This Is Not The Career I Ordered™ Blog
Savvy Professional Career Wisdom by Caroline Dowd-Higgins
This is Not the Career I Ordered is read by thousands of careerists around the globe. With savvy tools, inspiration, and resources, this timeless book empowers you to enjoy your career, and love your life!
Experiment with New Things to Design Your Best Life and Career
I speak to countless people who feel stuck or helpless in the wrong career, the wrong organization, or an unhappy life. The concept of design thinking will empower you with practical and creative strategies to reboot what’s not working so you can assert more control over your future. Design Thinking, a concept birthed in the tech […]
Enjoy Your Career. Love Your Life. ™
For decades, I took great pride in being known as a workhorse. I was praised for burning the candle at both ends and didn’t take all my well-earned paid time off. I didn’t recognize the fact that I sacrificed my personal life for my career because I loved my all-consuming work. In the heart of […]
We’re Stuck in a Success Crisis! And It’s Affecting Our Kids
Susan Ford Collins is a guest on my podcast show – Your Working Life. I am delighted to share her guest blog post about the success crisis. Success and leadership have gears… and we’re not shifting them correctly! We’ve gotten stuck in “the more-better-faster, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately, too-busy-racing-around-to-enjoy-our-lives” gear. We’re over-fed, under-nourished, over-medicated, under-rested, and under-satisfied. Think […]
Leadership Lessons I Learned This Summer
I turned my participation at the National Speakers Association convention into a hybrid getaway. NSA was a transformative learning experience to help me grow my business and a wonderful way to enjoy the sights, sounds, and flavors of Washington, DC. I knew I would glean great info about how to grow as a global public speaker […]
Self-Sabotage No More – Part II: 7 Strategies For Allowing Success
Self-sabotage is when your actions are working against your own best interests, according to Adam Sicinski, creator of the Overcoming Self-Sabotage Mind Map at IQMatrix.com – so the more you can bring self-sabotaging behaviors into conscious awareness, the better. Sicinski says, “[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” […]
Self-Sabotage No More – Part I: Connecting With Your Inner Voice
Coaching clients often come to me feeling frustrated because they aren’t moving up in their careers. When we delve deeper into the underlying reasons, oftentimes the culprit is self-sabotage. What Is Self-Sabotage? Adam Sicinski, creator of the Overcoming Self-Sabotage Mind Map at IQMatrix.com, defines self-sabotage as “…a conflict between conscious desires and unconscious wants.” In […]
Balance is Bunk: Realistic Work/Life Integration Strategies
The unrealistic concept of work/life balance makes me cringe. Most women are time starved, sleep deprived and burning the candle at both ends to keep up with career demands and being the Chief Household Officer. Those with kids have an extra layer of beautiful chaos while trying to raise younglings to become well-adjusted adults. You […]
4 Innovative Networking Tactics That Can Land You A Job
Networking has always been essential in professional life, whether you’re searching for a new job or simply looking to expand opportunities in your field. Making connections is what helps you move through the ranks and reveal new pathways you may not have even known existed. However, just as the job market is competitive; trying to […]
Single Task Your Way to a Better Life and Career
Multitasking used to be a sought after professional competency thought to be a valuable skill for the busy professional. Research tells us that singletasking is actually more effective and can result in higher productivity and time efficiency. I can envision a woman at work reading this blog while eating her lunch, checking her email, listening […]
6 Common Career Mistakes Millennial Entrepreneurs Make
Millennials are naturally hard-wired to follow their dreams and paths of passion. Unlike the baby boomers who were always more concerned about security and facing any challenges life throws at them, millennials are go-getters. With so many examples of young entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Elizabeth Holmes, millennials are charged by people’s […]
Establishing Your Professional Online Reputation: 6 Steps and Helpful Tools
We often think of online reputation in terms of business: reviews, online complaints, and public comments. But increasingly, online reputation matters for professionals, too. And not just for CEOs and other executives: a good online reputation is essential for every career professional. Your online reputation makes a difference whether you’re job hunting, networking, growing your […]
5 Clear Signs You Deserve a Promotion
It is very important that you know when it is time for a promotion. And for that, you need to evaluate your own skills and previous track records. You may have complete command over work and love your current job but there comes a time when you start feeling bored working at it and feel […]
Prepared For A Job Change? 5 Strategies That Can Help
While the height of the financial crisis may be behind us, job layoffs are still making headlines these days. Companies including IBM, EBay, American Express, and Walmart have all had large-scale layoffs since the beginning of 2015. As the Greek philosopher Herclitus said, “The only thing that is constant is change.” My question to you […]
Career Productivity Leaks: 4 Strategies That Can Help
In this day of rightsizing and downsizing, many employees are working harder than ever to maintain productivity on the job. A recent New York Times article highlighted this fact – pointing out that some workers are going so far as to use amphetamine-based stimulants used to treat ADHD in order to maintain higher levels of […]
