Fall in Love With Your Career all Over Again

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Choosing a Career Path|Fall in Love With Your Career all Over AgainOne of the things so many people crave these days is a career that they love. There are a lot of factors that you need to keep in mind if you are serious about this, and it is crucial that you do as much as possible to look at how you can make the most of your job. There are so many different factors that can impact our careers and the way we enjoy them, and it is important to keep this in mind moving forward.

Think about the different elements that play a role in helping you adapt to your chosen career path better. Being fulfilled and happy, and getting the most out of your career is so important, and you need to make sure you look at what you can do to make the most of your job. These are some of the factors that can help you to fall in love with your career all over again, starting today.

Rethink What You Want

One of the first places to start is to rethink what you want out of your career. If you can understand this, you will be well-placed to be able to get more out of it. Finding your job as fulfilling as possible is something you need to make sure you get right now, and there are a lot of factors that play a role in this. Make sure you look at reassessing your career path and focusing on what you want to achieve from your job moving forward. By shifting your focus, you are able to be more productive at work and work toward achieving your long-term goals.

Look to Progress

You need to think about where you see yourself in your career path for the next few years. There are a lot of things that play a part in this, and you need to consider what your aspirations are for the future. Progressing in the business is so important, and it is natural to want more out of your life. In a career, you want to see progression and work toward being as successful as possible. This means you need to pursue success and look for opportunities to progress in the company, by way of promotions etc.

Ensure You are Getting the Right Treatment

It is important to make sure you are getting the right treatment in your career. When trying to determine if your career or the company you work for is right for you, it becomes important to look at the way in which they treat you. As a valuable member of staff, you should be valued and treated with respect by the business. You could hire a workers comp lawyer to make sure you are legally protected, and that you are getting the compensation you deserve. Taking steps to make sure you improve your career is so important, and this is one of the most essential parts of the process that you need to think about right now.

Be a Team Player

Being a team player is one of the most important things you can do in your job. The fact of the matter is that you want to make sure you work in a friendly and harmonious environment. This means looking at the best ways of becoming a team player as much as possible. You have to make sure you are focused on improving and enhancing the work-related arena, and being a team player makes you much more likely to be able to enjoy your career more. You want to find somewhere that is pleasant to work, and that plays a massive part in the process of helping you achieve more and work harder. This is why it is important that you do as much as possible to be a team player and work together with your colleagues to really enhance your working relationship.

It is important to have a career that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning. While money is important, it is not the be all and end all of the business world, and this is something to keep in mind. When it comes to loving your job, you need to think about what elements of the business you can benefit from, and what it takes to improve your career path. Come up with ideas that are going to help you rediscover the way you approach your business, as well as thinking about how you can go about enjoying the different elements of your business that little bit more.

4 Business Skills to Improve in 2019

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Business Skills|4 Business Skills to Improve in 2019Most entrepreneurs and business professionals understand that to truly thrive within business, they must have valuable business skills. It’s important to know the importance of investing in yourself when it comes to growing your business. When it’s your own business, you’re the only one who can fully get behind it, bringing in new skills and strengths over time.

Each year, new innovations and trends in business arise. This means that you must be constantly on the ball, sharpening your skills to keep ahead.

Whether it’s learning how to improve your conversion rate on a certain social media platform, or improving your public speaking skills, everyone has their own areas they wish to improve.

Here are 4 key business skills worth mastering in 2019, which will confidently take you and your business into 2020.

1. Technology

It seems that there is no faster moving industry than that of technology. One minute we think we have the most up-to-date smartphone, only to find it quickly replaced by the next big thing.

The same applies for the technology required for businesses. Retail businesses must understand that their point-of-sale (POS) systems will constantly need to be compatible with mobile payment systems, like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

As the world goes mobile heavy, it’s beneficial to have your business accessed via apps. Perhaps to reach wider audiences, you could benefit from understanding how to make short video clips or even podcasts for your business.

All these require a thorough understanding of new and existing technology you may not be familiar with. Assess which aspects of technology could benefit your business and learn how to use them.

2. Social Media

Understanding the evolving social media platforms and how to use them is vital to any business. Whether you run a product-led retail business or service, social media can be used to reach new audiences and potentially increase sake.

Social media evolves rapidly, therefore, any entrepreneur needs to stay on top of the most popular platforms, without falling behind. In 2019, Instagram is constantly updating itself and has become the most widely used social media platform, so sharpening your skills across this platform is vital.

It’s worth studying the effect on social media platforms for both marketing and sales, sharpening your knowledge on how to effectively use them. It may be that only certain platforms would work with your business, but either way, it’s worth finding out.

3. Relationship Building

Communication is the key skill when it comes to relationship building. Without being able to communicate and build mutually beneficial relationships within business, you could be preventing new opportunities arising.

Some of the relationships you build will be more client or supplier based, in which you’ll not only need strong communication skills but that or negotiating and persuasion. These are key for working to anything numbers and financial based, so it could be worth improving your skills within negotiation and sales. You can look at seminars by companies such as Karrass, which teach you tactics and strategies.

4. Failure Management

With all new businesses, you’ll be expected to have highs and lows. No matter how hard you have worked on a plan, an unexpected outcome can happen. Everyone deals with failure differently, but it tends to be those who don’t deal well with mishaps and approach business failure negatively that fail to grow their business.

When you fully understand how failure can come and go, and how to handle it, you can budget for unexpected expenses and mentally prepare. It all comes down with understanding how to respond to a crisis. There are many courses and classes that focus on failure management to help to train you with this.

The above are a hand-picked selection of many business trends which will help you thrive as an entrepreneur in 2019. It’s worth assessing a combination of soft skills and hard skills spreading across technology, processes and personality skills. Both are equally as important, so do analyze your current strengths and weaknesses, and take action accordingly.

Stretch Goals, The Field, and Choosing the Best Path

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article | Stretch Goals, The Field, and Choosing the Best Path | Stretch GoalsStretch goals are intended to push the organization to higher levels of performance. They stretch all teams and the individuals in those teams. Stretch goals can rarely be met with incremental changes, thus, management and staff must be dynamic and creative in planning how to meet the goals. This situation can be intimidating, but it is the ideal scenario for you to shift your career in a new, more desirable direction. There are two key components to help you make the shift: understanding how the Field works, and discerning the work activity you most enjoy – regardless of “normal expectations” for your position.

Defining the Field, Understanding Its Drivers. The Field – which is also referred to as “quantum reality” – is a matrix of electromagnetic waves that permeate everything. “So what?” you may ask. Consider the following reality as proven via scientific experiments and measurable observations: i) at the base of all physical matter are tiny electromagnetic energy waves, ii) as two electromagnetic waves intersect, they exchange data, and iii) communication in the Field is instantaneous. This reality means that all living and innate matter in our world are connected every single instant.

Okay, so how does one use this massive web of connection to choose the best path in a stretch-goal environment? Think about the basic formula that underpins all success in the workplace – to achieve a high performance rating, you need to understand how your boss thinks, what their expectations are, and what their goals are to attain a high rating from their superiors. Once you understand this, then you can design an effective performance plan. It is the same with the Field: understand what is important to the Field, then you can proactively engage the Field to aid in directing your career path to higher levels of success.

Why the Field supports you. What is the top priority of the Field? Expansion. Everything in the universe has a drive to expand – humans, animals, plants, bacteria, even the universe itself. At the individual level, the human feeling of “excitement” is most closely aligned with expansion. Why? The Field is connected to all things, so it is aware of your strengths and how those strengths can best help it expand. Thus, when you are focused on an activity that you enjoy (that you look forward to, that excites you), the Field gives you a clue you are on the right track via the feeling of excitement.

So find a comfortable spot at work – or even head to your favorite coffee shop – and review all your work activities, ranking them by how much you enjoy the activity. Be sure to include activities or skills that you have been wanting to learn. Next pick the top activity (or top two, not more) and create a plan around that activity, quantifying how your efforts will increase productivity or drive efficiency.

In the Field, a Low Risk. Your unique stretch-goal-plan is – in quantum reality – a low risk. This is because you have centered the plan around what excites you at work, and when excitement is combined with venturing into new territory, it will invariably lead to your growth as a professional. Thus, you grow personally, your wider team is challenged and grows with you, and the project itself will be productive. Put another way, each of these aspects expands – and, thus, the Field expands.

The Fringe Benefits. What about the other goals in your overall career plan? The good news is that by focusing so much energy on just one or two areas, your plan/project will create a larger momentum that will inevitably demand the demonstration of other skills. Besides the leadership and innovation capabilities you show in putting forth the plan, the additional skills of project management, team management, communication, selling, leveraging diversity, conflict management, and budgeting will likely be demonstrated.

Stretch Yourself, Stretch Your Boss… Expand the Field. In creating a plan that will stretch yourself in an area you enjoy, you will also be stretching your boss. They will need to acknowledge the merit of your plan, they will need to consider how best to sell the idea to their superior(s), and they may need to think about who else on the team will perform the duties they had expected you to be doing. All of that is a fantastic challenge for your boss. They don’t want a boring job; else they would not have accepted the promotion to manager. Besides, like you they may be a bit intimidated by the stretch goals, so you will be helping them with an innovative idea for meeting leadership’s expectations.

Understanding how the expansive properties of the Field work, combined with a focus on the top one or two work activities that excite you, ensures the design of a successful stretch-plan. It also raises your awareness of potential opportunities that may arise – whether those are hoped for or unexpected.

Stretch goals are not obstacles to success, they are unique opportunities to customize your path and accelerate your success. Embrace and use them to stretch yourself, stretch your boss…and expand the Field.

Rejection Epilogue. If your boss rejects your stretch-plan, this is not a failure. Remember that the Field is connected to all things, so it will be keenly aware of your focused and organized vision for expanding your career/team, and by default the Field itself. After the rejection, maintain a positive “can do” attitude and keep your eyes open for other development opportunities. Perhaps a mentor will ask you to join their team, perhaps someone outside the company will offer you a job, or perhaps your boss will ask you to lead a brand-new project in an area that you find exciting. As long as you focus your stretch-plan on an activity that you enjoy, the Field will not be able to help itself: It will notice your effort, and, one way or another, it will respond.

About the Author

For 28 years John Jay McKey has been a student of success, building and leading data analysis teams in the banking sector, a Big Four accounting and consulting firm, the Office of Inspector General, and a multinational Fortune 50 company. While commuting from Chicago to Washington DC to work for the OIG, Jay had a personal epiphany that led him on a deep dive into the world of quantum physics. That journey resulted in the writing of Leverage the Field for Success, which explains how one can use what scientists call the universal energy field, the zero-point field, or simply “the field,” to support and accelerate one’s success and/or the success of their team.

3 Unusual Jobs That Pay Well

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Career Hunter|3 Unusual Jobs That Pay Well Looking for a career that is different and considered unusual can often be found at the top of career hunter’s requirements. As well as looking for something that is unusual you probably want to earn a decent wage at the same time. It can definitely be a challenge to find careers that pay well and tick the box when it comes to being a little different, it can be hard to find one that is going to give you both and so people sometimes compromise.

However, with a little bit of hard work and dedication, you’re sure to find that unique job that also enables you to earn a fantastic living. Check out these occupations that are seen as little unusual but still offer you a good rate of pay.

Acupuncturist

Most people will be familiar with or at heard of this ancient Chinese practice. It’s where fine, sterile needles are inserted into your skin at certain pressure points. Sometimes electrical stimulation, heat, and pressure are also used to provide therapy to these areas. Acupuncture is a therapy that is used to release energy blocks in order to restore balance. It is often used to treat disorders that are involved with cardiovascular, digestive, immune systems, and nervous systems. As an acupuncturist, you will be dealing with patients’ health history and issues by performing physical assessments and performing therapies. You will often come across conditions such as back pain, Anxiety, Addiction and Migraines. There are several different routes to becoming a qualified acupuncturist depending on your location so it’s best to research this.

DNA/Forensic Analyst

This is a very interesting and rewarding career that requires a lot of focus, patience, commitment and discretion. Made a little more well-known thanks to crime dramas such as CSI DNA Analysts career have become a little more sort after than ever before. However, this doesn’t make them any less unusual or rewarding. You will be working closely within crimes scenes and laboratories to help assess DNA from blood, hair, bodily fluids and saliva to convict or relieve and suspects in a crime. You will use specialist equipment such as DNA extraction tools, microplates and a 96 deep well plate to complete your work and be in charge of maintaining and keeping it clean. Although a very high demanding job and the chance of been called out at any hour this type of career can be very rewarding as it plays a critical role in our jurisdiction system now.

Food Scientist

Ever wanted to make food fun? Then a career as a food scientist may be the role for you! If you’re interested in science but also love your food you are onto a real winner. Nearly every single food product that you see on the shelves in the supermarket has been seen or dealt with by a food scientist. They are the people who have the responsibility for making sure the food isn’t going to make people ill, the levels of nutrients held within the products and developing new foods and tastes. Food scientists take charge and conduct research, experiments, and often complete clinical trials to help make safer foods and preservatives. They even have a hand in creating food processing techniques, packaging and new products that could benefit how food is preserved and developed for consumption. They are often the hidden masterminds behind all our favourite flavours and tastes. Educating yourself in microbiology, chemistry or food science is going to give you a good lead on starting a career like this.

Why Committing to Becoming 1% Better Every Day Can Turn Everything around

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Pursuit of Excellence|Why Committing to Becoming 1% Better Every Day Can Turn Everything aroundEveryone wants to achieve a degree of excellence in their lives, whether that means developing a killer business that takes the industry by storm, and revolutionises how things are done, or whether it means being the best possible spouse, parent, or friend we can be.

To that end, it pretty much goes without saying that, at any given time, hordes of people are doing their best to carry out ambitious plans for self-development, in the pursuit of that elusive and much-craved “excellence.”

Does your business involve a decent degree of marketing? Then, no doubt, you’re interested in applying next level channel marketing strategies to really kick things up a notch. Are you perhaps not in the best physical shape of your life, but really want to be? Then, you’re probably also one of the millions of people who sign up for the gym each January, in order to make good on a New Year’s resolution to get fit.

The only problem is, it’s actually legitimately difficult to become “excellent” in any given domain. Not only that, but it’s typically difficult even knowing how to begin setting about pursuing excellence in many dimensions of life.

The thing about big plans is that they are difficult to execute, difficult to keep track of, and are prone to all sorts of hiccups and mishaps along the way. It’s for this reason, among others, that Scott Adams – the famous creator of the Dilbert comics – advises that people should forget about goals altogether, and should focus on “systems” instead.

According to Adams, “systems” are the daily routines and rituals that you act out, that move you closer to success and prosperity in a given area; whereas goals are about setting a target for some point in the future, and then living in a state of permanent dissatisfaction and disappointment, as a result.

There are good critiques to be made of Adams anti-goal stance. But, there’s no denying that focusing on certain daily “systems” can be a powerful way of achieving excellence in work and life.

One “system” that has been promoted by many serious business and lifestyle gurus, is the pursuit of becoming “1% better” in a given area, each day.

Here are a few reasons why committing to becoming 1% better every day may turn everything around for you.

Because it’s a realistic scale of achievement and progress

To use the analogy of fitness, once more – setting yourself a goal like “I’m going to run an ultramarathon,” when you currently can’t even jog 1 mile without wheezing – or setting yourself a goal like “I’m going to bench press 300 pounds,” when you currently can’t even do a single push-up – may well not be the most productive way forward.

Among other things, setting yourself these kinds of major, ambitious goals right out the gate, puts you in a position where the scale of achievement and progress you’re aiming for is extremely difficult to conceptualise, or believe in.

It’s not that you can’t achieve those feats – it’s just that, until you get closer, you may struggle immensely to “believe in” them, or to feel satisfied by the progress you’re making along the path.

Striving to become “1% better each day,” on the other hand, represents a realistic scale of achievement and progress that just about everyone can believe in, regardless of where they’re starting off from.

Of course, “1%” isn’t a perfectly mathematical calculation, here. It’s just a euphemism for making really small, but consistent, improvements every day. Perhaps you went for a 10-minute jog yesterday, and felt exhausted. So, today, try to go for an 11-minute jog. this will be achievable for you, and you will feel good about achieving it, too. Then, tomorrow, you can go for a 12-minute jog. And so on.

After a year, you’re likely to be in such a dramatically superior position in life, that it’s hard to believe how far you’ve come.

Because momentum is a large part of what success in business is all about

Success in business, specifically, has plenty to do with things like innovation, and hard work, but there’s a good argument to be made that the most important skill for any aspiring entrepreneur, is simple grit, determination, and consistency.

Of course, this applies to just about everything else in life, too. It’s rarely the people who come out with a single dramatic “flash in the pan” burst of hard work who really innovate and transform things, and secure themselves a place in the annals of history.

Far more often, it’s the people who turn up to work every day, whether or not they feel like it, and who keep iterating and optimising, and moving forward, until things come together.

Focusing on becoming 1% better every day is a great way of building that sort of momentum, and of developing the kind of “staying power” that can really move mountains over time.

Striving to become 1% better every day is also a great antidote to the all-too-common tendency of many aspiring entrepreneurs, to want to spend an inordinate amount of time at the “drawing board,” as opposed to actually making things happen.

When you know that it’s about the journey along the road of incremental improvement, rather than the “single miraculous action,” you give yourself permission to actually get started, and work out the kinks along the way.

Because it will prevent you from backsliding

Setbacks inevitably happen, and you’re not always going to be in a better position, business-wise, today than you were yesterday.

All the same, one of the great things of striving to become 1% better every day, is that it puts you in a great frame of mind to avoid backsliding, and to fight against the ever-present threat of entropy.

Even if a crisis situation occurs in your business, and puts you on the back foot, striving to become 1% better will keep you pointed upwards, and will remove your excuses for compromising, or taking the easy way out.

Ultimately, guarding yourself against the tendency to backslide is just as important as anything else, when it comes to consistency and the pursuit of excellence.