My new career success coach book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less is turning out to be quite a hit.  It is now in its third printing.  Over 2,500 people have downloaded the free eBook version.  I think it’s a great addition to my career advice writings.  Go to www.SuccessTweets.com to get a .pdf of Success Tweets for free. 

I’m almost at the end of this series of posts; it will have taken me 28 weeks and one day to blog about each of the tweets in Success Tweets.  I’m happy with the result.  In a few weeks, I’ll consolidate these blog posts into a free eBook for you, so you’ll be able to download not only the  Success Tweets book, but have the career advice in the Success Tweets Blog all in one place.

I’ve created what I consider to be the best source of free life and career success advice on the internet.  All humility aside, I think that the Success Tweets book, coupled with these 141 blog posts, is as good or better than a lot of the career advice on the internet for which you have to pay.  Follow the career advice in Success Tweets and these 141 blog posts and you’ll be on your way to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 136…

Be responsible for yourself.  No one can “make you angry.”  Choose to act in a civil, constructive manner in tense situations.

The career advice in this tweet relates to your personal values.  Your values are your personal guide for day to day living.  They are the best way to take responsibility for yourself.  They help you make decisions in your everyday life.  Values ground you – providing direction for decision making in ambiguous situations.  

Because I’m in business for myself, I have two sets of values – one set guides my personal life; the other, my professional life.  They are complimentary, but have slightly different foci.

My personal values are…

• Always do my best.
• Treat all people with the respect and dignity they deserve as fellow human beings.
• Help others wherever and whenever I can – with no strings attached.
• Use my common sense.
• Be a supportive and loving husband.

My business values are…

• I believe we too often make things more complex than they really are. I help my clients simplify the complex, and develop and implement common sense solutions to their problems and issues.
• I believe in human potential. I assist my client organizations and the individuals in them to use applied common sense to achieve their full potential.
• My clients pay a premium for my services. Therefore, I provide them with extraordinary value-added services in order to justify their faith in me.
• My clients trust me. They openly discuss their aspirations, hopes, fears, problems and opportunities with me. This trust is sacred. I will not violate it.
• All of my customers are unique. I honor this uniqueness. I don’t sell one-size-fits-all consulting, career success coach or speaking services. I am diligent about gaining a complete understanding of each client’s unique needs before I suggest a course of action.

I use these values as a guide for my day to day living.  I do my best to conduct myself in a manner that is consistent with them.  Several months ago, I did a blog post in which I mentioned an argument I had with my dad.  I let myself get angry over a trivial matter.  After I calmed down, I called my dad to apologize.  I did this because one of my personal values is, “Treat all people with the respect and dignity they deserve as fellow human beings.”

By raising my voice and arguing, I was not conducting myself in accordance with one of my personal values – so I had to do something (apologize) to rectify the situation.  This value of treating people with respect and dignity is so ingrained in me that I had a feeling of unease for the two days it took me to apologize for losing my temper.

That’s the way values work.  They become so much a part of you that when you act in a manner inconsistent with them, you feel a little off and uncomfortable.  This discomfort led me to do what I needed to do to fix the problem I had created.

Just last week I had an experience that gets at what I’m talking about here.  I sent an email to a group of people with whom I have an affinity asking if they would like to join me as a joint venture partner.  Several said “yes.”  I received a response from one person that was an email with a subject line that said REMOVE.  There was no body in the text.

I sent this person a very nice email in which I apologized for bothering her, assured her that I would not contact her again and attached one of my eBooks as a sign of good will.  I received a rather condescending response to the second email – offering me coaching on email etiquette.  We traded two more emails discussing this issue.

I finally figured out that this person had a strong need to have the last word in this correspondence.  I chose to let her have the last word.  By letting her have the last word, I was following the career advice in Tweet 136.  “Choose to act in a civil, constructive manner in tense situations.”

I still think that I was the aggrieved party in this situation, but in the long run it doesn’t matter.  I took responsibility for not extending a conflict situation – that was of little or no importance – by letting the other person have the last word – something that seemed important to her. 

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.   Successful people are clear about what they want out of their lives and careers.  They define what career success means to them, personally.  They create a vivid mental image of their career success.  And they develop a set of personal values that guide their day to day life.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 136 in Success Tweets.  “Be responsible for yourself.  No one can ‘make you angry.’  Choose to act in a civil, constructive manner in tense situations.”  In other words, pick your battles.  If you find yourself in conflict over something that is a rather trivial matter, let it go.  If you do and say things for which you are sorry, apologize.  But above all, remember to take personal responsibility for your own behavior.

That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 136 and on personal values and success.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always thanks for reading.

Bud

I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  I hope you’re enjoying reading them.  I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing.  You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com.  Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.

Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 89…

Create your own unique personal organization system based on your needs and what works for you.

When I did a Google search on “personal organization” I came across an article by Roy Posner in which he listed several ways in which you can become better organized.  Here is his career advice for becoming better organized:

• Organize the physical things around you — your home, your paperwork and your finances.
• Increase your level of cleanliness and orderliness.
• Be punctual and on time.
• Prioritize to whom your emotions and attention should go. 
• Manage your time, your schedule and your work.
• Systematize activities in your life — from cleaning and cooking to bookkeeping.
• Balance your work load during the day.
• Coordinate and organize your communications with others.
• Further organize and distill the knowledge you have in life.
• Delegate work, tasks, and duties to others when appropriate. 
• Determine your goals and aspirations.
• Sort out what is truly important to you in life.
• Organize and prioritize your personal values.
• Organize your mind and your thoughts for better thinking and understanding.

Which things on this list give you the most difficulty?  What have you done to deal with them?  What’s worked and what hasn’t worked?  Please leave a comment sharing your personal advice with us.

I’ve found that two pieces of Roy’s advice have benefited me greatly over the years.  By “sorting out what is truly important to me in my life,” and “organizing and prioritizing my personal values,” I’ve been able to create the focus I need to become a life and career success.

Early on, I discovered that I value three things above all others.  1) Always do your best.  2) Treat everyone with the dignity and respect they deserve as human beings.  3) Be willing to help others with no strings attached.

Once I came to the understanding that these principals are the ones by which I want to live my life, little things — like choosing a career — became obvious to me.  That’s why I became a VISTA Volunteer upon my graduation from college and why I got into the training and development field after I completed my year of service.

It’s also why I’ve expanded my consulting and speaking practice to include coaching.  Being a career success coach allows me to work one to one with others, helping them achieve life and career success.

What is truly important in your life?  What are your personal values?  How have you used them to guide your quest for life and career success?

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Outstanding performers are well organized.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 88 in Success Tweets.  “Create your own unique personal organization system based on your needs and what works for you.”  Determining the things that are truly important to you in your life can help you become better organized.  Once you are clear on what is important to you, and the personal values by which you want to live your life, it becomes easier to make important life and career success decisions.  If you are floundering a bit, go back to basics.  Determine what is truly important to you in life.  Then choose a set of values that will guide your behavior.  Once you do this, a lot of life and career success decisions that may have been perplexing will become more clear to you.

That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 89, personal organization, and personal values.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to leave a comment on your experiences in this area.  As always, thanks for reading – and writing.

Bud

Today, I am focusing on Tweet 20…

Your values come from deep inside you.  Spend the time necessary to discover them.  Then hold fast to them.  Honor them with your actions.

I love blogging.  It gives me the opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas with people who can’t afford my career success coach services.  It also keeps me sharp.  My thinking on life and career success has grown and developed because of this blog.  I hope this is reflected in the quality of my posts.   I think I give my better career advice as a result of writing this blog.

There is a side benefit to blogging too.  People send me free books in the hopes that I will review them.  A while back, I received a copy of Masha Malka’s latest book, The One Minute Coach.  It’s a great little book. 

Masha has organized The One Minute Coach into bite sized chunks.  One three paragraph chapter entitled “What Does It Take to be Attractive?” makes a great point about being true to yourself…

“Being attractive comes from having that magnetic power that pulls people towards you.  A power that inspires them to talk to you and find out more about who are; a power that makes them want to be like you!”

She follows this up with five action steps.  I love the fifth step…

“Focus on who you are and not just what you look like.  People fall in love with the essence of you – your energy, the sparkle in your eyes, your passion for living, your unconditional love, everything that makes you unique and special…people fall in love with your beautiful soul.”

What is your essence, your beautiful soul?  It lies in your personal values.  Do you let your essence and values shine through?  Or do you keep them both under wraps, thinking that you won’t measure up in others’ eyes if you let your true self show.

When I was in high school and reading Hamlet, we got to the point in the play where Hamlet is setting off to avenge his father.  Polonius gives him some advice.  We were reading the play out loud.  I was reading just before Polonius’ advice.  Mrs. Yothers, stopped me and said, “This is some of the best advice on life that you will ever get.  Read slowly Bud, and the rest of you should listen closely.”

I can’t remember the entire verse anymore, but there was one line that has always stuck with me… 

“And above all else, to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the day the night, thou canst be false to no man.”

When my nephew Matt Seaton was going off to college, his grandfather and my father-in-law, Roy Blackman, gave him a piece of advice written on a scrap of paper.  It read “TTOSBT – figure it out and live by it.”

Can you figure it out?  Here’s a hint, read the quote from Polonius.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  We are all unique human beings.  Each of us has wonderful traits.  Our best traits come from deep inside ourselves, our personal values.  We all need to have the confidence to let our wonders shine through.  Live your personal values and let your essence shine through.  Pay attention to the advice in Tweet 20 in Success Tweets: “Your values come from deep inside you.  Spend the time necessary to discover them.  Then hold fast to them.  Honor them with your actions.”  Honor your values in the way you live your life.  Let your values shine through the next time you are in a room full of strangers.  You might be surprised at the way people respond to you.

That’s my take on Tweet 20, in Success Tweets – letting your essence shine through.  What’s yours?  Better yet, what is at your essence?  Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud