Category Archives: Career & Jobs

How to Avoid Career Misery

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Unhappiness in the workplace, along with measly salaries, make up a large portion of job shifting in our country today. If you feel that you are in a position with good pay yet a miserable atmosphere, staying there may be your only option until something falls into your lap, until the time when your wild card turns up. Career misery is often an avoidable situation if you simply keep your work area colorful, build rapport with your co-workers, and communicate freely across the company. Here are some tips to avoid career misery and change the atmosphere where you work enough to survive:

Make Your Desk Home
You have to be at a desk 2,080 hours a year on average, so why not make it home? You’d be surprised how small intricacies, such as a plant, funny photographs, soft music and even your children’s aspiring Crayon art can give you the right amount of inspiration to make it through the day, and remind you just how many people would die for your job. Small mementos like decor from home can give you inspiration to show up at work without dread or regret, even if your mind is still thinking of other options.

Remember Why You Applied
There is some primary motive for your application to the job you have now, most likely related to income. You didn’t have to take the job you have now, yet the offer was lucrative enough to lure you in. Remember back to the day you applied, and keep in mind the numerous resumes on the interviews desk that could have been selected instead of yours.

Communicate Effectively
Most issues at work stem from a lack of communication with co-workers or upper management. Most people go into ‘fight or flight’ mode when dealing in situations that truly twist their skin, causing the bulk of issues to go unaddressed to happen that are costly to their job. Nip all small issues in the bud.

Understand Your True Worth
Getting the infamous raise at work is obviously a goal every employee wants to master, yet sometimes gets confused with actual worth of position or work involved. If you went to grad school for business management and obtain a position that requires no managerial knowledge, do not expect managerial pay. Sure, your degree may state the education you have, but it didn’t force you to take a lesser job. Positions pay based on delivery and role, chiefly; if you are putting out great stories, products, or marketing pitches and have consistent on-time delivery, then perhaps your worth to the company will rise due to your output. Gauge what you are doing, the expertise you have accumulated, your own attendance, and see if you should even bother to approach the management for more money quite yet.

Career Planning or Career Change – Four Critical Actions to Overall Career Success!

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You’ve worked for an employer for a few years. But things just don’t seem right. Maybe it’s a new boss, or a new CEO but things aren’t what they used to be. Your career seems to be going nowhere. For whatever reason, your job doesn’t get you going in the morning, if fact, some mornings you dread going it to work.

But what now? You know you could do more. How do you jump start and keep your career sharp and fresh and your interest high? If you’re looking to make a well planned job change or just want to build a fire under your uninspiring career path you need to study the following action change toolkit.

To make an effective change in your career or get back on the fast track you need to study the following four action building ideas.

1. What is your career purpose? What were you meant to do? Do the analysis and find out once and for all what you should be doing. Everyone possesses a calling or a unique purpose. Everyone is unique and this uniqueness will show itself in career we are meant to do. Connect the dots from you life purpose to your career. Start with thinking how and why you are in your current career. Is everything currently valid? If not, find out why.

2. Have you ever written you own career mission statement? If you have maybe it’s time to take a careful review of the mission statement. Rewrite if necessary. If you haven’t written you career mission statement now would be a productive time to get it done. It can add focus, direction and a sense of purpose in you decisions regarding your career or career change.

3. Do you have your career goals in writing? If not now is the time to think them through and write them down. It is essential to set your short, intermediate and long term career goals. You want to be able to see and track your progress. For example, if you career goal is to read 120 books in the next five years, break it down and track it at two per month. If you don’t track the goal by the month, it will do you not good trying to catch up in the last month and try to read 60 books.

4. Motivating actions start with small steps. Destructive habits don’t show up overnight. A person’s lack of physical fitness, for example, doesn’t go from fit one day to unable to walk two miles the next. Rather it’s the accumulation of daily, weekly and perhaps years of the lack of strenuous physical activity.

The same can be said for your career. You have the abilities to make daily small but significant changes in your purpose, determination and commitment. Over time, some as little as twenty-one days, your attitude and self-confidence will grow as these small improvements build and grow. This results in your motivation accelerating to make your career goals a reality.

Use these four career building ideas from your toolkit and you’ll find success if you are looking to change careers or just want to get the excitement back into your current job. By studying, planning, setting goals and taking action you’ll be well on the way to looking forward to going to work every morning.