Top Ten Career Revolutions

Now that the hoopla for the new year is finished I thought it would be a good time to encourage you to start thinking about your career and not just your job.  After all you've worked hard on those budgets and you did survive the Christmas party virtually unscathed...virtually.  So now it's time to focus on customer numero uno: you!

• Take Inventory: Sit back and take a long hard look at your career position.  Write down your accomplishments from day one and the highlights of last year.  List your skills, likes and dislikes about everything from your job, boss, location, compensation, peers -- everything.

• Feed your brain: When you stop learning you stop working.  Consider a menu that satiates your hunger for new job skills, but also personal development.  Underwater basket weaving can be therapeutic.

• Check the clock: Are you on track and meeting your benchmarks? Be on the prowl for efficiencies and the way you spend your time.  Time is a great motivator.

• Quit doing your job: Stop punching the clock and start punching your career.  Look for projects that enhance your skill, improve profitability and your career equity and quit doing only what you're told.

• Upgrade your hearing aid: Listen with the intent to understand, not simply hear.  Great listeners ask great questions and no that listening is the best way to learn how others perceive you.  And we all know, Perception is nine-tenths of the law.

• Get wired: If you're not already budgeting time to staying on top of trends in your industry, you can bet somebody else is and they're going to be promoted before you -- or get the job you want. Tune in and turn on!

• Measure your career equity: What's your net present value in the world wide web of work? Anything you can do to increase or better position yourself to guarantee you're being compensated fairly?

• GET OUT!: If you find yourself in the same places all the time, it's time to get out.  Make yourself visible to the rest of the world and tap in to the world beyond your own four walls.  Itsa outa the box thingie.

• Press the flesh: Part of your career equity is your integrity and sincerity, so when you shake hands are you also making eye contact?  When you have something to say do others feel your courage of conviction?  It's a different sandbox to play in, but the castles are taller and rarely fall down.

• Budget "me" time: Go see a matinee on Tuesday, pick your kids up from school unexpectedly and treat them to an afternoon off.  Do something special besides another 18 holes or a visit to Neiman's.  After al, you're customer numero uno.

It's really all about breaking your pattern and changing your focus to what's important and what you're committed to.  Opening yourself up to other avenues is refreshing and puts you in a place that allows you to look at things differently.  What gets talked about gets done.

Of course, this is only my opinion but it's one I value highly.