Month: March 2021

Do you do things for work out of a sense of obligation, even if they are tasks that shouldn’t fall on your shoulders? Do you find yourself stuck with certain responsibilities because you feel like you don’t have a choice but to agree to them? You could feel stuck, but the reality is that you always have a choice.

You have the power, the ability and the right to control your time and energy. This is not to say that you will never have to do anything you don’t want to do, but it means you can learn how to speak up for yourself and protect your time.

One way you always have a choice is with your attitude and perspective. You may be doing something you don’t enjoy or don’t want to do, but you have the right to decide how to approach it. You don’t have to have a victim mentality if you don’t want to. Consider how these less-than-desirable things could be helping you develop skills or gain inexperience in new ways.

You may be subject to the demands of your employer, but you don’t have to be subject to mistreatment or requirements out of the scope of your job. If you are constantly being tasked with things that should be the responsibility of someone else, you should speak up. You deserve to be fairly compensated for your time and the work you do.

While you may not always be able to control everything about your work, you can always control yourself. You get to decide on your attitude, your effort and your perspective on everything. In situations where you are subjected to unfair treatment, you do have the right to defend yourself and respectfully pursue a resolution to your concerns. If you feel out of control over something, ask yourself what about the situation can you control.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

You know that bad habits can have a detrimental impact on your life and your career. You also understand that good habits can make you a more productive and well-rounded person. What you may not realize is how negative patterns in your life could be affecting your mental health, emotional well-being and professional success. Patterns of behavior are more than just habits—they are routines that you regularly engage in, getting similar results every time.

Good habits work best in positive patterns. For example, you want to be better about staying off your phone in the evenings while you’re trying to fall asleep. This is a good habit you want to establish, but you also need to build a good pattern to set yourself up for success. Create a pattern that helps you relax and fall asleep, including self-care and charging your phone outside of the bedroom. You may not be able to create this new habit if you continue to follow your old patterns.

The first step in building good patterns of behavior is to identify negative ones. What areas of your life feel the least successful? Where do you struggle to improve? The key may not be just one bad habit to fix, but an entire sequence of actions or thoughts that continue to set you up for failure again and again.

You may not even realize that you have negative habits in your life that continue to affect you. Establishing new habits may require re-tooling the way you think and a careful look at how you approach things. Looking at the patterns in your life can help you understand more about the reasons why certain things hold you back and how you can take back control over your habits and forward progress.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

When you are intentional about what you do, there is no such thing as a small or trivial effort. If you want to succeed, achieve your goals and navigate your career with purpose, one thing you will find beneficial is to establish habits that assist with your personal development and growth. Even small, productive habits can have a big payoff if you are consistent about establishing and implementing them.

Building good habits starts with an evaluation of what is truly important to you. What are your goals personally and professionally? What types of habits could help push you closer to your goals? Some of the following small yet effective habits could be good for you:

• Make it a habit to be an active listener, not just someone who is only listening to respond.
• Start working on ways you can become a better, more consistent communicator.
• Make it a point to keep learning. Read, educate yourself and take steps to increase your expertise.
• Set up systems that allow you to stick to your new habits consistently, setting you up for success long-term.

Personal growth is not always easy or simple. In fact, it can be frustrating to establish new habits, even if you understand how useful and important they are. There is no easy way out when working on better habits, but the payoff is significant.

There is no such thing as a small habit when it’s a good habit. Over time, small steps toward improvement and growth can have a major impact on your life. Don’t underestimate the potential long-term effect of new habits in your life. If you want to grow and develop, consider starting simply with better habits and more consistency in your efforts.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

If you’ve been pursing a goal in your personal life or career, you know that succeeding only comes with hard work and intentionality. Depending on your specific goals, success may only come after months or years of effort. You may feel tired and discouraged over how long it’s taking, and that’s natural. The journey to success is actually a process that can change you for the better if you allow it to do so.

One thing you may find true about success is that it only comes after you go through a stage of personal growth. This looks different for each person, but you may find you have to go through “growing pains” to get to where you want to be. Success doesn’t come to people who aren’t willing to adapt, change and learn along the way.

You may not even realize that what you’re experiencing is growth. It could just feel like a stressful period of time where you are flying by the seat of your pants. You may not even notice the personal growth and everything you’ve accomplished until you’re on the other side of this stage.

With personal growth comes change. When you reach a stage where you’ve met your goals or you can claim you’ve succeeded in what you set out to do, you won’t be the same person. However, the specific ways in which you’ve changed will be up to you. You can end up more adaptable, well-balanced, wiser and more determined if that’s what you choose.

If you want to succeed, you’ll end up changing in ways you can’t quite predict when you start out. It’s a long journey, but it’s worth it for both the personal growth and challenges you’ll experience as well as the more tangible rewards you’ll get when you chase your goals.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

Your value as a person has nothing to do with the job you do, the money you earn or the titles you possess. However, there are times in your career when you will have to prove your value to a potential boss or client, and it’s important to know how to communicate certain things about yourself in an attempt to make the sale. Without coming across as arrogant or rude, you have to be able to show what you’re worth.

One way you can communicate your worth is to make the soft sale. You don’t have to come in spouting off your list of personal accomplishments, but you can speak confidently when asked questions. While you don’t want to steamroll anyone, you should be able to state what you’re capable of without reservation. A big part of making a soft sale is to look people in the eye, speak clearly and carry yourself confidently.

If you want to prove how you will be valuable in a specific role, you have to know what you’re talking about. Before you go into make a sale or interview for a job, do some research. Find out what your role will be and formulate a plan for how you will leverage your skills and knowledge to accomplish specific things. You don’t have to have a job to be able to communicate how you believe you could bring value in a specific way.

Another way to prove your value is to know what you’re talking about. Be well-researched and knowledgeable. This will allow you speak confidently, and it will also communicate that you have done your due diligence. A person who is willing to educate himself or herself is someone who will provide a certain value in a business relationship.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC