Do All You Can Do

I've been thinking about my career and where I want to be in a few years. I have my days where I get in a funk and wonder if it's time for a change of pace. I have been extremely involved with my volunteer work lately and wish I could do it full-time or find a (paid) job for the ASPCA. But, in the meantime, I know I'm in a good spot and I love the experience I'm getting at my job in the Social Media field.

All of this has got me thinking that unfortunately, no job is permanent anymore. A few years back, my friend and I had a conversation about how our jobs were 'steady' and we were the lucky ones to have such secure jobs. I kid you not--a few weeks later, we were jobless. That experience was definitely an eye-opener for me. Moral of the story: no job is permanent anymore. Don't ever stop bettering yourself and adding experience and job skills to your resume. You never know when you will have to pop that resume out again.

That being said, there are always factors our of our control that could leave us in a situation of unemployment: outsourcing (in my case), the company goes bankrupt, job elimination, etc BUT there are factors we can control. I have a few things that I've always tried to do to be all I can be and I'd love to hear other suggestions from you too.

Show up on time.

Doesn't sound like a hard concept, right? I've always been a punctual person, so showing up on time has been a relatively easy concept to master. If you're a perpetually late person, give yourself an extra 30-60 minutes in the morning to make it there.

Don't call off.

Another tip that sounds so simple, but I've been amazed over the years at co-workers that were really good workers that had crap work ethic. Sure, there are days I'd love to call off, stay home and cuddle with my dog or go to the beach, but the fact is: I have a job that I am committed to. If you start getting in the habit of calling off without a legitimate reason, you may start calling off too often and lose the dedication to your job. Unless you're sick or there's an emergency, just go to work.

*Try to* stay out of the office politics.

This one is the hardest for me. I've played the office politics game before and I can tell you, it gets you nowhere. You end up being labelled as such and no one takes you seriously or trusts you anymore. It's okay to have a few work friends that you vent to or tell things to, but be very careful who you trust at work.

Work hard. Get things done. Then do more.

I consider myself successful because I haven't done JUST what's required of me. (Side note, this makes me think of the scene in Office Space when Jennifer Anniston's character tells her boss that she only wears the required amount of flair and if he wants her to wear more flair, then he should ask her to wear more.) I always try to come up with new ideas to make our team better and ask for additional responsibilities when I can. This makes you look like an A+ employee that's trustworthy and a leader.

There you have it: my simple list of things you can do to be the best employee you can be. You may encounter situations where you end up jobless, but at least you can pride yourself in knowing that it was through no fault of your own.

The Power of Positive Thinking

When I first met my husband, I was an extremely negative person. If something bad happened--say, unexpected car trouble--I immediately went to the mindset that the sky was falling and that my life was over. He taught me that together we can work everything out and that it could ALWAYS be worse. I can see the transformation in the last few years of my thinking and the way I react to certain situations. When something bad happens now, instead of automatically expecting the worst, I try to think of alternative ways to deal with the problem. I can definitely see the change in my life in the last year and I feel like a lot more positive things are coming my way. I am a huge believer in what you put out there is equal to what you get back.

It got me thinking about positive thinking and if there's any link between positive thinking and a happier life. I've always heard about positive thinking among those with terminal illness, but is there any evidence that positive thinking can really change your life? I Googled it and found a study from Korea called "Positive-Thinking and Life Satisfaction Among Koreans." (The study from 2007 can be found here.) The study included 409 people and asked them questions based on their life satisfaction, positive thinking and their demographics. The conclusion of the study was this: "We provided empirical evidence that positive thinking may indeed play a significant role in life satisfaction. Therefore, positive thinking would offer important direction for the growth of life satisfaction and interventions aiming to remediate the effects of demographic variables on life satisfaction."

My challenge to my followers is to try to start thinking of the glass half full. It can definitely be a hard process to change your thinking, especially if your thinking is as negative as mine has always been. If you're going through a rough time right now, it can be hard to think of the good things in life that you have, but I encourage you to try it. Let me know in the comments a time when positive thinking has paid off or has helped you.