Holiday Review

Beyond strengthening bonds with those around you, the holidays offer an invaluable opportunity for reflection. While the value of New Year’s resolutions has been questioned, I have found that there is a natural cycle occurring during the holidays that I can leverage to reflect on progress, learnings and create plans for the coming year.

Take advantage of this convergence to invest in some reflective time.

Questions to get you started

1. What happened this year that I want to record? …

I have an important concept for you this week. In our arsenal of key concepts, the career management trap that we call accidental career progression resonates with a lot of mid and late-career people. So much so, that part of the tag line for the Bold Career Project contains its opposite: Intentional Career Growth. If in looking back at the years of your professional journey to date, you feel that your decisions and moves weren’t intentional, that you took the first decent job offer, sometimes s…

I did a lead interview a few years back on employee disengagement for Canada's national newspaper, the Globe & Mail. Is your job satisfaction low? Do you feel disengaged with your work? More to the point, if you think that you have a pattern of self-sabotaging your career or feel disengaged with your job, is to analyze the situation: Is it the job or is it you?

"Certainly a cause of disengagement could be bad times -- layoffs, continuous re-organization, uncertainty about what your job really is,…

Do the Work by Steven Pressfield

Between where you are now and the future you envision for yourself is an inner enemy. That enemy is resistance. From Steven Pressfield:

On the field of the Self stand a knight and a dragon. You are the knight. Resistance is the dragon.

The bolder your vision, the more formidable your enemy. Every one of us goes toe-to-toe with this enemy everyday. From sticking to an exercise regime or healthy eating, to professional projects like:

• Launching your own thing

• Proactively…

Recognize & Address Your Professional Liabilities

I have met my inner enemies and they are perfection and complexity.

For too long, I have been intending to send you new newsletters, and blog more, and announce new offerings to help with your career management, job search, career change and personal branding goals. And then I get stuck. Since the How to Manage your Career in Scary Times report, not a lot of activity. Like you, I have obligations that I can easily use an an excuse. In my case, ther…