You Need Mind Numbing Work
Have you ever enjoyed mind numbing work?
You need work that’s not going to weigh down your brain. A heavy brain gets tired. On the other hand, a slightly distracted brain is a light brain that can work on other problems.
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Reposition Your New Career
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Art Decker of New York self storage
“When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” This occurred to me during a recent move, but I was skeptical. I was moving from Chicago, where all my friends and family lived, where all my work contacts were located, to San Francisco. San Francisco is a beautiful city, but I did not know anyone and my cost of living was about to skyrocket.
All my thoughts were consumed with discouraging statistics: Groceries in San Francisco are 14 percent more than in Chicago, health care was going to cost me 8 percent more, and my housing was slated to increase roughly 108 percent. Not only was I going to have to adjust to a new city and find new friends, but I was confronting the reality of a significant downsize. I was not thrilled and even the lemonade in San Francisco seemed expensive!
Though I wasn’t in the mood for making lemonade out of my lemons, it seemed more refreshing than sipping lemon juice at a pity party. Here’s what I did to embrace my new adventure.
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What Do My Arch Nemesis, Listening and Chili have in Common?
So I’ve been putting off these small projects that I know will help my business. I keep finding something better to do. I’ll send off an email or check my Google RSS reader or come up with a plan for some new product or grab myself a snack.
The good news is that I realize it’s not my fault. How could it be? 
It must be my arch nemesis, the evil Dr. Oatzel. I believe he has been putting drugs in my tea, making me groggy and unable to focus.
Okay, I’m giving too much credit to Dr. Oatzel. I can’t let my arch nemesis run rampant all over my life. So yes, I’ve finally accepted the fact that my arch nemesis wants me to fail, but some of my issues are my fault. He is trying to wreck my confidence so I never gain the power to not need him. I’m letting him wreck my confidence.
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7 Skills You Need to Develop a Career that You Love
Do you wish that you had the ability to find a career that uses your superpowers? What can you do to make your dream career a reality?
Creating a career that you love doesn’t magically happen. It takes work. I refuse to blow smoke up your butt and tell you how easy it is, because then you’ll curse my name all around the internet.
I would rather focus on helping you build a career based on your core needs. This takes time.
You have to know what truly makes you happy, so you can create the career that fits your needs as well as the market.
Too many people will say that if you just follow your dream then the money will flow into your life. This can be partially true. What most people fail to recognize is the importance of aligning your needs with other people’s needs.
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Work Happiness Has Four Legs
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Chrissy Scivicque of Eat Your Career.
About a month ago, I was out walking my dog (a 15-pound golden yorkie-poodle mix named Mollie) and, from a neighbor’s house a large, black pit bull came bounding out at us. Without any hesitation, the dog attacked. All I could hear were the cries coming from Mollie as she tried frantically to get away. Thankfully, her collar was just loose enough that, in that moment of pure terror, she was able to squeeze her head out and run. That beast of a dog chased her a few streets and then gave up. After running back home, I found Mollie, God love her, waiting for me on our front porch—a little torn up, a lot scared, but 100% alive.
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Retrain Your Brain
You may be happy some of the time, but you just can’t stop daydreaming about the good ol’ days. When you first started your business you were excited and happy to wake up each day. Now your business is owning you. You’re afraid to make any changes because of the consequences.
Many of us get stuck in this cycle. We are afraid to create systems that will make us happier.
If so then what is stopping you?
Download the Retrain Your Brain PDF
Internal Demons
I used to be very afraid. I was afraid that people might hate what I created. I was afraid that my family and friends would laugh at me.
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A Simple Guide to Overcoming Project Resistance
Do you ever notice how you are just resistant to some projects? You may have a 10 day deadline and you don’t start on it until day 5.
You think this will allow you to do some other stuff you’ve wanted to work on. The problem is you end up trolling the internet or doing stuff that doesn’t matter that much.
You’ve convinced yourself of the advantages of procrastinating and it backfires again and again. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a little procrastination, but when your procrastination starts stressing you out then you have a problem.
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The Law of Attraction and Your Career
The Law of Attraction (LoA) gets a bad rep because of cheesy YouTube Videos and terrible books. They want to make the concept simple and enticing, but in doing so they lose much of the life changing impact that the practice can have. I didn’t believe until I started believing. Imagine that.
We are who we think we are and that’s how we accomplish our goals. If we don’t believe we can write a great book, hike the Appalachian trail, or create a career that will make us so happy that we can’t believe our luck then it won’t happen.
Let’s break the LoA down. First, we have to understand confidence.
What is confidence?
Confidence is our belief in our abilities. When we believe we can accomplish a goal, our minds set to work to make our goals a reality.
I’m working with a client who is afraid to reach out to old customers. He has enough steady work right now, but he knows his slow time is coming soon. He is afraid of the responses that he will receive. There is a reason why they are no longer customers. Right?
My client doesn’t want to face this reality. So he continues to do the same things he always does – wait for business to come to him.
He may have confidence in many areas, but in his business he lacks the confidence to learn from past mistakes.
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What’s the Quickest Way to Irk a Co-Worker?
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Eileen Habelow and Randstad
Nothing can disrupt a productive day at the office like inconsiderate colleagues. It seems no matter how hard we try, they always find ways – mostly unintentional – to disrupt your workday “mojo.” While there are extreme cases of workplace irritation (back-stabbing, taking credit for other’s work), it’s the little, irritating habits of co-workers that seem to regularly get under our skin. According to a recent Randstad Work Watch survey on workplace pet peeves, 43 percent of people are most annoyed with their co-workers’ poor time management skills.
In this current economic climate, we have all taken on more responsibility and have been asked to do more with fewer resources. So, it’s easy to understand why we would expect our colleagues to work efficiently, maximizing the time spent in the office each day. The last thing anyone wants is to watch – or deal with – a neighbor in the next cubicle wasting valuable time on menial activities or struggling to complete assignments due to wasted or mismanaged time.
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How to Discover Your Superpowers
A lot of people have been asking me, “What exactly is a superpower?” It’s time I gave you an answer.
So, over the past couple months I’ve talked a lot about developing your superpowers, but I never explained how to figure out what your superpowers are in the first place. The best way for me to do this is to start by asking you a few questions.
What do people come to you for?
Why do they come to you for this thing?
Do you enjoy helping people solve this problem?
The thing that people approach you about the most is a superpower. People love coming to you for this thing because they know you will do an amazing job. The most important aspect though is that you enjoy helping people with this thing.
Career superpowers are actions that come easily to you, are fun and you can do them for a long period of time. As you build your career, you should become more in tune with what your superpowers are. If you don’t, you will miss out on the opportunity to create leverage.
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