Dr. J's blog

The Ultimate New Year’s Resolution: Self-Acceptance

Submitted by drbrucej on Mon, 01/02/2012 - 5:59pm

Welcome to 2012!!

This is a time that prompts self-reflection because we are conditioned to think about New Year’s resolutions. You will see the number of gym memberships increase, along with articles about setting goals and making changes. However, the reason why these resolutions tend to fade away after a few weeks is that they often start from a place of unhappiness. You may decide to change something about your appearance, finances, career, relationships, friendships, or anything else of a personal or professional nature; however, consider how those changes begin – by thinking about how unhappy you are about those aspects of your life.

A New Year, A New Attitude

Submitted by drbrucej on Tue, 12/27/2011 - 5:22pm

As you look to a New Year, consider now your attitude about your potential. This is the perfect time for a positive mindset tune up. The following are a collection of recent tweets by Dr. J that have been collected, edited, and expanded upon to help inspire your thoughts about a New Attitude for the upcoming New Year.

How do you view life and what do you believe?

Important Life Lessons

Submitted by drbrucej on Sun, 10/02/2011 - 3:42pm

The process of living life every day provides us with interactions, a great deal of information to process, experiences that add to our collective background, and occasionally we are also given opportunities to grow, we acquire new knowledge, and we are provided with situations that challenge us personally and/or professionally. There are five distinct lessons that I have learned over the past few years as I have grown personally and professionally, while addressing significant changes, circumstances and events (internally and externally based).

Utilizing Your Internal GPS

Submitted by drbrucej on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 3:21pm

The development of your career is a journey that involves learning, growing, acquiring new skills and knowledge, and discovering the capacity you have to complete your job requirements. Along the way you are likely to make mistakes, while also making choices and decisions that are of great benefit to your career and professional development. When you make a mistake you either keep moving forward or you give it a label such as failure and decide that that is going to prevent you from doing well or trying again.

Encouraging Words

Submitted by drbrucej on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 1:36pm

Here are statements from Dr. J to help encourage you on your journey of personal and professional development.

As you consider your journey through life: Today, think about this approach as you reflect upon your new day and the direction you would like to take today - it really doesn't matter where you've been, even if there have been mistakes made along the way. What's important to remember is that you have learned and now you are moving forward with your life.

Understanding Human Resources Communication

Submitted by drbrucej on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 11:45am

An important aspect of managing your career is planning how you will address and respond to communication from the human resources department of a prospective employer. The reason why it’s important is that you are being assessed as a potential employee and the content of your communication is evaluated, including the level of interest, professionalism, critical reflection, and overall tone used. The most important forms of communication include the initial cover letter sent, the initial screening phone call from a Human Resources representative or recruiter, the initial interview, and the disposition correspondence.

Initial Cover Letter

Don't Get Mad, Get Determined

Submitted by drbrucej on Fri, 06/17/2011 - 4:23pm

If you consider your life right now, whether it is your career, your current job, or the circumstances surrounding your life, and you determine that you aren't where you want to be or should be, don't get mad, get determined. Decide that it is a time for a new plan. Don't discard your dreams or your goals. Don't let present circumstances or your situation determine how you feel about your ability to make progress and move forward towards completion of the goals you've created. Where you are right now is a reference point in a timeline of your life that is not fixed because you are always moving forward, whether or not that progress is moving along with you at the rate you had hoped it would.

Stuck In Reverse

Submitted by drbrucej on Sat, 06/11/2011 - 10:15pm

Do you ever find yourself thinking about the past and the more you allow yourself to do so, the easier it becomes to remember the past and incidents that you would rather not remember? Perhaps something has happened at work that caused you to experience a feeling of frustration or disappointment and that setback caused you to begin reflecting on other moments when you experienced the same type of feelings. What happens in those moments is that we turn our attention away from the future and where it is we would like to go, along with the goals that we have established and are working towards, and we end up getting stuck in reverse.

Small Steps Towards Bigger Accomplishments

Submitted by drbrucej on Sun, 06/05/2011 - 4:42pm

Establishing goals is an effective way of making changes in your life and organizing your intentions. You'll find that this is only a starting point because you must take some form of action if you going to work towards meeting those goals. But what happens along the way is that it becomes easy to get discouraged when we look ahead and see how far we have left to go. There's a familiar saying that talks about the importance of enjoying the journey and not just being focused on the destination. What that journey should consist of are small steps along the way, as those small steps are responsible for the bigger accomplishments. While it is important not to be focused on the past, as that is where you have been, you should still consider how far along you’ve come in this journey of progress.

A Career without Limits

Submitted by drbrucej on Sun, 05/29/2011 - 4:08pm

When you consider your present career and where you are right now, in comparison to your short-term and long-term career goals, are you able to list anything that will prevent you from reaching those goals? Is there anything limiting your career or preventing you from making progress? The two most common forms of limitations that get in the way of professional development include those that are based in reality and those that are a result of perceptions. Identifying and addressing your potential limits will allow you to overcome obstacles and develop a career that is controlled by you in a proactive manner.