Career Ramblings

When a conflict arises the best thing is to usually separate yourself from it, but when that conflict is taking place where you work it can be nearly impossible to do so. Whether it’s an argument, disagreement, or a full-blown fist-fight (believe me, it happens), finding an appropriate way to deal with it is often the difference between being reprimanded/punished and being able to continue your day in a regular fashion.

Whenever I find myself in some kind of confrontation with someone I always take a few moments (usually while the other person is talking/yelling/whatever) to determine if it’s even worth my time. Has something happened that deserves a significantly negative response from me? Has the other party done something to justify a response, or are they reacting to something that justifies a response? And, of course, will this actually solve anything?

Most of the time the last question is almost always a “no”, and so I simply move on. That doesn’t always end the argument, however, and often simply “moving on” leaves a fair bit of animosity remaining on both sides. So how do you deal with that?

• Seek a professional solution.< ?b>

Keeping control of your senses and seeking out a professional way to conclude the conflict is the smart move here. Don’t belittle the other party, don’t ignore them, and don’t lash out that them. Simply state that there’s no reason for the conflict to continue and that you want to end it now. Ask for concessions on their end, just as you will have to give concessions as well.

Most (rational) people have no problem with compromise as long as they feel they are being treated fairly.

• De-escalate the situation.

If it’s an “in your face” argument, tone it down. Lower your voice and ask the other party to do the same. If they refuse, simply inform them that you won’t continue this conversation so long as they are going to act in that way. Once they’ve calmed down, come to a rational conclusion. What have you done that’s upset them? What have they done that’s upset you?

Answer both questions and a compromise will almost always appear.

• Do not gossip or drag it on.

Offices can be a breeding ground for social gossip and chit-chat. Participating in it makes you as guilty of perpetuating a conflict as anyone else, even if you aren’t directly involved. The bottom line is that you don’t need to go there, so don’t. It will save you headaches down the road.

• Seek a higher authority when necessary.

This is your work, not a playground. If someone else is going out of their way to make your life miserable talk to your boss. Let them know what’s going on, and ask them to bring about some kind of solution. That’s part of the reason why they’re there in the first place, so take advantage of it.

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By now you’ve probably read step one, but if you haven’t go do that now and then come back to this post.

By now we’ve figured out how we’re going to make our half a million dollar salary. I don’t mean the steps or the method, but the vehicle that you will use to make that happen. You might have chosen to open a business or two completely restructure your current occupation. I, for example, chose to abandon my corporate obligations and focus my efforts on internet marketing. I know of quite a few people who have made a killing off of real estate, and a friend of mine went from $80,000 a year to $216,000 a year simply by moving around within her company’s corporate structure.

Regardless, once you’ve got your sights set we’re going to make that push forward. Remember, your chosen vehicle should meet some basic criteria:

• It will actually allow you to make your desired income.

There’s no point in spinning your tires, so do it once and do it right. If your career doesn’t have an income level that high, find one that does or start a business.

• You’ve got your stuff together.

Tons of debt? Payments eating up every cent of your paycheck? No savings? Deal with all of that before you even both considering this.

• You have what it takes to make it happen.

Someone actually posted a comment (that I’ve since deleted) on the other post about how he wants to be a movie star and that my post doesn’t work for that industry. Well duh! I’m not talking about going from a patent attorney to a movie star, I’m talking about going from a comfortable situation to a much more lucrative one. It’s the catalyst required to make it all happen, so don’t let me down.

If you can’t make it happen, or if you simply don’t have the personality required to be successful in your career path, don’t bother reading further.

All of the above make sense? Good, time to move forward then.

What we’re going to focus on now is letting the world know that we’re capable of success and exude confidence to make it happen. What does that mean in plain English? We’re going to get down to business and take things seriously. The change in our attitude, mindset, and ability will be noticed by everyone, from your family to your employer (or employees). This attitude change is going to mentally prepare ourselves for the coming changes, as well as passively let the world around you know that big things are happening.

This doesn’t mean that you suddenly become cocky and self-righteous, but instead you become confident. Know that you are capable of great things, and put your mind into your objectives 110%. Approach your boss and let them know that you would like to start taking more ambitious projects on; let your family know that one of your main objectives is to grow spiritually as a person and lean from it; become a supportive and influential member of your professional community. Tell the world what’s happening and why.

This does a few things for you:

• Over time, you expect success and lament failure.

After all, why should you be content with anything other than achieving your goal?

• It makes your objectives attainable.

There was a time when making $500,000 a year for me was something that was simply out of reach. Now I’ll be disappointed if I don’t make twice that next year. Why? Because now I know I can.

• It just makes it work.

Successful thoughts and attitudes tend to manifest success. If you truly believe in your ability to make something happen it will happen. Believe me- I know from experience.

Got that mastered? We’ll get to something real in the next post.
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Working the 9 to 5 got you down? Are you having a hard time getting ahead and climbing your corporate ladder? Well my friends, you need Career Ramblings patented “Career Masher”©®ͭͫ.

The Career Ramblings Career Masher©®ͭͫ is perfect for those that plan their work and work their plan, yet still can’t move up in today’s crazy economic paradoxically-challenged world. In fact, the Career Masher©®ͭͫ is so good that even moguls like Slim Shady and Dirk Lerkins have used it in the past to get the jump on their competition. The Career Ramblings Career Masher©®ͭͫ, your solution for everything but the career!

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• Free Business Plan Template.

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Sorry everyone, I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had the time to actually sit down and write a coherent sentence for CareerRamblings.com. I am actually getting ready to fly out to Calgary for a family emergency, but I will be back Tuesday and promise to get some more great content up for everyone to read!

- Cam

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Read this post with an open mind, and for god sakes, do not decide that it’s too hard and you aren’t willing to do it. There’s no quicker way to sabotage your success than you over think everything right from the get-go. That’s how you take a million dollar idea and sit on it until it’s too late. Imagine if the guys behind Google had thought “nah, we’d have to get servers running and then we’d be competing with Yahoo! and Microsoft anyway.”

No, instead they did what they had to do and are now a pair of the richest people on the planet. So if they can take something from nothing and make it worth billions of dollars, surely you can take something and turn it into $500,000. I can already hear what some of you may be thinking: “well gee Cam, you make it sound so easy”.

Well, yes, I make it sound that way because in the scheme of things it really is that easy. There is no rocket science that goes into making something work- it comes down to a good idea, some common sense, and a good amount of blood, sweat, and tears.

Over the next few days I’m going to outline each step required to go from $0 to $500,00 a year. Remember to keep your mind open, but most of all, remember to think about how you can relate what I’m saying to you.

How to Make $500,000 This Year – Step One

The first thing that you need to establish is the vehicle that you are going to use to achieve your desired income level ($500,000 is just an arbitrary figure that I pulled from thin-air- you could use $100,00, $1,000,000… whatever, it’s all the same). If you’re of the enterprising ilk, it may be a business idea or investment opportunity. If you’re looking to bump your income while adding as little risk as possible, you may want to become comfortable with the idea of a career change or a chance in your employment situation.

Regardless of the vehicle that you choose, you need to become as comfortable with it as possible. This means really sitting down and researching any and all risks associated with it, the advantages and disadvantages associated with it, and what you’re going to need to do to make it happen. It might sound like a lot of work, but believe me when I say the payoff is huge.

The whole point is to know what you’re getting into, and at the very least, being aware of what it’s going to take for you to get to where you want to be. There are so many different ways that someone might become wealthy that there’s no possible way for me to list them all off. All I can do is tell you the golden formula that seems to work for people. It’s all up to you to make it happen for you.

Here’s a checklist that will help you get all your bases covered before we actually start talking risks:

• Figure Out your Income Path

Can your career actually facilitate a six or seven figure yearly salary? Is there a market for that genuis product or business idea of yours? Determine this first.

• Make Sure Your Ducks Are in a Row

If you have debt up to your eyeballs and don’t have a cent to your name, perhaps you should focus on brining down your debt (click here for some tips on how to do it) and saving some money first. Having a rainy day fund is crucial.

• Make Sure You Have Support

If you have a spouse, ensure that they aware of and comfortable with your decision to try to shake things up a bit, and make sure that they support you 100%. If you don’t have a spouse, make sure there’s at least one friend who’s got your back. After all, you will need the support if things don’t go as smoothly as you’d like.

• Prepare Yourself Mentally for Chance

Things are going to change really fast, and you are going to have to be able to react to and handle them in a way that is as stress-free as possible.

Stay tuned for the next installment.

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Tomorrow is February 29th, and besides happening only once every four years, it also concludes a record month for me revenue/profit wise. So, instead of rambling on about how great it is to make friends in the office or how it’s important to stay energized throughout the day, I thought that perhaps today I would link you to various websites, blog posts, and other resources that will help you start your business.

• Developing a Business Plan

A business plan is essential to your success. This great post from the Blue Fur blog will help you get your business plan on track!

• What Do People Want?

This post from AffiliateWeb.org talks about what people want from a website. The great thing about it is that you can take the information and relate it to anything, not just websites!

• Is “Being Self Employed” One Big Scam?

Becoming self employed: scam, or American dream? I don’t know, but this site does!

Once you’ve read those sites, check out our sections on home business, entepreneurs, and movers and shakers. With all of the information on this site (and the thousands of excellent sites out there), there’s no reason that you couldn’t be making money tomorrow!

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It’s true: it’s all about relationships. And I’m not talking about the kind of endearing friendship that you might share between your spouse and yourself. I’m talking about professional, long-term business relationships. You see these kinds of relationships all the time: doctors, dentists, accountants, bankers, “your tax guy”, etc.

Truly becoming successful within your career is something that isn’t measured by any one given value. For some, it’s purely monetary, while for others it may be a combination of physical satisfaction, monetary accumulation, and mental stimulation. I know of one person who goes into work everyday and works her butt off just because she knows that it drives the girl in the booth to the left of her insane.

And I’m not even joking.

Regardless of your motives for working, there’s no denying that building strong, sustainable relationships is key in progressing quickly and smoothly through the career path. Some people will provide opportunities, and others will help build your skill-set. Chances are good that there’s always someone who can help you in one way or another.

The same can be said for businesses. Working with other people or businesses for long periods of time is a great way to build trust, friendship, and cooperation. It’s also common for long-term business associates to offer each other perks, discounts, and other incentives as a result of the long-term relationship that’s been built.

Never pass up an opportunity to start a new relationship with someone, and never throw established relationships away.

Coming up soon: a dissection of the affiliate marketing industry!

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It has been said that the true path to inner peace is maintaining an equilibrium. That is, balancing your home life with your work life, and vice versa. All work and no play makes Cam a bad boy… and the like.

Cliches aside, there is a definite truth to the statement “a happy home is a happy person”, and that applies to all areas of your life: home, work, social, spirtual, and otherwise. For myself, I know that there are times when I struggle to remain balanced and happy. Certain (small) things, such as the cats peeing on my couches or my car breaking down, can set me off on a different path. These things happen, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re annoying when they do.

How you deal with the minor things in life that annoy/irritate/enrage you determines whether or not you will remain happy. If you don’t handle things well, you will quickly go from “happy” to “unhappy”, and all of the time you spent building yourself a happy home will have been lost. Right? Well, maybe in a way that’s not quite as dramatic as I’ve made it sound

In reality, everything comes down to stress and relaxation. Some things will stress you out, and others will relax you. Which does what depends on who you are and what your interests are, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are exacting. If you find that you are unhappy at work, home, or both, try some of the methods below- they’ve worked for me in the past.

• Pursue a hobby

Gardening, photography, cars, computers, stamp collecting… whatever makes you tick, do it. Spend some time doing it and enjoying it, as a hobby is a great way to get your mind off of work, home, the kids, the spouse, and anything else that might cause your stress barometer to rise. Sometimes, when I’m just starting to get annoyed, I’ll fire up a computer game and geek out for an hour or two. Afterwards, I usually can’t even remember what set me off in the first place.

• Cook something nice for yourself

I find that cooking myself a great meal, even if it’s something as basic as steak and mashed potatoes, is a great way to let off some steam (and enjoy a good meal at the end of it). It takes some time to cook, during which you are probably distracted by what you’re doing (cooking), and by the time you’ve sat down to eat you’ve likely forgotten what was stressing you out, or at the very least, won’t care as much.

• Read the newspaper

Whenever I really start to lose it I’ll flip open the paper and give it a read. Sometimes all it takes is a quick dose of reality for me to realize just how good I’ve got it.

• Watch the Thomas Crown Affair

I don’t know what it is about this movie, but every time I watch the Thomas Crown Affair I can’t help but laugh a little and enjoy mself. Maybe that movie’s not for you, but I guarantee there’s at least one movie that makes you happy. Find it, enjoy it, and come back to it whenever you need a mental break.

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Have you ever gone to work and immediately started falling asleep when you got there?

If you have, I feel you my brothers and sisters. I feel you.

Many people “suffer” from sleeping disorders, eating disorders, or other types of conditions that prevent them from having enough energy in a day. When they will be affected depends on many things, and if you’re like me, you’re dog-tired all morning. If you find yourself constantly tired in the mornings, even though you got 8 hours or sleep the night before, you should try some of the points below- they just might “spruce you up”.

• Eat Dinner at 6 pm

- It has been shown over and over again that eating late puts stress on your body while you sleep. At night, especially when you are sleeping, your metabolism is low. Taking in large quantities of calories will result in most of them simply being stored somewhere on your body as fat. Not only will you find it harder to fall asleep, you’ll also likely gain weight too. Lovely.

Eating dinner earlier, with the latest being 6 pm (assuming you go to bed somewhere between 10 and 11), gives your body more time to process the food, digest it, and hopefully burn some/most of it off. You’ll get extra points if you go for a evening job or exercise session.

• Sleep Well

- This one’s obvious, right? Wrong. Most people aren’t getting the kind of sleep that they need. Make sure that your mattress is comfortable and supportive, that the blinds/curtains are closed so that the light level in the room remains constant, and that other members of the household that may not be going to bed at the same time of you are respectful when you are sleeping. The difference between sleeping, and a deep sleep, is very significant and also relatively fragile. Make sure that there are as few possible disturbances as possible.

• Eat Well

- Ahh yes, now we’re down to the most talked about topic in North America: diet and nutrition. You already know that a crappy diet means higher calories, a lower metabolic rate, and less energy levels, so I’m not going to repeat myself here and lecture you about proper nutrition. Just remember that natural, healthy foods provide a constant stream of energy from which your body can use to power itself, and that high-fat, high sugar foods (most fast foods, for example) provide a brief spike in energy, followed by a “crash”.

Eating right, especially after you’ve been doing so for a couple if weeks, provides noticably better energy throughout the day- morning included.

• Eat Breakfast

- Can you go eight hours a day without eating? Not likely, yet every night you do just that. When you wake up, the first thing that you should do is find some good, healthy foods to fill your stomach. Cereals, fruits, and yogurt are all great at filling your belly and providing your body with the nourishment it needs to have a great start to the day. If you don’t eat breakfast and you’re tired by 9 am, well, what did you think was going to happen? You can’t run a car without gasoline, and you can’t run your body without fuel either!

Try those tips for a couple of weeks and see how it goes for you. You will likely find that you’re happier, faster, and more motivated in the mornings. Not only that, but you’ll also find that you don’t “crash” during the day. You didn’t read it here first, as it’s been all over the media for years, but we’re hoping that maybe this post will be the one that twists your arm, so to speak.

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The key to maintaining good credit is to reduce or eliminate credit card debt before it transforms from the ever-ready assistant to the overbearing spouse (hey, don’t a lot of marriages go that way?). It’s that simple, right?

Riiiight. If it really was that simple we wouldn’t have credit clinics, credit rebuilders, and the millions of people that are literally swimming in debt. Unfortunately, that just isn’t the case- instead, credit card debt creeps up on you like a bad dream, catching you when you’re least expecting it to. That new TV you bought six months ago? Yea, you’ll be shocked to see that in six months you’ve paid $200 interest on it alone, nevermind any of the other purchases that you’ve made using your trusty plastic companion. Without getting into the math, if you have a credit card at 19.25% (pretty standard interest rate for most), it would take you years to pay off a $5,000 balance using minimum payments.

Years.

• Step One: Prevent it From Becoming Unmanagable - Curb your credit card spending and reassess your lifestyle. If your debt is already hanging over your head, I’d recommend cutting the cards up completely. Stop using the cards, stop accumulating additional capital by which the credit card company will so gleefully charge you interest on. This step is really quite simple: buck up and do it.

  Use cash instead of your credit card. This will force you to live within your means, and while you may find that it takes longer to make big-ticket purchases, you’ll also find a certain amount of relief that exists when you know that you won’t have to pay interest on it or ever see a bill again to pay for it.

• Step Two: Focus! - Dedicate the next six months of your life to doing nothing but eating, sleeping, and paying down your debts. Believe me when I say that it’s going to suck, and not having all of the luxuries that you would normally have (dinners out, movies, games, etc.) will be hard, but if you sit down and think about it you are probably spending hundreds of dollars per month on them that could and should be going to your credit cards.

  The reason why I say six months if because after six months you’ll probably have had enough and will want to treat yourself to something nice. By all means, do it. During that six months you probably will have paid off an easy $2,500 or more on your credit cards so long as you actually used the money that you weren’t spending on luxuries. That leaves you in a lot better shape and it will reduce your interest requirements.

• Step Three: Pay More than Minimum

  Another thing you can do is transfer the balance of one card to another when you first get serious about paying down your credit card debts. Many cards offer a 0% APR for 6 months or so when you first get them. That’s a great way to eliminate interest for six months and really gives you a shot to widdle away at the princiapl amounts.

  Good luck!

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Oh my, how so many can get up in arms about something they know nothing about.

I don’t know if you have been following, but the war between Anonymous and Scientology is in full swing. Anonymous staged world-wide protests of Scientology’s churches on February 10th, to varying amounts of success. While I feel that things have certainly escalated rather quickly, I must say that I am very impressed at Anonymous’ ability to unite people from all over the world in a common cause, and then have thousands of people peacefully protest. Given the incredibly sensitive and touchy subject matter, the fact that violence between the two parties did not break out is nothing short of fantastic.

I applaud both sides for keeping their cool.

But Cameron, you’re asking, how does this relate to making money? Easy: controversy is almost like a license to print money. The more of it you have, the more money you can print. In this case, where it’s Anonymous versus Scientology, both sides have a chance to capitalize on the situation.

Anonymous is just that- a group of people who prefer to remain anonymous. I doubt that the collective group itself will find monetary gain from this “war”, I would not be (and consequently am not) surprised if individual members of anonymous, unbeknownst to the rest of the group, capitalized on it. With internet advertising being a multi-billion dollar industry, how couldn’t someone want to cash in?

So, of course, I am not surprised at all to see websites popping up that are gleefully accepting traffic relating to Anonymous versus Scientology, and plastered all over many of these websites are advertisements, e-mail submission forms, and other types of money-makers. The webmasters must be laughing all the way to the bank. Laughing, that is, until the rest of the group finds out what they’re doing.

In fact, when I look now I can’t even find half of the sites that I had found before. Now isn’t that curious?

Scientology stands as perhaps being the only group that will have to dance on eggshells (because walking won’t be sufficient) in order to make money off of this. While Tom Cruise might be loaded (and who knows, maybe he’s flooding the coffers with greenbacks), that doesn’t mean that the Church of Scientology stands to make money. In fact, all of this smearing and slandering of their name (and their carefully constructed image) is likely to cause fanaticism on all sides. Current Scientologists will fight tooth and nail to defend the group, and the general population will likely turn the other way and simply ignore the groups existence.

In that situation it’d be pretty hard to make money.

No, but what if you spun it so that it worked in your favor? I’m not talking lawsuits, but what about sponsorships and advertising opportunities? If Scientology was smart, they’d capitalize on the situation. After all, it’s unlikely that their website will ever receive as much traffic as it’s seeing right now.

But, to all the webmasters that have jumped on this rare opportunity of financial gold, I applaud you.

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Today I placed an offer for a website. I have a website on Ancient Greek Mythology, and while I was checking out my referral links I noticed a few keywords that were pretty good. From a webmasters point of view, good keywords are like having your steak done just right- it’s the bees knees, baby. Anyway, I found another website (www.mythweb.com) that had a tremendous amount of information available. For someone like me, who in this instance is building a website purely out of interest (with only a few AdSense ads acting to make a few cents every now and then), MythWeb is great.

The information on that website would blend perfectly with what I am trying to create, and so today I wrote the webmaster an e-mail explaining who I am, my website (www.mythologymadness.com), and then I asked if he’d like to sell his website. Now, his website has no monetization on it at all, so I suspect that he’s been maintaining it simply out of interest. I would do the same. I have no interest in trying to heavily monetize the website, as for me, the real value is in displaying the information so that others may learn about one of my deepest fascinations- Ancient Mythology.

Sorry if I bored you a bit with the story, but there is a point to it. For most people, value often comes with a price tag attached. Vehicles, paintings, websites, houses, antiques, and even their personal lives, all have a dollar figure attached. That’s just how it is. For those same people, though, there are other things that simply don’t have a dollar sign attached to them. Perhaps it’s a piece of jewelry, a stuffed animal, or an old photograph. Either way, they may part with these things for a monetary price, but it is going to be far above what anyone else would value that particular item at.

Personal value is very important, perhaps even more-so than a monetary one. Giving something a high personal value usually equates some some significance or history behind it, and in my case, I wouldn’t part with those things. Will the owner of MythWeb allow me to purchase it? It’s doubtful, as if he places a lot of personal value in it I may not have enough money to convince him to part with the website. But, if he does, I’d give it the same value as he has.

I wonder if there’s an exchange policy on personal value?

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I was preparing to cook myself lunch today (my girlfriends fabulous homemade hamburgers- delicious!) when the phone rang. It was my best friend, who happens to live across the country (now that I’ve moved, anyway) and she wanted to chat. So, while on the phone I began cooking my lunch. Of course, I didn’t realize until after the fact that while I was talking on the phone I inadvertently cooked all of my hamburgers, instead of the two that I was going to cook originally.

Once I was off the phone (and now eating 6 hamburgers) I realized something: I was so distracted that I just went along with what I thought was the correct path to get things done. I didn’t even think, I just placed each hamburger, 1 by 1, on the grill and chatted away about how my 8 month old cat is a sock-eating fiend. This got me thinking about potential sales techniques and negotiation methods, so I thought perhaps I’d share some here.

After all, CareerRamblings is all about making money, advancing your career, and getting the job done. This is business, baby.

• Potential Sales Technique Number One

Perhaps generating enough interest to build the initial sales process may be enough to keep someone running on autopilot. While it isn’t ethically sound to distract someone to the point that you’ve got them agreeing to random upsells and markups, it may help ease “buyers remorse” a little bit. Just a thought, don’t kill me if you don’t agree

• Potential Sales Technique Number Two

Building a website that is designed to generate a sale/lead is fantastic, but often getting that lead can become a giant pain in the behind. Streamlining the process and giving the user something to do during the process can help those sales roll in. Can we say “pop ups with interesting factoids”? Yes, we can!

Those are my random thoughts of the day. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go make some new hamburgers.

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Motivation. Motivation is not something that you should have every now and then. Motivating yourself to excel at what you do, or to be an example for others, is something that a true entrepreneur or dedicated employee will always be doing. It’s an ongoing process that includes all aspects of your professional life. Your attituide, appearance, spiritual well-being, and interactions with others all come into play.

Staying motivated is much easier than you think. “Experts” would charge you a pretty penny to “lay down the law” to professionals and entrepreneurs alike, conveying a road map for motivational success. I’m going to tell you something interesting: you don’t need to pay anyone anything to learn the secrets to staying motivated. Well, unless you want to pay me. I think I’d be fine with that.

But in all seriousness, the question certainly remains: how do you do it?

Simple. Follow five steps, and what the changes as they happen.

• 1) Maintain a Positive Attitude

- There’s something that you should know. Life is 10% about what happens to us, and 90% about how we react. Think back to every argument you’ve ever had and try to imagine something that you could have done to defuse the argument while it was in its infancy. Chances are it has something to do with how you reacted.

We, as people, are responsible for our own actions. When you are around people that are positive, you’ll find it much easier to act in hte same way. You’ll have more confidence in yourself, you’ll smile more often, and your “problems” will be easier to solve. The same can be said for your workplace: enter the office with a smile on your face and a hop in your step and you’ll create the mood. Watch how quickly others follow suite.

• 2) Leave Personal Problems at Home

- Life can get you down. We all know that, as we’ve all experienced one thing or another that has “sank our ship”, so to speak, and left us feeling less than ecstatic. Your problems don’t belong at work, so when you enter your workplace turn your attention (and energy) to your job. This has the added benefit of, along with making you a much easier person to deal with, giving your mind a mental break from whatever your problems are. You know how a lot of people say that stress isn’t good for your health? They’re right, so give your mind a chance to chill out.

• 3) Create Positive Affirmations

- Close your eyes and think of three great things you’d like to do or accomplish. Write them down. Now, open your eyes and read what you wrote. The reason why you write your goals and objectives down is because it’s the first step in making them tangible. Having your goals recorded on paper will allow you read them whenever you want, and having them written down means that they are unchanging. Short of destroying the piece of paper, there’s not much you can do to change what you’ve written, is there?

Try coming up with a few new affirmations every couple of weeks. Make them things that are attainable and valuable, such as “I know I’ll make good use of my time today”. Repeating them out loud is always a great way to reinforce what you’ve written.

• 4) Take a Break

- Are you one of those people who works during their breaks? Stop immediately. It may be hard to believe, but your mind needs time where it can relax and unwind. Taking regular breaks will allow you to focus better, as well as give your mind to digest any challenges or problems that you may have. Taking breaks relieves tension, and if you’ve been working on a computer, gives you a prime opportunity to move around a bit.

• 5) Exercise

- I already know what you’re thinking, “oh no, here he goes again preaching about exercise”. Yes, yes I am preaching about exercise, and there’s a reason for it. Exercise is kind of like cigarettes: at first, your body doesn’t know how to handle the stress, and as a result you’re sore. After a little while, however, exercise becomes that sweet, soothing rush that helps you relieve stress and cope with your emotions. Every mile on the treadmill burns calories, strengthens muscles, and gives your mind the physical stimulation it needs to be healthy. There’s a reason why health nuts say that working out is more addictive than crack: because it is.

At least this addiction won’t eventually kill you.

All it takes on your part is concentration. Stay motivated, stay positive- it always leads to success.

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A long time ago I was in the habit of writing articles about workplace politics and drama. Though I don’t intend to revisit that series of articles (nor that mindset, ugh), I do wonder if having work “friends” is a good idea career-wise. The problem is that an office often becomes something akin to a schoolyard playground, where several packs of “kids” form and segregate the general population. While it may be more polite and professional in an office, there’s no denying that the effects of being alienated from an entire group of people are just as real (and juvenile).

But, that being said, no one wants to have to exist completely on their own. Everyone enjoys having friends, and everyone likes to have people that they can talk and relate with (or just “hang out” with every now and then). So the trick here is to find some kind of universal balance. The problem is that your work environment is where you’re going to be spending nearly 35% of your conscious time for the rest of your life. It poses a real problem if you begin to develop unfavorable relationships with people, as eight hours of each working day is going to be spent in the same environment as them.

And, unfortunately, we all know what happens to people when their work lives begin to shift in a bad direction. Suddenly, their work life blends with their home life, and all of the feelings, resentments, and frustrations carry along with it, transversing the divide between work and home without a care in the world. It breaks people, destroys families, and even leads people to do crazy things. We certainly don’t want that.

Because of this I have always had friends at work, but I’ve never had close friends at work. I will talk about my day, what’s exciting in my life, or what my plans for the weekend are, but that’s where I’ve always ended it. My more personal thoughts and feelings are kept between myself, my family, and the close friends that I know I can trust and rely on.

But, that’s just me. I’ve never really experienced life-altering workplace drama, and I’d like to think that I won’t have to. I’ll keep you all posted and let you know how that one goes

Recommended Downloads:

• Free Business Cards.
• Free Business Plan Template.

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