Thursday

Career Advice For Your Midlife Crisis - 7 Tips

You've enjoyed your career for the past twenty years - maybe more. And now you're wondering: Maybe it's time to switch gears. A whole new career. Work at home. Retire.

Or maybe you're forced to revise your career due to layoffs or transfers.

(1) Expect midlife career change to be easier than entering the world of employment for the first time.

Most likely you enjoy a financial cushion: savings, home equity, and a retirement fund. You also have demonstrated skills and experience. If you're employed, your company probably offers resources for developing new skills and managing the transition.

(2) Expect midlife career change to be harder because you've invested in a career identity - way beyond skills and values. When you introduce yourself as, "Here's what I do..." you are also saying, "Here's who I am."

(3) Expect to change your appearance as you change careers.

Sadly, many individuals and organizations really do judge a book by its cover. Clients who want to start a business often are surprised by the increased need to dress up for presentations. An Armani label on a suit? A good start. But are yu wearing this year's suit? Colors that your target market deems "appropriate?"

Many career changes have opted for lower income in exchange for the opportunity to stay home and work in sweats or shorts - and, for women, say good-by to high heels and pantyhose forever.

(4) Recognize that career change often requires a geographic move.

Let's face it: Some places are just better for some careers. Your cost of living may be lower in a small city, but your opportunities to network will be limited. On the other hand, the lower cost of living may allow you to experiment with riskier ventures.

Often your own business doesn't depend on geography. Examples include Internet businesses, mail order shipment, and free lance writing. But you may need to keep on top of mainstream trends and where you live can influence your credibility.

(5) Expect to change your roles in all aspects of your life.

Family and community will view you differently. Some community groups assign You may have more or less time for your family (and they will view you differently). Board members based on the prestige of their day job. Some volunteer activities require you to be available on certain weekdays.

(6) Plan for a new social support system.

Lunch with coworkers. Drinks after work. Dinner with old friends on Friday night. You don't realize how much you enjoyed this support until it's gone.

Friendships change. When you leave a career, former colleagues can regard you with envy or suspicion. They won't understand your new world and the new challenges you face.

(7) Forget the myth, "If you can't be happy here, you won't be happy anywhere."
Many of my clients experienced career change following what seemed to be a midlife crisis. They were surprised to find their whole world looked different.
And that's why I say, "Career breakdown can be the first step to your major career breakthrough."

And now I invite you to learn more about how to master a major midlife career change. Visit Mid-Llife Career Change and down your FREE Report, along with your subscription to the Midlife Careers Ezine.

By Cathy Goodwin

For the 21-Day Extreme Career Makeover, visit 21-Day Career Makeover

Friday

Dealing With Anger Problems Can Be As Easy As ABC

Anger is a very healthy and normal human emotion that all of us feel. Anger, under the right mindset and justifiable actions can help us resolve conflicts, set things right, and push points across without anyone getting hurt in the process. Dealing with anger problems can indeed be easy, but it will take effort on your part to pull it off. While we may also feel that at times our anger may be justified, taking action through destructive and aggressive means will always end up in disaster, for you and for the other people or things involved.

So it is important therefore that in one way or another, you will be able to manage your anger. Easy route? Well maybe none exists, but there are methods that can simplify things out for you. Take the AB and C of anger management for example. Never heard of it yet? Here's what they are:

Assess: When you are angry or at the point of losing your cool, exploding, flying off of your handle, popping, and all the other terminologies to losing temper, assess the situation. If you really don't get it yet, asses further. The point is that you take the time first to see things for what they are in a rational point of view. Remember that when you are angry you tend to be overly emotional and exaggerated allowing both to affect the way that you think, leading you to make awful decisions, and irrational actions.

Breathe: When we are angry we tend to breathe a bit faster than normal, while you might not see anything wrong with this, in a clinical point of view it can affect the way that you feel. Over-breathing can increase the oxygen within your body, speeding up the flow of blood to various organs, including the brain. This "slight" hyperventilation can cause the unnoticeable feeling of panic which adds to the aggression that you already feel, pushing you to do something, whether rational or stupid, and considering that you're overly emotional and exaggerated state, most likely you would be ending up with the second course of action which is stupidity.

Channel: Before you get to this point, it is important that you are able to successfully accomplish the ABC of stress management as it will be impossible to channel your energy to more constructive actions unless you are in a calm and rational state. Remember that you are not aiming to stem your anger except put it under your thumb allowing you to use those emotions to more useful ends.

So as you can see, dealing with anger problems can indeed be as easy as ABC, when you're reading it that is. Practice however is a different thing. You will need the iron clad resolve to change things for the better in order to benefit or even make these techniques work, especially if your anger problem is already a bit deep.

By Eddy Kong Wai W

Looking for excellent tips on dealing with anger problems which could help you to treat chronic anger problems fast? Be sure to visit http://www.controlangersecrets.com and get your free 10-day mini-ecourse right now.

Saturday

10 Reasons Employers Need an Employment Law Solicitor

Worried about having to make staff redundant? Not sure your grievance policy is fair? Anxious that your employees contract hasn't been updated in years? Find out how else an Employment Law Solicitor can help you.
Read More... [Source: Legal: Employment Law Articles from EzineArticles.com - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]

Wednesday

Addressing the Right Organizational Issues Will Bring Development to the Company

Before you start any reorganization in your company, you have to know all the organizational issues that your company has and address these issues. It is the only way by which you will make any effective change in your company.

Every company has their own organization issues and these issues are unique. So the solutions are can be modified depending on the company's needs and wants. Usually, practitioners observe the company close hand and then they draw traditional and current theories which are applicable to the issues at hand. These theories can be applied to the company's social structure which is based on the tasks, specialization, hierarchy, power and endurance of the current organization of the company.

Usually, the organizational issues evolve around these factors: size, span of control, technology, tasks, environment, business strategy that is employed by the company and so many others. To be honest, there are so many issues that surround each company that it is crucial to identify which ones affect the company and the people who work on it the most.

Those who handle these organizational issues are experts on assessment, organizational structure, operations, transitions and change. It comes with years of practice and studying. They know that they do not go straight to technology. They address the issues first. Before they can address the issues, they need to identify them first. Hiring people who can do this are worth it. They will bring about the right kind of change and they will help bring back the company to the right path.

Cheryl Forbes writes about organizational issues at her website smart-organizational-change.com.

How to Separate Work and Home

A busy businessman finds it hard to separate work from home. Leaving the stresses of the job is easier said than done. But learning to separate work from home is actually the key to a happier home life and quality time with family. The blur of work and home can easily make the boundaries disappear over time.

Here are a couple of tips to leave work at work.

1. Physically relieve yourself the stress of work at work. After long hours of working, try a simple breathing exercise. Picture yourself in a solitary place. Listen to your breathing. Steady your mind by steadying your body.

2. Stretch. This helps relieve tension in mind and body. Stretch your arms and legs. Visualize the negative energy leaving your body.

3. Use pen and paper. Write notes on what you have to do tomorrow. Put them in a place where you know you look first thing in the morning. Your desk will do well. Then visualize your home and the people in the house.

4. Plan the transition. Mentally list your routine from work to home. Then use it as a signal to leave one behind.

5. Never over do the unloading process to your spouse. This creates tension in the marriage or relationship. Try to set a limit on how many minutes you will talk about your worries so that your partner will not feel like you are bulldozing her emotions. She, too, experiences stress on a daily basis.

6. Take a breather. Do not worry too much about tomorrow or its problems. It will come.

These are just a few things you can do. Feel free to improvise.

by Summer S.

The author is a SME for an account in Voiceville Communications, Inc. Think Better Life. Think Voiceville. http://voicevilleinc.com/