The fork in the road can cut like a knife

What did you want to be when you grew up, and what happened to all those dreams you had as a kid or young adult? Some of us went to college, got a degree, found a job and hit the provable  “treadmill of life”.  I call some of these people “the living dead”.   If this is your life, trust me, you’re not alone.

Officebroker.com polled 500 employees, asking them specifically whether they regretted their choice of careers and, if so, how much they regretted it.

Here’s what the research showed:

·    77% of workers admitted to sometimes regretting their career decisions;

·    23% said they never felt any regrets about their career paths;

·    Boredom was the biggest reason respondents gave for regretting their choice of career  35%   percent said they felt bored at work and longed for a more exciting or worthwhile role;

·    Money was the next biggest factor in job regrets — 31% percent said they wished they had     chosen a more lucrative career path;

Some of us, admittedly, just deal with our choices. We have bills to pay.  Although some of us do not have those responsibilities, yet we remain part of the “Living Dead” and hate it. Why is that?

Do we just follow the crowd, or fearful of the unknown? How does one overcome fear and start something new? Perhaps doing something we are passionate about? Honestly, and I’ve always said this, had I known I’d be working in a 10x12 office every working day, I would have become a park ranger….I love the outdoors.

Evaluate your life, take some time this weekend and answer the following questions (before it’s too late!)

1.        Who are you?

2.       What are your passions, what do find fulfilling, what activities do you really enjoy?

3.       How much money do you really want to make, what kind of life to you want to live?

4.       My physical location.  Do you enjoy traffic and cement?

5.       At work, am I challenging myself in some way?

6.       How are my relationships? Who do I need to know? Meet? 

What would your mental life - evaluation look like? Is it time for a check-in of your own? What aspect of your life needs changing?

Five tips to boost your career

Nina Hendy wrote a very good blog on tips for your career in 2014.  My notes are in yellow. Enjoy and good luck! 

1. Decide what makes you happy-Decide WHAT makes you happy.  Where do you want to work? 
What kind of environment, company, location?  
Do you want to work in a 10x12 office or a cubicle the rest of your life?  
Think about that.  You are going to work for a long time, if you enjoy the outdoors, 
perhaps a corporate job isn't for you. 

It might sound simple, but there's no point chasing a career goal that won't actually make you happy.

Be the master of your destiny by first deciding who you actually would take delight in working for, suggests Deborah Blott, business manager of recruitment firm Mondo Search Group. Make a list of companies you would like to work for, then write down why you want to work for them and what you could contribute, she says.

“Many companies have hidden jobs and projects for driven, focused and passionate people, and these jobs are not necessarily advertised,” Blott says.

Look at your connections and who could introduce you to these companies, she adds. “Use social media to find out how you can connect in with people who can recommend you to these companies.”

2. Treat your career like a business- I couldn't agree more. Make a plan, plan your work! 

The only way to get ahead in your career is if you change the way you think about it. You're not in a job, you have a career, and you need to take responsibility for managing it yourself.

Professional career coach Fiona Craig says everyone should treat their career like a business.

Make sure you have a thorough understanding of your strengths and put in place a strategy on how you can use those strengths more often, she says.

“Create a career plan, a personal marketing plan and a networking plan for 2014, just as you would create a business and marketing plan for a business,” Craig says.

3. Build your personal brand - Branding is everything. It's not who you know, it is, who knows you?

To build your career, develop a clear personal brand including who you are, what you bring to a role, how you differ and so on, advocates Key Coaching's Karen Bremner.

So many employees plod along in their job, year after year, she says.

Instead, throw yourself into your work, put your hand up for new projects or better still, initiate them, she says.

Where your strengths meet an employer's needs, there's an opportunity, she says.

“Identify what you're really good at, in and out of work, and focus on how you can leverage those skills and strengths to benefit employers.”

“It's your career and it's up to you to drive it. Don't wait to be picked. Decide where you want to go and then actively seek out new opportunities to both grow your skills and demonstrate your value,” Bremner says.

4. Develop a LinkedIn strategy - You see everyone on LInkedIn, and you can get to them with an email. Be careful not to spam people you do not know. 

LinkedIn is becoming an increasingly powerful tool in recruitment, professional networking and job hunting, which is why you've got to take it seriously. Professional resume writer, Tanaz Byramji says employees need to update their LinkedIn profile at the start of each year. Once you've made sure your profile is as complete and accurate as possible, written succinctly in the first person and incorporating relevant key words associated with your area of expertise, you can start expanding your network, Melbourne-based Byramji says.

Send out personalised connections to people you've worked with over the past 12 months. Also, reach out to co-workers who may have already moved into other roles, she says.

Use LinkedIn to build your professional brand by curating industry-relevant information, posting articles, commenting on blog posts and joining relevant groups, she says.

It's also a good idea to request LinkedIn recommendations, and sometimes the easiest way to do that is to write a recommendation for someone else first, she says.

5. Always look for ways to learn -  Couldn't agree more! Life long learning. Do stop taking classes, learning new software programs, read more books. 

A great way to boost your career is to always look for new ways to learn, recommends Katrena Friel, founder of Activated Life Long Learners. People that learn throughout their career understand the importance of investing in their own knowledge and enjoy the process of learning something new, she says.

The mindset of people who feel they've already completed their schooling only update their skills when they have been retrenched, sacked or miss out on a promotion, she says.

“Some people also only go to training or coaching if their employer pays for it. They would never pay for their own development, thinking it's someone else's responsibility to look after their career.”

Shift your thinking so that you're open to being a lifelong learner, which means you're taking responsibility for your career and being curious about your true capability, she says.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/five-tips-to-boost-your-career-this-year-20131211-2z4ne.html#ixzz2r9AKop3S

First Impressions yes, but also work on your Your Last Impressions.

First Impressions yes, but also work on your Your Last Impressions.

They say, first impressions are lasting impressions. Which I believe to be true. 

However, Daniel Kahneman a psychologist who won the Economics Nobel in 2002 for his groundbreaking work in the field of behavioral economics tells us, (as reported in Psychology Today), our memories are very selective.  In particular, no matter how extended an event (party, commercial transaction), we form our view and make our evaluation based—with dramatic skew—on the “most intense moments” and the “final moments.”

This is just one of the many compelling arguments for what I call EEM, or Emotional Experience Management. The “final moments” evidence is particularly startling; it explains why we might attend a brilliant, four-hour dinner party, yet three months later only remember that two guests exchanged heated remarks on the way out the door. (This is not an “illustrative story.” A ton of hard data supports such tales.)

With this in mind, and how it might relate to you if you are a salesmen, looking to network or meet important people that might assist you in your career, other events, jobs, interviews, keeping loyal clients, repeat business and other situations where you want to be remembered positively. 

Sometimes it is how you end, not always how you begin. 

When I was first starting out in commercial real estate, there was a transaction that took me well over 18 months to close. It was a complicated deal with many moving parts including a relocation and the sale of their existing headquarters. The deal could not go forward, until I sold the buildings. When it was all said and done, I completed the transaction to the delight of the client.  Upon exiting the settlement office and saying goodbye to the client, I offered to buy his company, several lunch platters as a “thank you” for his business.  Later that month I had a dozen platters sent to their new offices, and we celebrated in the new space. 

10 years later, when his lease came up for renewal, he called me to have me work on his lease, again.  He asked me, “If we complete another deal together, do we get lunch platters again?”  Ten years later, this is one of the things he remembers? Obviously, if I had not done a good job on his lease, he would of found another broker.   

But the point of the story is, how you exit is sometimes more important than how you begin. A bad exit can ruin a relationship, even though you were flawless throughout, it might not matter. 

Just food for thought!

Give more value than the money you are receiving; in your job, in your business, and in every part of your life.