GovernmentExecutive.com

How would you like to make an extra $150,000 during your career, part time, risk free, at the rate of $58 an hour? Sound too good to be true? It isn't.

That's what you'd make if you invested one hour each week in career development in government, leading you to a new job or promotion every three years with a 10 percent raise each time. That's not hard to achieve. Many people will do and can do better, especially when combining career advancement with the cost of living increases and incremental raises that occur with increasing grade levels in government positions.

Many people don't do that well at all because they don't apply for new jobs or reach out for additional tasks and challenges. They risk downsizing, career setbacks, being dead-ended, being overlooked. They risk being placed into positions that are not acceptable to them. Thoreau reminds us, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." But he also said, "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

One hour a week to pump up your career isn't a lot of time. That's all you need to focus on right now. In one hour, you could read a couple of chapters in a good career development book. In one hour, you could have an introductory meeting with a career transition center counselor in your government agency or a career counselor. In one hour, you could attend an evening lecture by a notable person in your field. In one hour, you could gather all the material you need for your resume. In one hour, you could search the National Partnership for Reinventing Government's Web site at www.npr.gov for job announcements. In one hour, you could read your own agency's Web site to review new programs and mission statements. In one hour, you could work on your federal resume draft. In one hour, you could skim some of the federal budget and look for agencies and programs that are adding and subtracting slots.

Nothing stops you from putting in more than an hour, but you don't have to. The advantage in doing an hour every single week is that it removes the pressure of urgency from your life. It takes you a few weeks before you start to feel the progress, but you can keep going. If there's a setback in your agency, you don't have to go into a full-panic, job-hunting mode; you're already on your way to something better. If you don't like a particular offer or a particular situation, you don't have to let desperation drive your decision; you can continue to develop yourself.

You don't have to settle for a "life of quiet desperation" in the federal job that has become mundane. You can be someone who dares to live the life that he or she has imagined, and you, as Thoreau says, "will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."