In Case You Missed the News

I am preparing for an online transition this week, so I have scheduled some repeats from earlier this year including this one from July:


Thought I'd take a moment and let you know what I've done this summer in case you missed the announcement a few weeks ago.

After 8+ years working in sales and management with the Summit City Radio Group of stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I decided to accept an offer from Cirrus ABS, also headquartered in Fort Wayne.

This new opportunity is wide open as I help Cirrus find clients for their Net-Centered Marketing Agency.

Every year, while working in the radio business, I had people contact me asking me if I would consider working for them, and I always said no thanks.

This time was different.

I get to apply my marketing consulting background to the web world and help businesses and organizations find solutions that are cost effective and make good strategic sense.

I don't need to know how to write code to build websites, because we have 30 others at Cirrus ABS who handle those details.

I'm here to to act as an interpreter between the geeky-tech world and your business world.

Quite frankly, it is amazing.

I'm also in my 5th year on the Board of Directors for the Advertising Federation of Fort Wayne and involved with multiple other volunteer organizations.

Anything I can do to help? Just ask.

And please think of me first when you are needing anything web related.

My contact info is:

SHoward@CirrusABS.com and 260-255-4357


:)

Are you Really More Productive?

I worked for a few years as a thermoformer operator in a plastics factory.

My job was to produce the maximum number of parts in a 12 hour shift while keeping quality within the spec guidelines.

I kept records of "recipes" that I used for setting oven temperatures, water cooler temperatures, cycle speeds and factored in external factors such as room temperature and other variables.

My creativity was used in a semi-scientific process with an end goal in mind. I was pretty good. i was promoted a few times. I was a mentor and teacher to others. But eventually I quit.

I wasn't passionate about plastic.

I returned to the marketing world where my creativity involved writing ads and advertising campaigns and all the other stuff that wasn't as easily measured. Formulas were more theoretical and less concrete.

Now I work in a combination of those worlds, with my position in sales as a Solutions Consultant for a website development company.

There is the creative marketing/sales side and the hard numbers analytics provides via the actual web technology.

DLM has some thoughts on the subject:

Is Your Passion for Productivity Hurting Your Career?

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 11:21 AM PDT

Confession: I’m a productivity junkie. I love the “more with less” mindset. There isn’t a time management technique I haven’t tried.

But, as a career coach, I’ve seen many cases in which passion for productivity has actually been a hindrance to career success

What do I mean? Well, being productive is obviously a good thing. We all need to get stuff done. But an over-emphasis on doing can sometimes cause performance problems in the professional world.

To help you understand what I mean and figure out if your passion for productivity is harming your career, take a look at the statements below. Do any ring true for you? If so, it may be time to focus on doing less—and thinking more.

• You’re dividing your attention.
  Multitasking sounds great in theory but it doesn’t really work. When we attempt to split our attention between tasks, one—or both—will inevitably suffer.
  
  When we multitask at work, we end up making mistakes that ultimately have to be repaired. It’s a time suck and it’s also a poor representation of your capabilities. Multitasking can also be downright rude. People feel disrespected because you’re not giving them—or the work—its due attention.
  
  The real skill to hone in the workplace is concentration. Improve your ability to focus on the task at hand and then smoothly transition that concentration wholly to the next task. Avoid the temptations of multitasking and learn to engage fully in the moment.
  


• You’re rushed.
  The “go, go, go” mantra of corporate America keeps most professionals in a permanent state of urgency. With an ever-growing to-do list, they feel compelled to constantly rush through their work and get to the next thing. In the process, careless errors happen. This mentality also contributes to huge amounts of stress, which can end up damaging your professional relationships and reputation even further.
  
  Never sacrifice accuracy and good work for speed. Moving quickly is not the sign of productivity. The faster you move, the more potential there is for trouble. Slowdown. Pace yourself. Be intentional in your actions.
  


• You’re focusing on quantity over quality.
  All too often, productivity junkies get into a mindset of “more is better.” The more time you put in, the more successful you’ll be. The more you do, the more you’ll achieve. However, this isn’t always the case.
  
  Productivity is not about doing everything. It’s about doing the right things well. It’s
  not about working all the time; it’s about using your work time wisely.
  
  It’s far better to complete just a few important items on your checklist rather than tons of unimportant ones. It’s better to work really productively for a shorter period of time than semi-productively for a longer period of time. In the workplace, it’s always smart to focus on quality over quantity.
  


• You’re doing too much.
  Productivity junkies like me are notorious for biting off more than we can chew. But systems and time management techniques won’t help you if you can’t help yourself. Say “no” once in a while. Set limits. Establish realistic expectations. Stop accepting more and more work just because you want to prove that you’re productive. We get it.
  
  I’ve seen it time and again: Taking on too much inevitably leads to anxiety, stress, missed deadlines, and mistakes. It’s a sure-fire way to perpetuate the negative productivity cycle. Break out of it. Use your passion for productivity in the workplace for good, not evil. Get it under control so it doesn’t accidentally drag your career down as it has for others.

Written on 8/24/2011 by Chrissy Scivicque. Chrissy is a career coach and the founder of EatYourCareer.com. She helps professionals develop strategies and take meaningful action toward achieving career goals. Pick up a copy of Chrissy’s FREE career workbook to find out just how nourishing your career really is and how you can make it even more so.

Photo Credit: orcmid

It's Your Life

I wrote this two years ago:


My wife and I have talked about this.

My best friend Ron and I have talked about this.

And I've talked to my own kids about this.

The person who gets ahead in life is often the person who has earned it.

And one way to earn it is to do what others are not willing to do.

In my line of work, I come across men and women every year who are creating their own future, perhaps by starting a business, or by taking advantage of the opportunities that are available.

This isn't luck, this is more than that.

When I was a senior in High School, there was another young man that worked at the grocery store at the corner of Anthony and Crescent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, whose name was Dave.

I worked there too as a carry out, over 30 years ago. But I had dreams of working somewhere else too. I wanted to work at a radio station and by the time I was 19, I had launched my full time radio career as a disc jockey which later led me to the advertising and marketing business I am in now.

11 years ago, I moved back to Fort Wayne, and just last weekend I saw Dave at the grocery store. Doing the same job. I hope he is happy. If I needed a job, I know I could do that job again, but I have other ambitions.

The advice I gave my kids, is the first step is to get a job. Any job, as long as it is legal and not harmful. Next, you learn that job and gain skills and either discover you like that type of work, or you hate that type of work.

I was a bus-boy and dishwasher as a kid. Hated it. Liked having money, but it motivated me to try something else. So I applied and was hired elsewhere, then quit the restaurant business.

The Art of Manliness blog wrote recently on this subject:

The Importance of Paying Your Dues

Posted: 30 Aug 2009 09:19 PM PDT

As a member of a Generation Y, I’m always on the look out for articles about people my age. While many sociologists and employers have very positive things to say about my generation, they also make critiques. A common criticism that many employers have about young people entering the workplace is that 20-somethings want all the trappings of a successful career but aren’t willing to put in the work needed to earn them. Young people just don’t want to pay their dues anymore.

Which isn’t surprising. Many members of Generation Y grew up getting trophies and accolades just for trying. In high school and college, many of these young people (and their coddling parents), demanded they receive good grades even if their work was shoddy. Consequently, the idea that you might actually have to earn success through hard work has gotten lost on many “millennials.”

Lifestyle pundits encourage such an attitude by saying that paying your dues is an antiquated idea. That really depends on how you define the phrase. If it means slogging through 80 hour weeks to move up the corporate ladder to a position that pays well but you hate or if it is used to make you jump through pointless hoops for no reason other than your higher-ups had to, then yeah, it’s not a very helpful philosophy. But to me paying your dues means putting in the time and work to attain your dream job.When you’re moving from point A to point B, it doesn’t matter if B is being a CEO or a rock star; you’ve got to pay your dues to get there. Here’s why.

You have to start somewhere. I know a couple of guys my age who are unemployed and living with their parents because they can’t get the job they feel they deserve, and they refuse to work a “menial” job because they think it’s beneath them. They expected to jump into their dream job right out of college. But you have to start on the “bottom” in every job, not only if you’re looking to move up the corporate ladder.

Reading through our “So You Want My Job” interviews, a common theme has emerged. The men who now have their dream jobs often started out working at the “bottom” to get the experience to move into what they really wanted to do. Jason Stoltzfus, started out as a regular roadie, and learned the trade and skills needed to become a guitar tech. Eitan Loewenstein put on sketch shows for an audience of two in a dingy theater above an ice cream shop before getting roles in national commercials. You’ve got to start somewhere and pay your dues to move up in the world.

Success comes from years of hard work. Not only do many millenials expect to land their dream job right away, they also expect to immediately live the same lifestyle they had when they left their parents’ house. They want nice clothes, nice furniture, a brand new car, and a nice house the moment they set out in life. Of course, in order to do this right off the bat, these young people have to take on huge amounts of debt.

I’ll admit that I get to thinking like this sometimes. I would love to have the same lifestyle I had when I lived with my parents. It was nice! But then I remember something my parents told me one day when I was moaning about not having money to buy some frivolous thing, and it put everything in perspective for me.

They said, “Brett, this house, the cars, the nice clothes, and the video games for Christmas we were able to buy for you and your siblings are the result of years of hard work. It didn’t happen overnight. We started out living in a one bedroom house with a metal roof in the middle of the New Mexico desert. But with patience and perseverance, we were able to make a life for our family.”

That shut up my whining.

In the age of seemingly overnight Internet millionaires, it’s easy to forget that success comes from years of hard work. Even the overnight successes weren’t really overnight. Take Facebook for example. Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook back in 2004. In just a few years it has become one of the most trafficked sites on the internet and has made Zuckerberg a millionaire.

While it seems Facebook is your typical overnight success, it was actually years in the making. Zuckerberg started programming back in middle school. While most teenagers were playing video games and watching MTV’s Total Request Live, Zuckerberg was hammering out code. Consequently, when the muses visited Zuckerberg in his dorm room, he was ready with the knowledge and skills to build Facebook. Even after Facebook launched it would take a few years for the site to grow to where it is today.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he posits that greatness comes through adherence to the “10,000 hour rule.” Pointing to people like the Beatles and Bill Gates, he argues that their success came from practicing their skills for 10,000 hours, not through some inherited genius.

We’d all love to be rich overnight, but unless you win the lottery, it just isn’t going to happen. The path to success is hewed through years of dedicated and relentless hard work. In short, you have to pay your dues before success comes.

Recognize tradeoffs exist when you live by your values. In news articles and blog posts discussing Generation Y, employers gripe that these young people don’t want to work as much, but they still want the high salaries and cushy benefits. As a law student, I heard about this a lot. Senior partners at firms complained that new associates were demanding lower case loads and fewer required billable hours, yet they still wanted the nice six figure salary so they could have the freedom to have a life outside of work.

I understand Generation Y’s desire to work less and have more time. Many from this generation came from homes where their Boomer parents were workaholics and hardly spent anytime with the family. But time is money. If you value your time, expect to earn less. If you value wealth and money, be prepared to put in a lot of hours at work. The key is to figure out what you value and accept the tradeoff.

Some might argue that there are plenty of people out there who make lots of money, but aren’t slaves to work. I’ll concede that such people exist, but would follow up with inquiring on what that person had to do to get to that position in life? More likely than not, they had to hustle their butt off. Exceptions exist, but I’m pretty sure most of these types of people spent years investing all their free time and money with the hope they would have more of it in the future. They had to make a trade-off: less time and money now, for more of it later. In other words, they paid their dues. Which takes us to our next point…

Be willing to make short-term sacrifices for long-term goals. I like to study the lives of successful men to see if there are any principles I can glean from them and apply in my own life. A common trait among successful men is that they were willing to make short-term sacrifices, for long-term goals. They were willing to pay their dues upfront in order to reap rewards later.

My dad is a good example of this. His goal starting off in life was to be a federal game warden. After he graduated college, he started looking for a job as a state game warden so he could get the experience he needed for the fed job. But no job openings existed for a year. So my dad worked in a liquor store to make ends meet until an opening came up. It’s not the most glamorous job for a college graduate, but my dad was hungry and humble enough to do whatever it took to reach his goal.

Albert Einstein didn’t become a world renowned physicist right after he got his diploma. He graduated college trained to become a professor, but like in my dad’s situation, there weren’t any job openings. Did Einstein whine and complain that because he finished college he was entitled to a job? Nope. Instead he got a job as a clerk in a patent office in order pay his living expenses. In his spare time, Einstein continued his real work as a scientist and developed the special theory of relativity.

If you have a great goal, be willing to make sacrifices for it. If you want to start your own business, you may have to moonlight it a few years until you can quit your day job. Spend all your free time getting the skills and putting in the work to make your dream job a reality. If you want to get out of debt quickly, you may need to take on a second job delivering pizzas or working as a coffee barista. Whatever your goal is, you’re going to have to pay the piper upfront before the dance begins.

DownloadThe Art of Manliness Free Man Cookbook DownloadThe Art of Manliness Guide to Being a Gentleman

Getting Hired

Great advice from the DLM Blog:

Five Great Ways to Give Your Resume a Boost

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 07:56 AM PDT

Whether or not you’re looking for a job right now, it’s worth making sure your resume is in good shape. You never know when that dream opportunity might come up – and if your current job isn’t looking so secure, you might to be ready to send out applications at short notice.

In a crowded job market, your resume needs to stand out. If it’s currently looking a bit thin, here’s how to improve it:

1. Do Some Relevant Voluntary Work
   You probably don’t have a perfect work history: perhaps you’ve worked in less-than-ideal jobs, or you’re young and have very little work experience at all. Employers aren’t just interested in your paid work; they’re looking for evidence of your skills.
   Volunteering can be a fantastic way to:
   
   
   
   • Gain real, practical experience in a particular field
     
   • Build up a network of contacts (who might be able to help you land that next job)
     
   • Demonstrate to employers that you’re passionate about this kind of work
     
   
   You may well already have some relevant voluntary experience: but is it on your resume? Think about any groups you belong to, or any positions that you hold. Perhaps you’ve led a Scout pack or you’ve arranged day trips for your church.
   


2. Take a New Qualification
   Although employers are often more interested in your experience than your education, there are many jobs where qualifications really do count. Even if you’re currently working full-time, don’t rule out the possibility of learning something new – evening classes and online courses can provide a lot of flexibility.
   
   Qualifications can range from relatively informal courses (e.g. learning a language) to industry certification (e.g. food hygiene) to doctoral degrees. Find out what employers in your field are looking for – don’t be afraid to ask around within your network.
   
   And if you’re self-employed, qualifications might not be strictly necessary – but they can help you stand out from the crowd. If you’re a freelance writer, programmer or designer, clients might struggle to understand why your rates are higher (even if you can tell that your work is much better than your competition’s). A relevant qualification or certificate can really boost your credibility.
   


3. Focus on Results
   When you’re putting your resume together, don’t get too bogged down in giving details of your past job descriptions. Potential employers are more interested in what you actually did during your previous roles.
   
   What projects did you oversee? Did you deliver any presentations or write reports? Were you responsible for managing any major areas of the business?
   
   Be as clear as you can about what you achieved, and give percentages or figures where possible (e.g. if you increased your company’s revenue or exceeded sales targets).


4. Customize Your Resume for Each Job
   There’s no rule that says your resume needs to stay the same for every position you apply for
   
   Tailor your resume to each job. That might mean:
   
   • Adding in extra experience that’s relevant to the role
     
   • Emphasizing different aspects of your past experience
     
   • Changing the language that you use to match the job description
     
   
   Yes, it’s extra work; you might spend 15-30 minutes on this each time you apply to a job. But if these tweaks help get your resume from the huge “no” pile into the much smaller “yes” pile, then those extra minutes were well worth it.


5. Get Your Resume Edited and Proof-Read
   If you’re at all unconfident about your writing, it’s worth getting your resume professionally edited and proof-read. This isn’t just about picking up sloppy mistakes – it’s about presenting the best possible view of you to your potential new employer.
   
   There are hundreds of companies and individuals who offer specialized resume writing and editing services; try asking around your network to find out who’s reliable, or look for reviews online.
   
   If you can’t afford to pay someone to edit your resume, at least ask a friend to proof-read it – and the same goes for your cover letter. Typos and spelling mistakes create a very poor first impression.

Further Reading
Need some extra help? Dumb Little Man has plenty of advice on resumes:

Recreating Your Resume in 10 Simple Steps
How to Write a Resume That Will Land an Interview
Extreme Makeover – Resume Edition

Have you got any great resume-boosting advice to share? Do any of these tips chime with your own experience? Let us know in the comments!

Written on 6/21/2011 by Ali Luke. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.

Photo Credit: michaeln3

Back to Work...

Do those words create energy and enthusiasm or dread and clock watching?

Check out this story from DLM:

4 Ways to Shift From “Hard Work” to “Effortless Creation”

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 08:25 AM PDT

Here’s one way to think about work. Work is hard. It requires effort, discipline, and hours spent straining in front of a computer screen. When you hit a block, you simply need to push harder, think harder, work harder.

This is what I like to call the “hard work” model. We live in a world that valorizes this idea of work. We talk about work using phrases like, “keep your nose to the grindstone” and “no pain, no gain.” We spend endless hours working, ending each day drained and depleted.

But here’s another way to think about work.

I call it work as “effortless creation.” The idea is simple. Think about times when you’ve done your best work. Think about when and where you came up with your most innovative ideas. My guess is that it didn’t happen while staring into your computer at the end of a 12-hour workday.

Our most creative ideas come in unexpected moments. You might be in the shower, on a walk, or driving when that brilliant new idea hits you. In these moments, creation is effortless. There’s no strain, no effort, no real work. You can do in a matter of hours or even minutes what it might take weeks to do through “hard work.”

So the key question is: how can we experience more moments of “effortless creation”? Since they come unannounced, these moments can’t be planned or forced. But here are a few things you can do to make their appearance more likely:

• Stop Working Hard
  I realize this sounds crazy. But, if you spend your days working too hard, you drain yourself of creative energy. When this happens, a number of problems emerge. The first is that you become easily overwhelmed and exhausted. This leaves you without the energy and enthusiasm to pursue innovative new ideas. The second is that you become lost in the details of your work. After ten hours spent working on a report, book chapter, or project, you lose your ability to see the big picture. Take a break and refresh your mind occasionally each day.
  


• Do Nothing
  This may also sound crazy. But, some of the latest discoveries in the field of neuroscience show that when we experience states like boredom, the brain shifts to a “default state.” In this state, our perception changes. Time slows down, we daydream more, and, most important, we open ourselves to new and more creative ways of thinking. This doesn’t mean that you should sit on your couch all day. But you might plan short periods for walking alone, sitting outside, or meditating to give yourself space for creative ideas to emerge.
  


• Slow Down
  Pace has a huge impact on the chances of creative moments arising. Our tendency is to go fast. We drive fast, rush through meals, and prize the idea of efficiency in the workplace. But the faster you go, the more you enter into the mental state of “hard work.” All this rush drowns out creative new solutions and ideas playing in the sub-conscious background. So one of the best ways to tap into “effortless creation” is simply to slow down. Eat more slowly, write more slowly, and email more slowly. The more you slow down the flow of life, the more you open yourself to unexpected new ideas and insights.
  


• Record Your Genius
  When your next great idea comes, go all out. Remember that you are experiencing a special state of consciousness. So allow yourself to follow the flow of inspiration. Write down everything that comes to mind. Be sure to capture the contents of your mind in this altered state of effortless creation. In a day, or even an hour, it may be gone.

These are just a few ways to shift from “hard work” to “effortless creation.” Ultimately, the goal is to use these practices to work less and create more.

I’m curious to hear more about your experience. Have you experienced moments of genius and inspiration? What helps you open up to experiencing them more often?

Written on 6/26/2011 by Nate Klemp. Nate earned his PhD at Princeton and is a professor at Pepperdine University. He founded LifeBeyondLogic.com, a website dedicated to exploring philosophy as an art of living. You can follow him on Twitter @LifeBeyondLogic and on Facebook. Download a free copy of his new ebook, Finding Reality: Thoreau’s Lessons for Life in the Digital Age.

Photo Credit: Alex Barth

Getting Hired (Part 5)

Today, the final in a 5 piece series on getting hired.

I wrote this series 5 days ago on Sunday.

The subject has been on my mind a lot recently as I know a couple of people who are looking for work.

The best time to look for a job is when you already have a job.

It is being proactive instead of reactive.

Rarely have I been unemployed. Only once in my life did I ever collect an unemployment check, and by the time the first check arrived, I had a new job.

Oh, I've lost jobs before.

My first radio job while in high school, I was laid off from.

My 2nd, 3rd and 4th full time jobs in radio I was let go from. It was the nature of the radio business which is very insecure when you are on the air.

I also quit a few jobs, fought for a few jobs and even started new careers a couple of times.

I turned down job offers and have been turned down from jobs that I thought were in the bag.

What has happened the past few weeks however in my life breaks all the rules.

What began as a conversation between a couple of friends on April 21st, has led to a new career which starts officially on June 20th.

You can click here to read about it.

There was no resume, no H.R. department, just someone who knew me, who found out I was interested in a new opportunity and everything fell into place.

There are risks involved. I'm giving up a few things in exchange for new challenges, but the pay off for the risks are ones I am willing to take.

I urge you to not wait until you are unemployed to start looking. Prepare now for your next step.

Getting Hired (Part 4)

Most resumes are not used to find the right person for a job.

Most resumes are used to eliminate the wrong people from a job.

When I was looking to hire people, that's what the resume process was all about.

So if you think you can use a generic resume for a specific job, you are probably wrong.

If there is a specific job you are applying for, write your resume for that job.

Focus on relevance.

Connect your skills, abilities and experiences to the skills, abilities and experiences that they are looking for.

And if you are just applying for a job where no resume is needed, you still need to come prepared with all the information that you will need to fill in their application.

Come prepared with the info, a pen and dress up a bit.

Getting Hired (Part 3)

Ready for the 3rd part of this series?

Let's talk about your attitude.

Odds are if you are unemployed, your self esteem has taken a hit.

And it shows.

You need to change it.

You need to put on a happy face, but it has to go deeper than that.

You need to believe in yourself and your ability to do the job that you are applying for.

It's called confidence.

If you were let go from your last job because of something you did, or didn't do, in other words you were fired, then you need to take responsibility and promise yourself that you will not do "that" again.

If you lost your job due to cutbacks and it honestly had nothing to do with you personally, then don't take it personally.

Use the negative self-talk you are hearing and tell it to shut up and replace it with positive messages.

This is what salespeople have to do every week, sometimes everyday.

And those examples I mentioned, they have all happened to me in my life.

Tomorrow, the subject will be resumes and applications.

Getting Hired (Part 2)

Continuing 5 days on the subject of getting hired.

Let's start with that first job and a story about one of my kids who told me that she couldn't find a job.

She was in high school and we took a drive with a piece of notebook paper and a pen.

I told her to number each line on the paper and then we were going to drive around as she wrote down names of businesses that she would later contact to see if they were hiring.

She felt a sense of accomplishment when she filled up that sheet of paper, then she scowled at me when I told her to turn it over and we were going to do the same on the other side.

When we got home she had over 50 businesses to contact by phone that week so she could see which ones were hiring and she could go apply.

The next afternoon she called me excited because she had some leads of places that were hiring high school students and she was going to apply.

Before the week was over, she had 2 or 3 job offers to choose from.

These were not perfect jobs, they were money jobs, jobs you work to earn money, not necessarily to change the world.

If you are unemployed, are you doing the real work to get a job to earn money?

Getting Hired (Part 1)

This week at this time each afternoon I'm going to address the unemployment/employment issue.

First off Words of Wisdom from Harvey Mackay:

Harvey Mackay's Column This Week

Look beyond human resources to find a job

By Harvey Mackay

A big stack of my mail comes from frustrated people who have tried very hard to find jobs without success. With the slow economic recovery, it's still mighty tough out there.

As I researched my last book, Use Your Head To Get Your Foot in the Door: Job Search Secrets No One Else Will Tell You, I frequently heard concerns from people who were upset at human resources departments. One person said that of the more than 300 résumés he's sent out for jobs for which he was qualified, he's only heard from 17, positive or negative. He was hoping for some better feedback so he could improve his employment odds.

HR people don't deserve the bad rap. Let me shed a little light on the subject. First, you have to realize that human resources is not a profit center and because of that, they will often be short staffed. When cuts occur, human resources is among the first to be hit.

For example, here at MackayMitchell Envelope Company, we have one HR manager to service our three plants. Our company recently received 900 applications for one position. And that was through e-mail alone. There were hundreds of applications sent through the mail as well.

Being an envelope guy, it pains me to say this but my advice is to always e-mail your résumé. It's much easier to get a response. You will seldom get a response if you mail your résumé. Don't sabotage your chances, because the amount of paperwork that is handled by human resources is astounding.

Be aware that big companies have software that scans résumés for key words, so use language that computes. Use key words in your résumé that tie in with the requirements of the position. You may need to tailor your résumé for each job. Be specific and clear about your credentials. Don't send out résumés blindly. Write to make sense to both the software and a human reader. At some point you will need to win the hearts and minds of real human beings.

Always try to differentiate yourself. Don't be boring. Don't be predictable. Don't be just another candidate. Stand out. Be different. Use a little creativity.

Your résumé has one purpose: to win an interview. Focus on the employer's needs, not yours.

If you are fortunate enough to get a job interview, pay particular attention to how your résumé is read and physically handled by an interviewer.

• If the description of a particular phase of your career or some other section of your résumé is constantly being questioned, you almost certainly need to improve the statement. Listen carefully. It's not enough to know that something is troubling people. You need to find out what in particular is bothering them.
• Do readers find it hard to follow the organization of your résumé? Are they constantly jumping between pages or paragraphs when they read it?
• Do interviewers find the language hard to penetrate? In an interview, are you constantly being asked to restate what you are saying? In particular, do they take your description of a position and restate it in terminology which uses more mainstream language?
• Is the information clearly laid out and presented in an appealing and inviting way?

If you lose out in a search, find out as much as you can about the person who won the job. Perhaps HR staff or a recruiter will be willing to share the qualifications of the successful candidate.

The great dilemma is that you are unlikely to find out you have a poor résumé because -- if it's bad -- you won't get an interview in the first place.

In addition, in these times HR staffs are overwhelmed with requests from people who are just looking for jobs to meet unemployment requirements. HR personnel want serious candidates who meet the job criteria.

Remember too that HR departments have many other functions besides screening and hiring candidates. They must also focus on benefits management, staffing issues, compliance with state and federal rules, among other duties.

My #1 piece of advice is to try to find the person doing the hiring in the company and contact him or her. You will still have to eventually go through HR, but if you can get someone to shepherd your application/résumé, you have a much better chance of landing the job.

Mackay's Moral: The purpose of your résumé is to enable you to resume work.

Multi-Tasking Isn't Really What We Do

Monday I posted an article about how to cut down on distractions which lead to a conversation on Twitter and now.... This Article!

The conversation got my mind thinking about the past and the world my parents grew up in along with my own changing world.

My Dad spent 25+ years working as a purchasing agent for 3 different companies.

He had a secretary. She took care of his correspondence, answered his phone or screened his calls and there was no voicemail. Dad was able to concentrate on what ever project he was working on because he was able to close the door to his office and have time to focus on one thing.

The next generation, mine, saw the dawn of word processors. These were not full fledged computers, but an upgrade from a typewriter.

They had a screen and you could save text on floppy discs. I was working as a radio commercial producer. I would interview business owners and the employees, create advertising campaigns, write scripts, voice and produce commercials. Before we had the word processors, my handwritten scripts were typed by a secretary. Word processors were less expensive than a real live person and it started the current multi-tasking culture we live in.

The other factor was economic. As computers where able to do more and more and we eliminated the need for extra people, those who were left wore multiple hats. Downsize to save money but the job (work) wasn't really eliminated, it was given to others.

Multi-tasking sounds like doing multiple tasks at once. And that is why I say multi-tasking isn't really what we do.

We Stop One Task and Start Another and repeat several times a day.

Now that my kids are in their 20's this is the work world they have always known, very different from their grandparents generation.

I was almost done with this article but I felt I left an important part out.
There really is what I would call true multi-tasking going on around us.
Just watch any Mom take care of more than one young one while preparing a meal and doing two or three other things at once.
It might be a biological and gender thing but I know it is real.

Concentration

from the DLM Blog:

How to Minimize Interruptions When You’re Working

Posted: 03 May 2011 07:22 PM PDT

Have you ever been right in the middle of something – a complicated email, a tricky paragraph of a report, a hunt for some vital figures – only for your concentration to be shattered?

Maybe your work day seems to be a string of interruptions. Maybe your colleagues want to chat constantly, or people keep phoning with trivial issues, or your housemates can’t understand that you want to be left alone to work on a college assignment.

You’ll never be able to eliminate interruptions altogether – but you can do a lot to minimize them. Here’s how:

1. Look Unavailable
   If you have an office with a door, keep it shut when you don’t want interrupting. It’s a simple visual cue to would-be visitors – and you’ll also keep out any noise from passers-by. If you’re working at home, ask your family or flatmates to avoid interrupting you when the door is closed.
   
   Of course, you might not have a whole room of your own to work in. Try wearing headphones (even if you don’t have any music playing) – this often makes people think twice about interrupting you. If you’ve got a hands-free headset, you could even pretend to be on the phone while working.
   


2. Let People Know You’re Busy
   I know this seems obvious, but how often do you actually tell people that you want some uninterrupted time? At home, this might mean explaining to your partner and/or kids that you’re going to be working on your novel for an hour.
   
   At work, get in the habit of telling potential interrupters, “I’m right in the middle of something. Can I get back to you in fifteen minutes?” Chances are, they’ll be happy to wait – and they may well go and find some other solution which doesn’t involve waiting for you!


3. Set an Example
   If you want other people to respect your time, be respectful of theirs. Try not to interrupt colleagues – and when you do need to have a conversation with someone, start off with “Is this a good time?” If you can see their calender, heck, use that an schedule 30 minutes at some point later in the day. Don’t use work time to chat, unless you want your colleagues to assume that you’ll always be happy to stop what you’re doing to listen to the latest office gossip.
   
   You might find that several colleagues (or other people in your household) are getting frustrated by interruptions. If so, look for some way to make things easier for everyone – perhaps by spending the mornings on focused work, and encouraging more discussion and collaboration in the afternoons.


4. Don’t Answer Calls and Emails Straight Away
   Most of the interruptions in your day probably don’t come from colleagues or housemates who drop by your desk. They come from people phoning or emailing.
   
   Unless you work in a job which requires it, there’s no rule which says that you need to answer your phone as soon as it rings. Further, just because they call it "Instant Messaging", you don't have to respond this instant! You can let it go to voicemail and you can let your chat window blink for a bit. You can switch off your mobile, too.
   
   The same goes for emails: you don’t have to leave your inbox constantly open. You’ll work much more efficiently if you process emails in batches, rather than trying to deal with them as soon as they come in.


5. Work Early/Late in the Day
   This is a bit of a radical step, but worth considering. Can you shift your working hours so that you avoid interruptions for at least part of the day?
   
   If you get into the office at 7am, for instance, you’ll have at least an hour or two to work before most of your colleagues arrive. If you stay up late at home and write your essays after the kids are in bed, you’re much less likely to be interrupting than if you try to work on Saturday afternoons.

What tips and tricks have you used to avoid interruptions when you need to concentrate? Share your ideas with us in the comments...

Written on 5/3/2011 by Ali Luke. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.

Photo Credit: Star5112

10 Ways to Focus with a Whiteboard

Blackboards were the communication tool my teachers used in my elementary school. They could have been black, or green, or even brown, but we used chalk to write on them.

Then came the fabled whiteboard. We have them in our conference rooms and I have a small one in my office.

Besides doodling, they do have another purpose. Check out this guest post:

10 Things to Write on Your Whiteboard

Recently I had visited a client who was struggling with his productivity. His practice was running smoothly but at times would occasionally slow up, for no apparent reason. The first thing I questioned was the methods he was putting into his workday. Quickly, I discovered everything seemed to be in ordered. So what is the problem? Can a 2:30 feeling last all week?

Discussing this, I found that bringing yourself back to basics could help out in a large way. Pretend that your business is a new venture again, and remember the excitement you felt with each new goal met. An often underrated and overlooked approach is “The Whiteboard.” Here is a list of ten motivational strategies to utilizing your whiteboard.



1 Divide your whiteboard in half, one side long-term and one side short-term goals.

• These two halves should coincide with each other. As progress is made short term, let it translate at some point onto your long-term side. This obviously depends on what kind of turnover ratios you’re working with.

2 Provide action steps.

• Action steps are key to understanding the task at hand. It is crucial when completing action steps to cross them out. At the same time it is crucial not to erase them until the ultimate goal is accomplished. Seeing progress, or the “light and the end of the tunnel,” can go a long way as a motivational tool.

3 Create a target number

• This is the simplest, yet maybe the most important thing you can do. Your target number can be any number, for instance a sales goal, or even a spending limit, and it is important to update this number daily accordingly.

4 Upcoming events.

• This is a great tool to keep a keen mind on what needs to be done. Looking ahead helps to keep you from getting behind, and also provides better communication with clients or associates. When everyone is on the same page, it’s easier to stay on task.

5 Make note of successful sales.

• Highlighting a good thing can motivate employees to be at their best and can turn selling or accomplishments into an ongoing competition. I find that it is best to use the color green or blue when making these notes, and provide the name of the successful employee. Make sure these do not stay up to too long to keep the employees wanting more.

6 Make note of a deficit or a complication.

• Highlighting a problem, or a goal that was not completely met can prove to be quite motivational as well. This should be made note of in red ink to relay the message that the issue needs to be taken care of. DO NOT include employee names and their mishaps. Doing so will only create turmoil and stress. Instead offer the opportunity to let it be known who was the one to correct the problem. These issues should remain on the board until the problem is fixed.

7 Prioritize your clients.

• Every one of your clients should be a priority, but lets face it, some are simply worth more to the business than others. Make sure your top clients are taken care of first.

8 Prioritize your debt.

• This is true with your accounts payable as well. Take care of the debts you absolutely need to pay first and don’t ever forget your payroll. Your employees will like to know that they are a priority. Also keep in mind some clients may offer cash back or a discount for payment within an agreed period of time.

9 List of your competitors that are outperforming you.

• Let this be a big part of your whiteboard. Competing with rivals is always invigorating, and can lead to a boost in morale amongst your colleagues.

10 Draw a Dinosaur

• Dinosaur, picture, joke of the day, employee’s birthday, or anything else that might draw a smile in the workplace. Little things like that can shrug of some of the stress the week may provide.

Now obviously you won’t be able to fit everything at once, but every whiteboard and business is different. Try out some of the ideas, and see what works best for you.

Say No

And get more done... from the DLM blog:

How To Get More Done At Work By Doing Less

Posted: 25 Mar 2011 08:30 AM PDT

We're all busy. At any one moment most of us have a ton of different tasks that need to be wrapped up before the end of the day or the end of the week.

Now most of us are capable of doing a large volume of work. Our ability is rarely the limiting factor when it comes to being productive and getting stuff done at work. Where we are typically set up to fail is by taking on or agreeing to do all the "extras". You'll see what I mean in a minute.

Here are someways you can do less at work and actually get more done. You don't have to do them all to see benefits. Choose one or two to start with and see how you go.

5 areas where we can do less

1. Attend fewer meetings
   I'm sure it isn't news to you that most meetings are a grand waste of time. Most meeting requests are sent to attendees who are not really required. If you feel that way yourself speak up. Ask the meeting coordinator if you're essential to the meeting. If yes, ask what specifically they need you for. This allows you to be well prepared so you can keep the meeting moving along and hopefully it won't take all day. Also, I would set a personal rule to never join a meeting that doesn't have an agenda.
   


2. Don't do busy work
   There is a tendency for us to get caught up in busy work. Making presentations "pretty", re-organizing spreadsheets, formatting and doing work that has very little value or impact on your role as a whole. Question what you do. Why are you doing this? Is it essential? Will it make a difference? Does anybody care?


3. Cut out distractions
   Distractions include the obvious electronic distractions such as email, the Internet, instant messaging, text messages, voice mail, etc... but it also includes some not so obvious sources. Other distractions can be co-workers walking past your desk and going to the lunch room for coffee every 30 minutes. Try wearing headphones (whether you listen to music or not is up to you ... your coworkers will never know) and limiting the number of times you get up from your desk to get coffee, tea or water.


4. Say no
   Taking on more and more work may feed well into your super-human ego but it's not possible to do everything for everyone. The more work you take on the more stress you pile on and the less effective you are at doing things well. Saying no doesn't mean you're incompetent, not willing or unable to do the work. Saying no means that you are well aware of your current commitments and want to give them the attention and dedication they deserve.


5. Set realistic expectations
   If you do take on a new project or task be realistic with the time it'll take to complete it. If being realistic causes your manager or co-worker to take it off your plate because it needs to be addressed sooner then so be it. Another option is to say yes along with setting the expectation that the rest of your work will be delayed.

Saying no, taking on less and reducing distractions and busy work will make for a much less stressful work environment for you. You'll have time to work on things that matter and do them well. You'll likely be more organized and deliberate while having more time to do things you enjoy and maybe even get out of the office on time. Getting more done at work by doing less and having more family time ... pretty good benefits to me.

In what other areas can you do less to get more done?

Written on 3/25/2010 by Sherri Kruger. Sherri writes at Zen Family Habits, a blog celebrating all things family. Sherri also writes on personal development at Serene Journey, a blog dedicated to sharing simple tips to enjoy life

Photo Credit: bareknuckleyellow

Can You Quack?

from RBR.com:

Having given comedian Gilbert Gottfried the heave-ho for a PR faux pas, the insurance company Aflac is trying to drum up some good PR by holding a public casting call to find the new voice for its iconic duck. Do you have the quack they’re looking for?

The company plans to hold auditions in six cities during the first week of April for the voice of the Aflac Duck. Interested parties will find a complete job description and information about how to secure an audition appointment on either Monster.com or at Quackaflac.com, where job seekers can also submit applications online.

Live auditions will be held in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, Austin and Atlanta. While these audition slots will be limited, an online casting call has opened and will remain open until April 1, 2011 at midnight Pacific time.

Since 2000, the Aflac Duck has appeared in 52 television ads and numerous radio ads, helping increase the company's brand recognition from slightly more than 10 percent to an amazing 93 percent. The Aflac Duck is also a symbol for the company's primary philanthropic cause, helping Aflac raise more than $62 million for the treatment and research of childhood cancer.

"Being the new voice of the Aflac Duck carries responsibilities far beyond recording duck sounds," said Aflac Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Michael Zuna. "The Aflac Duck symbolizes our promise to be there in times of need. It represents the philanthropy and the ethical values embraced by our employees and more than 72,000 independent sales agents across the nation, so we are looking for the best person to help advance our brand and business in a way that demonstrates our values."

All auditions — online or live — will be a maximum of 30 seconds and will irrevocably become the property of Aflac. There will be limited availability for live auditions, so those seeking to interview in one of the six cities where casting calls will take place should make an appointment by following the instructions on Monster.com or Quackaflac.com. Live interviews will be held by appointment only. The ten finalists selected for a callback will be required to conduct a second audition either via satellite or in person in New York City.

"The Aflac Duck is fun, but it conveys a very important message. We believe this is the best job available in America today, so applicants should prepare like this is the opportunity of a lifetime," Zuna said.

While searching for the new voice of the Aflac Duck, Aflac is continuing its television advertising schedule with "Silent Movie," which stars the Aflac Duck in a scene that resembles an old silent movie genre film. In "Silent Movie," the Aflac Duck rescues a damsel in distress “in much the same way that he provides a safety net for policyholders who are sick or injured.”

For the Bosses...

How happy are your employees?

Are they working for you because they want to, or because they haven't found a better job yet?

Harvey Mackay has advice for you:

Good bosses improve good employees

By Harvey Mackay

With so much focus on finding or keeping jobs in this economy, one significant employment factor seems to get moved down the pros and cons chart: What kind of boss will my next supervisor be?

Interviewing with a human relations specialist.... Meeting folks up and down the line... Putting your best foot forward while they are all doing the same... The process may not present a completely accurate picture of the day-to-day environment.

Bosses know the importance of a good hire. Assuming the best candidate has accepted the offer, and has shown up on time for a few weeks, does the boss realize how critical retaining that new employee is? Does the boss know how to be a good boss?

In short, will the boss be a buddy or a bully?

The late great basketball Coach John Wooden shared his coaching philosophy that works just as well in business when it comes to mentoring employees: "A coach's primary function should not be to make better players but to make better people. Lift others even with your critical analysis. This is still the best method to get the best out of someone because pride is a better motivator than fear. I never wanted to teach through fear, punishment, or intimidation."

Bosses have tremendous power over those they supervise. Whether the owner of the company or a middle manager, employees understand that the person they report to can be their biggest cheerleader or their worst nightmare.

I prefer to think that the people I have hired put me in the first category. Having made a significant investment of time in hiring them in the first place, I must have recognized the sort of talent, personality and energy that would improve our company.

I want the folks I hire to love their jobs enough to come back raring to go after a lousy day, because everybody has a lousy day once in a while. I want them to look to me for inspiration. I want them to respect my work ethic. I want them to want to get better at what they do. I want them to know that I will help them get better. I want them to learn from my example, even when I am not directly mentoring them.

Of course, none of that happens unless I know how to come back revved up after a miserable day, demonstrate a stellar work ethic, and keep improving myself. What goes around comes around.

Study after study has concluded that the most important factor in job satisfaction is a positive work environment. Praise is vital, and salary is important, but nothing ranks as high as loving what you do. Location matters, but people are willing to go great distances for a job that makes them happy. Titles aren't even near the top of the list.

The determining factor is often closely related to the boss. A truly great boss will engender loyalty before any of those other factors will. A committed boss works hardest at positive leadership and a professional environment. A perceptive boss remembers her own early challenges and draws on those experiences. A responsible boss understands that mentoring his staff and helping them develop skills reflects positively on him.

Some months back, I wrote a column about the TV program "Undercover Boss." I admire the bosses who concealed their identities and went to work on the front lines for some "real-world" lessons about their companies. They were quite courageous to expose their own weaknesses on national television. But the exercise resulted in enhanced awareness of the importance of every single employee.

If you dare, try that experiment in your organization. You likely cannot be anonymous, but working side-by-side with staff, reinforcing that you won't ask them to do anything that you wouldn't ask of yourself, demonstrates your understanding of their challenges.

If all this sounds too overwhelming, step back and examine your motives. Are you ready to let someone else have a share in the glory? Are you willing to listen to options? Are you threatened by others' successes? Can you take responsibility for failure?

Many bosses get promoted without any formal leadership training. A good boss learns quickly from employees that Coach Wooden's advice will serve them better than a superior attitude.

Now here's the most important piece of boss advice I will ever give you: Your employees don't really work for you. They work for your customers. Customers are their real bosses. And yours too.

Mackay's Moral: Be a mentor, not a tormentor.

Fear?

From the DLM Blog:

Overcoming the Fear of Success

Posted: 09 Jan 2011 07:31 AM PST

I've got a problem. At least, I used to. Success freaked me out. I thought I wanted to be successful, but I really didn't.

Oh, I'd think a lot about wanting to make more out of my life, to do something that filled me with passion and excitement, but I never bit the bullet and did it. You know why? I was scared I'd fail.

Failure, to me, meant saying I was going to do something publicly, trying to do it, and then not being able to do what I wanted to do. I've always been like this, for as long as I can remember.

As a matter of fact, one of the earliest memories I have is of me playing baseball. I was probably seven years old, maybe even younger than that. I loved baseball (still do), and I was pretty good at the fielding part. I played shortstop, which isn't a position where you can hide someone who's not very good. If you want to hide a seven year old, you send him to the outfield, so he can pick dandelions.

I was terrified of hitting, though. Not because I was scared of the ball; I just didn't want to hit the ball. I thought it would be the most embarrassing thing in the world to make an out in a critical situation. So, every time I went up to bat, I prayed for a walk. I honestly never swung once the entire season.

Naturally, I ended up striking out a lot. Same result as I would have gotten had I swung, without the opportunity to ever get a hit. That thought never crossed my mind, though.

Finally, the last game of the season, my dad finally said something to me. He realized what was going on, I think, and explained to me that I never had a chance to get a hit if I never swung the bat.

So, the last at bat I got in that game, I swung. And you know what?

I struck out. Again.

And I cried.

But, after the game was over, my dad told me he was really proud of me. And his words started to sink in. I realized I had to be willing to fail in order to succeed. To my young mind, this was a new thought; one I'd never really considered before.

Is this kind of situation playing out in your life?
Here I am now. I'm 32 years old, and I'm still scared of putting myself out there. I think it's natural for pretty much everyone. We think that, if we say the way we'd like things to be in our lives (whether it's professing love to someone, or admitting we're dissatisfied with our jobs, or wanting to go back to school when we're definitely past our college years), people will laugh at us. They'll beat us back into conformity with everyone else, and that won't feel good.

I once heard of an experiment that was done with a group of chimpanzees. These chimps were placed in an enclosure that had a pole in the center. On top of the pole was a platform that had a treat on it (bananas or something). Whenever one of the chimps would try to climb the pole to get at the treat, the researchers would hit the group of chimps on the ground with water from a hose. Eventually, if one would try to climb the pole, the others would grab it, to prevent the group from getting sprayed.

After a while, the researchers quit spraying the chimps. The chimps behavior, however, continued. They still kept anyone from climbing the pole. After a while, none of the chimps tried to climb the pole anymore.

Later, the researchers introduced a new chimp into the group, and removed one of the originals. The new chimp tried to climb the pole, and was instantly pulled back down by the group. After awhile, it quit trying to climb the pole, too.

New chimps were introduced one by one, and original chimps were removed. Eventually, all of the original chimps were gone. None of the chimps currently in the enclosure had ever been sprayed with water. Yet none of them ever tried to climb the pole, because each time they did, the group would pull them back down.

Think about that. None of the chimps even knew why they weren't supposed to climb the pole, yet they all enforced it just out of habit. Because that's the way it's always been.

People behave in the same way. If we try to do something extraordinary with our lives, and we tell people about it, we're worried we'll be ridiculed for it. Mocked and shamed into conformity. People tell us it can't be done, simply because they've never seen anyone do it before.

Well, I think it's time that it stopped. Thumb your nose at the rest of the chimps and climb the pole. Do what you want to do, and don't worry about what other people think.

These are the lessons that I've learned since that day I struck out in Little League:

1. Everyone's scared.
   No one has it all together. If you talk to any successful person, you'll find out that, not only were they scared to begin doing something different, they still get scared every time. It gets incrementally easier, but the fear never goes away. Professional athletes still get nervous before the game. Musicians still have butterflies in their stomachs before concerts. Authors freak out the night before their books are released. What you're feeling is no different that anyone else.
   
2. No one's paying attention to you.
   This is a corollary to lesson #1. People are so worried about how things are going for them they don't have time to be concerned about anyone else - especially you. Consequently, people spend time worrying about other people, who really have no time to worry about anyone else because they have problems of their own. See how silly this all is? Oh, sure. There are some people who are paying attention to you. But, they're usually your spouse or family or really close friends. The kinds of people are going to be supportive of you, anyway. That's a good kind of attention.
3. You have to know where you want to go.
   What's the old saying? “If you don't know where you're going, any road will do”, I believe is how it goes. You need to figure out what your dreams are for yourself. Once you've figured out what you want to do, you can put a plan together to achieve it.
   
   One of the things that always concerned me about goals was hearing all of these “self-help gurus” saying you have to set huge, aggressive, audacious goals for yourself. The implication was that if you don't dream big, you might as well not bother. That always put me off, because I've never wanted anything really big in my life. No huge mansions or Ferarris, no yacht in the Caribbean.
   
   I came to believe that everyone needs to start somewhere. If you have a lot of credit card debt that you want to get paid off, that's a fine dream. There's nothing wrong with your dream of a debt-free life. You don't have to want to build a multi-million dollar business in order to put the power of dreams to work for you. Just start dreaming, and however big or small they are is good enough for now.
4. Do what makes you happy, and don't worry about others.
   Obviously, you have to be smart about this. I'm not saying run out on responsibilities and obligations you have set for yourself. What I'm saying is that there are very few people in this world who's approval you should be after. Your spouse and kids, maybe your extended family's, if they're supportive; that's about it. If a person doesn't have a vested interest in your success, you can confidently disregard what they think about what you're choosing to do. The only way you can count your life as truly successful is if you're doing what you're meant to do, regardless of what society at large thinks of it.

It's taken me over 25 years to fully absorb the lesson my dad tried to pass on to me that day on the baseball diamond. I've finally started to put something out there to the world that's reflective of who I truly am, without shame or apology. And I'm finally happy with who I'm becoming. I'm pressing on to be a better person, and, even though it scares me every time I hit “publish”, I'm learning to enjoy the butterflies. Because I'm starting to be who I'm supposed to be.

Written on 5/26/2009 by Jason Barr. Jason writes for LDCL, a blog about Life Design and forming the habits necessary to reach your goals, whatever they may be. If you like what you just read, you can see more posts like it twice weekly by grabbing a subscription here. Republished on 1/9/2011.

Photo Credit: Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha