Helping Career Changers Around The World

December 2011

Hello!

Welcome to the December 2011 edition of The 5 Minute Career Coach.

What's in this Issue

• Article of the Month - How To Love Your Job
• Something To Think About
• Cherry Recommends – A-Z Of Loving Work
• About Cherry

This year I have decided to do something to really get me in the Christmas mood. Something that allows me to combine indulging my enjoyment of singing with a Christmas treat.

I am off to Cologne in a few days time, not just to explore the Christmas markets but also to sing in Cologne cathedral!

I sing every week in a local choir and absolutely love it. So to be able to sing in such a special place is an extra special treat. We will be singing a new piece to me by Gustav Holst called Christmas Day, and also some familiar German and English Christmas carols and a bits of the Messiah – including the Hallelujah Chorus of course.

If you didn't see the Flash Mob Hallelujah Chorus that was going round on YouTube last year, do take a look. Only 35 millions hits already!

And it is a great opportunity to do all my Christmas shopping. I suspect all my friends and relations will be getting Stollen and Lebkuchen for Christmas.

And you never know, I may even salvage some of my long forgotten German while I am over there!

With very best wishes

Cherry

Cherry Douglas
Your Career Change Guide

How To Change Careers

With Christmas looming on the horizon, you may be thinking that you will put your career change plans on a back burner for a while as you have got more pressing issues to deal with. I can understand that – I am already beginning to panic at the thought of how much I still have to do for Christmas!

But shelving the career change temporarily does not mean that you have to just settle into the daily grind with gritted teeth. How about turning your attention to your day-to-day work and setting a different challenge.

How can you make your current job more enjoyable?

Here are some top tips to help you approach your current, possibly less than perfect job in a different way. Try any of these just for a day and see what a difference they can make.

Adjust your frame of mind
It is easy, when you are stressed or frustrated with your job to start each day with a feeling of dread and this then sets the tone for the whole day.

The minute you open your eyes and remember it is a work day your brain clicks into negative mode and everything you encounter is seen through that negative filter.

It is like always wearing dark glasses and wondering why the weather is always gloomy.

So make the decision to put on a positive frame of mind and see how it can change they way your day unfolds. If something irritating happens, decide to put the irritation on one side for now and look around for something to feel positive about instead. (The sun is shining, you have got a warm coat on, there are less email than usual in your inbox this morning...). If you start out with the intention of finding good things then you will.

Focus on others
One of the challenges when you are unhappy is that you get very self-obsessed. All you can think about is how miserable you are and how everyone around you seems to make your own situation worse.

Just for a day, commit to doing what you can to help others instead of seeing them as part of your problem. What can you do to help a colleague with their workload? Offer to do something for them if you can see they are struggling. If you are dealing with clients, think of them as friends and offer them the best possible service you can.

Make your objective for the day to focus on supporting others and making them happy. Even a simple smile can make all the difference.

Whatever you do, decide to do it well
If you are fed up with your job, if it is boring and routine, then the risk is that you are slipping into going through the motions and not really doing a good job. Take a step back and acknowledge where you are cutting corners or being lackadaisical and commit instead to doing everything really well.

Imagine you have just started this job and you are keen to try really hard and make a good impression. Doing something well, however menial, can be a source of pride that will make you feel better.

Your job does not define you
Even if it feels like you are spending most of your waking life in your job, remember that it does not define you.

It is easy to forget this because we are so conditioned to ask about people's jobs – it is often the second question after asking their name! But your job is not the sum total of your identity. Know you are more than a paper pusher or a mouse clicker. Even if the emergent businessman or artist is in you is being given less time than you would like right now, that other part is important.

What other roles do you have? Parent? Sister? Partner? Scout troop leader? All these roles add to who you are so don’t let your job hang round your neck like a millstone – know that you are so much more than this!

All of these strategies can help you approach each working day positively, so why not give them all a try? It will mean that your job will not feel such a burden in the run up to Christmas.

OK, you have had a few tips from me about loving your job in my article above, but here you have a complete A-Z!

26 great ideas to help you approach your work in a positive way.

And not just ideas for you to think about. Andrew offers a selection of exercises to go with each tip to help you think about how they apply to you in your current work situation.

Themes and ideas that Andrew explores include:

• Taking Action


• Finding your Higher Purpose


• Life-Work Balance


• Asking Better Questions


• Finding Your Umbrella!

Just click here to pop over to Amazon to pick up your copy now. It could be the perfect Christmas present for someone who is struggling with their job right now!

More recommendations
If you would like to see more recommendations for books and similar resources, follow the link to the Career Change Books page of the How To Change Careers website. Do keep popping back to it as I am adding to it all the time.

And if there are books, websites and other resources that have inspired you and that you would like to recommend, there is a place for you to do so on that page.

Cherry Douglas is Your Career Change Guide. She is a UK based professional career coach and career change consultant.

Cherry has been supporting people like you, with career choice, career change and job search issues for nearly 25 years. As a highly successful career change consultant, and having made career changes herself over the years, Cherry really understands the challenges and difficulties that you may face in dealing with our own career – and can help you too, to overcome your own problems and obstacles.

Over the years, Cherry has been privileged to work with hundreds of clients, helping them to find their way forward with their careers…with anything from a quick CV review to a complete career change.

To learn more about Cherry, visit the How To Change Careers website.

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