5 Ways to Take Responsibility for Your Career Development

Career development is often talked about in companies as they seek out ways to increase employee engagement and prepare current staff for greater responsibilities and promotions. Often this is thought of as training or mentoring opportunities and is considered the responsibility of the employer.

However, employees should take responsibility for their own development and find ways to add value to their career.

Here are five alternative and creative ways to take responsibility for your own career development.

Learn as much as possible about your company. You don’t need a formal mentor relationship or job-shadowing program to seek out information about your company. Set up your own meetings with people from various departments to expand your knowledge. Read company press releases and industry magazines and news reports. Be an active participant in company-wide meetings or cross-department discussions. Take part in a task force. The more you know about your company (and industry) the better prepared you are for taking on a new role or developing your leadership skills.

Take risks and accept failure. Success requires failure and so if you want to become successful in life you must learn to become comfortable taking risks and experiencing failure and rejection. Put yourself in position to try new things, such as learning to play an instrument, expanding your foreign language skills, or planning to give a presentation to your colleagues. These opportunities will stretch you to grow.

Attend conferences and meet people. Find an industry conference or two and register. You might also seek out a conference or workshop focused on some aspect of personal growth, such as weekend meditation retreat. These experiences will not only expand your knowledge and recharge your batteries, but they will provide an opportunity for you to expand your network by meeting new people and deepening relationships with those you already know.

Travel, read widely, and be curious. Cultivate a spirit of curiosity and inquisitiveness by traveling, exploring new regions and cultures, and reading widely on subjects that may be new to you. Consider checking out a foreign film from your library or seeing one at an independent theater you’ve never been to before.

Apply for other jobs. Even if you have no intention of leaving your current job you can sharpen your interviewing skills and gain valuable industry knowledge by applying for other positions, and interviewing at other companies. These experiences can strengthen knowledge of your field and increase your awareness of future opportunities.  

5 Ways to Optimize Success at Work Today

For too many of us we see our work day as something to get through, with the reward at the end of the day, when we hit the weekend, or when our paycheck arrives. However, work provides us with many opportunities to expand our skills and deepen our knowledge of our chosen field.

We can often enjoy our jobs more and experience greater success with a simple adjustment in the way we view our jobs and in our daily work habits and routines.

Try to add the following five strategies to your approach at work and you might achieve more of your career goals.

Meet someone new. This is a simple strategy but can pay large dividends over time. As you meet people in your workplace you expand your network, develop possible mentors, and learn more about the company. You might even develop a close friend. Developing relationships with colleagues and co-workers can be incredibly beneficial if you become unemployed and need to seek out new work. Some of your former colleagues might be hiring managers or might be able to recommend you to another company they now work for. Do not underestimate the importance of developing positive relationships with your team and other individuals within your company.

Learn something new. If you make it a practice to meet someone new each week you might also have the opportunity to learn something new from them. You do not need to develop a resume-altering skill. Learning a new shortcut with a computer program you use regularly can help you save time and ease your workload. Or developing a better understanding of the products your company sells can help you be a more effective employee. Make it a point to learn something new every week, if not daily.

Acknowledge the contribution of another. Build solid relationships and demonstrated leadership skills by recognizing good work done by those you work with. You can acknowledge their successes with a simple encouraging word or drop them an email or note letting them know you appreciate their contribution. This will go a long way toward creating a positive work environment and building a healthy rapport with your colleagues.

Speak to a customer or client. Developing an understanding of the needs of your clients or customers if crucial to becoming effective in your work so finds ways to seek out this perspective. You might read reviews of your products, walk through the process of a new customer so you better understand the experience, or meet directly with clients or customers to get direct feedback. Additionally, consider speaking with your sales representatives and ask to sit in on customer calls, visits, or other types of interactions with clients. You gain a sense for the strengths of your company and its products and services, as well as, the weaknesses and areas for improvement.

Investigate a competitor. Take some time to better understand your position in the marketplace by researching the competition. Get to know their strengths and weaknesses and understand what separates your company and its products or services from the competition. This kind of knowledge can, again, assist your understanding of how to improve the products and services your company offers.

This week meet someone new, learn something new, recognize the achievements of others, get the perspective of your customers, and understand your competitors to help you be better engaged with your work and set you and your company up for success.

Five Tips to Develop Mental Strength

Sun Tzu noted that “victorious warriors win first” in the mind before going to battle. Our society prizes physical strength while neglecting the significance of mental strength and its role in our happiness and success in our careers and in our relationships with others.

In addition to your physical health, pay attention to your mental health and strength by implementing the following practices.

Be clear on your purpose. What is your “why”? What gets you up in the morning and motivates you? To be mentally healthy it is crucial to have a strong and clear sense of what you bring to the world and how you can use your strengths and skills to make the world a better place. This will give you focus as you consider career options and enables you to keep your purpose in mind when going through the inevitable difficult times.

Train your thoughts. We all have negative thoughts and it’s impossible to completely banish them but mentally strong people have developed strategies for dealing with them when encountered. These strategies can include a daily meditation practice, time spent in prayer, or the repetition of an affirming mantra. Training your thoughts also means to “win first” by visualizing events, such as that big speech or presentation at work, and working through a positive outcome in your mind , anticipating challenges and meeting them successfully.

Step into discomfort and tackle difficult tasks. Hug the monster. Embrace hard and scary things. Volunteer to lead the project or agree to give that speech. Make the phone call that makes you nervous. Start your morning with a cold shower. Walk instead of driving. Try something new and make mistakes.

Take full responsibility. This can be difficult and is an underappreciated aspect of mental strength. However, mentally strong people do not blame others for their failures or struggles. They take ownership of their lives and use failure as a motivation to learn more and work harder and smarter.

Surround yourself with mentally strong people. To develop mental strength, you need mentally strong people in your life. This might not be the people who are physically present in your life on a daily basis. You might need to seek out a mentor or adviser to meet with regularly, or find podcasts or audio books by wise men and women. Of course, read books and essays that build your mental strength. There are many creative ways to discover and surround ourselves with the counsel of a mentally strong community.

Implement these five practices to build mental strength and you will begin to see positive changes in your life and career.

5 Great Podcasts to Boost Your Career and Life

In last week's post we shared four tips to renew your passion for work. The basic point was to look at things in a different way and one of the tips to do this was to check out a new podcast.

There are so many excellent podcasts out there and it can be overwhelming to know where to start. That's where this post comes in.

Below find five great podcasts to help you see things in a new way, therefore helping provide you with a boost and spark to your life and career:

1. The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes: "The goal of the School of Greatness is to share inspiring stories from the most brilliant business minds, world class athletes, and influential celebrities on the planet; to help you find out what makes great people great."

2. Building a Story Brand with Donald Miller: "Through his company StoryBrand, Donald Miller has helped over a thousand businesses, non-profits and personal brands clarify their message to create better websites, email blasts and marketing material."

3. Snap Judgment hosted by Glynn Washington: "Mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic, kick-ass radio. Snap's raw, musical blend of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another."

4. The Tim Ferriss Show: Ferris "deconstructs world-class performers from eclectic areas (investing, sports, business, art, etc.) to extract the tactics, tools, and routines you can use. This includes favorite books, morning routines, exercise habits, time-management tricks, and much more." 

5. TED Radio Hour hosted by Guy Raz: "A journey through fascinating ideas: astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, new ways to think and create. Based on Talks given by riveting speakers on the world-renowned TED stage, each show is centered on a common theme."

3 Things To Do When You've Been Passed Over For a Promotion

Several years ago I was passed over for a promotion I had been expecting and preparing for over the previous few years. My supervisor had made it clear that she intended for me to replace her.

However, after she left, and I went through the interview process a surprising thing happened. I did not get the promotion.

Unfortunately, my response to getting passed over was not helpful and soon after I left the company for a new position. It turned out to be a bad career and personal decision.

So here are three things you can do differently if you are passed over for a job promotion:

1. Allow yourself to feel ... angry, frustrated, sad, and any other emotion you experience. However, only allow yourself to focus on these feelings for a limited period of time, say 48 hours, and then move on. Dwelling on those feelings will have you experiencing bitterness and make it more difficult for you to make a good decision about the future of your work.

2. Ask, listen, and fully understand. Seek out a meeting with the manager who made the decision about the promotion. Do your best to go into the meeting with an attitude of curiosity and a genuine desire to understand why you did not get the promotion. Listen carefully and say very little. Do not attempt to persuade the manager that he or she made a mistake. Do not attempt to defend yourself against any shortcomings the manager identifies. Leave the meeting on good terms with the manager.

3. Humbly apply what you've learned. If the manager provided you with some specific and concrete ways to improve your performance and develop skills to make you more qualified for a promotion develop a plan to meet the objection identified. If you take a serious approach to dealing with any shortcomings identified you will likely find that another opportunity for a promotion will make itself available.

And then you will be ready for it.

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.  

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Leave Your Job and Start Your 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!

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• Leave Your Job and Start Your Career: "View taking time to work on your career development as an actual gift to yourself. When else do you get to reflect on what you really want, why you really want it and how to strategize to make it happen?"


• 3 Generous Perks that Keep Employees Happy: "Unlimited vacation....A 2014 Glassdoor survey found that more than half of U.S. workers don’t use all their current paid vacation as it is."


• Social Media Job Hunting Tips: "Do you really want to lose sight of your dream job just because of a risqué, off-the-cuff remark to one of your friends on Facebook or Twitter?"


• Divorce and Your Career: "If you've gone through a divorce, it’s hard to imagine being at work and thinking about taking a risk and being terrified of the consequences. How bad could it possibly be?."


• 3 Ways to Eliminate Stress: "While a small bit of stress is OK, there are many small things that can contribute to your level of anxiety that you may not have considered."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Traits of a Great Job Seeker

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

• Traits of a Great Job Seeker: "Here are seven job seeker traits to consider as you embark upon your job search. These traits have worked for others; hopefully, they will work for you."


• How to Stalk Your Future Employer (Without Being Creepy): "It might surprise you to learn that, yes, sometimes digging too deep and oversharing what you’ve learned about a potential employer or hiring manager can actually hurt you during the interview process."


• 3 Tips to Succeed in the Economy of You: "No matter where you are with your side-gig--the key to gaining greater professional control and financial security in this modern-day economy--here are the top 3 things you should be doing to ensure success."


• How to Manage Your Personal Brand When You're in Transition: "When you're changing chapters professionally, what's the best way to manage your personal brand? Should you even think about personal branding? Where do you start? Here are some helpful tips."


• How to Create an Irresistible Resume: "The words you choose to communicate your experience make all the difference in whether your resume is considered average or fantastic."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Career Resolutions

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

• 5 Job Seeker Resolutions to Make in 2014: "The New Year often brings the promise of change, possibility and resolving to make this year better than the last. Here are five steps to help you achieve your [job search] goal."


• How Working from Home Can Help Tackle Your New Year’s Resolutions: "In addition to no commute and dress code-–three other factors can have major benefits to your overall well-being. And maybe even your New Year’s resolutions."


• How to Invest in Your Career for 2014: "If you’re thinking about your professional new year’s resolutions, keep the following in mind when evaluating professional development opportunities."


• New Year’s Resolutions Every Job Seeker Should Make for 2014: "If your number one goal for the new year is to land a new job, hopes and wishes aren’t enough; you need to define and execute a plan to ensure your success."


• 10 Professional Resolutions for the New Year: "Whether a pay rise, promotion, or a new career are among your professional resolutions, the following tips may serve as useful in your quest to make 2014 the year for your career!"

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Growing Your Job and Unleashing Creativity

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

• 6 Ways to Grow Your Job: "When a new project is simply not available, look for roles outside your group or organization that allow you to learn and practice new skills and raise your profile. Teach, speak or blog on topics relating to your interests."

• The Incivility Crisis in America: "Americans are working longer hours as wages stay stagnate and the job market remains weak, so it’s not surprising that tensions in the workplace are running high. The problem is these tensions can often result in frustration and interpersonal conflict leading to toxic work environments."                                                      
• 8 Interview Tips You've (Probably) Never Heard Before: "Experienced hiring managers who have interviewed many candidates will often say they don't get nervous at their own job interviews anymore, because they've done so many interviews from the other side and understand how an interviewer's mind works."


• How to Get Unstuck and Unleash Your Creativity Today: "There’s nothing wrong with strategically mitigating risk, but brilliant bodies of work are built by those who are willing to take the small, calculated risks necessary to take new ground."


• 6 Ways I Find and Hire Hardworking Millennials: "Remember, everyone announces themselves in the interview. I learned this the hard way when I ignored my gut response and hired a young woman who made me feel uncomfortable in the interview."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Ready to Leave Your 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 these every weekend so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• 14 Signs It's Time To Leave Your Job: "When you find that you’re spending less time with your family because of work, or you cannot commit the necessary time to your job, you should consider looking elsewhere."

• Tips for Merging on to Your Career's Smart Track: "To gain respect, you have to deliver. Do you consistently produce outstanding work, exceed expectations, go above and beyond what is expected, take initiative and simply work hard?"                                                      
• Please Stop Complaining About How Busy You Are: "If you're really up to your neck, it's very easy to find a scheduler, virtual or otherwise, to help put things on your calendar. Sometimes it's a matter of freeing up that time used for coordinating plans to actually doing them."


• 4 Ways Older Job Seekers May Circumvent Hiring Fears: "Demonstrate that your energy level and intellectual curiosity remain high. Talk about how import it is to be a top producer and why. At every step along the way demonstrate that you are up to date with your skills, and that you don't sit on your laurels."


• How These Famous Motivational Quotes Can Help You Succeed: "The only way you can become a leader is by setting a great example and by putting together a team that is pulling together in the same direction and towards the same target."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Happiness at Work and Your Health

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

• A Menu of Very Small Changes to Boost Your Happiness at Work: "Go outside at least once a day, and if possible, take a walk. The sunlight and activity is good for your focus, mood, and retention of information."

• 5 Career-Boosting Summer Activities: "Summer is the perfect time to invest in yourself. If you can make the case for it, your company just might be able to foot the bill. Taking adult education courses will also help enhance and grow your network. You never know who you'll be sitting next to."                                                      
• 4 Ways to Re-Energize Your Work Engagement: "Make small changes in your daily work routine to incorporate healthy habits, and work up to bigger, more influential changes. For example, start taking the stairs, or bring a healthy lunch from home."


• How Criticism Creates Innovative Teams: "Our findings show that debate and criticism do not inhibit ideas but, rather, stimulate them relative to every other condition."


• Experienced Workers Face More Challenges Finding a Job: "An employer is looking for someone who can help them get something done. Tell them or convince them that you have the talent, experience and, probably most important, the interest or passion to help them get it done." 

High Five Weekly Career Transitions Roundup

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!

1. 5 Ways to Rebound from a Layoff
"When you get laid off, it hurts. You're thrown completely off-course, and usually at the worst possible time."


2. How to Explain the Gap on Your Resume
"If you’ve been downsized or jumped from project to project with some noticeable gaps in the timeline of your resume, you’re not alone."

3. Don't Like Your Job? Change It (Without Quitting)
"Maybe you're in the wrong field, don't enjoy the work, feel surrounded by untrustworthy coworkers, or have an incompetent boss. Most people would tell you to find something that's a better fit. But that may not be possible."

4.  Second Job Interview: 5 Ways to Seal the Deal  
"Congratulations -- you've landed a second interview with your dream employer ... Now you just need to win them over. Here are five great tips that will help you snag the job."

5. Embracing Risk in Career Decisions
"If you want your career to take off, you may need to do the opposite of what risk managers try to do: Instead of focusing on how to reduce risks, you may need to embrace and enhance them."

Leadership Lessons from a YPO

After relocating to Minnesota over two years ago, I didn't know a soul. I had just begun a position at a local college and was slowly growing a social network there, but I desired to branch out and get to know others similar in age and industry. I had heard that the local Chamber of Commerce supported a young professionals organization (YPO) so I thought I would join to check it out and see how much my career would benefit from the opportunities they provided.

Lesson #1-Get involved: A lesson I had learned years ago, you can't expect someone to take you by the hand and guide you toward opportunities for leadership and civic participation. Proactively seek them out and-if they resonate with you-get on board with them.

I hadn't even gone to an event yet when they contacted the membership to solicit new applicants for their leadership council, the board-like entity that helped guide and direct the organization. With an air of "why not?", I shot them an application without really expecting to be accepted. In fact, I had just skimmed the email that informed me that I was accepted, almost deleting it. It looks like my gamble paid off, and I was about to go on a new leadership journey.

Lesson #2-Take the risk: In my mind I had nothing to lose and a lot to gain by becoming more involved with the organization. I didn't question my worthiness or buy in to any other self-created "rules" about why this group wouldn't benefit from my contribution. It's great to be a member of an organization, but joining its leadership team will provide even greater opportunities for personal growth.

I had been with the group for less than a year when one of the members wanted to coordinate an event for a week-long fundraising campaign for local nonprofits. Having been a transplant from St Louis, MO-home of the trivia night-I proposed that we coordinate one to raise money for another local organization. Together with a small group of volunteers from the YPO, we put on a wildly-successful trivia night that raised over $2000 for the organization, helping to put it in the black and helping our group gain more notoriety.

Lesson #3: Make your mark: Don't keep your ideas to yourself because you never know which ones may be the ones to take you and your group to another level.

There is something that you can take from every experience, so long as you stay aware of the possibilities presented to you and don't underestimate your impact. My résumé is much stronger due to my experience in this YPO. Stay aware, present, and go for the opportunities.

How Your Career Saboteur Operates - Second in a Series

You have decided that you want to start your own business.

Or you want to change careers.

Or perhaps you want to apply for a promotion you feel you "barely qualify" for, or even apply to your dream company.

Welcome to the land of the saboteur.

Last week's post asked you to think of one to three big, "dream-worthy" things that you have wanted to accomplish in your career but haven't been able to. If you haven't done this already, go back to it now and do it. You're going to need them going forward. Because today we are going to get intimate with your saboteur, rooting him/her out and connecting in a way that you haven't done so previously. But, right now, we need to learn about what the concept of resistance.

In his book Do the Work, Steven Pressfield speaks of resistance, ultimately confirming that "any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity" will be welcomed with resistance.

You know what I'm about to say: your saboteur is what generates the resistance. Because your saboteur only comes into play when you're dreaming big. It's not your saboteur that keeps you from eating a piece of rotten fruit that will make you ill or keeps you from jumping off of a 20-story building. You may think it is, but it isn't. The saboteur is different from your physical survival instinct. The latter keeps you from dying; the former keeps your dreams-and you-from living.

In order to build the resilience to counter your saboteur's resistance, you need to get to know him/her. This is our next assignment.

Assignment #2: How Your Saboteur Operates
At the top of a page, write one of your career dreams from the last assignment. Underneath that, note all of the saboteur-like statements that arise when reflecting on that dream: statements that undermine your power, want to keep you safe, discount your magnificence, and strive to keep you the same. Make the list as exhaustive as possible. Finally-after you have done this with all of your career dreams-answer these questions about your saboteur (note: this requires a modicum of creativity and playfulness; just go with it):

- What is your saboteur's name?
- What does your saboteur look like? Describe him/her physically.
- What does his/her voice sound like?
- Where does your saboteur live? Describe his/her home.
- When do you first remember your saboteur first communicating with you?
- How has your saboteur evolved over the years?
- Under what circumstances is your saboteur the loudest? The quietest?
- What can your saboteur claim credit for costing you in your life?
- What makes your saboteur as powerful has he/she is?

Next week: what to do about your career saboteur.

Discovering Your Career Saboteur - First in a Series

Everyone has "voices" in their head, guiding their thoughts, choices, behaviors, and attitudes. You have a voice in your head that tells you to buckle your infant child securely into his/her car seat and to drive safely on the road. You have a voice in your head that tells you not to eat the fake fruit in a display bowl. We're constantly in dialogue with voices such as this; they help us make decisions.

But there is one voice that we need to pay particular attention to: our inner critic, or Saboteur.

The Saboteur-as the name implies-is the voice in your head that sabotages attempts to connect to your higher self. It does so by questioning your worthiness, commitment, ability, or anything else it can get its hands on to keep you from moving forward with what's important to you.

Let's say that you want to find a new job. You know how to or know how to go about finding how to write a resume, networking, creating a cover letter, and enhancing your position as a candidate. There is information on the internet and experts abound to help you with this. It's the saboteur that keeps you from acting, wanting you to remain exactly as you are despite your desire to change.

Any time that you think about engaging or engage in an activity that brings you closer to who you want to be is when the saboteur comes out.

You don't have a knowledge problem, because you know everything you need to know or have the means to find out. You don't have a failure problem because you've failed before and have kept persevering. You don't have a commitment problem because you have made and kept commitments all of your life. You don't have a worthiness problem because you are worthy of and deserve anything that you dream for your life.

You have a saboteur problem.

In this series throughout the month of March, we will focus on discovering your career saboteur, how it operates within you, what you can do about it, and how to live with it. Each post will conclude with an assignment to complete that pertains to the day's topic and will move you forward in your understanding of this powerful internal obstacle to your success. To get the most out of this series, complete the assignments.

Assignment #1: Identify Your Saboteur
Think of one to three things that you have wanted to accomplish in your career but haven't been able to. Make them as big as possible: starting your own business, freelancing, applying for a promotion, asking for a raise, or anything else that-logically and objective-is possible. It should speak to your highest values, your dreams, and/or a calling that you feel.

Next week: how your career saboteur operates.

Eliminating the 'Easy' in Your Career

A well-known office supply chain offers its customers the ability to make things 'easy' by pressing a button. Easy...what a loaded word. When things are easy, they aren't difficult. Tasks are performed knowledgeably and quickly, and the outcome is almost always certain and to your liking. We naturally gravitate toward the easy, and-for the most part-we want things in our careers to be easy: customers to come back, supervisors to like our work, work to be completed on-time and with little difficulty. Easy is the way to go, right?

But here's the rub: excellence is hard. Learning important life-lessons is difficult. And oftentimes our best work was created under strenuous circumstances.

If we want to get what we want in our careers, we need to be prepared to abandon the easy and embrace the difficult. Think back to the greatest lessons you learned in your career life, and I'm willing to bet that most-if not all-of them had nothing to do with things that were easy. The hours you put in studying to achieve the grades you desired. The strenuous practice to prepare for the work presentation of your career. The time conditioning your body so you can be the athlete you want to be. When circumstances are difficult, we strive to meet the challenge; when they become easy, we stay stagnant and stuck in a rut.

Use the following questions to guide in determining where you need to make things more difficult for the sake of your career:

Where in my career life am I feeling intimidated or do I need to apply more pressure to myself?

In what aspects of my career life do I feel that I have been 'coasting' or have I already mastered?

How would my career be better if I could push myself in these areas?

What am I willing to do, and what am I not willing to do?

What will I do today that will move me in the direction that I want to move in?

Circumstances don't make you; they reveal you. Push yourself in your career to be the professional that you want to be.

Three Mind-Over-Matter Ways to Influence Your Career

Do you feel that you spend your time productively?

What a loaded question. There are those who 'do' but when they turn around to see what they have done are not happy with the result. There are also those who create lists of tasks to accomplish but find themselves spending time in ways that are not productive.

Is it that our accomplishments are meaningless (as in the first scenario) or that we are lazy (as in the second scenario)? Or do we need to use our mind in different ways?

The ramifications of this on our careers is obvious: there's a camp of job seekers or driven employees who think that producing makes them successful, but they are not mindful about what they produce and how it helps to get them where they want to go. There's also a camp who aspire to accomplish, but end up disappointing themselves with how little they produce.

So what should one do if they are feeling productive but unaccomplished or unmotivated? Follow the advice of these experts to turn time in your favor.

Do Less: Tony Schwartz writes in the Harvard Business Review that to accomplish more in your work or personal life that doing less: taking breaks and disengaging from work. He sits two studies-one by NASA and one by a performance expert researching violinists-that looked at the impact taking breaks has on one's productivity and the results showed a positive correlations between breaks and performance. Whether you are looking for a job or looking to advance in your career, disengaging from work for a small period of time can make you more productive than trying to slog through to get "something" done.

Proactively Schedule 'Thinking Time': Software developer Jacob Gorban advocates not just taking a break from work but devoting that time to thinking. By spending his Monday mornings thinking about his week, working on the "important, not urgent" stuff, and creatively sketching out ideas for future projects and products, he feels more clear about what his week should look like and works toward accomplishing his goals. Schedule intentional thinking time in your week to align yourself with what's important to you and what you want to get done.

Engaging Your Creative Mind: Some people feel that they simply are not creative, but it turns out that engaging your creative mind is a process that anyone can do. By creating an environment where you tap into your creativity, difficult problems are approached and solved from a new perspective and you create the seeds to do some amazing work by breaking down barriers that you have created for yourself.

Utilize these strategies and write in the comments below your successes or your struggles!

Four Groups to Thank to Enhance your Success

Creating an attitude of gratitude isn't hokey, contrived nonsense. Research into appreciation has shown it to help improve one's sleep and positively influence behavior. Since the season of giving thanks is upon us, consider reaching out with gratitude and appreciation to these groups to make a positive impact on your career.

Mentors: No one succeeds by themselves, and you are no exception. Think about those who have helped propel you to where you are today-whether it was a college professor, former supervisor, or a friend-and send them a note or an email or a gift to thank them for the help that they have given you.

Interviewers: It's expected that you would send a thank you note to an interviewer after an interview, but what about after a job rejection? Though you are most likely experiencing disappointment and frustration, change your outlook by sending another note to thank the interviewer for the opportunity and wishing the selected candidate success in the future. Doing so will highlight your graciousness as a candidate and could lead to future opportunities with that organization.

Your network: When looking for a position you should obviously attend networking events. Send a quick email to thank those who you chatted with for their time, offering any assistance that they may need or-if none is needed-let them know that you are interested in staying in touch.

Your community: There are many ways that you can give thanks to your community. First, you can volunteer at an organization that is in need of assistance and could best utilize your skills. Another way would be to teach a class through your local community education. The interactions you will have and the good-will you create will be a much-needed boost for you while serving those other than yourself.

Make the choice to give thanks to others this season and help yourself in the process.

Getting Tough with Your Career

Recently while surfing for the perfect television show to fall asleep to, my wife happened upon a program where a group of single young women are forced to get tough with the reasons why they do not have the mate they so desperately crave. The program caught my attention because of the brash, in-your-face style the host used to get to the heart of what was holding the women back.

The idea of getting tough stuck with me because we often give ourselves a lot of leeway when it comes to careers. We make excuses for ourselves or choices that are safe instead of inspiring. When was the last time you were tough on your career? Assess how your career stacks up in the following areas:

Goals: Your professional goals provide a roadmap to a work life filled with satisfaction and fulfillment, and the momentum that goals create can propel your career to places that it has never been. What kind of goals are you creating for yourself?

Accomplishments: Similar to goals, how do you assess what you have accomplished at work? Have you simply done what is expected of you or what fits in your job description, or have you gone beyond that? What projects or teams have you contributed to, what have been your contributions, and how have those contributions made things better? Assess your accomplishments to determine their worth to your career, and adjust if necessary.

Relationships: In your career you likely have relationships with many people. What is the quality of those relationships, and which ones contribute to your career growth? Perhaps it is time to find a mentor to aid in your career growth.

It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. By getting tough on your career, you can break patterns that simply aren't helpful and focus on areas that are going to get you to a place where you are most productive, satisfied, and fulfilled.