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Happy New Year 2014 From The Career Success Doctor

Today being 1st January 2014, I wanted to wish you all a very happy New Year 2014. May this year be everything you could wish for.

At this time of year I find it useful to reflect – on what’s happened in the year just gone, and what I want to happen in the year to come. We’re past the solstice, so the days are lengthening, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. While it’s not quite true to say that Spring is around the corner, it’s a great time to feel optimistic.

2013 has been a year of recovery for me. I had a very difficult time with my Mum, who finally died in 2012, and I hand’t realised quite how much it had knocked the stuffing out of me. So I’ve been rebuilding the business, slowly but surely, learning new skills (in particular how to use video more effectively), and developing my first online programme, which I’ll be launching in a couple of weeks, once we’ve got the technology sorted out! I’ve also started doing some business consulting, alongside my coaching. I spent about 10 years as a management consultant, so it’s drawing on old skills – and I am amazed to find they are still every bit as relevant today as they were 15 years ago.

I lost 2 friends – both of them young. In both cases, their death was a shock, but the funerals were real celebrations of 2 very different, but both very special guys, with lots of music. Dave and Ken, we miss you.

And I spent a fabulous 6 weeks in Hawai’i, teaching and attending a Huna seminar (which I do twice a year anyway) and then travelling around the islands, and getting deeply involved in helping out with the Merrie Monarch festival. This festival celebrates Hawai’ian culture through the Hula, and it’s an amazing experience. I helped make leis (adornments) for one of the Hula schools competing in the competition, which is a rare privilege. I helped ‘dress’ an exhibition stand for one of the leading feather lei makers, who makes the most stunning leis out of feathers, and I got to help create and then dress the winning horse team in the Saturday parade. And along the way I met some wonderful people and had such fun.

And now I am preparing to launch the new programme – How To Have A Career That Really Works, set up a Joint Venture with an Australian business partner, and do some more consulting. I’ll be teaching and studying Huna in Hawai’i, and I will be running some Huna workshops in UK. Huna has been a life-saver for me, and I want to share it with anyone who is suffering from depression, or anxiety, or stress, or who just wants to live a more purposeful life.

So I am going to be busy!

I’d love to know what you’ll be up to. Do leave a comment in the comment box below, and I look forward to talking to you in 2014.

So You Think YOUR Boss Is Unsupportive Of Women Managers?

Written by The Career Success Doctor

Like many of us, I’ve had my share of unsupportive bosses, particularly those who are keen to promote a man rather than a woman. I know that in many societies it’s a real struggle to get recognition as a a professional if you happen to be female. And today I discovered just how bad it is for women managers in Japan.

An article in the HBR blog (what a great resource their online version is, by the way) reveals that, along with South Korea, Japan has the lowest rate of women managers in the developed world at around 10%. Note, we’re not talking about Board members here, we’re only looking at managers. By comparison, about 35% of managers in UK are female, which puts us just above the EU average, and fourth behind Latvia, Lithuania and France. Yep, you read that right, France have a higher percentage of female managers than UK.

The other fascinating fact to emerge from this piece is that ‘more women working and more babies’ can help ‘counter an aging workforce and a flaccid economy’. In my opinion that’s a lesson the UK government could take on board, too. For many working women, the poor level of childcare makes it difficult to commit to a career and be a truly effective performer at work. We do it, but it’s despite a limited (and in some areas non-existent) level of childcare.

It’s easy to be complacent that we’re doing so much better than Japan and the majority of EU countries, even the Anglo Saxon ones. Women make up over 50% of the UK population, so why are the numbers so low?

Of course, taking time out to have children accounts for some of the difference, but it certainly doesn’t tell the whole story. In my work I am increasingly meeting intelligent, dynamic women who have left the corporate sector (by which I mean the world of other peoples’ organisations, private, public and not-for-profit sectors, organisations large, medium and small) to set up their own business. Many say they dislike the corporate ethos, that it’s too masculine and doesn’t allow them to express themselves as women. Many are leaving because they are fed up, and feel they can have more work-life balance, time for their kids, do something they love and make a difference by working for themselves.

As a woman running her own business, I applaud this. But how sad that so many of us do it because feel we HAVE to do it, that it’s the only way out, the only way to have a truly fulfilling career and be who we really are, rather than struggling to play the game.

Rant over….here’s the rest of that hbr blog.

Picture By Yu Morita from Tokyo, Japan (20081101-DSC_2264) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

New Year Career Resolutions

Written by Natalia

Now that 2013 departs and 2014 is upon us, it’s the time of the year we are establishing our career resolutions and goals for the coming year. Apart from losing weight, falling in love, or saving money, research shows that career-related New Year’s resolutions are in the top ten most popular ones. According to Forbes, “Many people go into a New Year with resolutions or goals for their career for the next 12 months“.

Dan Miller in his article in Monster.com, lists 10 New Year career resolutions that will help you have your dream job, whether your goal is to start a new career, or professional development on your current career path.

” Like the old saying, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life,” it’s never a bad time to start moving your career in a better direction. Here are 10 New Year’s resolutions to help. ”

Read his whole article here “10 Career Resolutions for the New Year”

No matter what your New Year’s resolutions will be, if you make clear and realistic goals and you stick to your plans staying vigilant all-year round, by this time next year you will be really proud of yourself.

My warmest wishes for a prosperous and very successful 2014!

I’ll leave you with a review of 2013 in pictures.
Enjoy this video by BuzzFeed featuring this year’s most powerful photos. Happy New Year!

Beauty Tips & Tricks For The Holiday Season

Written by Natalia

The holiday season has just begun and you have a lot of plans for the next ten days. Whether they are family get-togethers, going out with friends, or glamorous parties, there is no doubt that you want to look your best.

Knowing that this festive season can be quite a frenzied time, I’ve collected the top 6 articles with beauty tips and tricks that will help you look gorgeous to all these under-the-mistletoe moments.

1. Murphy’s law: “If anything can go wrong, it will”. We have all experienced all these last minute disasters at least once in our life. Faith Xue’s article in Makeup.com is truly a lifesaver! And believe me, her solutions work! I’ve personally done at least half of these tricks.

It’s Murphy’s makeup law – no matter how much we try to plan ahead, it seems like last-minute beauty emergencies always spring up during the holiday season. Luckily, we here at MDC have experienced our fair share of makeup mishaps and have learned from our mistakes. Not one to keep secrets, today we’re sharing our solutions for four of the most-common holiday beauty emergencies. You can thank us with a hot mug of spiced cider…

Read her article here “4 Last Minute Holiday Beauty Emergencies, Solved!”

2. This old article in Marie Claire has saved me a lot of time! And we are always in a hurry during this period.

Got a need for speed? Between basting a the turkey, refilling the eggnog, and making sure that no one is opening their gift earlier than they should be — who has time for hair and makeup? Here, some quick and easy hair and makeup tips to keep you looking chic from Thanksgiving through New Year’s!

Here is the link to the article “10 Fast Holiday Hair and Makeup Tricks”

3. For an alternative on the second tip of the previous article, you can use Shana Astrachan’s DIY dry shampoo recipe, featured in this article by Laura, in Modcloth.

We invited DIY beauty expert Shana of Fox & Doll back to share another one of her original recipes. Last time, she showed us how to make an au naturel lip exfoliator, but this time it’s all about hair and achieving a refreshed look in a cinch!

Read her article here “A Quick Fix: How to Make DIY Dry Shampoo”

4. Speaking of speed, you should read Molly Triffin’s time-saver article in Cosmopolitan. Did you know that you could shrink a zit with the help of an ice cube?

Have a big date or party coming up and just a couple of days to prepare for it? We have shortcuts to looking head-to-toe spectacular.

Read the whole article here “Look Amazing — In Just 48 Hours”

5. I’m pretty sure you are going to love this one! All women’s constant concern, when applying makeup, is “how am I going to cover this?” Well, Michelle Villett with her article in Beautyeditor has got you covered!

(…) There is one area I actually do consider myself quite proficient at, and that is the art of camouflage. Probably you got the hint seeing as I’ve posted about this incessantly. (I’m not joking: I’ve talked about the most common foundation mistakes, why I love HD powders, my favourite foundations, whether you need to re-think how you’re using concealer, and how I have a concealer wardrobe.) Skin is really, REALLY important.

And let’s face it: nobody cares about your artful liquid liner application if you’ve got a flaming red spot stealing all the attention. Or a cold sore, or dark circles. So from me to you, here’s your guide to hiding all the bad so people can focus on the good.

Here is the link to this absolute must-read “How to cover absolutely anything (zits! cold sores! dark circles!)”

6. The last article might not be ‘holiday-themed’ but it is an amazing trick! How many times have you dropped your makeup powder or blush? And after breaking it, you threw it to the garbage, right? Not anymore! There is a way to fix it and Sharona Fizhadze in her article, in her blog ‘The Dramaterialist’, tells us how.

We all have had it happen once before: you rush to get yourself ready for a night out or you’re quick to grab something out of your bag, and BAM, you drop your makeup powder. What once smooth and practical is now all messed up in little pieces and you instantly think to throw it away..

Read her article here “Fix up broken makeup”

Finally yet importantly, the next tip is not in an article. However, the key factor to looking good, the best beauty tip of all time is this: Enjoy yourself! When you feel good, when you are happy it just shows! So go out there and have a great time with people you love!

“Dear Santa”

Written by Natalia

Do you believe in Santa Claus? Well, children certainly do! Kendra Y. Mims in her article in ‘She Knows’, has listed some of the cutest letters to Father Christmas you will ever read! These kids’ way of thinking, and what they have to say, is just amazing! As the author says (and I couldn’t have described it better), “It’s always touching when kids think about others before themselves, especially during Christmas”.

Some of them are requesting something for someone else, while others don’t ask for anything since they believe they have it all. Certainly, there’s no question whether they are on the naughty or nice list!

This perspective is what makes our world a better place, and these children are a living proof that there is still hope! Their letters should be an inspiration for all of us. If all of us adopted this attitude the whole year round and not just during Christmastime, we could make a huge difference!

“Dear Santa” Letters To Melt Your Heart

It’s the time of the year when children are on their best behavior as they write letters to Santa to request everything on their Christmas list. Here are “Dear Santa” letters that will warm your heart and make you smile.

Enjoy the whole article along with pictures of the letters here “The cutest letters to Santa you’ll ever read“

Speaking of inspiration, I would like to share one more article with you, written by Carolyn Jones in ‘San Francisco Chronicle’, which I found to be very touching. To be completely honest, I could barely hold my tears while reading it, so be prepared.

Unfortunately, some kids in this world are not as lucky as the previously mentioned ones. There are children who are asking Santa for the essentials; all these that the rest of us take for granted.

And these people in the U.S. Postal Office along with the volunteers are doing an incredible job, answering all these letters and helping in any way that they can!

Santa does not do e-mail. Nor does he respond to text messages. If you want to contact Santa, you have to write a letter, an ancient practice involving paper, pencil and a stamp.

Thousands of Bay Area children have done just that – but this holiday season, the tone of letters bound for the North Pole is a little more somber than usual. U.S. Postal Service officials in Oakland and San Francisco said they’ve seen a sharp increase this year in kids asking Santa not for Xboxes or PlayStations, but food, warm coats and jobs for their parents.

“It really tugs at your heartstrings,” said Augustine Ruiz, a Postal Service spokesman. “We try to answer every one, so they know someone cares.”

Read the whole article here “Many children asking Santa for bare essentials”

From my point of view, kids are right for believing in Father Christmas. Perhaps you should start too if you don’t. Santa Claus and Christmas magic are all about loving, sharing and caring for each other. And these qualities exist within each and every one of us! We all are Santa somewhere deep inside. Isn’t it about time to let him out?

May this season be full of joy and love for everyone and Christmas magic lasts throughout the New Year! If we open our hearts, miracles still happen!…

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