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Proactively Managing Your Career Newsletter Issue #9.
Brought to you by Iris Wood from Pro-Active Human Resource
Management
Inspirational Quote
“Success is to be measured
not so much by the position that
one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he
has overcome”.
Booker T.
Washington
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Welcome to "Proactively Managing Your Career Newsletter".
I sincerely hope that you have had some recent successes in your life.
I am going to deviate from
the newsletter format this time and fill in some
of the areas that haven’t
been covered. These will be “Additional Hints”.
Some of these issues have cropped up in workshops.
I want to cover the importance of
building and maintaining
self esteem, because it
has held back many employees from working towards advancing
their career.
The most important aspect of gaining self esteem is to
recognise you may lost it
somewhere along the track, or you may have always had poor
self esteem.
Unfortunately many people say they have good self esteem
and yet their behaviours demonstrate otherwise.
Even movie stars can suffer from poor self esteem at some
point in their life.
The article presented is called "How to recover your self esteem". If you want to
work on your self esteem you may want to own
. This resource is excellent,
although a bit pricy, but crucial to your personal
development if you think you
self esteem is holding you back in your career or personal
life.
.
In this newsletter I am going to provide more material for
the less skilled worker
and blue/grey collar workers as I promised in my welcome
letter.
However, the thank you letter section is really important
for many jobseekers.
Topics covered in this issue:-
*10 ways to reclaim your self esteem
*Thank you letters/job application sample letters
*Following up
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Career Advancement
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10 Ways to Reclaim Your Self-Esteem:
The way you feel about yourself
impacts how and why you do everything in life.
If you feel good about who you
are, then what you do will be an outside
reflection of your innermost thoughts
and feelings. Contrary to popular belief,
self-esteem is not something
anyone or any accomplishment can give you.
Just because people like you, or you
receive an award, does not mean that
you will love and take care of yourself.
Positive self-esteem comes from within
and does not change because the
scenery or circumstances change.
To have esteem for something or someone is to
regard highly or favorably.
High self-esteem is relatively stable even
when the forecast looks foreboding.
Your self-esteem is like
a star at night that shines brightest when it is the darkest.
It is your inner
light that burns brightly and freely no matter what is happening
around you. A Zen saying reminds us: "What was your original face before you
were born?"
Self-esteem is perfectly intact when we are born, in fact, it is
inherent to
us; however, it often diminishes over the course of our childhood.
We lose a
little of it whenever we fail, make mistakes, misbehave, feel guilty,
refuse to
forgive, neglect ourselves, and/or do things we are ashamed of.
As an adult, we
sometimes feel as if our "self" is in pieces--- that we are
somehow not whole
and complete.
This is not true. We are whole
and complete even with our missing pieces
and broken parts. We just need to
decide to gather up ourselves up and
become whole again. I am willing to bet
that when you look back over your
life, the first thing that comes to mind are
the regrets, the sad times in your
past. Do you see the pieces of yourself lying
along the path of your life?
The ones where you didn't feel good enough, or
where you were criticized
or blamed by someone else? But have you ever stopped
to look at the
memories of when you won the prize, felt really great, on top of
the
world----those moments that prove what a wonderfully amazing human being
you
are? Try it right now, write down 10 things you are most proud of. It is your
birthright to love
and honor yourself. The good news is that you can reclaim
that which is
yours.
What follows are 10 Ways to
Reclaim Your Self-Esteem:
1. Define life success
One of the most empowering
things you can do for yourself is to define your
criteria for life success. This
requires reflecting on what the key elements
are and the experiences you wish to
have.
2. Choose to be happy
Happiness is a state of mind.
The Dalai Lama says that the very purpose of
life is to seek happiness. He
believes that if you train the mind to be happy,
you will be. Likewise, you can
train yourself for higher self-esteem.
3. Set challenging goals
How much you like yourself is
often reflected in the level of goals you will
set for yourself. Generally,
people who like themselves and feel valuable,
set higher and more challenging
life goals.
4. Honor your core values
When you live by a clear set of
values, it is easier to align your life with
what is most important to you. When
you honor your core values,
(those things you would fight for), you honor your
true self.
5. Enhance your energy
People with high self-esteem
seem to have a reservoir of energy, and
seldom get sick or let life's set backs
keep them down. Their energy and
enthusiasm for life encourages them to take
care of their body, mind,
and spirit.
6. Maintain a positive
attitude
Attitude determines your
altitude. The more positive your thinking, the more
positive your feelings, the
more positive the outcome. There is nothing
more powerful and creative than your
thoughts, so you may as well make
them positive and uplifting.
7. Be passionate
Passion takes hold of you and
feels like "fire in the belly." It is a source of
power that enables you to get
fired about life and make a difference. The
more passion and zest you feel, the
more alive and brightly lit you are.
8. Live by vision and work
with purpose
When you know your life vision
and purpose, life has more meaning and
direction. Vision and purpose provide a
sense that you matter, that you
have a part to play, and that you truly belong
here.
9. Reward success
Set yourself up for success by
breaking big goals into daily action steps
and take time to acknowledge and
celebrate the small successes. This
will feed your need for recognition and
provides the extra push to keep
you moving forward.
10. Make smart life decisions
When you care about yourself,
you make smarter decisions. You take
care to choose the right mate, occupation,
and lifestyle that support you.
Self-esteem
is an inner state that can be nurtured and cultivated. The
National Association
for Self-Esteem (NASE) defines self-esteem as
the experience of
being capable of meeting life's challenges and being
worthy of happiness. That
definition underlines two key things: going
after goals and choosing happiness.
Another definition is the level that
you respect and value yourself as a
loveable, worthwhile human being.
Your self-esteem
contributes to your vitality, energy level, persistence,
and personal magnetism.
It is not to be confused with "self-image,"
which is the comparison of those
around you. Self-image is about what
is on the outside and causes you to judge
yourself and others. It changes
whenever the wind blows. This fosters
competition and fragmentation.
Self-esteem
is about what is on the inside, a belief in yourself and your abilities.
Positive esteem focuses on acceptance of self and others. It remains constant
despite the storm. This fosters cooperation and
wholeness. It is common to have high
self-esteem in one area of life, like
career, but not in others. The highest
form of self-esteem is when you can accept all of yourself---- strengths,
weaknesses, best/worst parts,
and overall, still feel good about who you are and
what you do. Someone
with a strong sense of worth will believe in herself, take
more risks, say
and do nice things for self and others, can let things go, not
take everything so personal, forget the bad and focus on the good in life.
How do you feel about
yourself right now?
10: perfectly
happy with my whole self to 5: moderately happy with my
whole self to 1: not at all happy with my
whole self
If you are less than a 10,
commit to using one of these tips today and feel
your esteem rise, create a
stronger sense of self, and reclaim your
inner power. You deserve to feel
great!
About The Author
Michelle
L. Casto is a Whole Life Coach, Speaker, and Author of the
Get Smart! LearningBook Series. Her coaching practice is
Brightlight Coaching, she helps
people come up with bright ideas
for their life and empowers them to freely
shine their bright light
to the world. Visit virtually:
www.brightlightcoach.com
or
www.getsmartseries.com.
Call for a Complimentary
Coaching session (361) 816-0685.
coach@brightlightcoach.com
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Job Hunting Success
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Thank you letters/job
application sample letters
You really cannot underestimate the importance of a
thank you letter
as another marketing tool.
While it is more common these days for employers to receive
thank you
letters from a more professional client, smaller companies
especially are
still very impressed when they receive follow up of this
nature. It may just
nudge the employer to make a decision in your favour.
If you are young you really do make an impression. You
send out hundreds
of letter, no doubt. But do you neglect the follow ups?
Before you send them, ensure you check the spelling of the
interviewee/s
name/s and correct job titles.
See my site for “Cover
Letter site with a number of cover letter examples in the areas of,
*Thank you or follow up
*Cold calling
*Career change
*Applications
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Following up
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"How Did I Go?”
I can recall vividly the number of employers who
have told
me they were very impressed with applicants who rang up to see how
he/she
went at the interview and asked if the employer had made a decision, or
if they
had been successful They said they were so impressed they gave the job
to the
applicant, while other employers say there isn’t much between the applicants so I take the keenest – the one who rings up. Just to confirm if this is
still happening rang a former colleague and she said, “yes, more than ever.”
This follow up works very well for jobseekers and
employers from
the blue/grey collar sector.
What employers don’t realise, of course, is that jobseekers
become very
disillusioned with not getting replies and employers
promising to ring back
and don’t, so the jobseekers don’t bother to do any
follow-ups. Sometimes
they do take the time to phone, but can’t get past the
receptionist. I will actually
cover how to get past the receptionist next newsletter.
So make this follow up call an integral part of your
job search.
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How to set out a letter
See full section of
Letter
Writing Guide
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Over the years I have come to assume nothing about a
person’s ability to do
such tasks as writing a letter. The older generation was
taught at school, yet
many mature aged applicants have never had occasion to
write a formal letter
and need assistance. The younger generation used to texting
really so not
have the skills. So forgive me if I am “teaching
Grandma to suck eggs”.
Firstly there is another option to the following examples.
You can make your
own letterhead template with your name, address and contact
number.
This is more appropriate instead of the format I have
devised here.
THE BEGINNING
(your
name, address an contact details))
James Bond
27 The Rise
Thornleigh Heights WA 6111
Ph: 9423 1796
27th
July 2006 (optional format)
(employers name and address)
Mr A Whittaker
Whittaker and Sands Pty Ltd
87 Mosman Road
Perth WA 6000
Dear Mr
Whittaker
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THE END THE LETTER?
Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely?
Golden Rule is:-
Yours faithfully is used when the
person’s name is not known
Yours sincerely, is used when the
person’s name is known. Always in lower
case; sincerely yours appears to
be an American salutation rather than
English or Australian.
However, it is becoming more popular to
use a less formal salutation such
as “regards”, and “ best wishes”. I use
this approach.
The Correct Use of
Capital Letters
**The first word of a sentence
**All proper names of people
**Names of governments and government
departments
**Official titles
**Titles of Statutes i.e.
laws, bills, acts of Parliament and “The” before these titles
**Geographical places
**Names of holidays and other public
events
**Trading names
**Races and cultures
**Languages
**Main words of the title of: -
Courses
Films
Books
Plays
Reports
Poems
Chapters
Works of art
(reference-source unknown)
Fir a full tutorial on letter writing go to my site
Letter Writing Guide
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So that is it once again, I hope
you found this issue informative.
Your feedback will be appreciated.
E-mail me
at
Pro-Active Human Resource Management
Iris Wood
http://www.proactivehrm.com
PS. Don’t forget to check out my resources as they are
constantly
changing and there is bound to be an article that wall
assist you in
other aspects of your job search or career advancement
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