What is the best advice you got about your career and who gave it to you?
Week of Grace is a 7-day journaling project, scientifically designed to you make you happier, healthier, and more productive. For 7 days, please join in and answer to the gratitude question posted! To get the full benefits, you should write out your response rather just think about it. Like the featured guests, you may comment here, or you can tweet #weekofgrace, email a friend, or even write out your response longhand.
Week of Grace for April 2010 starts Saturday the 24th and ends Friday the 30th.
Look for Featured Guests in the comments this Month:
- Mike Deibler, MS, CSCS: San Diego Premier Training, My Workout Creator
- Dr. Pia Martin, DC, CCN: North Coast Wellness Center
- Jill Thomas, CCHT: Healthy Habits Hypnosis
- My client: Kris
- My sister: Cherry
6 responses to “Week of Grace: Advice About Work”
The best advice I got was from my very first employeer when I was 16. He said “you are never just a receptionist, nurse or even CEO. You are a person first and those other things are just what you do during the day sometimes to make money.
When I got my first corporate job, my dad told me to always be appreciative of the people that helped me accomplish my tasks. In a corporate setting, it’s so easy to forget the secretary that helped order the sandwiches for your lunch meeting, or the clerk that went out of their way to help you get the perfect conference room for your event. I always made sure that I thanked them personally, and that I sent notes to their bosses thanking them for their kindness. I *never* had a problem finding someone to help me when I needed it!
My grandmother told me get to know the janitor/lowest person on the totem pole. Her theory was that the guys at the top change quite a bit….but the people doing the most work would be around forever. Nan was so right!!
Now, that I think about it, I’ve gotten LOTS of good advice and LOTS of bad advice about working, my career, and my business. Most of it conflicting, of course! However, since I love to work, and I could keep working until I drop, the advice I took most to heart was about taking time off. At Brian Tracy’s Focal Point coaching program, I was advised to schedule a long vacation at least once a year and to pay for it in advance, nonrefundable. This hit it home for me, and I now schedule rest once a day, once a week, and at least once a year. I believe that respecting our time off allows us to recover properly and perform even stronger.
The best advice I’ve gotten about my career came from a director I had early in my time at Qualcomm. She encouraged me to not be complacent or afraid of trying new things. There are always new things to learn and ways to do things better or more efficiently, especially when you take a different approach at tackling a problem. Although I wouldn’t consider myself a “technical” person, all of the opportunities I’ve had in my career stemmed from being the only person not afraid to explore new technologies. This became a differentiator for me and allowed me to grow in my work.
Hard to pick just one piece of advice I have gotten. One thing a fellow fitness professional like to preach is investing in yourself. I make sure that I invest in my education as often as I can. Being a small business owner I feel like I need to know a ton of information. I wish I was an expert in everything, but unfortunately this isn’t the case. Just by taking this advice of investing in myself and educating myself in different fitness or business topics I feel that has truly helped me run a successful business.
Hard for me to choose just one: But if I have to… It came from BKS Iyengar, a world recognized Yoga Teacher. Stay true to your ideals and allow yourself humility. To be humble is to be always open to learning new things and looking for possibilities, in yourself and others. Then I learned everything else from my wise husband.