Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoy the season and find time to appreciate all that is important to you!
Recently I had a bit of a career confidence crisis. A potential customer did not like aspects of a new project. Usually I analyze the comments and decide whether I should make changes or not. This time was different. This time it really threw me into a circle of doubt about a career choice I had made.
I did something that is difficult for me to do. I asked others what they thought. I contacted two friends, also professional women, who were familiar with the project and who I trusted to be honest with me. They were fantastic! They told me what they thought and really helped me put things back into perspective.
I also told my husband who then told a mutual friend. She thought my idea was great and shared similar experiences she had and how she handled them.
By the end of the day, my confidence was back and I had a plan on how to handle the situation.
We do not have to do everything by ourselves. We do not have to know everything ourselves. Sometimes the best thing to do is just ask!
One of the most basic strategies to professional and personal success is to take care of yourself. There is an old saying to the effect that if you have your health, you have everything. This contains a great deal of truth. If you are healthy, you feel better. If you feel good, you can accomplish more and you can enjoy all your successes more. And those not-yet-successes do not seem so overwhelming.
The first step in taking care of yourself is to live a healthy lifestyle. Eat healthy, exercise regularly, don’t smoke, drink in moderation if at all, manage stress, etc. We all know what we need to do. The tricky part is doing it most of the time! Remember that small steps are better than none and any improvement is better than none!
Leading a healthy lifestyle will help not just now, but in the future as well. Taking care of yourself now is the best investment you can make in yourself.
Thanksgiving is meant to be a time to give thanks for all that we have. It is not meant to be a time to worry about whether the house is clean enough for guests, if the food is just right, and if we have forgotten anything.
Easy to say, difficult to do, at least for me! My goal for this Thanksgiving is to plan the meal, the house, the decorations as I always do but focus on what is most important—getting together with family. The really important aspect is to appreciate what and who we have in our lives and enjoy being with the ones we love.
I hope you have a wonderful, low-stress, Thanksgiving!
