Finding Career Direction

Discover Yourself and Your Purpose

How long has it been since you asked yourself what you want to be when you grow up?

If you haven't considered the idea since high school, then you may have settled into a job that is not fulfilling your professional aspirations, or your purpose.

Each of us has particular talents that, when expressed or exercised, make the world a better place. Most likely you enjoy doing these things, and you find that people respond well to you when you do them. Perhaps they're things you gravitate towards during out-of-hours activities, and that people respect you for.

When you develop these talents as far as you can, you can make your greatest possible contribution to the world, and enjoy personal and professional satisfaction that goes along with this.

Your Career Direction Journey

The process of uncovering what you are meant to do, that is finding career direction, is a journey. It starts with discovering the essential "you": the person who truly resides behind the facades, defenses, and stresses of everyday life.

Once unmasked, your journey continues with specific career exploration and identification of a career that allows you to make good use of your talents. And it moves on with a focused job or career move, in which you identify the jobs you want and put yourself in the best possible position to get them. In fact, this journey never really ends because work itself is all about change, growth, development, and reinvention.

By taking a talent-based approach to your career search right from the start, you keep yourself heading toward the right career even when the actual direction shifts over time. This approach consists of sequentially answering three questions: 

1.     Who Am I?

2.     What Do I Want to Do?

3.     How Do I Get Hired?

1. Discovering Who You Really Are

The first question to answer is "Who am I?"

We'll take two approaches to answering this – firstly asking you to explore your talents, and secondly using psychometric tests to explore your preferences.

Exploring Your Talents
First of all, consider your answers to the following questions:

·         When have you been most committed, passionate and enthusiastic?

·         When have you been most creative?

·         When have you been most sure of yourself and your decisions?

·         What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?

·         When have other people considered you to be most successful?

·         When have you enjoyed your work most?

·         What talents were you relying on, and using, in these situations?

·         For what would you take a very strong stand?

·         What about the world puzzles or disturbs you that you could make an impact on?

·         What jobs do you like to do at work when you have a choice?

·         What activities are you drawn towards out of work?

·         If money were no concern, what would you be doing?

Brainstorm each of these questions, and then use your answers to identify the top 3 talents that you most use when you're successful. Rank these in order.

Source: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCDV_97.htm 

Relationships

My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me

- Henry Ford

Relationships are the key to so many things: finding and keeping your soul mate, finding and keeping your job, getting along with your family, closing deals, enjoying parties and social life and more. But how do we balance our physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing, as well as our social, family and work needs? This is certainly a big challenge. 

Too many people think this is impossible, so they give up on their existing relationships, hoping to start all over again with a new partner. Unfortunately, this approach brings a lot of sadness and frustration to any relationship. It leads people into the trap of justifying their unhappiness and/or blaming their partner for their own miscommunications. Either way, as the saying goes, it takes two to Tango. This means that relationships can only be "fixed" by aligning the people involved in them.

Look at any biography of a successful leader in society or in business and you'll see the power of knowing how to handle people. Think of the "nice" people around you and you'll recognise how much easier their life is because other people like them. If you're looking for that special person in your life, surely you'll appreciate these people who seem to know how to say "the right thing" or the ones who seem to have "the perfect relationship".

Source : http://www.behappyinlife.com/relationshipcoaching.php

Building Healthy Relationships

The Beginning Stages

While the early months of a relationship can feel effortless and exciting, successful long-term relationships involve ongoing effort and compromise by both partners. Building healthy patterns early in your relationship can establish a solid foundation for the long run. When you are just starting a relationship, it is important to:

Build. Build a foundation of appreciation and respect. Focus on all the considerate things your partner says and does. Happy couples make a point of noticing even small opportunities to say "thank you" to their partner, rather than focusing on mistakes their partner has made.

Explore. Explore each other's interests so that you have a long list of things to enjoy together. Try new things together to expand mutual interests. 

Establish. Establish a pattern of apologizing if you make a mistake or hurt your partner's feelings. Saying "I'm sorry" may be hard in the moment, but it goes a long way towards healing a rift in a relationship. Your partner will trust you more if he or she knows that you will take responsibility for your words and actions.

As the Months Go By: Important Things to Recognize as Your Relationship Grows

Relationships Change. Changes in life outside your relationship will impact what you want and need from the relationship. Since change is inevitable, welcoming it as an opportunity to enhance the relationship is more fruitful than trying to keep it from happening.

Check in Periodically. Occasionally set aside time to check in with each other on changing expectations and goals. If a couple ignores difficult topics for too long, their relationship is likely to drift into rocky waters without their noticing.

What to Do When Conflict Arises

Disagreements in a relationship are not only normal but, if constructively resolved, actually strengthen the relationship. It is inevitable that there will be times of sadness, tension, or outright anger between you and your partner. The source of these problems may lie in unrealistic/unreasonable demands, unexplored expectations, or unresolved issues/behaviors in one partner or in the relationship. Resolving conflicts requires honesty, a willingness to consider your partner's perspective even if you don't fully understand it, and lots of communication.

Healthy communication is critical, especially when there are important decisions regarding career, marriage, and family to be made. The following are some guidelines for successful communication and conflict resolution.

Understand Each Others' Family Patterns. Find out how conflicts were managed (or not managed) in your partner's family, and talk about how conflict was approached (or avoided) in your own family. It is not unusual for couples to discover that their families had different ways of expressing anger and resolving differences. If your family wasn't good at communicating or resolving conflict constructively, give yourself permission to try out some new ways of handling conflict. 

Timing Counts. Contrary to previous notions, the best time to resolve a conflict may not be immediately. It is not unusual for one or both partners to need some time to cool off. This "time-out' period can help you avoid saying or doing hurtful things in the heat of the moment, and can help partners more clearly identify what changes are most important. Remember - if you are angry with your partner but don't know what you want yet, it will be nearly impossible for your partner to figure it out! 

Establish an Atmosphere of Emotional Support. Emotional support involves accepting your partner's differences and not insisting that he or she meet your needs only in the precise way that you want them met. Find out how your partner shows his or her love for you, and don't set absolute criteria that require your partner to always behave differently before you're satisfied. 

Agree to Disagree and Move On. Most couples will encounter some issues upon which they will never completely agree. Rather than continuing a cycle of repeated fights, agree to disagree and negotiate a compromise or find a way to work around the issue. 

Distinguish between things you want versus things you need from your partner. For example, for safety reasons, you might need your partner to remember to pick you up on time after dark. But calling you several times a day may really only be a "want." 

Clarify Your Messages. A clear message involves a respectful but direct expression of your wants and needs. Take some time to identify what you really want before talking to your partner. Work on being able to describe your request in clear, observable terms. For example, you might say, "I would like you to hold my hand more often" rather than the vague, "I wish you were more affectionate." 

Discuss One Thing at a Time. It can be tempting to list your concerns or grievances, but doing so will likely prolong an argument. Do your best to keep the focus on resolving one concern at a time.

Really Listen. Being a good listener requires the following: (a) don't interrupt, (b) focus on what your partner is saying rather than on formulating your own response, and (c) check out what you heard your partner say. 

You might start this process with: "I think you are saying..." Or "what I understood you to say was..." This step alone can prevent misunderstandings that might otherwise develop into a fight.
Restrain Yourself. Research has found that couples who "edit" themselves and do not say all the angry things they may be thinking are typically the happiest.

Adopt a "Win-Win" Position. A "win-win" stance means that your goal is for the relationship, rather than for either partner, to "win" in a conflict situation. Ask yourself: "Is what I am about to say (or do) going to increase or decrease the odds that we'll work this problem out?"


Source: http://www.behappyinlife.com/relationshipcoaching.php

Personal Growth

By Moushira Anter


Personal growth means you are in a process of looking at your life, how you are feeling, what is missing and what can be improved, and you are actively working on improvement through education, new knowledge, increased awareness and specific changes. You are looking are your belief system and making changes in it. You are changing your identity to one that more closely aligns with your natural core self, who you really are, what you are really good at and naturally talented in, and what you really want in life.

Perhaps the most important realization that an individual can make in their quest for personal growth is that there is no single formula that defines the path to personal success. We all have different goals and priorities, which means that different activities and attitudes will make us feel good about ourselves. We also have different natural strengths and weaknesses that are a part of our personality. How then, as individuals, can we feel successful in our lives?

Understand What's Important to You

Self-knowledge is one common goal that will help everyone achieve personal success. So many people are hung up on somebody else's idea of what it means to be successful, and they are unaware of what is truly important to them. This is completely normal. We all have important role-models and influencers in our lives who may have basic values that are quite different from our own. If this is the case, it's important to recognize that the discrepancy between what we have been taught is truly important and what we personally believe to be truly important is due to a difference in perspective. If we spend our time and effort trying to meet somebody else's idea of success, and ignore or belittle any conflicting messages from our own psyche, then we will find ourselves exhausted and unhappy. Realizing what is truly important to us is a major step towards achieving personal success.

Opening the Door

So how do we go about realizing what's truly important to us? How do we recognize our weaknesses, and learn not to hide behind them? How do we become balanced? How do we open that magical door that will show us the way to personal growth and success?

There is no quickie scheme that will make you a successful person. Psychological Type is a powerful aid in our quest for excellence, but it is not the actual solution. It is a model that will help you to expand your understanding of human nature. An improved understanding of yourself and others will help you to find, follow or expand your path. An awareness and acceptance of the fact that one personality function may be more effective than another function in a given situation will help you to understand the relevance of personal growth to your life.

Carl Jung identified a process of personal growth that he called individuation, which is essentially the conscious realization of your true self, beyond the Ego that is presented by your conscious self. Our efforts to help people develop themselves is essentially the effort to help them to realize that their personal perspectives and conscious ideas are only a small part of who they are, and that the more they try to develop and defend this superficial "self", the further they get away from their true Self.

What is Life Coaching

Deep Relaxation Session with ALKISTIS life coach

Life Coaching: Health and Positive Living

Hi there! I hope you are doing well! For today’s life coaching article, I have a great opportunity to share some simple, basic fundamental strategies that can promote positive living. In the article below by Eric Stevenson, you will come across some very useful information that can educate you and expand your knowledge in healthy, positive living.

Health and Positive Living

Health is not something to take for granted – it requires constant maintenance to remain strong.  In addition to watching out for your health in the short term by doing things like washing your hands and getting enough sleep at night, you should consider ways to protect your long-term health so that you can continue to live a positive life.
Two of the most obvious ways to protect your health are a healthy diet and exercise, though anyone who has tried to make a major change to either in his or her life knows it is not as easy as it sounds.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasizes the need for fruits and vegetables as part of healthy eating habits, but recognizes that fresh foods are often costlier than their canned or packaged counterparts.  The CDC’s website provides a list of tips for stretching your food budget to cover these more expensive offerings, as well as suggested recipes for picky eaters in the family.  As far as exercise, the CDC recommends no less than two and a half hours of moderate exercise or an hour and fifteen minutes of intense aerobic activity every week.

However, it is not enough just to watch what we eat – we must be aware of the other substances we take into our bodies without realizing it.  Air quality can greatly affect personal health, whether in the form of outdoor smog or indoor pollutants.  One of these indoor pollutants to watch out for is asbestos, a mineral once popularly used in insulation and other building materials.  If the asbestos-containing materials are disturbed, tiny fibers can be released into the air which, when breathed in, can cause a host of health problems.  Symptoms of mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive cancer nearly always caused by asbestos exposure are serious and nearly always fatal – mesothelioma life expectancy is only 9 to 12 months after diagnosis.  Fortunately, this devastating disease is nearly always preventable by being aware of your surroundings.

Potential Strategies for Positive Change

Perhaps, the most important step you can take to protect your health is maintaining a positive attitude. Thinking positively about things can improve your relationships, health, and overall quality of life. By having a cheerful outlook throughout the day, stress levels are lowered and the risks for heart disease are reduced. A cardiologist and graduate of Harvard Medical school, Dr. Herbert Benson, believes that there’s a direct connection between the body’s reaction to stress and its negative manifestations on our physical health. He believes that it if an individual can redirect negative feelings into positives ones the body is more likely to heal. Additionally, staying positive helps increase motivation and pushes people to fulfill their goals. Sometimes, a little positive thinking is all that is needed to get through the day.
Some of these strategies, like checking for asbestos, are relatively easy to accomplish, whereas others (thinking positively) require a dedicated lifestyle change.  However, the power of positive thinking should never be ignored. By making a concerted effort and changing your attitude, you can potentially protect your health, which will ultimately benefit you in the long term.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there is some very good information here. Positive health could be the single most important aspect of our lives. That being the case, shouldn’t we be giving it the attention and care it deserves? Finally, Special Thanks to Eric Stevenson for the good work!

Article source: http://prestigelifecoaching.com/blog-articles