360 Degree Self

Whether you're looking for a job, looking for love or looking to make the sale, one thing can help you on your quest - confidence. Finding confidence, however, is no easy task. Over the years, I've always been amazed and amused that men's shaving products have been sold to us as a source of confidence (see below): I like this commercial (and a close shave), but the fourth blade on my razor is not going to give me the extra confidence to introduce myself to that woman that I'm infatuated with. It's not going to help me make the winning basket to win the championship game. According to Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary , confidence is "a faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way." It also describes confidence as, "the quality or state of being certain." I am not an expert on confidence, but a student. However there is one tip that, to me, stands out when it comes to having more confidence. You can call it th...

Yesterday, I ran into a friend who had a heart attack two weeks ago. He had been eating in a restaurant when he lost consciousness. Thanks to the quick action of another customer who knew CPR, she saved his life by keeping oxygen flowing to his brain until paramedics arrived. When I saw him, he was smiling and pointed to his waistline which had shrunk a little in the past couple weeks. He was also profiled on a local television news story as he gave thanks to the customer and the paramedics that saved his life. He did not have health insurance and was understandably concerned about all of his medical bills. But, he was grateful to be standing next to me. I woke up early this morning to the sound of a hooting owl and birds chirping in the trees nearby. As I laid in bed, half-awake, I was comforted and appreciative to hear their beautiful music. At that moment, it struck me how precious life was. Most of us, myself included, live our lives with giant to-do lists and the expectat...

One of the biggest challenges many of us face on a daily basis is clutter. I am, by nature, a pack rat and believe that your desk or your workspace is a reflection of you. I am also someone looking to re-invent the way I live (and work) my life. With this in mind, I took out an interesting book out of my local library, When Organizing Isn't Enough by Julie Morgenstern. There have been a lot of books written about de-cluttering, but the Morganstern's latest book makes a strong case for not just organizing, but also SHEDing. To SHED means: Separate the treasures Heave the trash Embrace your identity Drive yourself forward In Morganstein's words, "organizing is about identifying what's important to you and giving yourself access to it. SHEDing is about getting rid of the old and obsolete so that you can have space to discover what's important to you." While I haven't finished the book yet, I realize that it is perfect for someone looking to get organ...

First off, I want to thank everyone who has visited this blog, which continues to be a work in progress for me. During my last job search three years ago, I became quite obsessed with the wealth of creativity, entertainment and information provided by numerous bloggers. Some of my early favorites included Scott "The Nametag Guy" Ginsberg , Tom Peters , Christine Kane , Adpulp , and Brand Autopsy to name just a few. There were two things that kept me from starting a blog at that time: 1) I was not ready and did not know what to say. 2) My work "hiatus" was shorter than I anticipated. So I let my ideas simmer and started blogging in early 2008. I wasn't very sure of what I was doing so I blogged anonymously under my first name. Even worse, my "about me" section was virtually non-existent and I had great difficulty figuring out how and where to put my Google Analytics code. These days, I feel like I've begun to hit a writing groove - on this blog and ...