Advice You Give Others

Sometimes making decisions are easy. We know exactly what we need to do and without pause or question we go ahead and do it. Sometimes we have to weigh the options and through careful deliberation, we get to our decision. Sometimes we need to write out a pros and cons lists. Sometimes we can’t make the decision. We’re stuck.  What then?

 

Leave the emotional baggage at home

When you’re totally stuck and at a loss for what to do next you could try this. Ask yourself what would you tell your best friend to do?

 

Often when we replace ourselves in the equation with someone we love and care about, the answer becomes simple.  That’s because when we advise other people we take all of our personal baggage out of the process. Without that personal baggage it’s much easier to see the relevant points, without being encumbered by attachments to one outcome or another.

 

This article from Forbes explains Why We Give Great Advice to Others But Can’t Take it Ourselves

Choose Confidence

Even if you are not naturally confident, you can still choose a confident mindset. With the right mindset you can actually change how you feel about yourself!

Is Your Between Job Job The Right Fit?

 

If you haven’t yet landed the job where you want to plant your stake, you’re probably working in a between jobs job. That’s cool. Sometimes we still have work to do, or courses to take before we land our ideal job. Maybe it’s a break between big career moves, whatever the reason, the place you head out to each morning is only for now.

 

It’s important to remember, some transition jobs are more worth your while than others. Before settling in to whatever consider if there’s some thing else that could better fill your “for now” time.

 

Does it challenge you?

Regardless of whether or not this job is related to your career choice, does it challenge you on some level? Does it engage your critical thinking skills in any way?

 

If you feel like you’re facing interesting challenges, or you’re learning something or find some aspect of it interesting then you’re probably gaining worthwhile experience on some level.

 

It doesn’t have to be challenging in your field, but it would be great if it gave your grey matter something to focus on. You are spending hours a day there. If you’re more bored than anything else, it’s probably time to move on to something else.

 

Do you like the people around you?

Nothing is worth your while if you hate everyone you’re doing it with.  Whether it’s a filler job or your permanent position, if you’re miserable because of a terrible boss or  co-workers you can’t stand, you have to ask yourself if it’s worth it. You’ve only got this one go round with life, you certainly shouldn’t be miserable for a full third of your days!

 

Do you have time to pursue your passion?

Does this in-between job give you time to go after your true passion, or is it eating away more hours of your life than it’s worth?  The reason we take these between jobs jobs is so that we can have the space and time to get the job we want.  If your job is taking up so much of your life that you’re  unable to go and do the things you truly want, then it’s not worth your time and you need to get out and do something else.

Creating An Amazing Workspace

How much time do you spend at work? Too much, some of you might say. It feels longer because work can look like such a drab place with only cubicle walls and sad looking plants to give your workplace a sense of life. It’s time to change things up.

 

Could you imagine having nothing decorating your walls at home but a weird shade of white paint? You have posters or artwork up in your room. You might have funky wallpaper, and if you’re really old school, maybe even a lava lamp. Your desk at home is probably full of small little gadgets and nick knacks. It’s time to make your cubicle this awesome.

Cover those Walls

More than likely, the walls of your cubicle are boring. Whether they’re those carpeted dividers or just bland wallpaper, there are a number of options to make the walls of your work space less dull. Think about a piece of carpet for your floor. Picture frames, pin boards or other art work can be put up too. Depending on your office’s rules you might be able to put up your own wallpaper!

Add Your Stuff

A cubicle should be an extension of your home. It should be a place that makes you feel comfortable and at ease. Photos of family and friends, small toys or little things on your desk. It could also be as big as a surfboard in the corner or a fish on the wall, if your work will let you.

Keep It Unique

There are a ton of odds and ends you can find to make your cubicle interesting, fun and unique. Buzzfeed has a great list, so does Levo. Keeping your space personal and unique will get you out of feeling like your work space is the same as everyone else’s.

Set the Mood

Lighting and music can also be a huge help when you’re looking to make your cubicle feel more like you. Adding a small desk lamp that looks nice can help illuminate your space, and music coming through speakers rather than headphones will help you feel like your space is more open.

 

Making your cubicle awesome is pretty easy and you should be able to make a lot of small changes that won’t break company policy. Having a personal workspace will help your mood productivity.

 

Advance Your Career – Think Like An Artist

What has art got to do with my career you may ask? Well if you think about it, thinking like an artist can help you advance your career.  Here’s why:

Innovation

A painter can not go around reproducing old works and expect to be successful. Neither can a musician go around pounding out the same tunes over and over, or a writer keep on churning out variations of the same sentence. In order to get anywhere in their careers, artists always have to think outside the box. The need to innovate.

Out of the box thinking isn’t a fun bonus for an artist, it’s what they need to do to get anywhere with their careers.

Art is one of those things that’s constantly getting pushed forward – people get bored of what they’ve already seen, so there’s a lot of pressure to do something new.

So instead of relying on the tried and true of what you’ve done countless times before, treat your career like an artist would. Tell youself if you don’t innovate, no one will care about what you’re doing. Try new approaches. Look at what you’re doing in a new light. Work like an artist.

Practice

Artists practice constantly. Musicians and visual artists and actors all put in hundreds of hours of practice time. Otherwise they won’t be able to complete with all the other aspiring artists out there.

Not only do artists need to be the very best to get any work at all, but they’re also incredibly passionate. They practice not only because they need to, but because they WANT to. Because it’s who they are.

Treat your job like that. Find a career you WANT to hone your skills at, where practicing is both a necessity and a pleasure.

Portfolios

All successful artists have portfolios of work. Actors have reels, illustrators have binders and binders of art. That’s how they get jobs – by displaying previous, great work.

If you want to get ahead, get into the habit of keeping a portfolio of your work. Not specifically for the purpose of showing people, but for the purpose of organizing your career thus far in your mind. Write a sentence about each thing you’ve done, so you can keep track of exactly what that accomplishment meant for the project and for you

That way, when the time for an  interview comes, or you need to tailor your resume to a certain job, you can think back to your portfolio. “What Have I done that applies? What should I include?” It’s all at your fingertips.

Think like an artist and watch your life turn into a work art before you.

 

Are You Emotionally Intelligent?

 

We know you’ve heard of IQ before. Intelligence Quotient is the standard score that marks one’s intelligence. But are you familiar with EQ? Emotional Intelligence is equally, if not even more important as having a strong IQ.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize your own emotions, and the emotions of others. It’s the ability to know how others are feeling, and use that emotional information to inform your thoughts, decisions and actions. When you can tell a friend is feeling low and you ask them how they’re doing, that’s emotional intelligence guiding your actions. When you steer clear of a co-worker because you can tell they are in a terrible mood, you guessed it, emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is an essential skill for building relationships and networking. However it’s also an important part of leading others. An article on Forbes points out the following:

“Decades of research now point to emotional intelligence as the critical factor that sets star performers apart from the rest of the pack.”

You can have all the necessary skills for a job, but if you lack emotional intelligence, you may find yourself falling behind. Likewise, if you’re able to build your emotional intelligence, you’ll find yourself ahead of the competition.

In that same Forbes article, they point out that among 33 other important workplace skills, emotional intelligence was the strongest predictor of success. This makes sense when you think about all the areas emotional intelligence affects. Communication, teamwork, trust, and more all benefit from a strong understanding of your own emotions, and the emotions of others.

If you’re looking to test your emotional intelligence you can head here or here to see how you do. Given how important emotional intelligence is to growing your career, we recommend looking into it.

Remember To Enjoy The Good

The Wall Between You and Your Goals

Maybe you’ve been thinking about doing something new for a long time. Maybe you’ve spent years on the fence and have finally decided to take the plunge. Or maybe the decision came about much more quickly. Like in a eureka moment of inspiration, you knew for sure and for certain you were going to change things up and go in a whole new direction.

 

Naysayers

Either way, once you start telling friends and family about your new big goals and life changing decisions, rather than an enthusiastic encouraging response what you’ll often get is a brick wall of discouragement. You’ll hear a litany of reasons why this new big plan of yours is a bad idea. You don’t know if it’s going to be successful. You have no idea if you can make money. It’s better to stick to the tried and true rather than start something new.

 

People will tell you they’re discouraging change because they’re worried about your welfare. What they’re not telling you, and maybe what they don’t know, is that they also discourage change in others because it reminds them subconsciously of what they’re not doing. The dreams they’re not pursuing, the chances they’re not taking.

 

Most of the time when we want to go somewhere new we have to begin by going it alone. That’s not to say we cut the people who aren’t supporting us out of our lives, it is to say we don’t take them on this new journey with us.

 

As you go along this new journey you will meet new people on the way. People who will embrace the person you’re becoming. People who will help you and teach you and guide you.

 

Resistance from within

Unfortunately, even as you’re going ahead in this new direction and accumulating new people to help you, you’re still going to encounter resistance, a voice telling you you’re not good enough, that you don’t have the skills necessary to pull this thing off, that it’s too risky. That voice will be your own.

 

No matter how much we believe in our big, long terms goals, perusing them is still scary. Fear is good. It keeps us safe. Fear is also bad because it keeps us from growing. So, once you’ve put the discouraging voices of others behind you and pushed through the fear of your own discouraging voice, you probably think you can get on your way.

 

Not quite. You’re still likely to encounter another roadblock. In your efforts to complete this new goal, you’re going to do a lot of research and planning. You need that. You need a clear direction, and you want to do everything you can to avoid time and/or money consuming mistakes.  However there comes a point when planning and research crosses the line from being helpful into being another wall called procrastination.

 

Take action

Once you’ve done your research take action. Get your feet wet. Don’t worry about mistakes. You’ll learn from them. Each step you take forward is a brick loosened from that wall. Each time you break the fear barrier is another brick loosened. Each step you take past procrastination is another.

 

Randy Pausch was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Once he learned he was dying of pancreatic cancer he gave a final lecture called, The Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. If you’ve never watched it, do yourself a favor and watch it.

 

One of the most memorable quotes from lecture is about the importance of perseverance. Randy said, “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”

Finding A Mentor

As much as we might think we’ve got a pretty good handle on our lives and our careers, sometimes the help of a mentor is just what we need to get things moving with stronger direction and purpose. Whether you’re in sales or marketing or accounting or script writing, there are people who have been where you are, who have more experience and insights than you, and who would be willing to share what they’ve learned to help you navigate the road ahead.

What exactly are you looking for?

The first step is determining exactly what you want help with. Has it got to do with a specific aspect of your career? With getting into a particular industry? With something more basic like getting organized? The more specific you are the easier it will be for you to find someone to help.

Your immediate circle

Once you know what aspect of your life or career you want help with start by figuring out if you or someone you know (friend, neighbour, family member), knows someone with that particular skill.

Finding these pre-existing connections can be a huge help. An introduction through a mutual friend will make the person willing to at least sit down with you and give you some advice. From there you can impress them with your enthusiasm and willingness to learn and discuss the possibility of creating a more long-term relationship.

Human resources

Many larger corporations actually offer mentorship programs. Check and see if that’s available in your workplace or even if the HR person knows of someone in the organization with whom they could make an introduction.

Demonstrate your potential

One of the best ways of finding a mentor is by demonstrating that you are someone another person would be interested in helping along.  People will be more willing to consider mentoring you if they’ve seen examples of your work and your willingness to work. Get noticed by people ahead of you in your field.

Once you’ve got their attention don’t immediately jump in with a request for swaths of their time and attention. Offer to buy them a coffee.  Ask for some advice.

Be of benefit

From there you can offer to help them in some way. Maybe you could do some work for them for free and learn a few things while getting into their good books. A mentor/mentee relationship starts with a relationship.

Once you have a relationship established you can go on to asking for more advice and then depending how it goes, maybe some more.

You probably won’t get a mentor overnight, but by keeping lines of communication open with people from different aspects of your life you will be someone others are interested in helping.