The Challenge of Seeking Challenge

The Challenge of Seeking Challenge I recently read an article by a well-respected author on what she refers to as “The Velvet Coffin.” She defines this as the complacency that causes one to remain at a job that is comfortable, but devoid of challenge. If you’re in this situation, your job holds few surprises â€" you know what to expect each day and can put yourself on auto-pilot and complete your work with minimal stress and effort. The salary is adequate, your coworkers are amiable, and it’s far easier to fall into a predictable routine than to leave your comfort zone and chase down challenges and new opportunities that bring with them a number of uncertainties. This, according to the author, is when you start dying a little each day. While abandoning your mundane job and seeking out challenge and stimulation may be the typical outlook of an optimistic go-getter, I see several problems with this viewpoint. I’m aware that these can all be debated, especially by someone who has taken a leap of faith into a new and challenging career and emerged better off. However, I consider myself neither an optimist nor a pessimist, but rather a realist â€" and as such, here are my problems with this viewpoint. A Bird in the Hand The first thing you must do before jumping ship is to weigh the constants with the variables. Do you have job security at your current job? If so, that’s a constant. Will you at the new job? If the answer is no, or you don’t know, that’s a variable. Will you receive a salary increase in your new position? If yes, that’s a constant. Will the work definitely be more challenging, or will you learn your new role, then continue to do it day in and day out as you do with your current role? Do you know for sure if you will get along with your boss and your coworkers? Will you have a good work/life balance? If the answer to these questions is anything other than yes, then these are variables. You must then ask yourself if you’re willing to trade your current job for one that may contain a number of variables. Constantly learning and being challenged are important in a job, but they must be weighed with a number of other factors. If you accept a position that’s challenging, but in the process give up job security, work/life balance, camaraderie with coworkers and a good working relationship with your manager, you will most likely regret it. Patience Is a Virtue Surprising as this may sound, every job I’ve ever had included brief periods where I didn’t feel challenged. It’s only natural that companies and careers go through an ebb and flow that includes periods of downtime where challenges don’t come on a daily basis. However, jumping ship every time you don’t feel challenged is not only impetuous, but will eventually label you a job hopper. Instead, consider these options. Wait It Out Here’s another revelation â€" while every job I’ve had may have included brief periods without challenge, had I left each time it happened, I would have missed out on the greatest opportunities and accomplishments of my career. Just because you don’t feel challenged now doesn’t mean you won’t a month from now. The question you must answer is whether your lack of challenge is temporary, and the answer shouldn’t be rushed. Schedule a meeting with your manager and tell them your concerns. There may be changes right around the corner that you aren’t yet aware of. If not, making your manager aware of your dissatisfaction may be just the impetus they need to throw more challenge and responsibility your way. In my experience, every career advancement has always left me saying, “Thank goodness I didn’t leave.” Make Your Own Change If you don’t feel challenged in your current position, it may be up to you to make a change within the company. Sit down with your manager and map out a plan. Perhaps you can take on more responsibility, begin training for a new role, work toward earning a certification or even a graduate degree. Your manager may welcome your interest in expanding your horizons â€" something a new manager at a new company may not be open to. For some, leaving one job to start another brings with it not only new challenges, but better opportunities, better benefits, a better salary, and often a much-needed change of scenery. But leaving a job only because you no longer feel challenged can lead to regret. I can’t begin to think of how many coworkers I’ve seen leave for “better” opportunities, only to see them return, or try to return, a few months later. If you truly feel bored at your current job and that you have nothing left to learn, then it may be time to move on. Just make sure that your new role can provide what you’re expecting, and that you won’t end up in the same situation or worse within a few months at the new company. Also, be sure you explore every opportunity at your current job before leaving, because opportunity lies around every corner…and often when you least expect it.

OLD WIVES TALES ABOUT DIET AND WEIGHT LOSS

OLD WIVES TALES ABOUT DIET AND WEIGHT LOSS An estimated 45 million Americans go on a diet each year, and Americans spend $33 billion each year on weight loss products. Yet, nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. With all of this money expended, why are so many people unable to lose weight?  Dr. Christopher Calapai  says that, “People are dealing with dieting information overload. It is hard to know what is sound weight loss advice and what is a myth.”     He sets the record straight on some of our most commonly held diet and weight loss myths. You can eat whatever you want if you workout Unfortunately, a half hour on the treadmill isn’t going to help you lose weight if you reward yourself by downing a few slices of cake and an order of French fries. The treadmill told you that you burned off 500 calories, but those estimated machine readouts are not always accurate.   It’s near impossible to out-exercise a bad diet unless you plan to spend half your day in the gym. You must workout and eat smart to see results.  Organic food is diet food. The word organic is enticing, but it’s also misleading. Organic means a food is grown without pesticides or other chemicals and is not genetically modified. But it says absolutely nothing about the nutrient value of the food itself, or whether it’s a good dietary choice, or whether it has excessive fat, sugar, or starch. Organic sugar is still sugar. Organic white flour is still white flour. Organic butter is still butter and organic lard is still lard. You Can Lose 10 Pounds  in 2 Weeks. You probably can lose 10 pounds  in two weeks  if you crash-diet, but that pace is rarely sustainable.   Most of the weight will return once you start eating normally. To truly lose 1 pound, you need to “eliminate” 3,500 caloriesâ€"the amount stored in a pound of fatâ€"by eating less and moving more. If you cut 500 calories (or cut 300 and burn 200 through exercise) every single day of the week, you’ll lose about a pound a week. And that’s real weight loss. amount stored in a pound of fatâ€"by eating less and moving more. If you cut 500 calories (or cut 300 and burn 200 through exercise) every single day of the week, you’ll lose about a pound a week. And that’s real weight loss. Cleanses and detoxes are a good way to jump-start a diet. Nobody needs to detox. Unless youve been poisoned, you have a built-in, super-efficient system for filtering out most of the harmful substances you eat. Its made up of two toxin-bashing organs: the liver and the kidneys. Our kidneys filter our blood and remove any waste from our diet, and our livers process medications and detoxify any chemicals we ingest. Paired together, these organs make our bodies natural cleansing powerhouses.  You can’t eat after  8pm It doesnt matter what time of day you eat. It is what and how much you eat and how much physical activity you do during the whole day that determines whether you gain, lose, or maintain your weight. No matter when you eat, your body will store extra calories as fat. If you want a snack before bedtime, think first about how many calories youve eaten that day. You must keep your blood sugar topped up, and eat little and often to achieve it This is one of the least accurate bits of advice. Every time you eat a carbohydrate, and your blood glucose levels rise, the body needs to release a substance called insulin (from the pancreas) to return your blood glucose levels to normal. Any “topping up” simply places a demand on the body to get the blood glucose levels back down again. This might be the  reason for the explosion in type 2 diabetes â€" the body is asked to release insulin too much, too often and has no way of recognizing some of the foreign substances we consume in modern man-made food. Wait Until Youre Hungry to Eat. Myth!: By waiting to eat until youre very hungry, your hunger simply builds and builds until its all consuming, causing your appetite to spiral out of control. In fact, new research reveals that by skipping breakfast, youll end up eating more calories in total and making less healthy food choices throughout the day than you would have otherwise. Research also shows that forgoing breakfast activates your bodys insulin response, triggering fat storage and weight gain. This post was provided by Dr. Christopher Calapai  , a New York City Osteopathic Physician board certified in family and anti-aging medicine.

Apparel Shopping Online The New Age Shopaholics Life Force

Apparel Shopping Online â€" The New Age Shopaholic’s Life Force Not only does online shopping help you reduce your expenses, you also get a lot of variety when you are checking out online catalogs and product lists and shopping at discounted rates, especially with promotional discount coupons from coupon sites like  CouponzGuru, Grabon, or Shopbysave. Let’s  look at why people prefer to buy their clothes online. Read on to find out more. Online shopping websites always provide buyers with the finest deals and offers.  You often get free delivery options, zero COD charge offers, and even free item offers, along with the usual discount of prices of between 40% and 70%. With such lucrative offers and deals, why would a shopper ever make the choice of going to the store physically and paying more for less convenience. For example, currently ICICI Bank users are getting 25% extra off by using coupon at Jabong. A convenient way to shop With online shopping, convenience becomes a regular part of life. Shopping for clothes on websites like Jabong is easy, as you can check out all products right from the comfort of your home, place your order and have them delivered to your doorstep.  And if needed, return or exchange as per your taste and preference. This convenient way of shopping is also a money saver, as you are spared the transportation expenses when you shop online. A wide array of products When you are out there in the digital world, and are buying your clothes, accessories, bags and shoes online, you get a chance to check out a long list of items from a variety of brands on one single platform. This is advantageous because you get to choose a different style or variety every time you shop. If, in any case, you cannot get the right size for an item you simply must have, you can email the website and they will make sure that the size you need is made available to you. Ability to compare prices of different items When you are looking at almost similar products on two different tabs, changing between them can becomes confusing. But some websites allow you to compare two or three products by simply selecting and adding them to the compare tab. This gives you a clear idea about which one you should go for and which one you should avoid. But this will take some getting used to. Once you learn how to compare products, online shopping will become extremely easy and simple for you. Wonderful deals and bargains Online shopping websites always provide buyers with the finest deals and offers.  You often get free delivery options, zero COD charge offers, and even free item offers, along with the usual discount of prices of between 40% and 70%. With such lucrative offers and deals, no shopper would ever make the choice of going to the store physically and paying more for less convenience. Extra savings on your shopping budget Whenever you shop online, always remember that you will be saving a lot of money. You will be saving transportation expenses, as well as money on the items you buy thanks to the regular and promotional discounts you get. So always choose online shopping when you are looking for some great new clothes. Images:  Online Shopping  Robbert Noordzij   Shopping online  springwools

Writing, Amazon.com, Personal Branding Success in 2011 - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Writing, Amazon.com, Personal Branding Success in 2011 - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career During 2011, it will become harder and harder to separate writing, Amazon.com, and personal branding success. Many authors underestimate the number of marketing opportunities that Amazon.com offers those who are interested in building their personal brand. Certainly, there are numerous other online and offline book retailers; chances are, your home is within a few miles of a well-stocked Borders or Barnes Noble superstore. Yet, building on the success of the Amazon.com Kindle during 2010, two recent events underscore the close connection between writing a book, Amazon.com, and personal branding success. These two events indicate that Amazon.com may become even more important to authors writing to build their brands during 2011. 1. A new guide to marketing on Amazon.com For a long time, my two favorite books about marketing and promotion on Amazon.com have been: Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of Self Publishing, or How to Publish Your Books with Print on Demand and Online Book Marketing on Amazon.com, by Aaron Shepard. Sell Your Book on Amazon: The Book Marketing COACH Reveals Top-Secret How to Tips Guaranteed to Increase Sales for Print-on-Demand and Self-Published Writers, by Brent Sampson and Dan Poynter, Second Edition. Both are detailed, helpful, and informative, written from the point of view of experienced self-publishers. You certainly cant go wrong with either or both. Last week, however, I received a review copy of Dana Lynn Smiths The Savvy Book Marketers How to Sell More Books on Amazon.com. Danas book combines a concise, fresh treatment of book marketing resources on Amazon, plus more emphasis on Amazons top-selling Kindle e-book reader. Dana begins by describing the various Amazon marketing options available to authors, providing tips for making the most of author profiles, reader reviews, and as well as options available to self-published authors. In my favorite section, as she described in a recent guest post, Dana discusses how marketing Kindle books both resembles and differs from marketing printed books. She also provides specific examples of Kindle marketing, such as preparing preview pages. (Note: the above are not affiliate links.) 2. Seth Godins Domino Project More evidence of Amazons likely growing influence during 2011 comes from Seth Godins announcement last Wednesday of the 2011 launch of his Domino Project, powered by Amazon.com. Seth Godins frustration with conventional book publishing is well known, although one of the most popular business and marketing book authors in the world (as a glance at Seth Godins Author Profile page on Amazon shows). As a committed agent of marketing marketing change, Seth wants to reinvent book publishing, removing the barriers that conventional publishing put in the way of new authors interested in publishing books to build their brand. Seth Godins Domino Project is committed to reinventing publishing, helping qualified individuals publish books to build their personal brands. As you can see from the Domino Projects Frequently Asked Questions, Seths   plan is to simultaneously publish paper, audio, and Kindle versions of books on an accelerated schedule. The Domino Project launches in January, 2011, and the first titles will be available in March. Writing and personal branding in 2011 Obviously, Amazon.com has competitors and will always have competitors. Format, publisher, and retailer market shares will undoubtedly be changing for decades to come. The answer to Who will be on top? at the end of 2011 is irrelevant. Whats more important is whether or not you take advantage of the personal branding opportunities that Amazon.com is offering now, and will be offering during 2011. Whats your opinion? Have you experienced difficulties getting conventionally published? Do you own a Kindle? Do your friends or co-workers? More important, do you see a Kindle book helping you build your personal brand during 2011? Author: Roger C. Parker is a book coach who helps clients make right choices. He blogs about writing every weekday. His latest book #BOOK TITLE Tweet: 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Compelling Article, Book, Event Titles helps authors choose the right title to build their brand.

Resume Writing Service - How to Use a Resume Writing Service Corpus Christi, Texas

Resume Writing Service - How to Use a Resume Writing Service Corpus Christi, TexasSo you want to use a resume writing service Corpus Christi, Texas? Your objective is to submit a well-crafted and professional resume to an employer who can quickly determine if you are the right candidate for their position. The best resumes contain the most information about a person and all pertinent work experience.It can be difficult and time consuming to write a resume yourself. You want to present yourself as someone with relevant experience, a good track record, and a desire to work for a specific company. Writing a resume can take time and money. This is why many people turn to a resume writing service Corpus Christi, Texas to create a professional looking document that will help them land a job.It can take months to write a resume and submit it to an employer, and some employers cannot be contacted for months after the position has been filled. With the high volume of resumes that companies re ceive, it is necessary to present yourself professionally. A professional resume will demonstrate your ability to find employment, analyze the application process, and answer questions.Companies prefer to hire employees who present themselves as professional and eager to work. If a person is not professional in their appearance, they may not be able to present themselves as such in a professional way. By using a resume writing service Corpus Christi, Texas, an applicant has the opportunity to present themselves professionally and maintain a professional appearance.By taking advantage of a resume writing service Corpus Christi, Texas, an applicant will be able to apply for numerous jobs in an effective manner. Before submitting a resume, it is essential to prepare for interviews and discuss job opportunities. The best way to go about this is to have a written list of questions about the position and the company.To submit a resume to a specific employer, the applicant should call or v isit the company to discuss the details of the job opening. It is crucial to explain the position and explain what the applicant can do for the company. The applicant should also let the hiring manager know about any training or certifications that the applicant possesses.Once a well-written resume is submitted to the hiring manager, it is vital to present yourself professionally. By creating a professional cover letter, the applicant demonstrates a genuine interest in the company and presents themselves professionally. They will also show their references by explaining the references in the cover letter and sending the references along with the resume.Using a resume writing service Corpus Christi, Texas, will present the applicant as an interested and qualified candidate. By working hard to create a professional looking resume, the applicant is sure to land a position that suits their skill set and needs. Employers are aware of this and are more likely to consider an applicant's ap plication once they have sent a well-written resume.

Declaration of content - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Declaration of content - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Inspired by an ancient MAD Magazine article, I did this declaration of content, for the happy at work conference: Typical conferenceOur conference Talk:More talk:Innovation:Energy:Action:Boredom:45%25%2%2%1%25%Talk:Action:Innovation:25%50%25% How does that sound? Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Are you happy in your job

Are you happy in your job Theres been some talk around the web about what will happen when the economy turns around. The talk has to do with all those discontent workers looking for new jobs. Will it happen? Could it happen? Sure. Everyone has been under an extreme amount of pressure and anxiety over the past year. Companies have laid off employees, making even more work for those remaining. Profits are slim, if they exist at all. It seems everyone is holding on tight. But what will happen when the economy starts really growing? Will employers decide they need to fill jobs and/or create new ones? If this does happen, how do you think they will promote their new opportunities? I cant imagine they will go back to the job boards. Theyve had success or heard of success using social media, word of mouth, referral hiring. So what might this mean? It means that if you will be looking for a new job, you had better start nurturing your network now. Youll need to start using LinkedIn more. Youll want to develop an understanding of Twitter and Facebook and other networking sites unique to your industry. There are a lot of really smart recruiters out there talking about the new world of recruiting and the challenges and wins they have come upon. On ERE.net, John Sumser takes a look at trends.5 Recruiting Scenarios For the Future. Bill Boorman hosts a show about HR and recruiting trends on Blog Talk Radio. You can download past shows and learn whats happening from the other side of the hiring desk. Are you happy in your job? Will you be looking for a new job in the future? Read this post for a guide of how to get started.