High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Why Are We Bad at Choosing the Right Job?

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• Why Are We So Bad at Choosing the Right Job?: "When it comes to jobs and careers, it is really a case of 'better the devil you know.' You can put people in meaningless roles and under bad managers, and they will still be reluctant to try something else."

• How a Classroom Mindset Can Help You Achieve Lasting Change: "If you want to experience significant, lasting change in your life, try mapping out your goal as if you were going back to school to achieve it."

• 9 Ways to Handle Job-Related Stress: "It didn't take long before people realized that simultaneously looking through their desk drawer, speaking on the phone and answering email caused their speed and accuracy (not to mention sanity) to plummet."

• 8 Tips for Developing Collaborative Leadership at Work: "This is leadership that not only gradually dissolves into something more sociable and harmonious, but also more efficient, creative and ready for whatever comes next."
• 9 Phrases to Avoid in Conversation:"While you may be indifferent to the question, your opinion is important to the person asking (or else he wouldn’t have asked you in the first place)."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: When Does a Job Become a Career?

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• When Does a Job Become a Career?: "Confidence is hard to come by. For many, harnessing the power of your own confidence is a skill that must be learned--it's not always innate."

• Adopt This Simple Habit to Help Avoid Burnout: "When it comes to staving off burnout, always keep top-of-mind the proverbial saying from English poet William Cowper 'Variety is the spice of life'."

• How to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think of You: "Our fear of other people’s opinions, or FOPO as I call it, has become an irrational and unproductive obsession in the modern world, and its negative effects reach far beyond performance."

• How Stress Can Guide Your Way to Success: "The bottom line, though, is that any protective factor you choose only counts if you actually do it. And if you don’t, it won’t work, no matter how great your need and how good your intentions."
• 4 Ways to Remain Professional Under Pressure:"Another way to reduce your stress while remaining positive and productive is by learning the difference between a controllable event and one that is uncontrollable."

Four Ways to Manage Stress and Anxiety at Work

You have a big project coming up or you’ve taken on new responsibilities at work and you feel anxious. When we encounter something new or have an increased workload if is easy to feel overwhelmed.

But you don’t have to through it alone and there are ways to manage the stress without going crazy at work, quitting your job, or kicking the dog.

If stress and anxiety is getting you down at work, implement the following four practices. 

Identify any patterns related to your stress. If you can find specific patterns to your stress and anxiety it becomes easier to develop some strategies to deal with it. For example, if you notice more intense stress on Sunday evenings or Monday mornings as you begin to turn your attention back to your job, you can be better prepared to face the work week. Perhaps the anxiety increases in the lead up to making a presentation at work. This information can lead you to decide to take a public speaking class at the local college, or join the Toastmasters, or avoid procrastinating and have the presentation prepared a few days in advance to allow time to get comfortable. Once you’ve identified patterns related to the stress and anxiety you experience you also help to reduce its power over you.

Discuss the situation with your supervisor. Don’t be shy about asking for help. Oftentimes we don’t want to admit to feeling stress at work because we don’t want our manager to think we’re incompetent or unable to handle the job. However, it’s necessary and important to our growth as a person and as an employee to learn to seek out help when needed. Your boss can likely offer some suggestions or tips that can reduce your stress, and sometimes it just helps to have someone lend an ear.  

Take care of your health. Our physical health plays an important role in dealing with stress and anxiety in our lives. Be sure to get enough sleep, engage in some movement and exercise daily, and be intentional about the foods we eat and the drinks we consume. Alcohol and coffee can negatively impact our sleep, while also contributing to a sense of grogginess or jitters during the day. Also consider adding time in your schedule for a brief meditation practice.  

Seek out professional help if necessary. At times we can feel overwhelmed the stress and anxiety and are unable to see a way out of it. If this describes you, seek out a counselor or therapist. You can likely find a good one in your area who is specially trained to treat anxiety and stress.

3 Signs You Are Stressed at Work (and what to do about it)

You cringe whenever you see that email or phone call from your boss. Maybe you’re avoiding everyone at the office, hiding out in your cubicle.

These are just a couple of the signs you’re stressed out at work and need to make some changes.

Here are some additional indicators you might be stressed out, along with a few suggestions for managing the stress in healthy ways.

You hate everyone. Ok, hate is a strong word, but you find yourself frequently irritated by others. This is a clear sign you are stressed out and should give you pause. Yes, pausing is part of the solution here. Pause and take some time to breathe and focus on what you’re feeling and experiencing. In other words, slow down and meditate. Make this part of your morning routine and your stress levels will decline.

Sleep is an option. This is not true. Sleep is not an option and if you’re sacrificing a good night’s sleep to be overworked or stressed out you’ll not only suffer in your career, but your personal life will feel the impacts. This week set a goal to get eight hours of sleep each week night and stick to it! Turn off the TV or shut down the laptop and get into bed on time. You’ll feel more energized and less stressed.

The bottle is your new best friend. If you’re drinking too much as a way to manage stress it’s time to do something about it. That bottle of wine or that craft brew is not your best friend and will only prevent you from dealing with the stress in healthy ways. It will make it more difficult for you to sleep well and might lead you to make mistakes on the job. So, get rid of those bottles and consider talking to a therapist or other professional about the stresses you’re currently undergoing.

Stress in the workplace can often result from ineffective communication and unrealistic expectations. If you discover that workplace stress has got a grip on you have a conversation with your manager. Often your supervisor will be happy to work with you to reduce the work stressors and help you develop a more manageable work load.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 3 Rules for Turning Stress into Success

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 3 Rules for Turning Stress into Success: "Always be on the alert for negative situations that can be dangerous to your health, personal safety, financial speculation and emotional relationships."

• How to Handle Conflict at Your Business: "Don’t shy away from conflict. Tackle it as soon as possible before it escalates. Avoiding conflict can be a bad thing. Tension might increase and the conflict can become worse."

• 3 Simple Steps to Boost Productivity Now: "Productivity starts with accountability. The simplest yet most effective way to boost your productivity is to create a to-do list. However, this list has to be treated as a set of attainable goals."

• 11 Productivity Hacks for Work-from-Home Newbies: "The secret to working from home is knowing the best time of day to work. This will ensure that you’re not only productive, but that you can do more quality work."
• A Millennials Guide to Asking for a Promotion: "Understanding the timing, what to present to your supervisor, and creating a plan if it doesn’t pan out is essential."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: The Top 5 Ways Work Changed in 2016

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• The Top 5 Ways Work Changed in 2016: "In April, New York and California both enacted legislation to progressively raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next few years. That proposal gained prominent support on the campaign trail."

• 9 Things to Do When You're Feeling Burned Out: "Part of the high level of stress and burnout that we currently experience is the intense connectivity and demand for attention placed on us by the supercomputer in our pockets. By checking emails, social media and text messages every few minutes, it’s easy to burn out"

• 7 Ways to Live With Job Stress That Isn't Going Away: "Recognizing the first signs of on-the-job-stress is crucial to finding ways to cope with it. Focus on your core goals, organize yourself correctly and establish a routine of calming your nerves so you can be sure to keep anxiety in check."

• 3 Ways to Increase Productivity While On a Team at Work: "recognize that what feels 100 percent correct and true to you is no more important than what feels 100 percent correct and true to someone else – even (or especially) when the truths are not the same."
• When You Want to Be #Boss (and Beyond) Reach for These 10 Books: "But the thing I wish someone had told me sooner is that you can learn a lot about being a leader today from reading books."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: How Successful People Manage Stress

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• How Successful People Manage Stress: "I see a lot of people who should be working way harder than they are using stress as an excuse to become unproductive slackers."


• How to Use Facebook to Land a Job: "As a rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t show it [to] your grandmother or put it on your résumé, you shouldn’t put it on social media."


• How to Deal with 10 Common Workplace Distractions: "If you are working on an important project and are pressed for time, just shut your cell phone off. Only turn it back on when you truly have time to reply to these messages or just wait until the end of the word day."


• 13 Pearls of Wisdom for a Successful Life: "There's a vast, fantastic world out there. Foster your curiosity, and it will lead you to amazing places."


• 5 Strategy Questions Every Leader Should Make Time For: "Of the various activities and businesses that you have moved into, do they make sense together?"

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: How to Make Stress Your Friend

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

In this video, Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.

Learn more in the video below:

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Is Your LinkedIn Profile Up to Date?

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share these every weekend so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• 9 Reasons You Must Update Your LinkedIn Profile Today: "All kinds of people use all kinds of ways to learn about you. LinkedIn gives you an opportunity to control what they discover about your strengths and, more important, about your brand."

• 3 Ways to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile: "By simply beginning a conversation at appropriate moments, you keep your relationships real. This is what networking is all about."                                                      
• Reduce Your Stress in Two Minutes a Day: "Evidence ... suggest(s) knowledge workers check email as much as 36 times an hour. The result is increased stress. Giving each activity your undivided attention ensures you’re in the moment and fully living that experience."


• The Profit in Principles: "When it comes to core principles, those are the words you should constantly review, whether they are the principles of your company or your own personal rules for life."


• To Grow in Business and In Life, Show Gratitude and Appreciation: "The foundation of asset management is gratitude. If you’re grateful for something then you’ll appreciate it; if you appreciate something then you’ll care for it."

The Symptoms of Stress and How to Deal With Them

In Tuesday's blog post, I explored the inevitable changes that transitioning veterans face. However, change - and the stress that comes along with it - are not isolated to just veterans. It is important to recognize all the symptoms of stress. In order to manage stress, you need to first be able to recognize its cause and identify its signals - both in yourself and in others around you. There are four main symptoms of stress:

Cognitive Symptoms:
These symptoms are all related to the function of our brain. When experiencing cognitive symptoms you may have these issues:

• Trouble remembering things
• Challenges trying to remain focused
• Making decisions with poor judgment
• Constant worry, anxiousness or racing thoughts
• Pessimistic approach or outlook

Emotional Symptoms:
Emotional symptoms affect how we feel and react to the world around us. A few examples of emotional symptoms:

• Moodiness
• Irritability or short-tempered
• Trouble relaxing due to constant agitation
• Feeling lonely, isolated or overwhelmed
• Depression or overall unhappiness

Physical Symptoms:

Stress can manifest itself in so many ways, including within our bodies. Check to see if you are experiencing any of these physical symptoms:

• Aches, pains and tension headaches
• Intestinal issues 
• Nausea or dizziness
• Chest pain, rapid heartbeat
• Frequent illness
• Extreme temperature changes in the body

Behavioral Symptoms

These symptoms are observable actions or demeanor that we can observe when the stimuli of stress becomes overwhelming. Here are some key symptoms:

• Eating more or less
• Sleeping too much or too little
• Isolating yourself from friends and family
• Procrastinating
• Neglecting important tasks
• Using alcohol, cigarettes or drugs to escape
• Nervous habits (nail biting, fidgeting, grinding teeth, etc.)

I would wager that most of us have experienced at least one of these symptoms. If you are like me, you have experienced one or more from each category! The question now is, what are you going to do about it? It is very important to have a stress management plan in place. Here are some ideas of how you can manage and control your stress levels:

• Take the time to identify the cause of your stress. Determine if it is something you can change or modify and put a plan in place to deal with the issue.
• Identify your support group and maintain relationships, no matter how much stress you experience.
• Take good care of your body by eating healthy, getting enough sleep, exercising and minimizing caffeine and alcohol.
• Don't let go of the things that bring you joy. Even in the midst of a very stressful job search you should still take time for yourself to enjoy your passions, hobbies, and recreational activities.