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You have been Searched – What did we find about YOU?

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Did you know that, according to February 2011 data from 3,000 MyWebCareer users, 35% of Facebook profiles analyzed have a potential negative sentiment? This could be abusive language, references to drugs and alcohol, and negative statements that may relate to work.
When a user signs up for MyWebCareer and connects their Facebook profile, it is assessed for potentially negative sentiments and shared with the user, and anything negative can lower their Career Score. However, by simply clicking the MyData tab within MyWebCareer, the potentially negative sentiments are highlighted and the user can delete those from their Facebook Wall — immediately increasing their Career Score.

MyWebCareer is a Microsoft BizSpark One company. Signing up only takes seconds — simply connect your LinkedIn or Facebook account in one click. And, unlike other “reputation management” products out there, MyWebCareer is career-specific.

Now you’d be hugely curious on what else can MyCareerWeb do, the website which offers free online service that enables you to uncover and evaluate your digital footprint.

In an interview with Nip Zalavadia, co-founder and director of operations for MyWebCareer, we get to know why knowing your digital footprint is important and more so how career professionals must take advantage of this service to get a competitive advantage.


Q. As we see from your website MyWebCareer, this service enables us to uncover and evaluate our digital footprint. Why do you think it is important for us to be aware of the digital footprint and do you think? How many Millennials do you think are aware of how employers look at their digital footprint?

In today’s job market, your online footprint is becoming an increasingly important part of your online brand.  Employers and recruiters no longer rely solely on background, credit, and reference checks to evaluate job candidates or existing employee’s suitability for a position. Companies are making increasing use of Internet search engines to locate and evaluate online information that may relate to a job candidate or an employee. According to CareerBuilder.com, “One in five employers use social networking sites to research job candidates, and close to 59% of them are influenced by your online presence.”

While Gen Y is very much in tune with social media, I think a high percentage of them will be surprised to learn that their online information is being used to determine their suitability for a job. It’s not just information that they’re evaluating — but also how you carry and present yourself to others, as well as the quality of your posts. In the end, hiring decisions typically come down to face-to-face meetings, but one should take steps to ensure you pass initial set of tests to land a face-to-face interview.

 

Q. Which feature on MyWebCareer would be most beneficial for a job seeker?

There are two. Our merged view of your LinkedIn connections and Facebook friends gives you a complete view of all the companies that are part of your personal network. Use this to your advantage and get a referral to the job you covet.

Secondly, as someone once said, “Knowing is half the battle.” Arm yourself by knowing what information is out there about you by using MyWebCareer to uncover and evaluate your digital footprint. You can also stay on top of it with our monthly monitoring service. Plus, it’s FREE, so you’ve got nothing to lose!

 

Q. What is Career Score and why is it important for me to know mine?

A Career Score is analogous to a credit score, but whereas your credit score is based on your financial behavior, your Career Score is based on real-time analysis of your online presence, behavior, and accomplishments and how these will be perceived and valued by potential employers or business colleagues. We uncover and evaluate your digital footprint for career specific references and produce a Career Score, which is available to you only unless you choose to make share it and make it public.

 

Q. Is MyWebCareer linked to LinkedIn? And also how is it different from Klout?

MyWebCareer is not affiliated with LinkedIn. However, we do evaluate and monitor your LinkedIn profile as part of our service. Your LinkedIn profile and network are a crucial component of your professional online brand.

MyWebCareer differs from Klout and other online reputation and influence services in that we focus specifically on evaluating the impact your online presence can have on your career. Our goal is to provide career professionals and new entrants into the job market with an innovate set of tools that enable them to gain competitive advantage in a tough job market through leveraging a strong online presence.

 

Q. Any other info that you would like to share with the Careerbright readers on MyWebCareer?

Long gone are the days when our online and offline lives were separate. Your online profiles (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are all attributable to you. Pause before you post an update or tweet, but on the same note, use it to your advantage. After all, it’s very likely that potential employer or a business colleague will stumble on it.

Follow MyWebCareer on Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn.

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Storytelling as a Driver of Reinvention: for your Career, Business, and Change-making Efforts

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“Through storytelling, we discover the invisible lines of connection that drive relationships. Apply this to a variety of contexts – whether you’re interviewing for a job, promoting large-scale change, raising money, or sharing insights through your blog. It all comes down to telling a story that others can believe in.” – Michael Margolis, founder of Get Storied — an education, advisory, and publishing company.

And here’s how you too can hone your skills on storytelling by participating in “The Reinvention Summit”. Find all about this summit through an interesting interview with Michael Margolis.

I recently heard about the World’s first Virtual Summit on the Future of
Storytelling! This is great – please tell us more about it and how we can attend
it?

The Reinvention Summit is a 2-week virtual summit on the future of storytelling. It happens all online, Nov 11-22, 2010. The Summit include 30+ hours of storytelling insights, all recorded for playback. You’ll learn the fundamental role and techniques of storytelling in the career-building and personal branding process.

To attend the summit and get more info about it visit http://www.reinventionsummit.com/

What’s so special about it and what will a blogger learn from such a summit?
Also is this for someone who has is a newbie in blogging or an experienced blogger?

This event is for more than just bloggers — though bloggers, of all levels of experience — will feel right at home. The Summit is for anyone who cares about change, innovation, and reinvention – both in their personal careers and the organizations they work for. Narrative is the fundamental building block of this process. Understand the structure of storytelling, and you will take your blogging to new heights of impact.

Thanks to blogging, anyone and everyone can be a storyteller. Of course, getting people to pay attention to your big ideas, is another story. As most bloggers know, content is king. And the best content that makes a lasting impression is stories. So the Summit is designed to illuminate fresh perspectives on how narrative is core to blogging and career building.

Never before have hundreds gathered from around the world, around a digital campfire to engage with 30+ hours of strategic storytelling insights, and social networking. The Summit is gathering a new tribe of storytellers: change-makers, marketers, bloggers, creatives, and innovators – anyone who thinks storytelling is core to their work and mission. (The secret is, this stuff matters to everyone). Look at any successful blogger, thought-leader, or entrepreneur – and you will find someone who knows how to tell their story in a way that overs care about it.

Social media strategies for business and blogging are all over the place, how can one integrate storytelling in our daily social media interactions with clients and the audience in general?

Social media is relationship technology. And storytelling is our basic human technology for relationships. Through stories,  you communicate who you are, where you come from, and what you care about most. If its done well, you reveal something that others identify with and want to be a part of. That’s the key, to convey a story that’s not just your own, but something that’s relevant and relate-able to others. When you achieve that – the need to convince, persuade, or sell people on anything disappears.

This is why it’s so important to share with your audience more of your own back story. Help them understand what makes you tick and why you were born to do what you do today. That is your source of natural authority. And the sort of disclosure that supports and speeds up the trust-building process. Learn to tell the bigger story, and you’ll create more opportunities for yourself in the process.

To attend the summit and get more info about it visit http://www.reinventionsummit.com/

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Listen to your Business – Workstreamer Streams the Competitive Edge you need

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Careerbright presents an interview with Suaad Sait, the co-founder of Workstreamer, Inc. He also serves as Chairman of the Board at ReachForce, where he was previously President and CEO. Follow him on Twitter at @suaadsait.

About Workstreamer: Workstreamer is for business professionals who realize that access to timely and relevant business information can create a competitive advantage. Today workstreamer is actively creating a competitive advantage for Sales Teams, Account Managers, Executives and Marketing Professionals

What is the main idea behind workstreamer that would make it an irresistible application to have for a company’s sales force, or anyone in general keeping in mind that on a daily basis we are not able to cope with the many email accounts and social networking applications that we have to keep track of?

Workstreamer is the MOST efficient way to get information about a company.  Instead of having to search for information from a myriad of sources about your customers, competitors, prospects and partners you can have the most up-to-date, relevant business information delivered directly to you.  Whether it be your mobile phone, on the web or in your email,  workstreamer users are listening to stay informed and ready to act. Workstreamer users tell us that they used to waste 4 to 6 hours a week digging for informaiton vs. doing real work.

Workstreamer listens to the marketplace in real-time – what do you exactly mean by that? And also what all applications can be integrated in your personal workstreamer?

Workstreamer is actively listening to tens of thousands of news outlets (like WSJ, NY Times, etc.) , press release distribution sources (like PR NEWSWIRE, …) , social media conversations (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, …), contact network updates (LinkedIn, Jigsaw), job postings and hiring trends (indeed, etc.) as they are happening on the web.  We are collecting this information,  filtering it for business relevance, scoring it and delivering to you.  Today you can connect your Linkedin account to workstreamer to get 1st and 2nd degree connection updates and your salesforce.com account for lead, contact and account updates.  Workstreamer users are also able to connect any company updates directly to their preferred RSS reader.

With many new applications catering to the business consumer, for example the Business collaboration tool Yammer and Chatter, how do you see workstreamer stand apart from the existing competition? 

Most importantly, workstreamer is not a collaboration tool. Yammer and Chatter are destinations for our content, and in fact we are already integrated with Chatter. Think of workstreamer as giving folks who are users of Yammer and Chatter something to talk about — their customers, partners, prospects, competitors, etc.
Workstreamer is a great compliment to these tools.  By combining workstreamer company and people updates with a collaboration tool, users are able to share and chat about updates as they come in. 

Please explain more about workstreamer’s value as business information-as-a-service for sales and business people?

Information is being created online faster than we can consume it.  We need more filters.  Workstreamer has created a business information-as-a-service application/tool that delivers professionals timely and relevant business information and content. By combining the many different information sources driving a business, workstreamer users are able to get a 360 degree view of a company and the people inside that company in one stream.

How are salespeople using workstreamer to close more deals?

A good percentage of our beta users are sales professionals.  They are using workstreamer company and people updates to close more deals. Some examples may be a Jigsaw update that shows a key contact at a prospect company has just gotten a new title and moved into a decision making role, so a sales rep can send a congratulations note along with meeting request; a Linkedin status update posted by a key influencer in a prospect company mentions he’ll be at a conference the sales rep was also attending, so a face-to-face meeting can be set up to accelerate the sales cycle; new funding is announced at a target company and the CEO mentions the funding is being used for marketing and sales expansion, the services that the sales person happens to sell, and Linkedin shows you have a mutual connection; or a prospect has gone to Twitter to ask for feedback about the selling company, and the sales person is able to craft the next meeting agenda based on what was being said.

Tell us more about your application — plans for mobile integration?

Our IPhone and iPad apps are currently in beta.  More to come on this front very soon.

 

 

Have you used workstreamer? Please share your views (comment below) on how it has helped you in your current job.

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How to Inspire your Team to better Performance

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In simple terms this title could very well had been “how to be a good leader” but that can be a huge thesis in itself, here the focus is primarily on the core skills that are essential for a good leader to help bring conducive results for the team and hence for the company. What can you do to better your team performance?

Be WYSIWYG

Doing what you say is essential to be a role model for anyone. You can inspire only if your followers see you do what you say. Follow the “what you ‘say’ is what you get” approach to inspire and instill ethics and credibility to your team.

Support and Empower

The more trust and responsibility you can share with your team the more effective you can be in your team building efforts. Kouzes and Posner in The Leadership Challenge say: ‘Leaders foster collaboration and build spirited teams. They actively involve others. Leaders understand that mutual respect is what sustains extraordinary efforts; they strive to create an atmosphere of trust and human dignity. They strengthen others, making each person feel capable and powerful.”

Share and Open up

The more you willing to share news and updates on the projects and expectations, the more trust you can build with your group. Secrets sour relationships and have no place when you aim towards building strong, high-performance teams. Be approachable and be informal to the level where you keep your required distance and respect; you are the beacon and inspiration of the team, always remember that you cannot be a co-worker to your team, to motivate and to inspire you have to be on a “pedestal” – someone to be be looked up to!

Show them the Money!

What are you working for? What inspires you? It could be more money or recognition; almost everyone works for a desirable end result. What motivates your team? It is your job to survey each team member on an ongoing basis and show them what they can achieve by surpassing the goals you have set for them. It is your job to show then how their work influences the company growth and how they are a part of a larger goal?  To inspire your team always keep them in touch with the company’s vision and show them how they will benefit when the company outperforms others in the competition.

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5 Steps to Deal with Boring Work

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If you are bored at work and have done nothing about it, perhaps this article will get you up and working on how to get out of it right now – You really can be bored to death, researchers say.
According to the report:

“Those who reported they had been very bored were two and a half times more likely to die of a heart problem than those who hadn’t reported being bored,” AP reports and cites comments from cardiologist Christopher Cannon that chronically bored people may not be motivated to take care of their health or may suffer from depression, which is linked to heart disease. Cannon also told AP it was possible that when people are bored, dangerous hormones are released in the body that stress the heart.nothing-to-do

If you are bored at work and wondering what to do about it and are not one of those who are exhilarated for not doing anything and still getting paid – like Dilbert and Wally here in the Dilbert comic picture; then this article is for you.
If you do not enjoy your current work and the thought of getting up everyday and getting ready to get to a place that bores you thoroughly makes you writhe and squirm, then follow these 5 steps that will help you deal with your current boring work and help you find a better solution to get out of it as well!

1. First- Analysis – is the work boring you or the routine
Often you will come across people who say have had a great performance record at their present job but slowly and surely they find it dwindling to the extent of getting bad reviews, disinterest in any work and not keeping the deadlines. Is it the job that they once were completely excited about a dead end for them or is it the routine that has bored them? What about you? Have you taken time to analyze why once a “to-die-for” position has suddenly lost its luster entirely?
As time goes by our priorities change and so does our interests, when the work seems dull and boring it is time to analyze the reason WHY first.
Ask questions like:

  • What is most boring about my job today?
  • Why did I not complain before?
  • If I were to be excited about getting up every day and going to work, what would I enjoy doing the most?
  • Does that translate into any positions that I am aware of in the present company?
  • What has changed in the recent past that adds up to the situation?

2. What’s the Problem? Boss, Team, Relationships
During your analysis stage you will find one or many reasons on why you are bored with something you loved before. It is time to answer the main question now? What is the Problem? If your supervisor if not the reason of your disliking the current work then go ahead and talk to your boss about any other projects he can recommend that interest you more. At times you are not so lucky to have a compassionate and understanding boss. Well sure enough it could be the reason why you despise work now because the human connection which perhaps you had before is not there. Your team members have moved on, the company downsized and the group is much smaller, there is a new boss with whom you do not connect. The reason could be any or all of these. Work is boring because you do not enjoy as much as you did before with the new team or leadership, they fail to motivate you. If most of the above fall in your list of reasons then it is perhaps time to explore other positions within your company.

3. Another position within your company
Give it a chance at least. Especially in the times of recession and low hiring, you stand a better chance of retaining a healthy cash flow through a steady income by not quitting your job. You can start on the informational interview with friends and colleagues who are in other groups to know more about what they do? It is the first step towards finding something that might be a better fit for your skills and personality.

4. Take a Break
A monotonous life is not for many. Perhaps it is time for seek adventure and perhaps a time to take a break. Why don’t you give it a try? When you break off from routine and let the mind rest, better thoughts may prevail, think Archimedes. But this step calls for more than just time off in your bathtub. You might consider a sabbatical to first relax and then explore on exciting possibilities to further your career or you might seek assistance of a job counselor or a career expert who can guide you through a career “rediscovery” process and you might be enlightened with some support and guidance. So irrespective of whether you have a cooperative boss, an internal opening g might be a possibility or you are planning on quitting your job, give taking-a-break a chance. I would especially recommend you to do so if you are considering quitting your job.

5. Quit your job
When nothing works then it is time to quit job and start looking for something more satisfying and that utilizes your potential and skills. Where you do not exist as a mechanical head on typing fingers. Of course follow the course of practical thinking and keep your focus on what you want not what you don’t want.
You have one life; don’t spend most of it being bored.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE/ARE BORED AT WORK?

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Here’s how to Fight the Fat at Work

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I get free food at work, the cafeteria offers a range of entrées and the dessert are irresistible; but help…my job is making me fat!
Here are some tips and ideas from the web pages that talk about how to lookout for healthy habits at your workplace and how not to let your job make you fat.

From WebMD
Easy, Healthy Workplace Snacks -12 portable goodies that will keep you away from the vending machine
By Elaine Magee

Aside from the fact that it’s good for mind, body, and soul to work breaks into the workday, this desktop dining habit is a potential health disaster, according to nutrition experts. Here’s why:

  • When people snack at their desks, they tend to eat fast and furiously. And if you eat fast, you’re more likely to eat more than you need.
  • When you eat while trying to work, it’s likely to be “mindless eating.” Your body is going through the motions, but your brain isn’t fully aware you’re eating. Again, this can lead to taking in more calories than your body really needs.
  • Studies have shown that when we snack because of stress or boredom (not out of hunger), the calories we consume tend to be “extra” calories. In other words, we don’t compensate by eating less at the next meal or by waiting longer until the next meal. For example, a recent French study found that when lean young men were fed either a high-protein or high-carbohydrate snack 215 minutes after lunch, they ate about the same number of calories at dinner as they did on days when they didn’t have an afternoon snack.
    Read on…

WebMD Weight Loss Clinic – Feature on MedicineNet
How to watch your weight in the workplace
By Leanna Skarnulis

First, take a lesson from employers who are actively promoting good health habits in the workplace.
Logan Aluminum in Russellville, Ky., has an 11-year-old wellness program most workers can only dream about. The company has about 1,000 employees, mostly male. Each year the company sets company-wide goals and encourages work teams and individuals to set goals.
Last year’s employee goals included reducing body mass index (BMI), exercising at least three times a week, reducing tobacco use, increasing use of seat belts, and lowering health-care costs.
“Kentucky ranks fourth among states in the incidence of obesity,” says Logan’s wellness director, Teresa Lovely. “Around here, people raise tobacco and eat fried food.”
Last year, Logan saw a 4% increase in the number of workers whose BMI is in the acceptable range and an 8% increase in exercise. Of the 900 employees who set wellness goals, 800 met them and received $50 gift cards.
“That’s very high participation,” says Lovely. “The first year we had individual goals was 1997, and we awarded incentives to just 10 people.”
The wellness program includes classes, a fitness center, and a policy of offering healthy alternatives whenever the company provides food. For example, in addition to hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and soda at the company picnic, there are grilled chicken breasts, baked chips, bottled water, and fresh fruit. “We’ve made these changes, and people accept them,” says Lovely.
Read on…
From DocShop.com
Is Your Job Making You Fat? Fight Back with Work Workouts
By Amy Teeple
Taking the Fight against the Office Weight Gain to the Next Level
If you are already using the above recommendations, there are things you can do to take your work workout to the next level. Just realize that you may elicit some curious stares from your coworkers.Additional steps you can take to add physical activity to your workday include:
Use Under-the-desk Exercise Machines – These small machines fit under your desk and can allow you to burn extra calories through a pedaling or stepping motion.
Replace Your Chair with a Balance Ball – Forcing your body to balance strengthens your core muscles and helps burn more calories.
Create a Desk Workout - The typical desk workout can take about five minutes. Popular components of desk workouts include:

  • Wall push ups
  • Jumping jacks
  • Chair squats
  • Torso twist
  • Water bottle curls

Start a Weight Loss Support Group – These groups can take the form of true support groups or they can follow the growing trend of Biggest Loser-type competitions among coworkers.
Read on..

What do you do keep off those extra pounds creeping on at your desk job?

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How to Manage Work Overload and Fire Fighting at Work

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OverloadWhen work overpowers your life and it is work while you work and work while you play – that means no time off for Johnny; it is time to sit back and evaluate what is going wrong. Many employees around the world are prone to burning the candle at both ends and in the long run the results are hard hitting on their health, personal life and even career.
Is it just that the work at present is too much or is it that this is the norm – you are mostly in a fire fighting mode at work and the tasks at hand are taking control of you rather than being the other way around?
Until and unless the reasons are taken care there is a high probability that you will land in this situation once again sometime in future. Taking control of our habits is the first step toward getting us out of the “fire-fighting” eventualities.

Learn to say NO

When it becomes so overwhelming it is time to step back and evaluate the reasons on why you are this stage in the first place? Do you have more on your plate than you can digest? Are you in the habit of pleasing your boss and saying “yes” more often to the appointed tasks? Don’t think that doing more means you could be the good books of management and your co-workers; stress and work overload affects productivity and quality of work. What matters eventually is the quality not quantity. Your first step now is to learn to say NO to what you cannot accomplish in a given time frame or just is too much for you to handle.

Delegate Delegate Delegate

The second step is to learn to delegate – since you are completely overwhelmed and stressed out chances are you are not in the right mental stage to get all the work done in the time it is due and maybe the quality of your work might suffer. At this point it is time to delegate those tasks which others can do for you.

Break it Down

Once you are done with the evaluation stage the major task of course is to get the task done anyways. First break it down – what can be done and what cannot be done. And of course first list out what MUST be done. Once you break down the task and itemize them in your priority list the picture gets clearer. It is always a good idea to write your “sub tasks” down, anything in writing is more effective than

And yet again I want to stress the point that if you see this happening many times over then it is a habit – get out of it before it wrecks your career and personal life. Learn to say No and delegate tasks to your team right at the planning stage.

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Your Sweetheart is at your Workplace

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I can gaze into your eyes for hours together, many a times I fail to blink. I do not mind that at all, I can strain as much and would happily take on glasses or contacts but cannot think of a day when I do not look at you.
I want to take you home from work, but my wife does not like you. I sometimes sneak in around bedtime to my home office and look at you through my PC, just another hour with you completes the day’s work – I mean worth.

I wish to accessorize you with the latest adornments; I will save for you so you feel updated.
My laptop/ my computer, you are my sweetheart. You are the one with whom I spend most days and hours of my life – even more than that with my family and kids. Today with my hands in yours (keyboard) I wish you Happy Valentine’s Day!

Is your sweetheart at your workplace too?

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I’m not Productive Today – 5 Tips to make the best of a Low Day

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Have you ever had a day when you felt like nothing was falling in place?

A day when the energies are low and there is no motivation or drive?

A day when the mind and body are tired and say “no” to work?

A day you would rightly term as unproductive?

What do you do on such a day?


The reasons might vary from physical or mental tensions or pressures, exhaustion, illness or simply an inexplicable “lowday”. What do you do that day?
All days are not the same, some days we surprise ourselves by achieving beyond our expectations and some days even the average task seems like the highest unconquerable mountain. The tips here might guide you to make the best of your lowdown day?



Prioritize

Well some things just need to be done, whether you like it or not. You must prioritize those at least. Do you have a meeting which you must absolutely attend? Do you have any deadlines for the day? Do you need to run an errand which must be done within the day? You got it; identify the “musts” first. What is urgent must move up on your priority list. Once you know what has to be done, identify the steps that you need to get that task off your plate. Ask yourself such questions:

  • Would it help if I get it done right away, no matter how I feel?
  • Would it be better to move this task a couple of hours from now so that I can give myself time to revive and feel more energized before I begin on the task?

You could choose any of these or what you find the best option, it all depends on the situation. The task might be time bound; in that case the second option might not be an option at all. Or you might not get that work done efficiently or provide quality so it would be better to choose the second option. You must evaluate first.
 

Inspiration Motivation

You might also need some inspiration or motivation to enliven the day and work towards some planned goals or plan some goals. You may read some tips on the above linked article and also would be a great idea to read the writings of those who inspire you. Just reading or viewing something that makes you feel happier or inspired brings satisfaction. You may not “get” something done as such but these activities help you elevate to a happier and satisfied self.

 

Physical Rejuvenation

At times when the mind is dull and lousy; it is time to rejuvenate the mind with physical activity or even meditation. Physical activity and meditation brings more oxygen to your brain, boosts your adrenaline levels that gives you some instant energy and you start feeling good.
Even eating and drinking the “right things” brings our energy levels up and revs us up. Although coffee and sweetened drinks might also get you on a “high” for some time, the long term rush would be better if it comes from some good workout and healthy eating. “Moderate intensity aerobic exercise improves mood immediately and those improvements can last up to 12 hours,” concludes study lead researcher Jeremy Sibold, Ed.D., at the University of Vermont, Burlington.

 

Count your Blessings

Oh yes, you did not expect this to be on your list, but believe me it works. There could be days when you feel depressed for no reason whatsoever but many of such days do have some reason, don’t run away from the analysis; confront them. Why are you feeling low today? List all possible reasons – any incident that happened the day before, or any physical reasons? The point is once you know the cause it is easy to find a remedy; diagnosis is key to improvement of the situation. And there may be many different reasons. Now if you have fallen in the depths of low self-esteem and self-worth then just count your blessings. Think about the many people who do not have even a fourth of what you have, think about the people who love you – call them talk to them. Think about the people who need you, who respect you. Just don’t put down yourself, you are special and have a lot to do to help make this world or someone else’s world a better place. Contributing to a charity or a random act of kindness might be something you can consider doing today – it will make you feel better for sure.

 

Have Fun

Continuous work pressure and addiction to work often results in a burn-out. Avoid getting to this stage by working in spurts, when inactive make it fun so that you can get back to work refreshed and prove to be more productive. But if this is one of the rare days when no motivation would get you to make use of this day positively at work –  then consider taking the day off from work (if  possible). Do what makes you feel happier – shopping, meeting friends, playing with your kids, watching your favorite movie, reading a great book, meditation, me-time or what-else-pleases-you-the-most. Just do it and make the best of the day. Put your expectations on the back seat and don’t whine over what did not get done, enjoy and live the moment, you’ll get that done another day. At least it would be a day well spent – a nice investment toward your rejuvenation!

Tip:

It is also a good idea to have a document on your computer or some notes at the back of your calendar (or any PDA/phone) where you note down such tips on what to do when you are feeling “down under”. Such days bring depressing feelings and often it is not easy to collect your thoughts and plan any action items, but if you have the tips ready on how to brighten up the hours and make your day productive, you can get something done and make that day count. Just keep some tips handy and choose from the list what appeals you the most that day.

 

Question: What would you do or what have you done on a “lowdown day”?

 

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What do we need most – Inspiration or Motivation?

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We all hope for something good as the new year begins, better salary at the job, or just keeping the job this year, hoping that the kids do better at school, our savings increase, the DOW stays positive and moving upwards and overall peace everywhere. Most of us hope well and plan for the year ahead. But sometimes things don’t go right, something happens that puts you in a low gear and hope is not all that positive. We do not feel like planning and even though we want to there are not much positives on which we can base our new goals for the future.
What do you do in such a situation? You need inspiration and motivation to begin anew or to build a re-energized plan for the future. Move on we must.

What is inspiration?
According to the dictionary: Inspiration is -The act or power of exercising an elevating or stimulating influence upon the intellect or emotions; the result of such influence which quickens or stimulates;
or
Inspiration is arousal of the mind to special unusual activity or creativity.
Where does it come from?
Inspiration can come from within, through change in environment, through others – friends, family, teacher or even those you don’t know but have inspired you through their work or teachings. And sometimes you really have to strain hard to find when you are feeling low. But whatever it takes, find time and strive hard to seek inspiration because it is one essential fuel that can have you rising to new heights from down in the dumps.
Sometimes just a few well-said words from the wise and the erudite can are what we need to brighten the day. Here are some that I want to share with you:

“Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.”
– Karen Ravn

“Every noble work is bound to face problems and obstacles. It is important to check your goal and motivation thoroughly. One should be very truthful, honest, and reasonable. One’s actions should be good for others, and for oneself as well. Once a positive goal is chosen, you should decide to pursue it all the way to the end. Even if it is not realized, at least there will be no regret.”
– Dalai Lama

What is motivation?
Motivation is when someone or something prompts you to an action or energizes or stimulates you to a goal or object.

Where does it come from?
As inspiration, motivation can also come from within, from a change of environment or through others.
There is a subtle difference between the two but either of these can invigorate action if you welcome them wholeheartedly.
Sometimes we do need a spark to ignite us and do your best this year to be in search of such a stimulus wherever you go or just when you find some time with yourself alone – inspire yourself and motivate yourself to an action or cause above and beyond yourself. It adds more meaning to life and adds a sparkle to our self. But wait, do not hold off any action in wait of inspiration or motivation, always remember that action precedes both of these – if you act well and in time there can be nothing better and even an action can inspire and motivate you to do better and carve a new path that you had not thought of before. Think about it.
Action is perhaps larger and more inspirational and motivational than inspiration and motivation alone.

I appreciate your time to share your thoughts – What has inspired or motivated you recently?


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