Credit Scoring Expert speaks candidly about his personal growth and asks respected writers to share content to help others improve their life.

I have personally known Robert Pagliarini for many years, he’s a master of personal growth and am pleased to have him guest post on my personal growth blog. (I am on family vacation until the end of August, so I will be featuring guest blogs until then.)

Guest Blog by Robert Pagliarini / The Other 8 Hours – How to Become Unemployed in Seven Easy Steps

If your job is getting in the way of your life, now is the perfect time to get laid off. First, there’s no stigma attached to not working since so many are unemployed. The unemployment rate is almost 10% and the underemployment rate — adding in those who gave up looking for a job and those who took part-time jobs even though they want full-time work — is close to 20%. You’ll be part of a select, albeit growing, group

Second, many states offer generous unemployment packages and the federal government may extend benefits because of the weak economy. And third, if you’re anything like me, this recession has caused me to relax a little too much. Gone are the days of worry and anxiety. A few bounced checks and calls from creditors may be just what you need to add some spark to your life.

I tend to leave work-related advice to others, but since I see so many people toiling away their days working, I felt it was my mission to give you a few solid tips on how to stop giving up your day just because you need to pay rent and buy food. Carpe diem!

Here’s how to become unemployed in seven easy steps:

1.    Be dumb. Even if you’re really smart, you can still nail this step because it has nothing to do with your intelligence and everything to do with your attitude. Make sure you have a the-company’s-going-down-and-I’ll-probably-be-fired mentality so you won’t work as hard and care as much.

2.    Don’t learn anything new. You’re a know-it-all already, right? So whatever you do, be sure not to take a computer class or graphic design workshop. Do not earn your degree or get that designation you’ve been putting off. And certainly do not become more valuable to your current employer and more appealing to a new employer by using a few of your other 8 hours to boost your skills.

3.    Stick to your job description. If your employer wants you to learn something new, they should pay you more. If they can’t afford it, stick to your job description and don’t spend any time learning how to do more than that. If there are layoffs at your company, fewer people will need to be able to handle more work. Ensure that you are a one-trick pony to almost guarantee you will get laid off so your cubicle neighbor can take over several of your tasks on day one.

4.    Say “no” to everything. Boss asks you to head-up a new project. “No sir” is the answer. Boss wants you to pitch in on a new account. “I’d rather not” is the answer. The less engrained you are in the company and the less involved you are in various projects, the easier it will be to get rid of you. Added bonus . . . when things turn in the economy, you won’t get those annoying job offers or promotions.

5.    Become invisible. Don’t write memos. Don’t bring your boss creative cost-cutting ideas. Don’t give workshops. Whatever you do, hide as much as possible and never show your face. This is especially true in a larger company. The fewer people who know you and like you the better.

6.    Be negative. Don’t even think about being positive. The economy sucks and life is not fair. You shouldn’t have to do three people’s jobs. Make sure you are vocal about all of your problems. Bring your bad attitude to work, so you won’t have a work to go to.

7.    Work fewer hours. Tough times are tough, so you deserve to work a little less. Don’t even think about using some of your other 8 hours to get in earlier or to stay a little later. Find out if your boss (or even better, your boss’ boss) is going to be in on the weekend. If so, be sure to brag to them on Monday morning about how you laid around the house all weekend.

There are millions of hardworking folks who sacrificed long hours to their jobs who got laid off. If you follow these seven simple steps, you too will be unemployed in no time!

Guest Blog by Robert Pagliarini / The Other 8 Hours – How to Become Unemployed in Seven Easy Steps

I have personally known Robert Pagliarini for many years, he’s a master of personal growth and am pleased to have him guest post on my personal growth blog. (I am on family vacation until the end of August, so I will be featuring guest blogs until then.)

Guest Blog by Robert Pagliarini / The Other 8 Hours – The New ABCs of Success: Always Be Creating

In every economic crisis, there have been those individuals who have emerged from the aftermath even more financially secure. Luck has something to do with it, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. In order to rise up and get ahead, you need to shift paradigms. You need a new way to look at and interact with the world. Fortunately, it’s as simple as re-learning your ABCs.

In the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin taught us the ’80s ABCs: “A-always, B-be, C-closing. Always be closing!” But that’s old school. The new ABCs are Always Be Creating. People who create will be the people who succeed and excel. If you can create, you can write your own check.

I know what you’re thinking: work stinks. They’re talking about more layoffs, bonuses are out of the question, and you have to pitch in more for health insurance. Your 401(k) is in shambles, and your house is worth 40 percent less than it was a couple of years ago. The vision you had for your life has been seriously challenged. All you feel like doing when you come home is kicking back, cracking open a Heineken, and watching the tube. That’s understandable, but it’s absolutely bass ackwards.

You must get out there and create — start a blog, write a book, record a video, start a business, code a new application, etc. It’s easy to give advice like this, but I’ve tried to follow it, too. A couple of months ago I came up with an idea for a free personal finance eBook titled Plan Z: How to Survive the 2009 Financial Crisis (and even live a little better).

Why did I create something for free? I have counterintuitive (some would say controversial) advice on how to get through this recession, and I wanted to spread the word and build my brand: get the media’s attention, build followers, and attract new readers to this blog and future projects. So I used my other 8 hours and wrote and wrote and wrote. I then partnered with several people and got the whole thing completed in about a month. It took me some time, but it didn’t cost me anything. (More on how to find partners to donate their services for free in an upcoming post).

In a recession there’s a whole lot of talk about reducing, cutting, shrinking, and decreasing — but what if you took a different view? What if instead you looked for opportunities? What if you looked for ways to grow and expand and create?

Here are a few ideas on how to jumpstart your creative thinking:

• Brainstorm. Think about what services/products might be needed if this turmoil continues and what services/products people will want when we recover.
• $1 million game. This is a fun one. If you absolutely positively had to make $1 million in less than 365 days, what would you do? What area would you focus on? What skills would you have to rely on? You might not start any of the businesses you think about, but it’s a great way to jumpstart your creativity.
• Get partners. Get two or three friends/colleagues together for a twice-a-month meeting. Sit down with them and brainstorm. Tell them what’s on your mind — what ideas you’re toying with. Press each other to come up with at least three business ideas for each meeting. If you agree on one, you have your team in place. But even if you don’t, this get-together will force you to think entrepreneurially inside AND outside of the group.

Your goal is to create something — anything. Create content. Start a blog. Invent a prototype. This blog post you’re reading right now is an example of creating something. What can you create?

Guest Blog by Robert Pagliarini / The Other 8 Hours – The New ABCs of Success: Always Be Creating