How to get more done when you feel stuck

How to get more done when you feel stuck This post is about productivity. I have to tell you that because this is a career blog and career blogs need topics that fall into the career space. You cant have a blog that doesnt have a topic. Even Mark Cuban, who seems to not have a topic because he writes about basketball and  colleges and eating at the iHop still has a clear topic: How to make a ton of money. 1. Life is easier if you embrace hardship instead of trying to avoid it. My blog topic is not how to make a ton of money. It used to be. When I was in my twenties, and early 30s, my focus was money.  But somewhere I realized that I wanted an interesting life more than money. I think it was when I was at Ingram Micro, a Fortune 50 company, and I was blown away at how boring and risk averse everyone was. The Fortune 50 is a study is seeking safety in product lines, in workplace practices, and in a stable life. I am not the safety-seeking type. So I stopped trying to make a lot of money and started trying to do interesting things, and thats when my career really took off. Investors love interestingness. 2. Focus on being interesting and then hurdles are predictable. I found that if I focused on making my life interesting, money came. But if I focused on money, I got stuck.  So I have spent the last ten years understanding the difference between going after money, going after happiness and going after interestingness. I have found that I am most productive when I follow my instinct for what will be interesting because people are more focused and more engaged when they do what interests them. A lot of you will say you want to do what you love, but your vision of doing what you love is really limited. Like, you think you want to be a yoga teacher, but the yoga business is mostly about marketing yet  you have this idea in your head that teaching yoga is interesting. But teaching yoga for someone else is being a worker bee and its working for free. Teaching yoga in your own studio is mostly a marketing job. (Even Mark Cuban says this, actually: follow your action not your passion.) So let me be clear that choosing interesting work is difficult. Its the hard path. It is not interesting to do something easy because if its easy, you already know the path and the outcome. How could that truly be interesting? You are lying to yourself. 3. If you admit youre a cliche, you can use tried and true methods to help yourself.   When I launched Brazen Careerist, it was a blog network. I had already found my fifty favorite Gen Y bloggers and I had my editor, who is still my editor, edit those bloggers. For the most part, he hated editing the bloggers.This was before he got medication so he was also surly and biting, and one of his biggest complaints was about posts that began by explaining why the person has not written in so long. Because of this I am very careful not to open a post with that topic. Instead, I am slipping it in here, in the middle. I have written about my life for my whole life. It just happens that its my job now, but Id do it anyway. This is probably not goodfor one thing, it pegs me as very likely to kill myself. For another thing, when I am uncertain about my life I shut down. In my webinar about how to write about your life, I realized, while I was teaching it, that writing about your life means facing your life.  I am having a hard time facing my life now. 4. Be clear on what you hate about yourself. You have to see it to move past it. Its a pattern. Here are the times I had a hard time writing about my life: When I had a baby. (I started republishing old posts and I got fired for breaking my contract.) When I launched a company. (I wanted to write about entrepreneurship but I got scared that people only wanted to read about climbing a corporate ladder.) When I moved to the farm. (I wanted to write about the farm but I thought people only liked me because I was from LA/NY and other big cities where Ive landed.) Now. When Im scaling back my career to homeschool my kids. I cant even write that without feeling a little sick. I dont want to face that. So I dont want to write anything because I dont want to see it. I coach so many people who want to have kids and are feeling sick about the idea of scaling back their career. They feel sick about the idea of being grouped with stay-at-home moms instead of high-achieving men. I get it. I feel that way too. The first thing I noticed, in fact, when I started homsechooling, was that I miss being surrounded by men. Because thats what happens when you have a big career and you are a woman. Most women drop out, and its the men that are left. You get used to being surrounded by men. 5. You are not special. You are like other people. So find people who are like you.   But luckily, people send me tons of links about scaling back careers, and I am getting confident in my choices. Here are some of my favorite links: The Harvard Business Review says that its not the women who need to lean in, its the men. The author, James Allworth, points out that all the studies about what makes a fulfilling life show that its relationships and not work. So to tell people to forgo relationships in order to work more is absurd. Sheryl Sandbergs book assumes that women are not in high-powered positions because women make the wrong choices. But people who choose to have a smaller career and pay attention to family relationships are making better choices, and men need to lean in to their relationships. Another link that makes me happy is that the best educated moms are the ones most likely to opt out. When I saw the headline it made immediate sense to me. Those are the moms most likely to feel that they have a choicebecause their husband earns enough money and they themselves are capable of generating income from home. The research also makes sense because the best educated moms are the ones most likely to be able to process the data that explains why its not a given that everyone should try to have the biggest possible career. Its new data and its difficult to process after twenty years of feminist diatribes about the glass ceiling. But the smartest women are the first to go against the grainwhich is what opting out is, since the media does not encourage it. Heres what Ive learned from not writing about my life because I was scared you wouldnt like it: Ive learned that you dont care what I do in my life as long as Im interesting. If I am doing something thats scary, and I tell you, then you can identify with me when you do something scary. What this community is, really, is people who want to do something scary. Because life is very, very boring if we dont scare ourselves.

Using Margins For a Resume

Using Margins For a ResumeThe use of margins for a resume is something that many people do not think about, but they are vitally important when it comes to the way your resume looks. While all resumes should be in some sort of format, those with paragraphs of information on them tend to look good. You need to ensure you use a format that will help you draw the reader's eye and draw their attention to the important parts of your resume.There are lots of other ways to do this as well, but the outline of a resume can be used effectively to grab attention and to draw in the reader. They tend to be separated by paragraphs that are well defined and provide important information that needs to be included. Margins for a resume are therefore important, but it is not so important that they have to be used.Some people make use of them to bring out their personality or their personal preferences, but they are not necessary. What you are looking for is a format that grabs the reader's attention a nd will then be able to let them know what you have to offer them. This way they can start reading your resume right away, without having to worry about it.Not all resumes are going to be the same, and this means that your margins for a resume should also be able to adapt to the job seeker's needs. Most people tend to add a little extra space to the left or the right hand side, but they do not usually take the time to add more than that. In most cases, you want to be able to customize this with the job seeker.If you are concerned about the length of the resume, it is possible to add these spaces so that they add up to a maximum of five lines. For example, you could add a couple of spaces at the top and the bottom of your resume, but leave the first few paragraphs intact. The space you leave at the top will make it easier for the reader to read and see what you have to say.If you are looking for something that will get attention quickly, you may want to choose short paragraphs instea d of long ones. Most people do not put any kind of spacing between paragraphs, and this makes them harder to read. When you are choosing a format, you do not want to compromise the job seeker's ability to get to their point quickly and efficiently.Finally, you want to consider the font of the format. Do not worry too much about the color or the look of the font. Just make sure that the font is professional and that it matches your format of choice.Using margins for a resume does not mean that you cannot design your own format. You can make use of the basic formats offered by Microsoft Word, but if you are looking for something unique, you can try a program like Microsoft Publisher. This will allow you to create templates and layouts for different formats, and you can even change the colors to fit the background color of your resume.

Event of the year WorldBlu live 2008 - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Event of the year WorldBlu live 2008 - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog This years WorldBlu Live conference has just opened for registration. It takes place on October 16-17 in New York. This event is about democratic workplaces and you will: Learn best practices and leadership lessons from the CEOs of some cool democratic organizations. Discover how running a business democratically is a key to being happy at work AND making more money. For me, this is THE conference event of the year and I really look forward to both speaking and participating. The last WorldBlu conference in Washington DC was one of the most inspiring business conferences I have ever attended I have never seen so many cool, fascinating and fun people gathered in one place. Read more about the event here and register here. If you register before May 1st, you save a cool $300. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Make your body happy at work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Make your body happy at work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Imagine working closely together with a colleague who complains all the time: when you have been using the mouse for five minutes he will start bitching, and when you?ve been sitting for half an hour he starts yelling at you. This is the case for many people every day ?only the colleague is closer than you think ?it?s your own body. If you have office work, chances are that you regularly experience one or more of the following: Headaches Upper back and neck pain Lower back pain ?Mouse arm?? General stiffness and aching What?s this? You love your job so much. You jump out of bed in the morning shouting ?Yes! I?m going to work today!?? And your body starts giving you all sorts of complaints. Why? Well, let?s take a look at what kind of work your body was originally designed to do. 10.000 years ago, before the beginnings of any kind of civilization and through ages of natural selection, the human body (and mind) had become highly specialized in the art of hunting and gathering. Life was all about finding ?and killing- food, and avoiding becoming food. If food became scarce, then you moved to find it elsewhere, living a nomadic lifestyle. Everyday, all day, nothing could be obtained without movement. Physical activity was essential. If you couldn?t move ?you died. Nowadays most of us can easily live our lives with a minimum of physical activity, thanks to cars, elevators, e-mails, pizza delivery and the like. So why all these physical complaints and ailments? Your body should be happy to get off the hook, shouldnt it? Well, it isn?t, and here?s why: Your body likes to move, and whats more, it needs to! It is its nature, you might say. Strapping your body behind a desk with minimum movement for 8-10 hours a day is going against nature, on the physical level. And going against nature makes you? well, unhappy. Just like your mind grows dull without intellectual stimulation, your emotions wither away without love and companionship ? so your body will start aching and complaining when you don?t exercise it. So, what to do, to make our closest colleague happy? Start moving! Here are some suggestions: 1: Remember: moving is fun! If you have forgotten, then it is time to rediscover the joy of physical activity. Play more. Organize office chair races, or give lunch break dance lessons. 2: Relax! If you cultivate a relaxed and easy-going attitude, then you are more likely to avoid stress. Without stress you will be less tense, and you are able to feel your bodily needs; also the need to move. 3: Use any excuse to get out of the chair. Go see people instead of calling or e-mailing. Deliberately move your most used files to the opposite wall in the office. 4: Move for no reason. For instance, decide to do phone calls balancing on one leg. 5: Buy furniture that invites you to move about. Like elevating desks and gym-balls to sit on. Though apparently bean-bag chairs can go horribly wrong in the workplace: 6: At least twice a week, do a proper work-out. Doesn?t matter what kind as long as you are sweating like a pig and having lots of fun. If you haven?t found your fun work-out yet, keep looking. It?s out there! The pay-off? Reducing any physical pains will of course improve your productivity and concentration. Also, more movement increases your physical energy, which in turn makes you more motivated and more positive. Happy moving! This post was written by physiotherapist Nicolas Kjerulf (yes, thats my brother!) Nicolas promotes health in companies in and around Copenhagen, Denmark. You can see his website here (in Danish) and you can contact him at nicolas@kjerulf.com. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Tips for Following Up on Your Job Application - Hallie Crawford

Tips for Following Up on Your Job Application Here are some job application tips to keep in mind when following up on a job application: If you dont get a confirmation that your application was received within one week, consider following-up. Again, this will vary depending on what the application instructions indicate. Sometimes applicants are specifically requested not to follow-up. Other times, they may list an email address for you to check on your status. But one week is normally an appropriate time to follow-up. Send a follow-up letter if there is an email or mailing address â€" there are great samples of job applications, resumes, and follow-up letters online at www.about.com .If phoning to follow-up, here are some appropriate fact-finding questions to ask. But remember, don’t demand to know what is happening; be professional. (These questions come from http://www.about.com.) What are the next steps in the recruiting process? Do you know the approximate timeframe for the process? Will all candidates be contacted? Do you need any additional information about my candidacy? (Or briefly share new information that adds to your application.) If you plan to visit the company’s location, mention the timeframe and your eagerness to meet â€" ask if it’s possible to arrange an interview during your visit. We hope this is helpful to you! The career coaches at HallieCrawford.com.

Reviewing the Effectiveness of a Resume Writing Service

Reviewing the Effectiveness of a Resume Writing ServiceIf you are in search of effective resume writing service and affiliate program ideas, you need to check out this article first. It's the best resource available to you to acquire the proper information to decide which service to choose. If you really want to keep track of all your results, do not hesitate to complete this research in more detail by clicking the link below. You will be able to discover a lot of details.One of the most effective resume writing service is the idea of taking the initiative by turning the situation to your advantage. This is a proven strategy in handling a life-changing challenge, as it is also known as social entrepreneurship, the making of something out of nothing technique.With the process of job networking, you are able to avoid potentially frustrating situations such as falling out of a job which is not what you planned for it to be. In the long run, this also serves as a way to support and stren gthen your health and safety by getting back up on your feet, once you've had a scary experience with a bad employer. If you had never thought of it this way, you might not have a second thought of this.Search for free service or if you're willing to pay, you can locate all sorts of job referral and resume writing services in all the major cities of the US. This is also the only way to ensure that you're always in front of your most qualified prospective customers for the best possible resume or cover letter services. With a large number of service providers, the price ranges are quite reasonable and the results are great.In the selection of a writing service, there are some things to consider such as the following. If you are used to writing professionally, you might be an experienced resume writer, yet this doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be good at what you do. There are a number of people out there who might be better at the job, yet you can't assume that they will find wha t you need.A search engine is a wonderful way to find information about your writing service or the one you're considering, but also, you can learn as much as you can about all the service providers. You might be able to find the opportunity that is perfect for you, even if you're not in the market for a writing service, you might find that it's the right match for your interests.Online, you can discover lots of resumes, and you might even be amazed to see all the different options available to you. Since so many websites are available, it's very easy to understand and navigate with a click of a button.

Kids, Work and Resume Writing Havent Worked in a While

Kids, Work and Resume Writing Haven't Worked in a While Put in the TIME and you'll enhance the likelihood of finding the client. Even if one isn't required, it's generally an excellent idea to send a quick cover letter together with your resume. Look at a functional format only as long as you've been out of work for a long time and you will need to emphasize your functional skill collection. In the subsequent section, you will find three resume formats that are created for particular returning-to-work conditions. Particularly, whenever you have been working for a terrific employer. If you believe it's boring, focus on becoming more engaging. As you write your resume, always remember that it is a personal advertising tool and you have to use it in order to put yourself in the very best possible place to land an interview. There are a few things that don't belong on a resume for work. As you are competing with job seekers who've been on steady career tracks, do what's crucial to compete successfully. If you're serious about a work search, you ought to be serious about your resume. Finding a job can be difficult for anybody, even an extremely skilled professional who has successfully navigated several job changes. Whether there are jobs you need to include because you worked for an excellent company or had an amazing title include it using a quick description of the general role and any accomplishments which were particularly memorable. Select a client you know you can help and then communicate the way you can help them and why. Many businesses and recruiters utilize keyword-scanning software for a tool to narrow the work applicant pool. Create a new expert email address in case you have a novelty email address! If you are in need of a quick kick-start on developing a template first, have a look at a resume builder before choosing a professional.