Relax, Release and Rejuvenate – Week 4

After you refuel your energy with a vacation or staycation this summer, you will probably find yourself incredibly rejuvenated and ready to refocus! I hope that you were successful at recharging your batteries to full power, and now are revved up and ready to get back into the swing of things!

Week 4: Back into Action – How to Gradually Return to Work

When you first return from vacation, you will probably feel a tremendous surge of energy and ideas. Before you go full throttle into work mode, it helps to take some steps to make sure everything is organized so you can best keep that energy and excitement up as you return to work.

As you take your foot off the brake and get ready to accelerate again, remember “formula RPM.”

1) R = Review your calendar.

What projects are you returning to? What do you need to work on? What’s waiting for your approval to move forward? The more you review what you’re diving back into, the better prepared you’ll be to take on new projects.

2) P = Plan to plan.

Look at where you need to add planning time or ask for assistance before taking on everything at once. In addition to regular planning for projects you might discover upon return that additional steps have taken place that may affect your previous plan, or you may realize you are ahead of the game!

3) M = ME Time.

While you are still aglow from your “ME time” escape, find ways to create balance with scheduled ME time, so you aren’t overextending yourself. If you find yourself out of balance, review your commitments and activities to see if you can move them to another date or politely decline them (whenever possible).

This Week’s Action Step: As you return to work and review your commitments, ponder your professional and person life. Do you need to reset expectations? Did you find an avenue in your personal or professional life that isn’t striking balance? What new expectation have you set for yourself now that you are getting back into the swing of things?

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Relax, Release and Rejuvenate – Week 3

Have you planned a vacation or “staycation” this summer? Regardless of what you decide to do, be sure to take the following five steps toward your ultimate state of being. The more you are self-aware, the more you can self-care!

Week 3: Five Steps to Recharging Your Batteries This Summer

Keep your eyes on the P.I.E.S.! Steps one through four are all about reflecting on your well being…Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally and Spiritually.

1.  How are you doing physically? Is your health and energy level what you’d like it to be?

2.  Where are you intellectually? Have you taken an opportunity to learn something new – take a class, an on-line course, attend seminars to develop a new skill?

3.  How is your emotional state? Do you feel balanced, energized, positive, excited, grateful or do you  tired, tapped out, drained and depleted?

4. Where are you spiritually? Do you feel a greater sense of purpose and well-being?

Once you have answered those four questions, you are ready for step five!

5.  Adopt a mantra that inspires you to seek your ultimate state of being!

   

Picture leaving the hustle and bustle of your everyday life and escaping to your ideal retreat. Perhaps it’s a resort house in a remote location overlooking an absolutely breathtaking vista. Maybe you are up and active at a health club, making good on a New Year’s resolution. Or the sanctuary you seek is right in your own kitchen, cooking together, eating, laughing and listening to music.

   

No matter what the activity or location, one of the best mantras you can adopt to serve up a slice of serenity and foster self-awareness is: “Think big, be bold, take risks!”

Think Big.

Your only limitation is your own imagination! Because you seek rejuvenation of your body, mind and spirit, only you can dream and make possible the right setting to recharge your batteries. Now is the time to set your soul free with thoughts of me, me, me! It may not be everyone’s big dream, but if you are sharing this adventure with others, the next step, “be bold,” may open your mind further than your “big idea,” making possible several ideas that might generate a totally new experience to enrich your life in ways you didn’t even know possible!

Be Bold.

You’re likely to find your “A-HA! moment” while doing something as simple as reading a book that’s a complete and total departure from the type of books you may read for your career track. Bid the business books bye-bye for a bit, and just revel in something different. When your mind is open and receptive, so too are your eyes to look at things with a fresh perspective.

Take Risks.

You might think you’ve seen and done it all, but chances are there are still things you haven’t done simply because it “just isn’t like you”… such as wearing a certain style or color of clothing, styling your hair in a certain fashion, or trying a new type cuisine. But what if something that takes a certain amount of risk turns out to be so completely you, but you just don’t know it yet? Give some thought to trying something completely out of your comfort zone and you’ll suddenly be inspired by your own sense of adventure, and may be an inspiration to others, as well!

This Week’s Action Step: Create an “A-HA! moment” – take some time to think big, be bold and take a risk that you normally wouldn’t take.   At the end of the week, record what came up for you – What did you think about?  Did you take a bold step in one area of your life?  Did you identify a risk that you are planning to take?  Did it excite, rejuvenate and even make you a little nervous?  If it did, you are off to a good start!   Now share it with an accountability partner (a friend, colleague or mentor) and ask for support to make it happen.

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Relax, Release and Rejuvenate – Week 2

Look on the bright side. Every cloud has a silver lining. When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. There are dozens of sayings we are all familiar with, all geared toward the same message—changing our view of a tough situation to see what good can come of it.

Week 2: Turn That Frown Upside Down Through Visualization (Look for the Positive in an Unfavorable Situation)

Which of the following images help you to become relaxed? With a little practice, patience and focus, we can to train ourselves to visualize an object or scenery that will help restore our serenity.

   

If you’ve ever found it challenging to remain positive, I encourage you to give visualization a try. Visualization techniques have proven helpful in the areas of pain management, healing, stress and anxiety reduction.

Like every behavior change, it takes time. Start by visualizing 15-to-20 minutes a day (or every other day if you’re a “Type A”). You can slowly increase the time by 5 or 10 minutes, when you are experiencing heightened stress. It’s your choice to design how you can use this technique. Once visualization becomes a habit, it can sustain you in stressful/challenging times.

Visualizing beautiful scenery or images that are calming will support you in all areas of your life.

Close your eyes, take a deep breath and count to 5 a couple of times. When you open your eyes, observe how you feel. Are your shoulders feeling a little more relaxed? Is your mind still racing? Deep breathing exercises can train your mind to reframe what you are thinking. While deep breaths won’t take away the problem at hand, it can help you think in a positive manner; and eventually, you will enjoy being in a relaxed state of mind.

Visualization Techniques

Observe the environment you live and work in. If you are surrounded by office walls, dark colors and stainless steel, you may not feel very relaxed. Your body responds to what is around you. Live plants, a table-top water fountain, positive messages, and aromatherapy candle, soft music, beautiful objects, art on the wall or a comfortable chair can help you to relax and feel more energized.

One of my favorite visualization images is a butterfly. They represent transformation and change. When you are faced with a difficult decision or feel stressed, it helps to think of yourself as a caterpillar enveloped in the protective warmth and security of a cocoon. When you emerge, you can return to the present with renewed vigor.

This Week’s Action Step: Observe your surroundings at home and at work. Are you in an environment that has some form of beauty (i.e. art, a candle, photographs of family/friends, a few plants, a lamp with soft lighting, Betta fish in a glass container)? Add one or more of the above to your home or office. Try a visualizing an object or scenery that’s calming to you, or take a 10 minute walk outside, looking at your surroundings with fresh eyes.

          

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Relax, Release and Rejuvenate – Week 1

Creating balance in your life is not about hitting a breaking point and simply checking out on your responsibilities, nor is it about getting bored with inertia and deciding to burn your candle at both ends. You will be happiest, healthiest and most productive when you learn how to manage your energy and your time—that is, your work time, and your me time.

Week 1: “Checking In” to Create Work/Life Balance

After a long day, week or month of putting everyone else first, it is time to plan some sacred me time. This will allow you to maintain a level of balance in your life. Think of creating balance as planning for and taking a vacation. You likely have a schedule of things you want to do and places you want to visit.

Once you arrive at your vacation destination, you have to check in. Getting to this step should be the end of your planning and the beginning of your relaxation. You booked the resort in advance to ensure that there was vacancy. You made dinner reservations in advance to secure your space in a popular restaurant. You even prepaid for enjoyable activities, such as parasailing and an all-day spa treatment to create memories of the best getaway ever. The check-in phase is important to turning off your work life and moving into your personal life.

So, how can you “check in” and keep your work-life balance in check?

Consider the following “mind vacations” or mental exercises, as well as organization tips below to help you stay focused on the task at hand, whether you are tackling your professional obligations or taking time to enjoy summertime recreation:

 

 

 

 

1) Take a step back to review your goals: Back away from your work and home for a moment and review your personal and professional goals. Knowing what you want out of life and what you’ve gotten out of life so far, will either make you proud and satisfied, or feed your desire to achieve even greater things.

2) Take a Break:  If you are going away on vacation or doing a “staycation”, remove your watch for a couple of days so you can unwind (unless you have an appointment for a massage or an activity), and take a long break from checking your iPhone and working on your computer.  Ahhhh…. take time to RELAX, RELEASE and REPLENISH, so you will feel REJUVENATED when you return to work.

3) Set perimeters around your time by Saying No, or Not Right Now. We sometimes have a tendency to simply take on too much and we are very often too proud to ask for help.  If you start to delegate more, and set perimeters around some of your roles and responsibilities, you will be available to focus quality time on responsibilities that support the big picture.

4) Lists, lists and more lists: You might be partial to sticky notes, iPad notes, a moleskin notepad or your mental fortitude; however you can accomplish more and leave less to forget by aggregating your notes and keeping them in one place…this helps you to “work smarter, not harder”.

5) Take Your To-Do to the Web: Here’s a nifty idea: “Wikify” your life! You can actually create a Wiki page as your “To-Do aggregator”. This electronic format is accessible from all of your devices and is available to others at your discretion. Once your loved ones know how much is on your plate, they can better see the need to help you out, so you can check out of your work mode and check in to fun!

This Week’s Action Step: Create a ritual that allows you to identify the end of your workday or work week… This can include shutting off your computer, taking a smart phone break for 24 hours, closing the door to your home office for the evening or scheduling a leisurely walk at sunset. Share your ideas in our comments section!

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Poll Results: Which of these social media profiles did you create first?

Thanks for participating in this month’s poll!

Here are the results:

An overwhelming 76% percent answered “LinkedIn”, followed by 16% who answered Facebook. July’s poll starts tomorrow!

Branding YOU Through Social Media – Week 4

The adage “big things come in small packages” has never been more true than when you are “microblogging” over Twitter. A “microblog” means sharing your humble opinion or notable news items in the space of just a few characters. It’s truly an exercise in expert copywriting, as you must be stringently concise, while striving to make a huge impact.

Week 4: A-Flutter Over Twitter – Understanding the Microblog Model for Effective Communication

The microblog can be compared most readily to newspaper and television headlines. They are meant to draw you in immediately and persuade you to investigate the story further, but often times can also stand alone and inform the reader topically. Getting people to read and follow your 140 character microblogs is highly desirable, getting them to respond to it is a wonderful achievement, and getting them to retweet it and spread it vastly across the Internet is a major success.

The question arises, then—how can both businesses and individuals make the best use of the limited character count in Twitter? From our standpoint, it’s part copywriting, part networking and part creativity!

Advice for Businesses Using Twitter:

• Posting your knowledge and expertise is important, but you also need to reinforce your connection to other viewpoints and news in the industry. Make sure to keep current on what others in your industry are Tweeting, and Tweet similar messages, linking to the source, or retweeting a post.
• Respond to comments and direct messages early and often. This is your opportunity to engage with your audience one-on-one, and sometimes even in real time. Staying out of the conversation makes it seem as if there is no conversation and no one behind the Twitter helm affirming the importance of your follower’s opinions and feedback.
• Don’t just follow everyone who follows you. Follow only those people who will promote your business. Many Twitter followers are only there to interrupt your stream of consciousness with spam and random musings. Evaluate heavily everyone you decide to follow, as well as those who wish to follow you.
• Don’t sign up for services that promise you thousands of followers. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Such individuals require you to share your password and then proceed to spam your followers.

Twitter Advice for Individuals (especially job seekers):

• If you are looking for a job, you should absolutely leverage Twitter (and other social media) to start meaningful dialogue with businesses. Make sure your profile is thoroughly professional and positioned to make an excellent impression on these contacts. In lieu of a resume, cover letter, or face-to-face meeting, your 140-character diatribes are all business contacts have to glean from you. If you want to make a great impression, make sure they tell a comprehensive, employable story about you, your skills, and your goals—and make sure they relate to the type of employment you are seeking.
• In addition to providing Twitter content that’s worthy of being scrutinized by potential employers, make sure you take advantage of your Twitter bio and also link to a personal Web site or your portfolio of samples. Twitter bios are often on the vague side, or focus on wit and wisdom. For job seekers, consider making your bio very direct as to your specialty, or if you are in transition, make it a condensed version of a resume objective statement.
• Prospect list, prospect list, prospect list. Create lists of important members of Twitter you are following and conversing with, and be sure to continue following up periodically. This can be a comprehensive list not only including Twitter check-ins, but a full spreadsheet chronicling e-mail communication, including any samples of your work sent, and results of your inquiries. Organization, determination and communication will get you your next job and make you more valuable than you can imagine.

This Week’s Action Step: Faithfully start following 10 businesses or contacts who you feel can best promote your business, or who you believe to be a great asset in helping you seek employment. Interact with them on a regular basis for the next 30 days and chart the results of your networking. How many followers were brought in as a result of your connection to them? How many conversations ensued as a result of the connection? Witnessing your return on investment firsthand is a powerful way to motivate yourself to continue prospecting and branding YOU.

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Freshly Baked Communications (FBC) was established in 2008 to provide professional
marketing communication services and consulting to entrepreneurs seeking unconventional and emerging methods to promote their business ventures.
Through brand marketing strategy with creative writing, FBC can provide fresh and innovative marketing services that will surpass your expectations without exceeding your budget. Visit FBC online at www.FBC-Chicago.com or call 800-698-6858.

Branding YOU Through Social Media – Week 3

Cynthia Hanson is an award-winning journalist and owner of Write Now Resume (www.writenowresume.com), a Philadelphia-area resume development, job-search communication and interview coaching service that helps successful professionals launch to the next level of their careers. She contributed the following blog to discuss how you can promote your brand and raise your visibility on LinkedIn.

Week 3: Brand You! Seven Steps to Leveraging Your Strengths on LinkedIn

Are you on LinkedIn? If you are, I’m not surprised; 100 million other people are, too.  But do you use this professional networking site to leverage your strengths, maintain visibility in your industry, and promote your unique brand? If you don’t, you should! If key information is missing from your LinkedIn Profile, you’re putting your career at risk.

“LinkedIn is the core to career management, whether you’re happy in your current job or looking for a new one,” says Kristen Lamoreaux, president of Lamoreaux Search LLC, a Philadelphia-based executive search firm focused on permanent placement in the technology sector. http://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenlamoreaux  “You might be the perfect candidate for one of the roles I’m filling, but if I can’t find you, then you’ll miss out on the opportunity.”

In the past year, nearly 70 percent of Lamoreaux’s placements have been candidates that she sourced on LinkedIn. She’s not the only recruiter using LinkedIn.  According to a recent survey of recruiters by Bullhorn, a producer of online staffing and recruiting agency software, 85 percent of recruiters expect to increase their use of social media as a recruiting tool in 2011.  http://www.bullhorn.com/pdf/survey2011.pdf

What does this mean for you? It’s time to polish and power up your LinkedIn Profile! Follow these seven steps to leverage your strengths—and raise your visibility:

1) Headline Matters:  If you’re employed, the tagline under your name should be your job title and role. If you’re in transition, make it more generic, but feature the title you’re seeking: “CIO and IT Leader.”

2) Get Branded: The Summary section is the most critical piece of your LinkedIn Profile. This is your career billboard—and YOU manage the message!  Keep your summary to a maximum of three paragraphs. Make sure that each sentence promotes your unique skill set and brand, and remember to back up everything you put in this section on your resume.

3) Picture Perfect: Including a photo with your LinkedIn Profile will bring you instant credibility with recruiters—as long as it’s flattering and shows you in a professional light. No mug shots. You’ll come across as scary and unapproachable. No pets. LinkedIn isn’t Facebook. Smile—and don’t pose in front of a background that’s the same color as your outfit. You’ll disappear, rather than stand out. Finally, look the part. If you’re a corporate executive, wear a suit. If you work in a creative field, wear something colorful.

      

4) Recommendations Rule: Endorsements promote your skill set and value proposition. Some companies won’t consider candidates who don’t have at least three recommendations, including a recent one. Include recommendations from managers, colleagues, direct reports and clients to demonstrate your versatility in managing relationships upward, downward, across and outside the organization. Caution: Don’t post more than eight—or you’ll diminish their value.

5) Connections Count: When it comes to making a first impression on a recruiter, the bigger your LinkedIn network, the better. For senior executives, the magic number is 200+ connections; for mid-level professionals, it’s upwards of 100. “I can’t see [the names and titles of] your connections, so quantity is the only tool I have to assess whether or not you have a good network,” Lamoreaux says. “A high number tells me that if you’re faced with something you haven’t experienced before, you have a network you can turn to for answers.”

6) Post Updates: LinkedIn lets you be subtle, but deliberate in staying on peoples’ radar screens. Every time you update your profile, add a connection or application, swap out a book on your Amazon reading list or post a link to a relevant business article, you’ll appear in your contacts’ daily status updates.

7) Customize URL: Put some version of your name in your LinkedIn address. Then add the link to your email autosignature—work and personal. The payoff: With one click of the mouse, anyone in your business and social network can learn your brand…in an instant!

This Week’s Action Step: Review your LinkedIn Profile. Does it measure up? Follow one step each day for the next seven days. Result: A profile that leverages your brand.

Special Offer: Is your LinkedIn Profile working for you? Cynthia Hanson will deliver the verdict. Free, 20-minute phone session for the first five callers. Contact Cynthia at 215-661-1724.

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Write Now Resume is a resume development, job-search communication and interview coaching service that opens doors to new opportunities and bigger paychecks. Cynthia Hanson draws on her 20+ years contributing career management articles to national publications to prepare strategic, customized resumes, LinkedIn Profiles, executive bios and cover letters that get results. Her personalized approach and high-energy style are a winning combination for successful professionals who want to launch to the next level. Visit Write Now Resume online at www.writenowresume or call 215-661-1724.