Leading In God’s Presence

To lead effectively and achieve success, God must be first in your life.  The Bible is full of examples of leaders who floundered because their focus was on something other than God’s divine plan and purpose.

A leader’s relationship with God must be the number one priority, and form the foundation of his/her life.  God is not one of a list of things to balance, He is the reason that we do all of the things that we balance.

To learn to lead in God’s Presence, download this Career Bite and enhance your Career Walk!

How Often Do You Set Career Goals?

Whether you realize it or not, you do have career goals. Although you may not have put them in writing, these goals are being worked on every moment you’re at work.

Planning a career means setting formal goals.  It means carving out defining moments where you will pause from the hectic pressures of life and reflect on your future. It requires you to answer such questions as “Where do I want to be in three to five years?”; “What do I want to achieve in my career in the short-term?”; and “How will I get there”?

To get you in the mood to answer these questions, first take our Career Goal-Setting Poll; then set a time to develop at least one short-term career goal and up to three long-term ones. After setting your goals, work on a Career Action Plan and get moving!

The Career Professional Homemaker

Homemaking is a career and homemakers are professionals. A homemaker is a person whose prime occupation is to care for his/her family and/or home. Career Professional Homemakers come from all walks of life. Most people become homemakers when they gain the responsibility of caring for a home and its occupants. Some have willingly and happily left the business world to care for home and family. Others have worked in this field their entire adult life.

Regardless of the path taken to enter the profession, choosing to become a homemaker is a career decision, and having this type of career is just as valid as any other career choice. Just like the average business entity, every household is unique, and the duties of each homemaker are flexible, diverse, and vary according to the ages, habits, needs, and financial resources of the household.

The Career Professional Homemaker has four key responsibilities: human resources management, financial management, planning and organizing, and operations management.

Click Here to get more information, tips and tools to successfully fulfill these responsibilities and enhance your career as a Professional Homemaker.

Yank the Suckers & Weeds

According to the National Gardening Association, suckers are rapidly growing shoots rising from an underground root or stem, often to the detriment of the tree.  They can be very irritating and annoying for they bear no flowers or fruit.  One way to get rid of them is to roughly yank them off rather than cut them off. This removes the cells and tissues that cause re-growth.

Even if you’re not a gardener or orchard grower, you know a lot about suckers and weeds. They’re everywhere and tend to take over, providing a chaotic and unsightly mess.  Unfortunately, businesses have suckers and weeds too.  These unattractive thieves rob the organization blind by ruining its competitive advantage, and choking and stifling its people.

This podcast discusses four suckers and weeds that are typically found in the business orchard, along with ways to yank them out before they root too deeply.

If you like this message, visit Christian Career Tools to subscribe to additional career podcasts, and to get more career resources, tips and strategies.

Not A Job…But A Career

How do you view your job—as a daily grind that must be endured or as one part of your total career?  The “Not A Job…But A Career Podcast” will help you find the answer to this question.

You may already be off to a good start and happy with your career. And yet you know that you have areas that need improvement and blind spots that if addressed, would allow you to get to the next level faster, more proficiently and empower you to reach your long-term career goals. In Part One, you’ll learn how to correct the biggest career limiting mistake that nearly every professional is guilty of.  Part Two will explore a priceless ingredient for designing the perfect career and how to take advantage of it. Although not magic, when used consistently, this ingredient will guide the rest of your career. 

If you have good intentions and are determined to succeed but have not found your perfect career yet, Part Three will show you how to look for career path opportunities everywhere and act on them.

If you like this three-part message, would like to subscribe to additional career podcasts and get more career resources, tips and strategies, Click Here.

Meditations of the Heart

Whenever we think or ponder about something in God’s Word, we are actually meditating. Our thoughts determine our choices and subsequent behavior; so what we think about is very important.
 
Throughout the Scriptures, we are exhorted to meditate. Joshua 1:8 says that we are to meditate on God’s word day and night so that we can learn, understand and obey His commands. This requires focused effort on our part.

This month, we’ve introduced a new section on our website entitled “Meditations of the Heart“. These reflections from various Christian writers have as their foundational verse, Psalms 19 and are presented to encourage you in your Christian Career Walk. Click Here for more information.

31 Ways to Make Your Work Relationships Succeed!

People play an essential part in any business. The activity they engage in is called work.  Since work tends to occupy from one-third to one-half of a typical day, we must exercise diligence and care when initiating and cultivating work relationships. Most people have good intentions about improving their work relationships, but tend to stop short of putting them into action.

This e-Course, specifically designed to cultivate a habit of lifelong learning, makes it easy for you to study at your own pace and convenience. You’ll receive valuable tips over 31 days that can be used to transform your daily grind by enhancing your work relationships.

Each tip is concise enough to read and study in 5 minutes or less, and clear enough so you can start applying the information right away! They are the result of direct involvement one-to-one with clients, assisting them to successfully boost effectiveness in managing their work relationships. Click Here for more information and to enroll in this free e-course.

Conflict Storms: “I’m All Wet and Can’t Seem To Get Dried Out!”

In response to last week’s podcast, a listener wrote the following, “I don’t like thunderstorms but I’ve been in a long running one. I’m all wet and can’t seem to get dried out!”  While we may get a chuckle out of this response, most of us can echo a loud AMEN to this statement.  Quite often conflict storms come up unexpectedly and we are not prepared with a conflict management U-M-B-R-E-L-L-A. 

So, to learn how to handle unanticipated and surprising conflict squalls, this week’s Comfort Food for the Working Soul Podcast entitled, “I’m All Wet & Can’t Seem To Get Dried Out“, offers tips and strategies on the proactive steps to take before conflicts occur, how to weather conflict storms while they are happening, and what to do to repair and restore relationships when conflict storms are over. Click Here to subscribe.

Keep A Career Journal

Keeping a career journal is a very practical thing to do. It helps you to:

• Express emotions and ideas—the things you’ve always wanted to say about your career, but did not have time to write.  Solutions to career-related issues become clearer when you write them down.
• Understand your reasons for pursuing a career.  Because your reasons can change over time, keeping a career journal will help you see patterns and themes that give you clues to your career sweet spot.
• Take advantage of and apply what you learn at work on a daily basis to your career.

How to Use Your Career Journal

1. Determine a regular schedule for writing in your journal each day. Find a quiet place where you will not be interrupted. As you write, remember the purpose of your journal.  Resist the urge to wordsmith or critique your writing.  Just let it flow from your thoughts and experiences.
2. To keep up the momentum, at the end of each week, go back and read that week’s journal entries. Notice your moods and emotions as well as the subject matter, and think how they impact taking your career to a new level.
3. Make a fresh copy to use each month to record your career progress.

Click Here to get your copy of our 30-DAY CAREER JOURNAL with motivational quotes, strategies and daily activities you can use to enhance your career. Record the things you’ve always wanted to say about your career…but haven’t had time to write. 

Be Kind to Yourself

A very dear friend of mine is fond of saying, “a change is as good as a rest.”  She does little things to be kind to herself like changing her shoes after a long day at work, putting on a pair of slippers or walking shoes and then starting the next activity with renewed energy and enthusiasm.  

Imagine my surprise when I decided to give this piece of home-grown wisdom a try.  She was right!  I began to change my shoes or clothing– particularly after very intense or stressful activities–and became energized and renewed too!

Doing things differently for a change is as good as a rest.  So here are 10 ways you can be kind to yourself, make small changes and rest in the process:

1. Celebrate your accomplishments and any small successes you achieve this week. Buy a birthday cake, light the candles and have a solo party, even if it’s not your birthday.
2. Don’t overly dwell on your “failure moments”.  We all have them.  They make us grow stronger.  Learn from them to increase your opportunities for success in the future.
3. Send yourself some flowers, a card, or buy a small inexpensive gift.  Don’t forget to wrap the gift. When you unwrap it, express your delight and pleasure vocally as you savor the moment.
4. Each week, plan a special meal.  Set the table with your fine linens, good china, stemware and utensils (instead of paper plates, cups, napkins and plastic forks).
5. Take a real vacation–you know, the old fashion kind where cell phones, emails, wireless connections, etc. are banned!
6. Pop some popcorn, relax in your favorite chair with your feet up, and watch your favorite TV show or DVD.
7. Take a long relaxing walk.  Reflect on the scenery and environment around you.  Notice the little things like a blade of grass or the shape of a leaf.
8. Carve out at least 10-15 minutes each day to spend on yourself–any way you choose.  Put it on your calendar to ensure that it gets done.
9. Make yourself a cup of herbal or green tea and sit quietly thinking about the fun things you would like to do.  Put these ideas on paper and take action.
10. Bring a CD player to work and softly play classical music in the background while you work on reports, presentations or read the volumes of paperwork you receive each day.

For more tips on how to be kind to yourself, visit our career tools archives.