Happy at Work for Mid-Lifers: Happy at Work, #1

By Cassandra Gaisford

Would you like to wake up every day looking forward to going to work? Do you want a job that is in harmony with your passions, values and deepest interests? Do you want a job that is deeply rewarding and gives you a sense of meaning and purpose?  Do you dream of discovering happiness at work in a role that allows you to be you truly are and who you truly want to be?

 

Global career change expert and courage coach, Gaisford (BCA, Dip. Psych.) shows you how to determine what it is that you really want to do, clarify what you can do and create powerful but simple strategies to make your dream a practical, and inspiring reality.

 

Designed for disgruntled mid-Iifers laid off or no longer happy in their work, this book is for anyone willingly or unwillingly, facing the need to revisit what they really want from their work life.

 

If you are serious about embarking on a career change, finding career satisfaction, joy and fulfilment, and gaining a competitive edge then tapping into the innate power of passion and purpose Is vital to your success. Happy at Work will help undo any conditioning that has held you back, exploring ways to create your dream job from the inside out, using inspiration, passion and values-driven purpose to inform, guide and motivate you from the heart.

 

Working with passion and purpose is your calling- lay claim to it now!

 

"Guides are necessary throughout mid-life, this book is a guide. Teachers to face and touch are guides. Mid-life will not be rushed. Everybody experiences mid-life. It is a sacred journey, a sacred path, the Way. I urge you to use this book as an inspirational tool and carry it as a treasure. Persevere with your mid-life. Bring into consciousness your childhood dreams, as they will become your living realities." ~ Max Gimblett, Visual Artist, New York

 

"Happy at Work has you thinking about what drives you, why you are doing what you are doing. is it making me happy, am I using my full set of skills, what can I do differently and how to have the courage to change." ~Anthony Lewis, Account Director, New Zealand

 

"Really good stuff, needed stuff. Happy at Work helps you learn who you and what you want to be when you grow up. This book is of maximum benefit." Joe Gutje, investment Banker, New York

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Giraffe Publishing
• Release date: Apr 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781990020254

Cassandra Gaisford

Cassandra Gaisford, is a holistic psychologist, award-winning artist, and #1 bestselling author. A corporate escapee, she now lives and works from her idyllic lifestyle property overlooking the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. Cassandra is best known for the passionate call to redefine what it means to be successful in today’s world. She is a well-known expert in the area of success, passion, purpose and transformational business, career and life change, and is regularly sought after as a keynote speaker, and by media seeking an expert opinion on career and personal development issues.  Cassandra has also contributed to international publications and been interviewed on national radio and television in New Zealand and America.  She has a proven-track record of success helping people find savvy ways to boost their finances, change careers, build a business or become a solopreneur—on a shoestring. Cassandra’s unique blend of business experience and qualifications (BCA, Dip Pych.), creative skills, and well-ness and holistic training (Dip Counselling, Reiki Master Teacher) blends pragmatism and commercial savvy with rare and unique insight and out-of-the-box-thinking for anyone wanting to achieve an extraordinary life. ​

Book preview

Happy at Work for Mid-lifers

Happy at Work for Mid-lifers

A practical and inspirational guide for job-hunters and career-changers

Cassandra Gaisford

Blue Giraffe Publishing

Contents

Praise for Happy at Work

Foreword

Author’s note

I. Dreaming

1. Making a Difference

2. The Money or Your Life

3. Pursuing happiness can be profitable

4. Work as Self-Expression

5. Dream or Reality?

6. Child’s Play

7. Get Creative

II. Discovering

8. Awesome Obsessions

9. Valuable Values

10. Think About Your Needs

11. Act Like You’re Self-Employed

12. Liberate Your Attitude

13. Your Favourite Transferrable skills

14. Your Natural Knacks and Talents

15. Job Sculpting

16. What You Really Want

17. Making Heart-Based Decisions

III. Succeeding

18. Promote Your Age As An Asset

19. Plenty of Time to Make it Big

20. The Most Effective Job Search Strategy

21. When Passions Collide, Expect to Be Hired

22. How Recruiters Work

23. Job Hunting Online

24. Tailor your CV

25. Blow Your Trumpet

26. Interview Success

27. Fake It

28. Employ Yourself

29. Create A Goal And Reap The Rewards

30. Courage of Your Convictions

How I Found a Job I Really Loved

Grab Your Free gift!

Excerpt: Mid-Life Career Rescue (Employ Yourself)

Choose And Grow Your Own Business With Confidence

The Entrepreneurial Personality Quiz

Success Story: A Fork In the Road

What You’ve Learned So Far

Why Do You Want To Be Your Own Boss?

What You’ve Learned So Far

Pursue Your Passion Not Your Pension

Success Story: A Love of Good Food

What You’ve Learned So Far

Did you enjoy this excerpt?

Also by Cassandra Gaisford

Now in audio

Coaching and Wellness Therapies

Follow Your Passion to Prosperity Online Course

Additional Help from Cassandra

About the Author

Further Resources

Please Leave A Review

Stay In Touch

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Praise for Happy at Work

Informative and interesting. There is so much helpful advise! The interview process, first impressions to your prospective employer, what and how to prepare for that job, and how to present yourself properly and market yourself properly. This book categorises the different segments of how to get the job you want by being the best prepared, not the best qualified. Such a good reference point when you’re struggling to piece your preparations together.

~ Simon Savage, job seeker

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"I was loaned a copy of Happy at Work by a close friend and advisor who thought the book would help me process the what/where and how questions I was asking myself. To be honest, I couldn’t put the book down – it was as though Cassandra had got inside my head and written it specifically for me! Very quickly the book became dog-eared from my constant reading and I wanted to highlight areas, put sticky notes in, etc etc – so I bought a brand new copy and gave it to the girlfriend, keeping the well-used version for myself.

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Happy at Work discusses all the aspects that had been tumbling around in my head like a washing machine for many months. It helped me process my thoughts, clarify my thinking, formulate a real plan and prepare myself for my new life. I have now recommended the book to many friends and colleagues who want to make a change but don’t know how. Read it – it’ll help you too."

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~ Mandy Scott, business advocate and strategist

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Foreword

The work we were born to do is our true work.

In June 2009, I was listening to Paul Potts, winner of the 2007 Britain’s Got Talent show, being interviewed by Steve Wright on BBC Radio 2 on his Big Show. When Paul appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, he was working selling mobile phones, but astonished the judges and the audience with his incredible voice. He now tours the world wowing audiences with his voice. 

Steve Wright asked Paul whether he loved singing as a child, or whether he came to singing in later life. Paul responded, Yes, I’d always loved singing when I was young. So Steve then asked him why he ended up selling mobile phones rather than singing professionally. Paul answered by saying, No-one ever told me when I was growing up that something I loved could be a career.

Most of us can relate to that: doing something you love and then getting paid for it simply wasn’t a career option that we were aware of or encouraged into. Too many of us believe that work needs to be a relentless and life-long activity doing something we’d rather not be doing, but that we have little choice over. We just have to do it to survive. And, as long as we are not enjoying it, are suffering, bored, stressed or are sacrificing ourselves, then it is real work, and we deserve to be paid for it.

Too few of us have been brought up to believe that it is possible to make our living doing something we love, that lights our hearts up and stirs our passions. I call this the work we were born to do and is our true work. To find your true work is a great blessing, one of life’s greatest blessings I believe. And to be paid for your work rather than work for your pay is one of life’s great joys.

More and more people today, either through choice or necessity, are looking for new and more fulfilling ways of working and earning their livings. Old ways are breaking down. Today, sacrificing your deeper passions for the security of a pay-check is no guarantee of security. Following your heart and deeper self is the new security. Your heart is the well-spring of possibility and opportunity that will never run dry.

In this book, Cassandra helps you find your work, inspiring you to consider new possibilities, gently guiding you beyond limiting thinking, and helping you find your own true self and authentic work.

Those who have found what they were born to do have usually developed a generosity of spirit and want to hold a hand out to others who are still searching. In this book, Cassandra has done just that. Out of the blessings she has won for herself, she shares generously with you where to look, and what signposts to follow. She guides you to trust yourself to be able to bring your inner and outer worlds together, so that now you can make your living in a way that reflects who you are and what is precious to you. Enjoy this book and let it guide you to the work that is in your heart to do.

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—Nick Williams, Author of The Work We Were Born to Do: Find the Work You Love, Love the Work You Do

Bring into consciousness your childhood dreams, as they will become your living realities.

Guides are necessary throughout mid-life, this book is a guide. Teachers to face and touch are guides. Mid-life will not be rushed. Everybody experiences mid-life. It is a sacred journey, a sacred path, the Way. I urge you to use this book as an inspirational tool and carry it as a treasure. Persevere with your mid-life. Bring into consciousness your childhood dreams, as they will become your living realities.

~ Max Gimblett, Visual Artist, New York

Author’s note

"Keep dreaming in colour

And drawing your dreams

On cement floors

Until they are realised."

~ Alicia Keys

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For years I have been passionate about passion. For a long time I made a career from this by working as a career and a life coach. Something I still do - but less and less. Largely because my other passion is writing. It wasn't until mid-life that I finally figured out how to generate income doing what I love - writing, researching and helping others.

I got my first break when one of New Zealand’s largest newspapers the Dominion Post ran with my idea to share career advice with their readers. What started as a short-term gig ran for over four years. During this time many people wrote to me asking me to compile my career advice into a book.

Voila. Here it is. Short, sweet articles that combine practical tips with inspirational true-life stories of how people have applied the strategies I’ve shared in my columns and in coaching sessions.

I say we change through desperation or inspiration, says Nick Williams.The idea that you could do something joyful, that you love, that you're happy doing and get paid for it is just not in most people's consciousness.

As I write, the world is in lock-down. The Coronavirus has forced a rethink for many people around the world. Careers once thought enduring have disappeared and may never return. It seems no one is untouched.

It would be easy, but dangerous, to give up on feeling happy at work. Being unhappy at work is bad for our health, our relationships, and our careers. Now more than ever we need to reinvent our careers and our lives and place happiness centre-stage.

You may feel like Laura, who wrote to me, I just thought this was a good opportunity for me to re-assess work options as I think my priorities have changed over the last few years.

Or, Ray, who is a pilot and about to be laid off. What else can I do?

Perhaps you are blessed with financial security but yearn to do something meaningful and find your calling and purpose.

Whatever your reasons, you’ll find plenty of practical and inspiring career changing tips and job hunting strategies in the pages that follow—including employing yourself.

We’re all getting older. And bolder. We want to feel happy, not insecure and stressed. We know we