Career Tip of the Week

Tips to Advance Your Careers

Tip of the week: Take care of yourself as an important building block to advance your careers.

By Gabe Hamda, PhD., SPHR

What are the 6 key building blocks to advance your careers?

(1) Set your career goals by establishing your ambitions. why? Your career advancement is limited by your goals and your ambitions.

(2) seek self improvement using training, advise, mistakes, observing, reading, watching youtube, ask questions and engaging in meaningful conversations with people.

(3) Solve problems and create solutions – be part of a solution and not part of a problem. When you only raise questions and express concerns you are least helpful.  You are most helpful when you offer multiple solutions. You are a hero when you express willingness to implement the solutions you offer.

(4) take care of yourself and your family by getting rest, playing, having fun, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, eating food that is good for you, having a strong faith, taking vacations, laughing a lot, and expressing gratitude.

(5) strengthen your networks – maintain a balance and diversity of the the people within your network groups.  Ensure you have a good mix of people from the following groups: family; faith, ethnicity/nationality, work, profession, age, politics, current contacts, new contacts.  If your network consists of only one group, you are limiting yourself. A balanced mix helps you grow exponentially.

(6) Make a difference in your community and in our world – we are all gifted and equipped to make a difference. Your life and career are richer and more meaningful when your success improves the lives of people outside yourself and outside your family.

By the the Way, do we have a career or careers?

Today’s professionals wear multiple hats and hold multiple careers such as college teaching + consulting + real estate brokerage + non profit leadership. Thus, today’s professionals hold multiple careers.

What is taking care of yourself?

Taking care of yourself is: realizing your worth; understanding you are a gift and you are gifted; knowing you need you; being aware your family needs you; knowing your community needs you; realizing your country needs you; understanding our world needs you.

Why is taking care of yourself so important?

Taking care of yourself is so important because: You are an important building block of our world. You are an important building block of our country. You are an important building block of our community;  You are an important building block of the organization you work for You are an important building block of your family. You are an important building block of your volunteer group. You are an important building block of our economy.

What are actions you can take to take care of yourself?

(1) be kind to yourself. Refrain from self blame.  encourage yourself. treat yourself like your best friend.

(2) get good rest. sleep well.  Allow yourself to daydreaming.

(3) allow yourself to do what you really enjoy. Make time to engage in activities you enjoy. I enjoy walking in the park and do it 2-3 times a week. What do you enjoy?

(4) forgive yourself when you make mistakes. Mistakes are amazing teachers. I love the mistakes I can learn from. No need to be embarrassed by your mistakes and failures. Perfect people do not exist.

(5) allow yourself to play and laugh like a child – This is good for your health and improves your ability to be creative.  Being too serious all the time is not good for your health. It also scares the people around you.  I understand you have big responsibilities. My wife and I play cards. She likes the game “conquer”; I like the game “sekka”. We mix it up. We offer congratulate the winner of each game.

(6) Say no without guilt when you are asked to over commit your time and your resources. I am beginning to celebrate people who tell me No.

(7) allow downtime after a big accomplishment or after a big performance.  You cannot be at your peak all the time.  This is how you re-charge.

(8) enjoy food that is good for you and tastes good to you in moderation.  Eat more fresh foods and stay away from processed foods – I enjoy fresh salad.  Fresh salad is good for me and good to me.

In conclusion, taking care of yourself is the first step to advance your careers. Taking care of yourself is the foundation of other building blocks that advance your careers.