Stress is a normal part of our lives. As you know too much stress can be harmful to not only our mental faculties but also our physical health. So, it’s important that we reduce and control the amount of stress in our lives.

One way to minimize the harmful effects of stress is to eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and sleep restfully. These things keep our bodies in good shape and resistant to the stresses in our lives.

Setting your mind free of the stresses and worries of the day is an important stress buster. Meditation or quiet contemplation are two methods of reducing stress. If you’re not into meditation, spend a half hour or so each night reading a good book in a comfortable chair.

Take up an enjoyable hobby. Anything that distracts you from the concerns of the day and allows you a chance to decompress can be a worthwhile activity.

Go for a walk in the park or get a pet. Get a dog and take the dog for a walk in the park. A walk outdoors in the fresh air can do wonders for reducing stress, as can a companion animal. It likely wouldn’t hurt to combine the two if you’re so inclined.

Play games. Card games. Board games. Video games. Whatever floats your boat, as it were.

You could also try puzzles. Putting a jigsaw puzzle together may be a good way to spend your time. It’s hard to worry about work when you’re trying to find a matching piece! Or, do a crossword puzzle, word find or sudoku.

If you’re artistic, you could paint, draw, or even just doodle. You could try needle crafts, sand art, sculpture, wood carving, sewing or whatever suits your interests.

Take time to listen to music or watch television. Take an evening and go out for dinner and a movie. See a play. Go to a sporting event.

The important thing is to take some time out for yourself. Find something that works for you and remember to take time to do it. Relaxing and recharging is important!

This is a career aptitude test based on the Holland Codes. It’s good, it’s quick, and it’s free. The results are useful and interesting. If you want help processing the results of your assessment give Dr. Edward Colozzi a call, or Shahrzad Arasteh, or Dr. Tristana Harvey –all wonderful career counselors that I can recommend.

The same website although built for Californians specifically also has some excellent career research resources for everyone. I love the way the information on each job title is presented. It’s easy to read, short and sweet, and particularly relevant. Here is a sample page for Adult Literacy, Remedial Education, and GED Teachers and Instructors.

I ran across this article predicting jobs that don’t exist yet and wanted to share it. Looking at changes coming down the pipeline in your industry is a great way to navigate your career development and learning plan. Take time once a year or so to think forward in your career and look for neat niches you can steer toward as one strategy for knowing what learning experiences will best add to your repertoire.

Other ways to stay ahead of the curve is to host discussions with colleagues, to have periodic informational interviews with experts in your field, and to read the professional literature related to your occupation. All the while asking questions in order to encourage your brain to make connections and notice developing trends.

Questions such as:

• what is the biggest problem in my career field right now?
• what industry is my industry starting to merge with?
• how will changes in the industry influence what happen in my occupation?

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
- Steve Jobs

Below is the presentation Ed mentioned that you can follow along with his lecture. Just use the scroll bar to the right of the image to move to the next slide.

This is the post on Ed’s blog about transitions that he mentions in the recording.

You may read the book review I did of Dr. Colozzi’s book previously on this blog.

Dr. Colozzi’s website is CreatingCareersWithConfidence.com and you can find him on Twitter as @EdwardColozzi.

I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. In this book, the authors outline a system to meet goals in any area of life –from how to loose weight, how to better your finances, how to stop addictions, how to change relationships. They even talk about how to further your career. The strategies and tactics they outline are derived from research at the Change Anything Labs in Utah. They also have a membership website to provide resources and tools for you to use as scientist and subject in the process of customizing a unique approach to changing your habits in a way that gives you the results you want.

By reading this book, you will learn why willpower in and of itself is not enough to mount a successful change effort in most cases. The authors explain that if you are relying on willpower alone, you are blind and outnumbered! Most importantly, they provide lots of ideas and options for you to become aware of your own crucial moments and corresponding vital behaviors. You’ll also learn about the six sources of influence and how to leverage them toward your cause. It’s particularly enticing that their research shows that successful changers often experience improvements in another area of concern for themselves as they go through the process of meeting goals in their main area of focus.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of “Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. I received no other compensation for this review.

This book was interesting to me because it presents information from the hiring side of the table. The authors spoke to 35 hiring managers from Fortune 500 companies to learn how social media and online technology is influencing their hiring strategy. The authors mention that many more professionals were invited to participate but opted-out stating the technology was too new for them to have specific guidance to offer just yet. So it goes to show it’s not too late to start building your professional brand online, since companies are still learning too!

The book begins by defining personal brand and how to do company research, then on to creation of a resume that hiring professionals will want to see; all the while providing relevant quotes from hiring managers. The importance of continual, proactive networking and how to do it is a theme running through the entire book. The authors also cover applicant tracking systems and emphasize keyword importance. Next, they walk you through creating a LinkedIn profile and an effective social networking strategy. The authors present valuable insider information that will be directly applicable to your job search.

I recommend this book. You can find it on Amazon.com. Also, see the Facebook page.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of “The Web 2.0 Job Finder” by Brenda Greene and Coleen Byrne. I received no other compensation for this review.

I was invited to check out this post and I thought it was very useful. This is a list of twenty TED Talks for new grads. Check it out!

A career keyword is what your ideal career is all about. When self-reflecting to cover step one of career research, consider this: What is your career keyword? This is an exercise in big picture thinking and zooming in on what jazzes you most. Here are some examples keywords just to get you thinking.

My career is about _____.

• competition
• action
• beauty
• building
• communicating
• nurturing
• performing
• service
• healing
• relating to others
• research
• detecting
• exploring
• teaching/learning
• administrating
• protecting
• sales
• science
• art

When you come up with a career keyword or two you can use it as your north star along your career journey guide your progress always building on your strengths. Your career keywords also becomes the basis of your personal mission statement.

The Get Hired Bootcamp team is providing a free webinar on “Keys To A Successful Job Search” (affiliate link) this week and I’m helping to spread the word. This bootcamp will be helpful for people who are currently job hunting and want to speed up their search to get an offer quicker.

Looking for work is a skill. There are things you can learn to increase your chances.

• Skills to make it easier to target a good job.
• Skills to handle the interview.
• Skills to network to find the hidden jobs.
• Skills to position yourself as the top candidate.
• Skills to negotiate your salary.

I just listened in on one of the free webinars myself and there are several things I like about this bootcamp format.

1. The Get Hired Bootcamp sessions are all presented via webinar with each session recorded and transcripts provided too.
2. They have developed a nice curriculum plan to hit the essentials within 3 weeks time with access to the VIP area for 3 months after registering.
3. Many of the experts that will be presenting are human resource professionals and recruiters so they can share how they work when filling an open position.
4. There will be Q&A time after each call so you can have the experts address your specific situation.
5. They offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee which you will see near the bottom of the page and hear more about during the free webinar.