Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Useless Phrases to Eliminate from Your Emails

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.

The Fast Company video below provides some great tips to making your emails for efficient and to the point.

5 Reasons to Be Thankful for Your Job

Some of us (many of us?) spend a good deal of time complaining about our jobs, our bosses, our companies, our salaries, and anything else we can muster a complaint about but, in reality, we have it quite well.

What better time of year to take a few moments and be thankful for our jobs? Need some reasons? Here are five:

1. Be thankful you HAVE a job. Yes, sometimes that old adage "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" applies to your job and while we might spend some serious time daydreaming about another place to work, our current gig is actually pretty good.

2. Be thankful for your co-workers. You likely work among friends or are at least on friendly terms with those you work with. That is a great, and undervalued, perk of the job. I still miss the people from the job I worked at longest (over 16 years). It was a great group.

3. Be thankful for opportunities to learn. Those opportunities can be very different depending on the job. You might be learning a specific skill such as how to code, or you might be learning a "soft skill": how to facilitate a good working relationship with a difficult co-worker or manager. But take some time to appreciate and be grateful for those new skills you are developing.

4. Be thankful for opportunities to apply your skills. Again, like the point above, you might apply some of your strengths and skills in limited ways but if you think carefully about your work you can creatively apply your skills to anything. The skills you have in handling a demanding boss are useful when dealing with an angry customer.

5. Be thankful for the chance to do something of value. Theodore Roosevelt noted that "far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."

What are you thankful for? Do you have a flexible work schedule? A great boss or coworker? Opportunities to advance?

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: On Finding a Mentor

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 the video below Felicia Day discusses how to go about finding a mentor.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 4 Career Mistakes You Should Make by 30

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!

• 4 Career Mistakes You Should Make by 30: "But making some missteps and mistakes early on in your career is actually a critical part of growing -- both professionally and personally."
• The Best Way to Learn: "Learning is best done by people acquiring ideas from various sources, running experiments in their context, and then sharing their insights with their peers."
• Building a Better Company Culture in 5 Steps: "While you don’t want your employees failing 100 percent of the time, taking away the fear of failure can free up employees to not just win but win bigger than they ever would have had they been afraid to fail."
• Strategies for Dual-Income Families: "Lots of parents with big jobs work what’s called a 'split shift.' They leave work at a reasonable hour, spend the evenings with family, and then do more work at night after the kids go to bed."
• Do These 4 Things to Avoid Losing Your Mind as an Entrepreneur: "But in the end, listen to your gut. Create the business you want, on your terms and in your time. You’ll reap far greater rewards than revenue."

Regaining Your Confidence After a Career Setback

Everyone has disappointments and setbacks in their career, from that promotion or raise you didn't get to getting fired or laid off.

Sometimes that setback can impact your confidence and leave you struggling to regain it.

Here are 5 steps you can take to get your confidence back after a career setback.

1. Small victories. Set some small, immediate, and attainable goals in order to restore your confidence in your abilities. Sometimes simply the process of setting a small goal and attaining it is enough to set one back on the path to larger goals.

2. Focus on strengths. You have specific skills and areas of strengths. Try to focus your energies on activities that utilize these strengths and build confidence.

3. Surround yourself with support. Find those around you--family, friends, coworkers--who believe in you and your abilities. Their belief in your skills and strengths can speed your recovery from a setback.

4. Find a mentor. Seek out another expert in your field to serve as a mentor and to guide you through this time. Your mentor can assist you in making the best decisions for your career as you move forward.

5. Learn something new. Take some time to learn a new skill or take a class. Experiencing some success in a class and adding to your skill set can provide the confidence to move ahead in other areas of your life and career.

Implement these 5 steps following a career setback and you'll be back on your feet and headed to new successes.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Stay Focused

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.

The video below discusses the importance of staying focused and persistently pursuing your goals.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Make Friends Not Contacts

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!

• Networking 101: Make Friends Not Contacts: "Check your circle of friends. Surround yourself with people who aspire to do better."
• The Rainn Wilson Guide to Success: "For me, meditation is a great tool that I use in my daily life to ground me, to get me more connected to my soul. To the part of myself that’s beyond my thoughts. To God and to a higher purpose."
• 21 Ways to Unlock Creative Genius: "Consider this list of tricks and strategies your roadmap, all planned out with the benefit of the latest research and expert advice."
• Start Looking for an Internship!: "Interns that show professionalism and demonstrate their creativity gain a network of people who can mentor them, give recommendations, and collaborate on future projects."
• 4 Interview Tips for Veterans: "One of your greatest resources may be other veterans who have landed a job through mastering the interview process."