Archive for November, 2008
Create a Positive Belief System
November 26th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
And You Will Succeed
People enter their work situation with a negative belief system; blocked mentally. You need to establish self-training to unblock yourself. You need to emotionally experience your goals as if they’ve already happened, so your subconscious accepts it as normal, or preexisting. Once it’s fully accepted in there, it just goes…preprogrammed for success. Just think of all the doubts, worries and pressures of your daily life. These things add up and create a detrimental, hampering residue through which your mind must make its way through in order to achieve success. But with the right attitude, a true belief in the positive, then you completely bypass that plaque and simply accept that success is guaranteed.
This system will undoubtedly produce exponential growth in business and in life; consistently. Build your skill set and expectations right, and they’ll last you a lifetime; without constant effort.
Put Your Subconscious on Autopilot
November 20th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
The thinking side of business is just as important as the doing part of business. You learn the how-to stuff, but you also have to work on the belief as well. Everything begins with a vision. If you want to create change in your life, you have to: 1) see it mentally; 2) feel it emotionally-emotions supercharge the process; 3) believe it-emotion creates belief; 4) do it-belief charges you to be proactive; 5) have it.
We don’t necessarily find leaders, they’re easier to build. You’ve just got to be a person of vision. Ask yourself what it would feel like to accomplish your goals-really try to feel it. Now, hold on to that feeling. Use that feeling to drive you. Let that feeling power your actions. Hold that feeling in your subconscious as if your dream has already come true. Once you do that, you put your mind on an autopiloted course to success.
Outdo Yourself to Better Yourself
November 15th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Once you are settled into a particular pursuit, building up 10,000 hours’ worth of experience usually depends on seizing skill-building opportunities both on and off the job.
I worked as an editor for a publishing company during the time our offices made the transition from typewriters to computers. The company sent me to classes to learn the basics of Windows 3.1 and also Adobe Pagemaker because they wanted me to shift from editing to graphic design. (I had pursued an art minor in college.) Soon after completing the introductory classes, I sought permission to start doing volunteer layout jobs for local nonprofit organizations using company computers. My employer gladly gave me the keys to the offices so that I could let myself come and go during weekend hours when no one else was around. I designed newspapers, brochures, and ads for groups happy for the donated labor, but at the same time I sharpened my skills for my company. It was a win-win-win for all of us: my company, my favorite charities, and me.
However, becoming a master of your trade requires something more than accumulating hours of experience. Malcolm Gladwell says that you also need to choose challenging assignments. If you never feel an ounce of fear when beginning a new project, you are probably not doing enough to advance your skills. Get out of your comfort zone and try something difficult!
The Art of Pacing Yourself
November 12th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Malcolm Gladwell has noted that most people underestimate how many hours of sustained effort are needed in order to master a field of endeavor. The magic number, he says, is 10,000. That’s how long student Bill Gates programmed computers before eventually starting his own company.
I first realized I could be a good trumpet player the year I turned nine. That summer, my director at band camp named me the school’s most improved trumpeter. For the next four years I faithfully practiced my music for the recommended 30-60 minutes a day. By age thirteen, I had copped first chair in our school’s trumpet section. Did that make me a musical prodigy? Hardly. Four years of daily tooting had netted me at most only 1,460 hours of practice–a full 8,530 hours short of Gladwell’s golden 10,000. At the rate I was going, I would have needed another 23 years of daily rehearsal to become an expert!
Truthfully, I never envisioned for myself any greater musical accomplishment than reaching first chair by eighth grade. That’s why another of Gladwell’s tips for career success is so important: the need to vividly envision the reward that your efforts will bring. After all, when you’re busy building up 10,000 hours of experience in your chosen field, you want to feel more than the burn. You want to know in your soul the passionate thrill of chasing a dream as wild as a mustang–and as real as a fistful of mane once the dream is within your grasp.
Finding the “Me” in Meaningful Work
November 10th, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
According to Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Outliers, the first key to career success is finding meaning in your work. Usually those who choose their employment wisely have few problems with this. They resist all of the usual influences that could lead them into a disappointing line of work: the pressure of living up to others’ expectations of them, the temptation to go for the easy or the quick money, the tendency to let the job market decide their careers for them.
Sometimes a valid reason exists for accepting an unsuitable job, but this should never be done without, at the same time, promising yourself to keep looking for a better one. Then share that promise with a trusted friend. This is someone who will ask you regularly how your job hunt is going and will remind you of the reasons why you never intended your present position to be permanent. Equally important, this person will serve as your personal cheerleader whenever the going gets tough.
While waiting for that perfect opportunity to surface, you also need to focus on the ways that your current work makes a positive difference in the lives of others. For example, one woman who was moving back into the work force after raising a child took an online tutoring position. While waiting for the job of her dreams to materialize–one that made optimal use of her master’s degree in psychology–she experienced the satisfaction of helping academically challenged youngsters.
Getting That Plum Job: Polish Your Resume and Cover Letter
November 7th, 2008. Published under Career Hunting. No Comments.
Keep a master resume on hand at all times. It lists your name and contact information at the top, then other information under the headings of Career Objective, Education and Training, Work History, and Career Highlights. Some job seekers also include References. Later when you tailor the master resume for a particular employer, you will keep only the most relevant data for the position you seek.
The career objective is always a single statement related to the job you are applying for. A hopeful sports reporter, for example, might write, “My aim is to develop must-read sports stories that will appeal to avid and casual fans alike.” The completed resume, clean and simple in appearance, should be no more than two pages long. It should appear in easy-to-read type such as 12-point Arial or Times Roman.
The cover letter is more important than the resume. After listing your name and contact information at the top, begin the body of the letter by naming the position you seek and telling how you learned of it. Then explain why you think you are a good candidate. Tell what excites you about working for the company or organization, and finish with a thank you for the employer’s time and consideration. Edit your letter until everything fits easily into one page, and it’s ready to go.
Getting That Plum Job: Know Where to Look
November 5th, 2008. Published under Career Hunting. No Comments.
The internet is a good place to start your job hunt, but those big websites for employment seekers are not always the best places to begin-sites like www.monster.com, www.indeed.com, and www.careerbuilder.com. Go to them only after you have tried a few of these suggestions:
–Visit the website of any newspaper in the city or county where you would like to work. Most papers publish their classified ads online.
– Browse through the yellow pages of a phonebook to find names of potential employers, and then visit their websites for up-to-date job postings. If you don’t have a printed phone book, go to www.yellowpages.com .
–Visit the website of the college you graduated from. Many large colleges list employment opportunities for their alumni. Even if you have to register at the site to use the school’s career services, doing so will be well worth your time.
–Do you or have you belonged to any professional organizations? Visit their websites even if you are no longer active in them. Former English teachers, for example, have found jobs as test scorers through the National Council of Teachers of English.
–Are you a veteran? Visit www.hirevetsfirst.gov to locate employers who give special consideration to applicants with military experience.
Getting That Plum Job: Begin with a Plan
November 3rd, 2008. Published under Career Hunting. No Comments.
Job hunting? Whether doing it again or for the first time ever, taking the right approach can help you avoid unnecessary stress.
Notice the word unnecessary. When you are searching for a new job, you are a kind of performer, and even the most experienced performers get stage fright. Yet they value their fear, saying that it helps them keep their artistic edge. Think of your stress as a store of energy that will propel you forward if properly channeled.
Begin with a realistic plan. Decide how many hours you can devote to job hunting each week. Some say it’s a full-time job to find a full-time job, so 30-40 hours would not be too many. If you don’t have that kind of time because of other responsibilities, calculate how much free time you have, and plan to use 90% of it on “the hunt.” Then make sure you spend the other 10% doing something relaxing!
Record on a calendar the number of hours spent each day on your search. Consider this calendar your personal time clock. Punch in and out faithfully. In addition, keep a work-search diary. Here, list each potential employer you have contacted, whether by phone, postal mail, e-mail, or in person, plus the date you made the contact.