High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Leaving a Stable Job to Create Your Dream 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!

• Leaving a Stable Job to Create Your Dream Career: "Paying attention to what engages and excites you, what lights you up, and what stimulates your intellect points you toward the tasks and situations that enable you to be your best self. That’s where you will thrive."
• 4 Things Older Job Seekers are Doing Wrong: "Rather than accept a position where you will resent the pay or walk away from an offer that is not up to snuff, consider ways to negotiate. See if you can bump up your benefits."
• How to Bring More Meaning to Your Life and Career: "As you make small changes, you begin to gain competence in living according to your values."
• 7 Steps to Master the Art of Persuasion: "The art of getting others to see things as you see them -- usually called persuasion -- is a key one for entrepreneurs, and it needs to be honed from the first day that you formulate your new idea."
• 5 Tips for a Successful Online Job Search: "People often don't realize how great the odds are stacked against job seekers for virtually every online advertisement."

4 Proactive Steps to Take Now for Your Career

I think most of us know that our career belongs to us and that to develop and progress we need to take active steps. However, sometimes we put our career on auto-pilot and let things go. Or we seem to expect that "magically" we'll get that promotion or the right opportunity will just fall in our laps.

Moving forward in your career happens just like that: by moving. It requires effort and it is requires one to be proactive and to take full responsibility.

Here are 4 steps you can take to be more proactive in your career (and life):

1. Find a mentor. We mention this often here and there is a reason: Success requires other people. To move forward in your career find someone who is successful in ways you desire to be a success. Meet at least monthly with that person and be honest about yourself, your struggles, and your hopes and goals.

2. Identify one area to develop. What is holding you back in your career? Do you need to learn to speak better in groups? Are you ineffective at closing the sale? Whatever the area is you identify for improvement make a plan to address it. This might mean signing up for a class at your local community college or attending a conference.

3. Be curious. Learn as much as you can and be open to new experiences and new people. Those who advance their careers and have new opportunities offered to them are the ones who've taken the time to explore new skills, have taken risks, and have met new people at conferences and networking events. This applies particularly to your current position. Get to know other people in your company and develop an understanding of what they do and how you can help them be more successful.

4. Be positive. No one wants to work with someone with a negative attitude or with someone always complaining about the job or the company. Work on your attitude and make an effort to proactively focus on the things you control and can make better. And be sure to smile and be a source of encouragement to those around you.

Your career development is in your hands.  

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: 7 Businesses You Can Start Tomorrow

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.

Tired of your job or your boss and want to strike out on your own? Check out the Forbes video below and learn about 7 businesses you can start right away.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 4 Tips for Being a Mentally-Tough Leader

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 Tips for Being a Mentally-Tough Leader: "It’s a lot easier to be tough when you truly believe in what you’re doing and you know, whether anyone else can see it or not, that what you are doing is right."
• 4 Productivity Tips to Change Your Life: "Simply take your to-do list and give each item a place on your calendar. it doesn't matter if you use a physical calendar or an online one; simply block out time to work through each item on your list."
• How to Take Charge of Your Career in 2016: "If you want to shake off one piece of brainwashing to start the new year, here is a good one to jettison. Pull yourself out of the delusion that going to work and doing your job every day constitutes managing your career."
• The 8 Self-Assessments You Need to Improve at Work This Year: "We all need to grow — not only to stay engaged in our work but also to keep up with our employers’ changing needs. And this is the perfect time of year to set personal development goals and start making progress on them."
• 4 Misconceptions about Getting a Job Out of College: "Remember: Often entry-levels jobs are just what they purport to be – a way for people to get in at the ground level of any business or industry."

5 Career Lessons from Martin Luther King, Jr.

While we're still considering the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we can also reflect on his words and mission and apply them to our professional lives.

Here are 5 career lessons one can take from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

1. "All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." Our work choices should reflect a desire to uplift and bring benefit to everyone and everything and we should strive to do this work with excellence.

2. "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" Work choices that are primarily about making a lot of money and acquiring a lot of possessions ultimately are unsatisfying and bring little benefits to others or yourself (other than material). The greatest satisfaction comes from doing work that benefits others.

3. "The time is always right to do what is right." If you find that your work does not benefit others or yourself then it is time for change. The time is now to do work that provides you with meaning and provides some service to others. 

4. "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." Sometimes we need to take a step in our career without the ability to see the whole picture. We need to trust ourselves, our strengths, and our vision for how we can utilize our skills to do work that matters.

5. "A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." One who would be a leader must learn to work with others and help bring mutual understanding and benefit to a situation.

Whatever it is that we find ourselves doing now we can apply the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Whatever your life's work is, do it well."

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: How to be a Leader

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 Forbes video below identifies 4 essential tips to being a good leader, including trusting your team enough to delegate to them.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 7 Tips to Boost Your Reputation at Work

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!

• 7 Tips to Boost Your Reputation at Work: "You might be sabotaging your success by choosing the wrong words when you speak. Your word choice influences how others perceive you."
• Keeping a Journal to Become an Outstanding Leader: "Extraordinary leadership is rooted in several capabilities: seeing before others see, understanding before others understand, and acting before others act."
• 6 Things Great Leaders Do Differently: "It’s through a leader’s actions—what he or she does and says on a daily basis—that the essence of great leadership becomes apparent."
• Sleep Deprivation is Killing You and Your Career: "The short-term productivity gains from skipping sleep to work are quickly washed away by the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on your mood, ability to focus and access to higher-level brain functions for days to come."
• 9 Phrases Smart People Never Use in Conversation: "In everyday conversation, it’s the little things that make all the difference. Try these suggestions out, and you’ll be amazed at the positive response you get."

4 Tips to Prepare for Your Next Job Interview

For many job seekers the job interview provides great anxiety and pressure, especially if you're currently unemployed and looking to find work as soon as possible.

Here are four tips to prepare for your next job interviewer and help you feel more confident when you greet that potential new employer.

1. Evaluate past interviews. Think about what went well in previous interviews and what might have gone better. Were there questions you were unprepared for? Did you fidget throughout the interview? Honestly consider your interviewing strengths and weaknesses.

2. What value do you bring? Understand and identify two or three strengths that you bring to the job. What are the specific skills or knowledge that you bring to the job? You need to be very clear about the value you bring to every position and ensure that you convey that value clearly throughout the interview process.

3. Practice. Write out your responses to expected questions and practice answering the questions with a friend, family member, or even with the mirror, until you feel comfortable. Watch your body movements and ensure that you project a calm and confident candidate, even if you feel anxious inside.

4. Relax. You'll feel more relaxed and confident if you are prepared for the interview so ensure that you take the necessary time to prepare. In addition, taking some time to meditate, envisioning a positive outcome, and breathing deeply can help you relax and enjoy the interview process.

Good luck on your next job interview!

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: 7 Steps to Disarm a Miserable Monday

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 shares seven tips to avoid a difficult Monday and to get your week off to a good start.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 50 Thoughts That Can Motivate You to do Anything

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!

• 50 Thoughts That Can Motivate You to do Anything: "You deserve a better life -- whether that means a better job, a healthier body or more money. Work for it."
• How to Change Your Eating Habits for a More Productive Year: "It's not that coffee, alcohol, and extreme exercise are the enemy, but if your body cannot survive for three days without caffeine, and you feel exhausted when you're at the gym, what you need is not to push yourself harder, but to give your body time to rest and recuperate."
• 3 Ways to Plan Your Professional Development for the Year: "If you’ve been at your company for a while and already have a robust network, you can look outside for your connecting goals: who else do you want to meet in your field, or in your local business community?"
• 4 Ways to Perfect Your Resume in the New Year: "Resumes without a specific purpose – or objective – do not fare as well as those that are targeted. Remember, it is the job seeker's responsibility to establish his worth if he wants to capture the attention of a busy and distracted hiring manager."
• 4 Ways to Stand Out When You're New: "Many newcomers don’t ask important questions of colleagues because they don’t want to bother busy people or make poor impressions. Recognize the minimal social risk in asking a dumb question."

4 Practices to Implement in 2016 to Improve Your Life and Career

Let's not call these resolutions, ok? Resolutions can be daunting and we often implement them for a few weeks (or days) before dropping them and never looking back.

If we look at the following practices as just that, simple practices or strategies that can bring added value to your life but don't require fierce diligence, then perhaps we'll be more likely to incorporate some of them into our routines.

1. Meditation. No, we're not suggesting you become a monk or anything but a regular habit of even brief meditation has been shown to bring great benefits such as reducing stress and boosting productivity. There's even an app for it!

2. Sleep. Yes, this is often the first casualty of a busy life but 7-8 hours of sleep is critical to functioning effectively and being at your best every day. Research indicates that losing four hours of sleep at night produces a state near drunkenness and going to work in a drunken state is not likely to result in a good day.

3. Movement. We now live primarily sedentary lifestyles as we spend increasing amounts of time in front of screens every day. To be at our best and have increased energy we need to move. A simple practice of getting up every hour and taking a brief 5 minute walk will do wonders. As Tom Rath notes, "If you eat, move, and sleep well today, you will have more energy tomorrow. You will treat your friends and family better. You will achieve more at work and give more to your community."

4. Relationship. We need other people to be at our best and to live well. Make a practice of eating lunch with colleagues and scheduling monthly (if not weekly) time to spend with a close friend. Ensure that this time allows for some dedicated and concentrated time to talk.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: 3 Tips to Boost Your Confidence

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 shares three tips to boost your confidence as you look to start the new year with a positive outlook and with confidence in your abilities.