Five Areas to Be Grateful for in Your Career

As we approach Thanksgiving Day it’s good to think about our career and the parts of our work lives that we’re grateful for. We’d also recommend a daily gratitude practice but that is a story for another time.

There are many aspects of our career that we might be thankful for but for now let’s focus on the following five areas.

The opportunity to do work that benefits your community and the world, while utilizing your strengths, talents, skills, and interests. It’s fulfilling to find work that interests you and enables you to use your strengths and skills to make the world a better place through your company’s products or services.

Working with good people. You’re fortunate when you work with a competent and dedicated team that you enjoy working with toward a common goal. You earn bonus points when there is one or two co-workers you consider a friend or enjoy socializing with outside of work.

Flexible work arrangements. Be grateful for opportunities you to work from home, leave work early to attend to family matters, or benefit from a four-day work-week.

A mentor. We should always be thankful for those people who have taught, guided, and mentored us along the way in our lives, education, and in our jobs. A good mentor should not be taken for granted, and he or she likely played an important role in where you are now in your life and career.

The occasion to advance in your career and to develop your skills. A great workplace enables you to gain new knowledge, enhance your skills, and provides opportunities for advancement. Be grateful for these opportunities at work.

These five areas can offer you the chance to reflect on your current job, be thankful for the positive aspects of your work, and can help you consider whether a change in scenery might be better for your career.

5 Tips to Develop a Reputation for Kind and Generous Communication Skills

Based on the current political environment you might be mistaken for thinking the best way to become a success in your life and career is to belittle those who stand in your way, and speak rudely of the so-called competition.

However, you'll find true success when you develop a reputation for kindness and generosity in the way you communicate with others.

1. Say thank you. Be gracious toward others for their time and generosity. If someone takes the time to interview you for a new position or if someone provides a reference for you, be sure to thank them for their time and effort.

2. Apologize. We all make mistakes and we all sometimes treat people in ways we wish that we hadn't. In those circumstances we need to be sure to apologize to those we've hurt and offended.

3. Promote the accomplishments of others. Give credit where credit is due. Don't hog all the credit for your successes and accomplishments. You did not succeed only on your own efforts. Be sure to acknowledge those who have contributed to your success. And also promote the successes of others, even when it has nothing to do with you. Making the effort to support others will help diminish a tendency toward jealousy.

4. Speak kindly of your enemies. Many people have burned a few bridges along the way, or been fired from a job, or argued with a previous employer. Train yourself to speak kindly of those who might have treated you poorly. It's a small world and you might find yourself working with them again so work to think and speak well of others, even those you did not get along with.

5. Encourage others. Be known as one who encourages the best in others rather than one who tears others down or belittles them. When you focus on the positive and encourage others you bring out the best in them and in yourself.

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?

5 Habits for a Successful Career (and Life)

Habits. There are good habits and there are bad habits and all of us have a mixture of both. The challenge is to encourage and build upon the good habits and eliminate the bad.

Our habits can have a significant impact on our careers and that is one reason it is so important to build on and add to our good habits.

With that in mind here are five habits that can enhance your career and life:

Sleep. It is important to your intellectual and emotional well-being to ensure that you get enough sleep every night. Set a bed time that allows you to get 7-8 hours of sleep every night and stick to it. Avoid watching TV or drinking alcohol right before bed.

Meditate. You don't have to be a monk to enjoy the benefits of meditation and you don't need to meditate for long periods of time. A simple practice of 5 minutes of attention to your breathing can bring great benefits.

Eat. Focus on eating healthy and energy-producing foods, while avoiding a lot of sugar, salt, and alcohol. You'll feel better and have more creative energy to apply to your work and home life.

Move. Avoid a sedentary life. This is especially important for those who spend long hours in front of a computer. Be sure to stand up and take a break every hour. Walk around the office or get outside. Do some light stretching.

Thank. If needed adjust your attitude and be grateful: for your job, your family, your co-worker, where you live. Find something to be grateful for every day. And a bonus habit: journal. Keep a daily journal where you can write about your progress and note those things in your life you are thankful for.

A great resource for developing good habits is Gretchen Rubin's new book Better Than Before. Learn more about it and check out helpful resources at her web site.

What do Job Seekers Have to be Thankful for?

It is official; the holiday season is upon us. I know from personal family experience that it is tough to be thankful and positive when you are unemployed, especially when you are unemployed during the holiday season. In honor of Thanksgiving, I wanted to talk to about the positive aspects of the job search process and what you can be thankful for today as you sit down to your Thanksgiving meal.

Networking
The job search process has changed so much. Networking has become more important than ever. I looked at multiple surveys of how people found their jobs and the percentages of people who found their job through networking vary from 64% to 83%. No matter the number, you can see the majority of people are using networking to their advantage.

Be thankful that you have this opportunity to get out from in front of the computer, interact with live human beings instead of the internet, and make connections that expedite the hiring process. Don’t make networking harder than it needs to be. Simply talk to people about your skills and the benefits you can offer a company and clearly communicate how they can help you.

Social Media
I have to admit, I resisted the social media movement. Who has time to update statuses, create profiles, and manage their connections? As a job seeker, you need to find the time. Be thankful that you have these online networks where you can post your profile, showcase your personality, highlight your communication style, and make connections with people you may never have met before social media played such a large role in the job search process.

Think of social media as one more tool in your toolbox that you can use to land the job. However, just like all tools, you must use them properly to get the best possible results from them.

A Great Resume
As a professional resume writer, I may be biased. However, no matter how often people state the resume is “dead,” most every job search situation still calls for a resume. Standing alone, a resume can’t get you a job. However, a bad resume can prevent you from landing a job faster than most anything else.

Be thankful that there are so many resources available to you to help you assess your skills, define the benefits you can offer an employer, and effectively market the brand of YOU in your resume. Take the time to refine your resume until it clearly states the benefits you can bring an employer.