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As a career success coach, I'm always looking for new and different ways to get across my common sense ideas on life and career success.
I found some great career advice in a Denver elementary school a couple of months ago.
I was invited to see the Go For It! Institute's program in action at a school in Denver. The institute teaches kids the value of things like a positive attitude, believing in themselves, positive habits, goal setting, and persistence.
Their work is based on ideas created by Judy Zerafa.
Success Tweet: Vision without action is a daydream. No matter how big your plans and dreams, they'll never become reality until you act on them.
Zerafa has created Seven Keys to Success for young students. Check them out below!
1. Have A Positive Attitude
Learn what attitude is, what aspects of your life are controlled or directed by your attitude, how to determine your attitude at any given moment, and what specific strategies make a positive attitude a permanent habit in your life.
2. Believe In Yourself
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Understand the nature of human potential through a simple process of identifying your personal talents and abilities. Develop academic strengths and personal interests to create personal fulfillment and economic opportunities for your future.
3. Build Positive Habits
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Understand the process of how habits are created. Learn to identify and remove self-defeating habits and create habits that will make all aspects of your life easier and more successful.
4. Make Wise Choices
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Learn the dramatic relationship between any current circumstances in your life and the choices that created these circumstances. Develop a personal proactive plan for desired outcomes through conscious, wise choices.
5. Set & Achieve Goals
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Recognize the difference between a wish and a goal. Make a commitment, plan, take action, and recognize completion.
6. Use Your Creative Imagination
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Extend your physical ability to accelerate problem-solving and goal achievement in all areas of your life.
7. Be Persistent
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Track progress, develop the focus and determination required to succeed, create an attitude of gratitude as the access to fulfilling your dreams, and link the Seven Keys to Success together in everyday life.
Whatever you do, persist. Keep working toward your goals and dreams, and you will find career success. It's only common sense.
The Go For It! Institute is in business to bring these keys to young people and their parents. But as a career success coach, I think they are important ideas for anyone interested in achieving career success.
The Seven Keys to Success bear a remarkable similarity to the ideas behind one of my four keys for career success: commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and career success. Since we're at Tweet 40 (of my book, Success Tweets), it makes sense to do a quick overview of my four keys to life and career success.
The "4Cs:" Clarity, Commitment, Confidence, and Competence.
Here they are in a little more detail...
Clarity of purpose and direction
A sincere commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and career
Unshakable self-confidence
Competence in four key areas:
Creating positive personal impact
Outstanding performance
Dynamic communication
Relationship building
Zerafa developed the Seven Keys to Success on which the Go For It! Institute's program is based after interviewing 35 Horatio Alger Award winners. I think this is a brilliantly simple success formula. She is taking her positive message to kids and parents in an attempt at starting the success cycle early in life.
Successful people are self-confident and are committed to taking personal responsibility for their lives and careers. The Go For It! Institute's Seven Keys to Success is all about taking personal responsibility for acting on your plans and dreams.
You will succeed if you have a positive attitude, believe in yourself, build positive habits, make wise choices, set and achieve goals, use your imagination, and persist.
I'm glad I was introduced to the Go For It! Institute and the great work they are doing with kids. I think their message applies to all of us. If you incorporate these seven keys into your life, you'll be well on your way to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.
Need more help with your career?
Become a member to learn how to UNLEASH your true potential to get what you want from work!
This article was originally published at an earlier date.
Is your job search turning into a grind with no end in sight? It may be time to take a step back and reevaluate your entire approach.
In cold weather climates, the beginning of spring is a time to clean the house and get organized—a practice known as spring cleaning. Through the years, spring cleaning has taken on a larger meaning with people using the time to organize and declutter things in their lives.
For professionals on the job hunt, a little spring cleaning (metaphorically speaking) could be a great way to reinvigorate your job search. Here are a few strategies your job search spring cleaning should include.
Reevaluate Your Job Search Approach
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Make a list of the last handful of jobs you applied for and see if you can identify any positive or negative trends. Consider things like:
How did I learn about this job?
How did I apply for the job?
Did I earn an interview?
What was the ultimate result?
A lot can be learned about your job search approach just by answering these questions and identifying patterns. For example:
Negative Trends
You discovered five jobs through job boards, applied to all of them via the job boards, and never heard back from any of them.
The common pattern here is applying through job boards. This isn't to say that job boards don't serve a purpose in the job search process, but they have their limitations, and you can't run your job search entirely off of them. When you apply through a job board, there's a good chance that your materials will never get past the applicant tracking system (ATS) and never be seen by an actual person.
One simple fix is to research who the hiring manager or recruiter is that posted the position and email your materials to them directly.
The more efficient fix would be to take a proactive approach by putting together a bucket list of companies that you want to work for and start making connections on LinkedIn with people who work at those companies. You may already know some people who work there or have connections that can refer you to some individuals.
This is a great way to network your way onto a company's radar.
Positive Trends
You applied to three jobs via referral, were invited to two job interviews, and made it through multiple rounds of interviews for one of the jobs before being passed over for someone with a little more experience.
The pattern here is that getting referred to a job by a professional acquaintance is a great way to land a job interview. This indicates that you're leveraging your network well and you should continue to focus on your networking efforts.
The next step is to review the interview process and determine what went well and what needs to be improved. Sometimes the interviewer will provide feedback, and that feedback can be valuable. However, not everyone is comfortable with giving feedback.
Chances are you probably have a good idea about areas of improvement and the skills you need to gain. Put together a plan for addressing those shortfalls.
The good news in making it deep into any interview process is that it indicates that the company likes you as a potential employee (even if the timing just wasn't right) and the experience could be a roadmap to a job with that company at a later date, or another similar opportunity elsewhere.
Give Your Resume & Cover Letter Some Much-Needed Attention
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Are you continuously sending similar resumes and cover letters to each job opening with only minor adjustments? If so, your strategy needs some serious spring cleaning.
The reason why it's so important to tailor your resume is that throughout your career, you acquire numerous skills, but the job you're applying for may only be focusing on 6-8 of those skills. In that case, those skills must rise to the top of the resume with quantifiable examples of how you successfully used those skills at previous jobs.
Remember, recruiters go through hundreds of resumes. They need to be able to tell from a quick glance whether or not you're a potential candidate for the position.
While updating your resume, you could also spruce up your LinkedIn profile by highlighting the skill sets that you want to be noticed for by recruiters.
As for writing a good cover letter, the key to success is writing a disruptive cover letter. When you write a disruptive cover letter, you're basically telling a story. The story should focus on how you connect with the particular company and job position. The story could also focus on your personal journey, and how you got to where you currently are in your career.
If your resumes and cover letters aren't unique, now is the time to clean things up and get on track.
Build Your Personal Brand
Just because you're looking for work doesn't mean that you don't have anything to offer. Use previous career experiences and passions to build your personal brand.
Ask yourself, "How do I want other professionals to view me?"
Pick an area of expertise and start sharing your knowledge and experience with your professional network by pushing out content on your LinkedIn and social media accounts. Good content can include blogs, social media posts, and videos.
By sharing content about your experiences and passions, you slowly build your personal brand, and others will start to notice. The content could lead to good discussions with others in your network. It could also lead to reconnecting with connections that you haven't spoken to in years, or making new connections.
You never know when one of these connections could turn into a job lead or referral. The trick is to get on people's radars. So, when you're cleaning up your job search, be sure to build a plan for personal branding.
Maintain Healthy Habits During Your Job Search
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Your job search is important, but it's even more important to know when to pull back and focus on personal health and spending time with family and friends.
There are actually things that you can do for your own enjoyment that could help your job search in the long run, such as:
Grab coffee with a friend - It's good to engage in light conversation with friends during challenging times. And if your job search does come up, remember that most people have been through it themselves and you never know when a friend may provide you with a good idea or lead on a job.
Volunteer - Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the community and help others. In addition, if you develop a little bit of a career gap while looking for a job, you can always talk about how you filled that time volunteering, if you're asked about it during a job interview.
Continue to focus on other passions - Are you a fitness nut? Blogger? Crafter? Continue to do the things that bring you happiness. And if you're in a position to profit from your passion through a freelance job or side hustle, even better!
Spring is the perfect time to clean up and improve your job search so you can land the job you want. If you're struggling to find a job, follow the tips above to reinvigorate your job search—and watch your career blossom!
Need more help with your job search?
Become a member to learn how to land a job and UNLEASH your true potential to get what you want from work!
This article was originally published at an earlier date.