Couldn't Have Said it Better Myself: January - It's All About Change

Time to ring in the new year with a whirlwind round-up of great posts about your career, your life, your money and your development. This month's theme is CHANGE: planning for changes you want in your life, ways Gen Y will change the workplace, and dealing with (and embracing!) changes that choose you. I've also included a few other random topics that I picked just for fun. Couldn't Have Said it Better Myself - January:

I also wanted to let you know that I'm now a member of 20-Something Bloggers and the Brazen Careerist Community - add me and/or join if you're a fellow Gen-Y blogger!

Must-Read Career Book for Life After College: @ the Entry Level

As I work on writing my own book with tips and exercises for Life After College (major dream goal from the life checklist), I re-read my list of 10 Books that Changed My Life from earlier this year, and realized I'm missing one - BIG TIME. The book that single-handedly changed my attitude toward work and life at the bottom of the ladder is called @ the Entry Level: On Survival, Success, & Your Calling as a Young Professional, by Michael Ball. Ball flawlessly covers managing the transition from school to work, the feelings we all experience when just starting out, how to suck it up and make it through what seems like meaningless work with a great attitude, finding value and connection to your work, and the importance of work/life balance - among many other great topics.

Some quotes from the book that really stuck with me:

  • "Think of your knocks not as a punishment, but rather as an entitlement. That is, you deserve your bumps and cuts at the entry level because you've earned the right to be vulnerable to them."
  • "Symptoms can include deep-seeded feelings of anger and resentment about being overworked, underpaid, and disvalued, as well as a pervading sense of worthlessness and plummeting self-esteem...but while feelings of hostility and bitterness are perfectly normal byproducts of injured ego, these emotions have to be kept in careful check at the office."
  • "The importance of doing the small stuff well - regrettably, it usually doesn't get noticed when you do, but it most certainly gets seen when you don't."
  • "Create a DIGJAM file - Damn I'm Good Just Ask Me - to keep examples of your best work and praise." (Note: I call these "Keepers" - and have a dedicated folder in my email inbox for thank-you notes and other feel-good, pick-me-up emails)
  • "Building effective, productive relationships is how you open up professional channels and position yourself to garner the feedback, opportunities, and contacts you need to be successful."
  • "If you don't identify, tenaciously fence-off, and then keep careful watch on those parts of your life reserved only for you, your company will steadily graze their way into them, leaving you hewn, barren and desolate. By getting good at your "me time" as a career freshman, you'll be able to more effectively handle the heavier weights and strains levied by future positions."
  • "While you may graduate from school, you absolutely never graduate from learning."

There are so many more pearls of wisdom in the book - I highly encourage you to read it if you're just starting out. Ball also gave a great interview to the Washington Post with Q&A about life after college issues in the workplace.

Desiderata - a Famous Inspirational Poem by Max Ehrmann

My dad shared a poem with me today and immediately after reading it I felt compelled to share it on my blog. The poem is called "Desiderata" (latin for desired things) and was written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920s. Enjoy! 

Desiderata Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. –Max Ehrmann