, you advanced. As long as you kept out of trouble, you could work there for as long as you wanted.
Today, having a job is risky. Benefits and pensions, if they are there at all, have been cut. Because progress happens at a much more rapid pace, companies need to be flexible, and change happens more often. Job descriptions, if they exist, are not cast in concrete. They can change a lot, and often.
You could be one reorganization away from losing everything you hold dear at work. You could be one bad manager away from having a career stopped in its tracks – no matter your age or how good you are at what you do.
But, instead of bemoaning our quickly changing times, you could embrace them. When we were taught that risk was bad, and security was good, how much did it hold us back from being the best we could be?
Today, being good, or the best, at something may not be appreciated. The thing you’re good at may become expendable. A company that gave you glowing evaluations yesterday may toss you out as excess tomorrow. It’s not your fault. But you can control what happens next for you.
One cannot grow without embracing risk. You don’t have to jump from airplanes, if that’s not your thing, to embrace risk. But you may have to do things that previously were not comfortable for you. Yes, you have to do it afraid.
If you are young and just getting out of school, don’t expect to get a job, or join a company, and hang around for 40 years. It could happen, but it is less and less likely as time passes. Expect that any job you take will be short-lived. What you were hired for yesterday could change even before your first day of work.
What to do? First, if you are young, take a job and manage expectations. Presume your job will change often. You may not get rewarded for all the change you endure, but presume change will happen often.
Secondly, keep your eyes open for opportunity. If you see an opportunity to use your skills and work for yourself, that would be ideal. There are many of those opportunities out there. To check out one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. It may or may not be for you, but don’t be deterred just because it seems uncomfortable. Remember, you can do this if you see it.
Thirdly, embrace risk and forget security. Today’s relative pillars of security can collapse on you in a heartbeat. Take what the world gives you, for as long as it gives it to you, as long as it works for you. But if something is working for you, don’t presume it will ALWAYS work for you.
Remember, too, that no one has achieved great success without risk. There are some great, true stories out there from those who started with nothing but an idea, and made it work for them. That’s not to say you should risk EVERYTHING all the time, or that you should be reckless with your circumstances. But don’t let discomfort alone deter you. Don’t let a full plate of activity keep you from seeing the bigger picture.
Don’t be trapped into “security.” It could be all gone tomorrow.
Peter
HEALTH INSURANCE AND JOBS
If you are fortunate enough to work for someone who provides you with health insurance, count your blessings.
But also know that it probably won’t last.
Not only have state and the federal governments set up insurance exchanges, companies are also setting up private insurance exchanges.
Leading the trend is a company called Towers Watson, whose CEO, John Haley, was profiled in the Oct. 31, 2013, edition of USA Today.
Having health insurance with your job used to be a beautiful thing. Not only did a company pay you a salary and contribute toward your pension, it also paid a portion of your health care costs in the form of insurance.
If you hung around the company long enough, you could stay insured until Medicare kicked in.
But the recession that started in 2008 changed that mind-set. People lost jobs, and, therefore, lost their health insurance. People started to seriously question whether it was a good thing to have health insurance tied to a job. It was bad enough for a person to lose a salary. But losing health insurance compounded the problem many times over, especially if that person had a sick family member, or were sick themselves. Never mind what the stress of unemployment might do to their health.
Working people really began to wonder whether it was really good to have an employer have that much power over one’s life.
But modern companies want to provide good employees, and prospective employees, with the best packages possible. They understand that without good people, they will not thrive, and they will not survive over the long term.
Yet, health insurance as we know it is a serious cost to employers. Private insurance exchanges may be a vehicle to reduce those costs, and still provide affordable insurance to employees. If they can be devised so that the employee doesn’t necessarily lose benefits if he is laid off (he may lose the company subsidy), these exchanges might be the perfect solution.
We all want affordable health care. We all want to be able get the care we need under any conditions, without impoverishing ourselves or our families.
Between the government exchanges and the private ones, we might be on to a good, long-term solution.
Sure, the federal exchange Web site has had glitches. These, hopefully, are fixable. We might have to tweak the Affordable Care Act as time passes, to make sure it’s as effective, and inexpensive, as it can be to those insured, while not creating too big a government expenditure.
What if you had enough money on your own to buy whatever insurance you wanted? That would be ideal. If you are looking for a way to do that, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
Meanwhile, shop carefully on whatever exchanges which you are allowed to shop. Choose the plan that is right for you. Also remember that paying penalties is throwing money away. Even though it might cost you more, when you buy actual insurance, you are at least getting something for your money. So buy insurance. You, your family and your community will be healthier for it.
Peter
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Today is a day to focus on what is good in your life.
Happy Thanksgiving!
No matter your circumstances, there is much good for which to be thankful. Today, we should think about what we have, not what we don’t have.
Particularly in the last decade, we’ve read about, and heard about, a lot of bad things. Many of us have been personally affected by those things. It’s the media’s job to discuss what divides us. It is our job to focus on what unites us.
In the last few years, we saw housing prices plummet. We saw many lose their homes. Though a good many of us have not yet recovered from that, statistics are showing a rise in home prices and home construction. Home sales may be leveling off a bit, but the recent trend has been positive.
That many be of little comfort to those still struggling. But no matter your circumstances, you likely have much for which to be thankful.
If you enjoy a good, special meal today, remember that many others may not. If you are enjoying that meal with others, remember that many others may be alone.
Yes, today, Nov. 28, 2013, is a day to focus on what is good in your life. It’s a day to focus on what you have, not what you don’t have.
It is also a day to think about what YOU are going to do about the circumstantial breakdowns in your life. Those breakdowns may have been beyond your control, but how you repair them is entirely in your control. You have to plan what will come next in your life, then do it.
Your next step may be outside your comfort zone. That’s OK. Do it anyway. Do it afraid, if you must.
If you are looking for a tool that may help you repair any circumstantial breakdowns, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You may look at this tool with some fear, but if your circumstances need fixing, fix them afraid.
Today we focus on what we have — and can have — not what we don’t have. Today, no matter our circumstances, we have much good in our lives.
Be grateful for those, and confident you can fix the circumstances that need repair.
Be grateful, optimistic and fix them afraid.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Peter
BE AND STAY POSITIVE
John Maxwell is always a positive person.
It’s his strength, but positive people, who look for the best in everyone, sometimes get burned.
Maxwell, an author and leadership expert, discusses this in his book, “The 5 Levels of Leadership.”
Maxwell believes that it’s better to be always positive, and get burned once in a while, than to be negative and skeptical, and never take risks or think big.
The world is very different today, from decades ago. Almost everything we do involves taking a risk.
Let’s say you are working at your job, and see something you think could improve the operation. Let’s say you could act on it right then. Would you do it? Or, would you wait, talk to your boss about it and let HIM decide whether it should be done.
Of course, the latter is the safe course of action. After all, it’s not your company. You just work there. You just do what you’re told. You also might think that even if your boss agrees with you, that those above him may not. Your boss, fearful of his job and career, will pass any heat down to you, even if you tell the bigger bosses that you’d discussed this ahead of time.
The more productive companies will applaud your initiative. If your boss passes the heat down to you, why not just take the risk and claim all the credit. Your boss may be angry with you that you didn’t let him in on what you were doing, but so be it. A good boss will applaud you for taking the initiative, and bask in the credit because he hired you and molded a great employee.
Focusing on the positive also requires optimism. Remember that very few pessimists really succeed. They may climb a little, but pessimism gets in the way of being creative and innovative.
How can you tell that a person is positive, or how can you learn to be positive?
When you ask the question, “how are you,” what is the typical answer? If you hear, “I’m OK,” or “I’m getting by,” or “I’m here,” or “I’m on the right side of the dirt,” chances are these folks are not positive.
Positive people will usually respond with, “I’m great, how are you?” or, “I’m blessed, how are you?” You see, positive people are grateful for every day. They are grateful for everything good in their lives. And, positive people sincerely want to know how YOU are doing.
Positive people believe that the best years of their lives are ahead of them, no matter what. They don’t long for the past. Usually, they don’t fight for the status quo, unless their lives are exactly where they want them to be. There are few positive people who don’t see even greater things in the future.
The less positive will wax nostalgic about how things used to be. They will fight losing battles, trying to get back to those days. They will work very hard to resist change. They go home after some misfortune and wonder what might have been.
All of that wastes energy and keeps them from doing what they need to do to improve their future. Whereas, a positive person will work WITH change and embrace it. He knows that no matter what happens, he will do what he needs to do to make his future bright, and fulfill his dreams.
If you are a positive person, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. See what other positive people are doing to fulfill their dreams.
Also remember the best thing that you can do to stay positive is to hang around with other positive people. Don’t let the dream stealers get you down!
Peter
A LEADER KNOWS WHEN TO FOLLOW
Good leaders follow.
Ask any Army general or Navy admiral. They would not have risen through the military ranks had they not been able to follow orders.
Business coach Andy Bailey, with the firm Petra, talked about leaders who follow in the Oct. 20, 2013, edition of The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville. His column says leaders are empathetic, show vulnerability and grow other leaders.
Unless you are a dictatorial leader, who tries to advance while holding others down, good leaders can’t exist without a great team, Bailey says.
Other leadership experts, like John Maxwell, also talk about vulnerable leaders. In his “5 Levels of Leadership,” Maxwell points out that vulnerability helps make leaders genuine. A good leader doesn’t have to know everything. He has to be able to find the people on his team who know more about a given subject than he does, and allow them to lead in that area.
As we grow as people, we learn that not knowing everything about everything is OK. Did you ever have a neighbor, friend or relative who could rattle off a lot of knowledge about anything and everything? Did you like being around this person? Sometime, you may have had to borrow a cup of sugar from this person, but that turned into an hour or longer conversation. He did most of the talking.
Good leaders are humble. They admit not knowing things, and they admit when they make mistakes. It’s part of the relationship the leader is building with his team.
Remember, too, that one does not necessarily have to have a high position or high authority to be a leader. He just needs to have influence. The difference between power and influence is that influence allows you to get people to do things for you willingly, instead of by force.
Good leaders, as Maxwell points out, have great relationships with each on his team. This relationship is cultivated without having to be “soft,” and unable to make hard decisions.
We’ve all worked for dictatorial leaders at some point. You don’t dare offer suggestions, or talk about any difficulties in getting a job done with that person. He doesn’t listen, and doesn’t care how difficult things are for you. He has no empathy. He’s working for his own success, and is using you to get what he wants.
Today’s leaders engage in the messy process of developing people, as Maxwell points out. Developing good relations with people is a deliberative process. First, the leader has to be likeable, though he doesn’t expect EVERYONE to like him. For some, becoming likeable is a messy process. For others, it comes naturally.
A wise person once said that people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care (about them). Good leaders care about their people first. The other things usually fall into place once that happens.
Want to be a good, empathetic leader but don’t have a team? Visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau and learn how to find, and build, a great team. You may not know who will be on your team ultimately, but if you follow the leadership guidelines that Bailey, Maxwell and others espouse, you’ll have a great time building your team, and growing as a person yourself.
Peter
HUMP DAY: GET OVER IT!
The Geico insurance ad with the camel walking through the office asking everyone what day it is has gone viral.
You see, those who work a Monday through Friday schedule viewed Wednesday as “hump day,” because once Wednesday was over, you were “over the hump” toward the weekend.
Yes, we can be clock watchers, and sometimes, we need to be. But time is precious, and we don’t want to wish away any time. We don’t want to get old too soon. We want to stay young as long as we can, regardless of our current age.
Think of it this way. If Wednesday puts you over the hump toward the weekend, and that makes you happy, how sad are you on Sunday night, knowing that Monday morning is coming?
Some working folks love their jobs so much, it doesn’t matter what day it is. Others work weird schedules, and may have a different “hump day.”
Though many love what they do, most don’t love it so much that they dread their off time. We have families, friends, hobbies and fun activities that deserve our time. Those who love their work may never retire, because they’ll always want to be doing something related to what they love.
There are others for whom work is literally their life. They have few, if any, activities outside of their work. Can these folks truly be happy?
Still, others can’t wait to retire. They are doing jobs that are putting food on the table and roofs over their heads, but they long to be done with them. It’s becoming more difficult by the day to last out your employer until you are able to retire, so these folks are just praying they can hang on as long as possible.
But what if you are not yet retired, and the day of the week doesn’t matter to you? What if your work were done whenever it suited you?
With traditional jobs and employers, that’ usually not possible. But what if you could get there? How much would you sacrifice, and how hard would you work on your own time to make that happen?
If that idea intrigues you, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. Not everyone will want it, but if you want to get over the hump toward freedom, it might be for you.
Life has humps we need to get over. Some would like to get over them faster than others. Others can’t see any way to get over them quickly.
In whatever our activities, we need to realize that time is something you can’t recover, or go back to. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. If you have regrets, look at the future and find ways to do things you won’t regret.
Memories can be beautiful, but, generally, they can’t be relived. Waxing nostalgic can be amusing, but, usually, you can’t go back there.
We need to look toward the future. We need to have dreams. And, we need to think about how we are going to realize those dreams.
Not all things are possible, but most things are if we think about the right things, and act in a way that will get us where we want to go.
Once we get there, we won’t worry about “hump days,” for we will realize that all days are valuable and should not be wasted.
If life throws you a hump, just get over it!
Peter
DO WHAT YOU KNOW, NOT WHAT YOU FEEL
A slogan from the 1960s said: “If it feels good, do it.”
It was a way to assert one’s freedom , to branch out from what was socially acceptable into an area that was, well, not.
We all love to do what feels good, but it might be better to follow the advice of author, speaker and TV personality Les Brown: “do what you know, not what you feel.”
Brown is saying that we should do what we know we need to do, not just what feel like doing.
Let’s take that a step further. We know we need to eat right and exercise. But at a given moment, we might feel like relaxing on the couch with a big piece of chocolate cake. If you’ve exercised and eaten right most of the day, perhaps relaxation and a piece of cake are well deserved. But eating cake EVERY day because it feels good is not a good habit.
This works to the contrary as well. Sometimes, after a highly stressful day at work, you KNOW there is take-home work to do, but you want to just relax. You may need the relaxation more than the extra work. You may need balance in your life. Sometimes, your body tells you to back off work awhile.
Also, doing what you know you should do may mean spending more time with your family, instead of tackling that take-home work. A good rule here: if work really can wait, let it, if you are at home.
Some other activities make us feel good, but may keep us from doing what we know we should. Television is a perfect example. If you are neglecting something you know you should be doing but believe you don’t have time, think about how much time you may spend watching television.
Sure, the little screen is big entertainment, and very enjoyable. Some programming is certainly worth watching (much, sadly, is not). If you are doing what you know you should, chances are you are doing it with no remote in hand.
Many people get introduced to opportunities to change their lives and live their dreams, but pass it by because, “I couldn’t put another thing on my plate.” Some people really can’t. But most don’t want to change their lives badly enough to check it out.
You see, they will tell you that they are doing what they know they should be doing, and not what they feel like doing. Their plates may be overflowing, they are stressed, yet comfortable. Tackling something new and different would be uncomfortable. Perhaps they don’t realize what their lives are doing to them – and not doing for them.
Does that sound like you?
Perhaps you FEEL you have to do what you do, and neglecting some of what you REALLY should be doing, and don’t even know it.
Do you know there might be something better out there for you? If it were presented to you, would you want to look at it? If so, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
If you KNOW you are not doing what you should be doing much of the time, but feel like you HAVE to do what you’re doing, then look for something that will encourage you to do more of what you should be doing.
Only you can know what that is. Only you can act on doing those things. Only you can change your life, if it needs changing.
That doesn’t mean you don’t treat yourself to a little decadence once in a while. But don’t eat cake EVERY day, at the expense of the right foods and exercise.
But your dreams are waiting. Eventually, why not eat your cake, and still have it.
Peter