successful Archives - The Career Success Doctor

Success And Happiness: What Is The Connection? Which Comes First?

Written by Natalia

If you have attended our free webinar “How To Have A Career That Really Works For You”, you already know the truth about success and happiness and how they are connected.

The fact is that it doesn’t apply to career success only, but in every aspect of your life, as well.

So, what’s the connection between success and happiness? Which comes first?

We all have heard phrases like “If only I could get a raise! Then I would be happy”. Chances are we have all made similar thoughts.

We are raised to believe that if we succeed, then we will be happy. And every time we achieve our goal, we make a new one. And we convince ourselves that once we achieve that one too, then happiness is ours! And this goes on and on forever.

But that’s a myth! The truth is exactly the opposite: Happiness leads to success! You will be successful, if you have joy and positivity in your life. You might achieve success when you are unhappy, but it won’t last. Sustainable success comes from happiness.

Lenka Lutonska in her article in ‘Advantage Woman’, discusses the same topic and provides some facts based on scientific studies about how happiness drives success in every part of our lives.

– Journals from a convent of 180 nuns showed that the nuns who shared joyful content lived nearly 10 years longer than the nuns whose entries were negative or neutral
– Unhappy employees take 1.25 sick days per month or 15 extra sick days per year
– Happy people make 37% more sales
– Happiness increases productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%.

When we are happy, our brain becomes more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, healthier, resilient and productive. We attract effortlessly good things, people and circumstances into our lives, and achieve our goals – big or small – with ease.

Read the whole article here: “Success or Happiness – Which Comes First?”

Shawn Achor, the CEO of Good Think Inc. and the author of two best-sellers -“Happiness Advantage” and “Before Happiness”-, spent over a decade researching and lecturing at Harvard University on positive psychology and the connection between success and happiness.

According to Shawn, happiness leads to long-term quantifiable positive change. In his article for CNN, “Is happiness the secret of success?” he states:

“Scientifically, happiness is a choice. It is a choice about where your single processor brain will devote its finite resources as you process the world. If you scan for the negative first, your brain literally has no resources left over to see the things you are grateful for or the meaning embedded in your work. But if you scan the world for the positive, you start to reap an amazing advantage.”

To find out more about this research, I encourage you to watch his popular TED Talk “The happy secret to better work” on the video below.

If 75% of job successes are predicted by our optimism levels and our brain at positive performs significantly better, then the first thing we should do in order to be successful, is to get our state of mind right.

As the psychologist says, “your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise. In fact, what we’ve found is that every single business outcome improves”.

Now that we’ve learnt how happiness and success are connected, and that happiness actually fuels success, the next step is to change our mindset.

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If you need any help on what to do to change your mindset, claim your spot on our free webinar.

Career Success In 2014

Written by Natalia

2014 has finally arrived, and among the wishes we all exchanged for this year, is achieving career success. We have already made our New Year career resolutions, but sticking to them is critical in order to be successful.

According to statistics, 45% of people make resolutions for the new year, but only 8% stick to them. This article by Carrie Pinsky in NCBR reveals the five steps we need to follow to stop being a part of the 92%.

As the author says, these strategies will also ‘help us live and work with greater purpose and meaning‘. The 5 steps she proposes can be summarised in these bullet points:

Identify your values
Revive your passion and get inspired
Improve your online presence
Review and update your resume
Improve your networking skills and invest in relationships

The only thing I would add is that another good strategy that will help you stick to your resolutions is to make realistic goals split in milestones. Besides the fact that it will be easier to achieve your mini goals one after another, you can also reward yourself each time you reach a milestone. We all know that positive reinforcement does wonders for keeping someone motivated!

” Business moves at a fast-forward pace. If we are just going through the motions at work or resting on past laurels, we soon will be left behind. Career planning is vital in today’s ever-changing market.
Whether you have a job you love or are looking for your next opportunity, it is equally as important to manage your career. What is calling you now? Where to next? And, what do you need to do to get there? ”

Read the whole article here “5 steps to career success in year ahead”

Ultimate Life Lessons Launches on Amazon

Written by The Career Success Doctor

At last, I am a published author! Ultimate Life Lessons launches today on Amazon.

Ultimate Life Lessons Launches on Amazon

It’s a collection of tips and lessons from over 30 top entrepreneurs, coaches and philanthropists, including TV’s ‘Secret Millionaires’. In it, you’ll hear what ‘life lesson’ I’ve decided to share with the world on how I got to where I am today. My fellow co-authors have triumphed over huge problems such as near bankruptcy, drink and drugs addiction and still achieved fulfilment and success. My own story has been the journey out of Clinical Depression without the benefit of any assistance from the pharmaceuticals industry (legal or otherwise).

Do you think you could learn something from their experiences? You bet you could!

For the launch period only, we’re offering a whole host of brilliant bonuses, worth thousands. Go to http://www.UltimateLifeLessons.com now & claim all your bonuses for buying our book. You’ll see what ‘Secret Millionaires’ like Seema Sharma, Caroline Marsh, and Gurbaksh Chahal can tell you. And you’ll also hear from success coaches, successful entrepreneurs and other high fliers like Tracy Repchuk, Vinden Grace, Eve Grace-Kelly, Penny Power, Stephanie J Hale, Susanne Jorgensen (Relationships), Kelly Morrisey (Divorce), Curly Martin, Andy Harrington, Debbie Allen, Nick James, and – of course – me!

Career Success isn’t just about making your career work for you, because you are not your career – you’re so much more than that. Ultimate Life Lessons is all about the ‘so much more’.

I’m looking forward to learning how the inspiring collection of business and coaching tips, lessons and insights have helped you to work out what it is you want from life, set your goals and then achieve them.

Here’s to your success!

Does a shorter working week make for sustainability?

Written by The Career Success Doctor

There’s a lot of talk going on in UK just now about the shorter working week, and whether it might contribute to sustainability. It’s partly down to a report produced by the think-tank, nef (new economics foundation – trendy in lower letters!). The Independent Newspaper kindly boils the report down to half a page.

The general argument is that in the UK we work harder than many of our European colleagues. Not as hard as folks in the US, but hard. Harder than we were 30 years ago, apparently. The nef thinks that a move down to a 21-hour working week would be a Good Thing For The Planet. By earning less, we would consume less, which must be good for the planet.

In my role as an executive coach, I meet many high flying executives who work very long hours. I also meet some who don’t. Yet the ones who work shorter hours are just as ‘successful’ (depending on how you define success) as those who work longer hours.

Among successful executives, some work hard because they feel they ‘should’. The organisation expects it of them. Some work hard because they love what they do. And for some, work is a better alternative than going home to a lonely house/an angry partner/howling kids or some other unwanted alternative. And a few work hard because they or they families are rampant consumers.

My own take on this is that if people are loving what they do, then why shouldn’t they do it? The problems arise when people are forced to work long hours, or they think they should for fear of losing their job or of failing or of falling down the economic pan. For those who stay at work because it is better than the alternative, the brutal answer is ‘sort your life out’, because come retirement day there’s a risk life really will lose all meaning.

Tim Ferris’ excellent book ‘The Four Hour Working Week’ really turns the idea of the 40 hour working week on its head. Even if you don’t subscribe to his thinking, it’s worth a read to see what is possible.

Of course, it’s very easy to talk about the need to return to a shorter working week if you can still earn enough to feed your family. But even in London, where some of the richest people in the world hang out, there are a huge number of people who are living on the poverty line. Those who are working struggle to find anything that pays a living wage. Under 16 hours a week and you can claim income support ( of course, I’m grossly simplifying the rules of a complex system).

But there are plenty of people who have gone from poverty to riches, from working all their waking hours to a 16-20 hour week or even less. And a lot of them have done it by becoming internet marketers.