Category: Success

Self-doubt is a sign that I am growing. Things that I can do easily do not create self-doubt.  I do not get nervous when I ride a bike or use a keyboard.  I have had a lot of practice at doing both of these things. New, complex things create self-doubt.  I feel anxiety.  I feel…… Continue reading Self-doubt is a Sign that I am Growing

“You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” Eleanor Roosevelt Going from self-conscious to self-confident is a simple process of developing skills.  Being self-conscious is painful and pointless.  Being self-confident is healthy and rewarding. Self-conscious people have to think about themselves.  They are less aware of…… Continue reading Going from Self-Conscious to Self-Confident

“A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.”  Mahatma Gandhi Saying ‘No’ without feeling like a jerk or acting as if a jerk is an important skill. You can’t say “Yes” to everything.  You will end up with things that you do…… Continue reading Saying ‘No’ Without Feeling Like a Jerk

“Most people are as happy as they make up their mind to be.”  Abraham Lincoln Job Security: How to Stop Scaring Yourself Who doesn’t have days when they worry about things going badly?  Sometimes these worries are about job security.  Job security worries are often scary. Here are five key elements to understanding worrying. No matter how…… Continue reading Job Security: How to Stop Scaring Yourself

Start by setting your own rules for email.  In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.  He put his personal rules on email on the website World Wide Web Consortium.  He wrote eleven points for sending email.  He put these points under these three headings. “Before you email me.” “What not to email.” “What…… Continue reading Get Your Job Done Fast.

You Have Enough Talent. Now Work on Your Skills.  Your skills will create your success.  Don’t let your feelings about your talent discourage you from success. “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”  Albert Einstein We’ve all known the kids with talent. These are the gifted students. They are instantly successful.  …… Continue reading You Have Enough Talent. Now Work on Your Skills.

Onboarding eases the transition into a new job.  Starting a new job involves meeting new people.  New employees must learn new places.  They develop new skills.  They learn to adapt to new expectations.  New hires often feel uncertain about what to do.  They are often uncertain about how well they fit in with the other…… Continue reading Onboarding New Employees for Maximum Success

10 Ways to be More Likeable Likeability is a soft skill that helps people build relationships and forge alliances.  The things that students do to become likable are the same things that make workers likable. However, with evolving technologies and changing social norms, the skills and etiquette for likeability are more complex. In the “Wall…… Continue reading 10 Ways to be More Likeable

Saving Your Career from Job Burnout Are you working on adrenaline and caffeine to push yourself to work faster and for longer hours?  Are you working under constant pressure from your supervisor or from your working conditions?  Are you taking shortcuts by eating at your desk, reading your email on your smartphone during breaks, and…… Continue reading Saving Your Career from Job Burnout

In the first 90 days, you will create first impressions.  Make them all positive. 1. Impress your boss.  Do the job your boss expects you to do.  Make your number one priority to do the things that your boss has told you to do in the order in which your boss directed you.  Let your boss…… Continue reading 6 Steps to Success in the First 90 Days

How to deal with a bad boss If you are working for a bad boss, you have my understanding and empathy.  I have had a couple of bad bosses.  One had no interest in his job and was a roadblock to my career.  The other one was verbally abusive.  In the first case, I left…… Continue reading How to Deal with a Bad Boss

Your performance review is important for more than your self-esteem.  The results can affect your promotions, your pay raises, and your job security.  Depending on where you work, your success in getting a great performance review is as important as doing a great job for your company. As managers come and go or as you…… Continue reading 6 Tips to Ace Your Performance Review

Is Your Desk Killing You? Standing at work burns calories at a rate that adds up to running marathons.  By contrast, endurance athletes who sit at work damage their health as though they were smoking. The solution for many people is to stand at their desk. There are desks specifically designed for people to stand while they work.…… Continue reading Is Your Desk Killing You?

Learning how to disagree without being disagreeable is sometimes a matter of understanding different types of people. Some people have a short temper. I had a partner who had a short temper. He would snap at people. Shortly after he lost his temper, his anger would pass. He realized that his short temper hurt him…… Continue reading Disagreeing Without Being Disagreeable

“The World’s Noblest Headhunter!”

I have had some excellent people work for me over the years. They were people I would like to have as neighbors around my home. They did things to help, often without my asking. They were people I could trust. One of these instances of trust resulted from my needing to look into the desk…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: Be a Good Neighbor.

Wonderful things happen when I read books.  I learn things that I would not know from surfing the Internet.  There are things in books that I do not know that I do not know. I have a library card and I use it.  There is a library within walking distance.  It is a library branch and…… Continue reading Books for Your Career

Keeping Track Of Your Things At Work:  You are sitting at your desk. You notice that you need to charge your cell phone. When you look in your case, you do not find the charger. As you think over your day and the days before, you can recall the last times that you used the charger,…… Continue reading Keeping Track Of Your Things At Work

Legend has it that Aristotle walked around the Lyceum as he lectured to his students.   Aristotle is often the model for people who discuss walking meetings. The idea of a walking meeting has a lot of appeal. Many people find the flowing environment, the exercise, and the side-by-side pairing stimulating. No one should find it…… Continue reading Powerful People Who Regularly Take Walks

Stress loves mental clutter.  As the pile of clutter grows in a person’s mind, stress becomes more powerful.  The clutter creates confusion, making it difficult to see the important things, the things that a person needs to do.   The confusion creates doubt and lowers self-confidence, creating more stress.  The growing stress robs a person’s…… Continue reading Clearing the Mental Clutter of Job Stress

Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2:  “… for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Winning teams and players come out of the locker room ready to play.  Monday blues can distract anyone from starting the week with a winning attitude and mentality.  Here are six steps that can help you…… Continue reading 6 Steps for Turning Monday Blues into Power Mondays

Power Assessment: Are People Your Greatest Asset? There is an old saying on Wall Street that the company’s assets go up and down with the elevator every day. When I went through orientation at Procter & Gamble, the trainer explained to me that the philosophy of the company is that its people are its greatest…… Continue reading Power Assessment: Are People Your Greatest Asset?

12 Ways to Increase Your Mental Skills There is nothing magical to greater mental power.  You do not have to buy anything.  You just need to follow some simple steps. 1. Live in the present moment.  Focus on what is in front of you.  This focus enables you to make good decisions and take the…… Continue reading 12 Ways to Increase Your Mental Skills

Free Websites:  Membership sites and websites give different benefits.  Nearly every career professional I know has a profile on at least one membership site.  Some of these professionals have their profile on several sites.  They put their names on the list among hundreds of millions of other professionals and businesses. Membership sites are terrific to…… Continue reading Job Power through Free Websites

Listening Power People prefer to think that they are smart.  Most people also like to think that other people think that they are smart.  Sometimes I can impress people more when I ask intelligent questions about what they have to say than saying anything. People enjoy discussing things they like and people they like.  People…… Continue reading Listening Power

10 Ways to Reduce Job Stress  I benefit several ways when I relax my mind. I think more clearly. I make better decisions. I feel better. I make other people feel better and help them think more clearly. I am healthier.  My heart rate goes down.  My blood pressure goes down. I have more energy.…… Continue reading 10 Ways to Reduce Job Stress

While everyone else is sneaking peaks at deals, make Cyber Monday a great day to focus on finding a job or doing a great job. This day is a giveaway day for many of your competitors.  They are falling into the cyber pit of Internet deals.  Move ahead of them.  Use this day to find…… Continue reading Make Cyber Monday a Great Day on the Job.

When I can not tell myself what I hope to accomplish, I am probably doing something that I do not need to do. By understanding the purpose of what I am doing, I work at a higher level. I can know the best way to do a job.  I have my goal in sight.  I…… Continue reading How To Get Promoted In Any Job Situation

Some people make friends easily.  These people have the skills to make people comfortable.  They know how to help people bond with them.  These people have a lot of friends.  They know how to make people feel accepted. People who have a lot of friends know that what people think comes from personal beliefs.  They…… Continue reading Making Friends at Work

“You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no results.” Mahatma Gandhi. The best way I can develop a good attitude about my job is just to do my job.   Putting things off because I feel negative or afraid only increases my negativity and…… Continue reading 7 Ways to Turn Job Ideas into Action: Mahatma Gandhi and Aesop

When I am having a bad day, I can forge ahead and strain to push myself through the day.  I can try to fix everything I do not like.  I can ruminate over my frustrations.  I can pour over the pointless hassles I have to endure.  I can persist with a job that is not…… Continue reading 7 Daily Practices for Turning a Bad Day on the Job into a Great Day on the Job

When I speak with people, I have a completely different experience from the experience I have when I write to people.  Hearing someone laugh makes me feel different from the way I feel when I read LOL. Using email and sending text messages is simple and one-sided.  I tell you what I want to you…… Continue reading Jobs And Relationships: The Power of Speaking With People

Job confidence feels good, makes us healthier, gives us energy, and enables us to focus. Confidence is the friend of success. Uncertainty and its ugly sibling cockiness are the foes of success. Feeling confident when we are in the middle of success is easy.  Feeling confident when we are in the middle of frustration is…… Continue reading Job Confidence

Business Power: Taking Command 90 Minutes into the Job I read a lot of articles about companies using 90 days to know whether a person will work out at a company.   I have never seen anything in business that supports this thinking.  Often companies place people in jobs where the company can not know…… Continue reading Business Power: Taking Command 90 Minutes into the Job

Attitudes: Some people have a natural, positive attitude. Life has blessed them with wonderful circumstances or wonderful minds and emotions. Understanding Moods and Attitudes When I am in hungry, tired, or rushed, things can seem more personal.   I may feel more anxious or impatient.   My mood declines and my attitude declines with it.…… Continue reading Attitudes are Contagious: Catch the Good Ones. Heal the Bad Ones

Focus on the Job not the Boss. Bosses may come and bosses may go.  Bosses have good days, and bosses have bad days.  Some bosses make work a joy.  Other bosses make the people around them miserable. It is helpful for me to remember that the boss is not the job.  The reason that I…… Continue reading Focus on the Job not the Boss.

Sometimes The Best Way to Start Exercising is Simply to Walk Out the Door. This morning I was having trouble getting started on an exercise program.   So I just put on my shoes, my sweatshirt, and walked out the door. I walked to the end of the street and turned left. I walked along…… Continue reading Sometimes The Best Way to Start Exercising is Simply to Walk Out the Door.

5 Signs I Have Lost Focus on the Job When I feel anxious, I have lost focus.  My mind is not on what is going on around me.  My mind is on what I imagine might happen. There is a difference between planning for future events and creating scary scenarios of what might happen.  I…… Continue reading 5 Signs I Have Lost Focus on the Job

Why Leaders Tell People What to Do When I was sixteen, I worked as a grocery clerk.  On my second day on the job, I showed up at my work station a few minutes after the time to start to work. The store supervisor called me over. He told me that I was late for…… Continue reading Why Leaders Tell People What to Do

7 Action Steps to Productivity Assess and Adjust.  Life does not always go according to my plans.  I can do several things when I meet frustration. I can ruminate on how unfair life is to me. I can blame other people for my frustrations. I can feel sorry for myself and play the victim. On the…… Continue reading 7 Action Steps to Productivity

Building a Successful Business or Career Never Ends. It is a continual process of expanding your goods, services, skills, and network. Building a Successful Business or Career Never Ends. Building a business or a career is a continual process of expanding your goods, services, skills, and network.  The day I sat down to start my…… Continue reading Building a Successful Business or Career Never Ends

Thank you everyone for your support in nominating JayWren.com to Forbes top career sites.  I learned this morning that I made the list. Forbes writers Jacquelyn Smith and Susan Adams reviewed hundreds of websites and thousands of comments to reach their decision.  It is a real honor to be among their choices. The excellent articles…… Continue reading Forbes Top Career Sites

Clap your hands.   Have you ever noticed how American football teams huddle before each play?  What is the last thing that the players do before breaking the huddle?  They slap their hands together in unison.  They clap.  They are practicing the rhythm of focus.  In the huddle, each player receives the assignment for the next…… Continue reading 5 Techniques for Better Focus

8 Ideas for Enjoying Work Find the beat of your own drum and march to it.  It is so easy for me to get distracted and off course when I look at what other people are doing and imitate those people.  What I often find is that the direction that those people are going is…… Continue reading 8 Ideas for Enjoying Work

I heard Ed Land, who founded Polaroid Corporation, speak on the role of the inventor.  Land stated that it was his job to imagine things before they happened.  His approach began with identifying a need and creating a way to meet that need.  Ed Land provided solutions.  On the day he spoke, he said that…… Continue reading Become the Solution

How To Hire The Best People I had a partner who would tell clients that when they made a job offer they were halfway to making a hire.  Finding and interviewing great people is only the beginning process in hiring great people.  Working with those people through the interview process to the point of accepting an…… Continue reading How To Hire the Best People

13 Action Steps to Getting Promoted or Getting Hired Below are thirteen powerful steps to help you be successful in your current job or to make career move. Step into action: Offer to help each person you contact.  Building a professional network begins with helping other people. Become a research wizard.  It is no longer necessary…… Continue reading 13 Action Steps to Getting Promoted or Getting Hired

How to Write an Effective Job Description Job descriptions have multiple purposes. Job descriptions are essential when posting a job. For job posting purposes, a job description is promotional material used to attract people to apply for a job. The job description should enable hiring managers as well as the applicants understand the requirements and…… Continue reading How to Write an Effective Job Description

The following search wording should work on most search engines. Also, except for the math phrases, the job search engine at JayWren.com and most other job search engines are enabled to use these search phrases. The source for these phrases comes from Google.com.  What that fact means is that if you are looking for a job…… Continue reading 10 Nifty Search Engine Tools for Business, Career, and College

It can be very challenging for people who work long hours at a desk to get enough exercise to stay trim, condition their heart, vessels, arteries, and lungs, maintain muscularity, and avoid spinal deterioration. The effects of daily sitting at a desk over prolonged periods of time can be debilitating. Beyond a regular exercise program…… Continue reading Desk Jockeys and Exercise

There are third-party applications that will post your online updates to your accounts at membership sites. However, you can easily connect your membership accounts without sharing your information with third party applications.  Using just the three largest sites will give you a great deal of exposure. To navigate through these steps, open a second browser…… Continue reading Webcast Your Updates and Discussions from LinkedIn to Twitter to Facebook/Facebook Page.

Compulsive mouse-clicking is a powerful, mood-altering method for avoiding work.  Clicking around through business folders and business websites feels like work. The process may even resemble work. However, the process does not produce the results of starting and finishing one task at a time. MY PERSONAL STORY OF COMPULSIVE MOUSE-CLICKING On some days, I can…… Continue reading Has a Mouse Taken Over Your Career?

Communication that Works: All Do’s, No Don’ts Tell people what you want them to do, not what you don’t want them to do. A guest lecturer at one of my undergraduate classes put on note on the chalkboard and quickly erased the note and posted a different note. She then explained her action.  She said…… Continue reading Communication that Works: All Do’s, No Don’ts

I schedule five things to do each day. This habit is one I have used for years but got away from for a period of time as I was adjusting to computer-based scheduling. I imagine most people who read this article are already using some type of electronic calendar. As we all know too well,…… Continue reading Is Over Committing Killing Your Career?

The philosophy towards careers and business has made a tremendous shift in Millennium 2. During the 1980’s and 1990’s, American business and economics looked very different from the way it looks now. The mentality of this time period was based more on the philosophy that there will always be more.  Lifestyles were geared toward working…… Continue reading Careers in Millennium 2: From Excess to Less is More

I have a choice today to paint my day and the day of the people I meet by choosing words that go down or words that go up. I have a stellar idea. I am going to take the path of great teachers who only say things they want students to remember. I am only…… Continue reading Paint Your Day with Brilliance Through Word Choices

ANGLO-SAXON WORDS  The basic principles for business writing and public speaking is to get accurate information to reading or listening audience.   The best communicators select words that will ensure that their message is easy to understand. For business and public speaking, the power of their material is in the subject matter. SENTENCE STRUCTURE Simple…… Continue reading Simple, Effective Business-Writing and Public-Speaking Principles

TALK HAPPY I worked with a great guy who was always fun to see. He is the only man who ever called me “Sunshine.” This name was not even a man crush kind of thing.  My buddy just greeted all people with a smile and some enthusiastic greeting or another.  For me the greeting was…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: 3 Ways to Turn Your Day into a Celebration!

The Benefits of Creating Your Own Career Plan A CAREER PLAN CREATES DIRECTION. In a sense, everyone has a career plan.  Some people just do not know what it is or where that plan leads. When entering kindergarten or first grade, children begin to participate in a career plan.  The school system laid out the plan.  The…… Continue reading The Benefits of Creating Your Own Career Plan

Work breaks are important to your health and to your work performance. If you are unemployed and in a career search, keeping yourself healthy while experiencing the added stress of looking for a job is critical to keeping up your self-confidence and maintaining a strong self-image. Even if you workout before or after work and…… Continue reading Daily Sessions to a More Powerful You

Developing your online profile is as important to your career as developing as your reputation at work or developing your resume for your career change. The information you post online may also be more in-depth and broader than the information you put in your resume.  On LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter, you will find that you…… Continue reading Your Online Profile for Business and Career

After going through a lengthy project that may take several days, I find that the project required so much attention and had such a long list of things to get done, that I get away from preparing a schedule for the day’s activities. This morning was one of those days for me.  What happens on…… Continue reading Creative Ways to Manage Any Process

Medium is a community website that publishes articles from writers who collaborate to help each other create better material before publication. The website is a great place for business people to get stimulating ideas from outside their community to refresh their business, career, and home life perspectives.  The theme of writers helping writers create better material…… Continue reading Community Building: People Create Better Things Together

Everyone has days or even jobs in which they may not be able to do everything that needs to be done. Additionally there are times when the obvious choices of what to do are not always the best choices. So how do you select the best things to do for that day? A good approach…… Continue reading Time Management | Control the Controllable

Performance takes energy. Peak performance takes knowing the pace for the race to use energy most effectively. I ran a 10K run in which I was wildly excited to get started. I came out and set my pace as closely as I could to the runners who appeared to be the best runners in the…… Continue reading Set a Pace that Enables You To Be More Productive

Creating a list of things that I love about my work is a great way to enjoy the things I do every day.  Here are four of the things I love about my job. FUN I have a lot of fun working in the recruiting industry.  The requirements of the job are simple yet fast…… Continue reading Employment Matters: 4 Things I love About My Job.

THE FEELINGS OF SUCCESS How you feel about yourself and your world will have a great deal to do with how well you interact with other people.  These feelings also will have a great deal to do with how other people interact with you. SMILE I talked to a guy one time who said that…… Continue reading Employment Matters: You Matter.

When you don’t like what you are saying to yourself, change the subject. I learned some time back that the quality of my thinking is related to my moods.  My moods may go up after I eat or listen to music or get some rest or get some good news.  My moods may go down…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: When You Don’t Like What You are Saying to Yourself, Change the Subject.

There are times when the boss needs to know.  Extraordinary people know when they should call the boss. At sea as a Navy officer I stood watches which included the safe navigation (piloting) of the ship.  As a new ensign in the Navy, I served on an aircraft carrier and never expected to see the…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: Know when to call the boss.

I once heard a guy say that he got the humility button, but he had to give it back because he wore it. So humility can not be worn like a badge.  When I forget that point, I pay a price in relationships and income. In an earlier article titled “Be Extraordinary:  Be Wrong,” I discussed how…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: Practice the Power of Humility

For me, green vegetables are the best weight-loss food and the best way to bypass the cookie jar. Greens are interesting too! Greens are fun and nutritious.  Check it out! Celery burns more calories than it contains.   Check it out!  Just slap that sentence in your favorite search engine, and check it out! Broccoli…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: Eat Your Leafy Greens

I am more successful when I start with simple steps. For me, motivation is not the key.  Consciously in the present moment, doing one thing at a time is the key. I do not require myself to get motivated to go for a walk.  I just agree to put on my shoes. I put them…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: Start with Simple Steps

When writing for your job or your career, you can become a powerful writer.  The principles of great business writing are simple. State your subject in the first sentence.  A sales manager once told me that Procter & Gamble sent him to Cincinnati for a two-year assignment to teach him how to write. I thought…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: Become a Better Writer.

Do employers hire you for who are you or for what you know? Obviously, most employers are looking for both traits. So when you go into that interview, be prepared to show how you can serve and benefit the company and how you can be someone people will want to have around the office. Two…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: Understanding Organizational Fit

It is about this time of year that I have forgotten about New Year’s resolutions or given up on them and feel guilty that I was not able to fulfill those resolutions I made just four short weeks ago. Why have always found that these resolutions were not going to work long-term and were just…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: Moving beyond Resolutions to Lifestyles Changes

It seems as though all my life I have held to the idea that I was right.  It is not so much that I had to know everything.  Often when I do not know something, I can just say that I do not know.  When I do know something, I have trouble seeing that what…… Continue reading When It’s Okay to Be Wrong

Today I am going to do one thing at a time.  I will start the day by going over my plan for the day. Then I will work with one computer program until the project is finished. When I have finished that one project, I am going to take a break and do some crunches.…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: Do One Thing at a Time.

Last July, I wrote an article on getting back to the home gym by following the methods used in the movie “Karate Kid.”  That is, by washing my car and doing other things that I had turned over to public commercial services. Now with the beginning of the New Year, the most effective home gym…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: Build Something with a Hammer and Saw.

Every day at 8:00 AM, I go over my plans for the day. I establish the status of my business with existing customers and what needs to be done to further my business with these customers. I review developing business and set priorities for turning those prospects into customers. I establish how I will proceed…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary by Planning

I love fruitcake.  Like everything else, fruitcake has people who love it and people who do not.  Nearly two million fruitcakes are sold each year.  I doubt that many people eat an entire fruitcake, since most fruitcakes have a very dense texture and are about a foot in diameter and four inches high less that…… Continue reading Be Extraordinary: Keep it positive!