By Libby Chase

I know that Jenna Bush being on NBC’s Today Show isn’t new.

However, when I saw her “covering” the Olympics last week, something snapped. And, yes, the Olympics are over, but unfortunately the layoffs in the media aren’t.

When the Today show decided to throw credentials, experience and common sense out of the window by hiring her in the first place, Jim Bell, the executive producer said, “[Bush] will contribute stories about once a month on issues like education to television’s top-rated morning news show.”

But getting to cover the Olympics is a big deal. That’s not a once-a-month education piece. A job like that takes a lifetime of hard work to get. If I were Meredith Vieira or Matt Lauer I would be pretty insulted. Hiring Jenna Bush is like saying “A monkey can do your job,” and then pretty much proving it.

I’m not the only one who thinks she’s… not great.

From USA Today, “We’re used to a little empty-headedness in the morning, but must it be contagious? Why turn four U.S. gold-medal skaters over to Jenna Bush Hager — who may be the sweetest girl on Earth, but whose TV skills don’t even rise to the level of amateurish?”

Good question.

This isn’t a rant because I didn’t like her Daddy’s politics. This is about people working their whole lives to get someplace just to be passed over because of a bad case of nepotism. At a time when journalists and reporters are being laid off left and right and news outlets are closing down, it is beyond unfair that someone with as little qualifications as Jenna Bush are picking up prime jobs.

Let’s just take a quick glance at the differences in experience: Meredith Vieira graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English from Tufts University. In 1975 she started as a news announcer for WORC radio in Worcester, Massachusetts, then moved to TV, working as a local reporter and anchor at WJAR-TV Providence. From 1979 to 1982 she was an investigative reporter at WCBS-TV in NYC.

• 1985–1989: West 57th news magazine
• 1989–1993: 60 Minutes correspondent
• 1992–1993: CBS Morning News co-anchor
• 1993–1997: Turning Point correspondent
• 1997–2006: The View moderator
• 2002–present: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
• 2006–present: Dateline NBC contributing anchor
• September 2006–present: Today co-host

Jenna Bush-Hager graduated from The University of Texas at Austin. Yeah, not quite a Tufts. But hey, she was a legacy member of Kappa Alpha Theta!!!! And, no, that’s not the smart one. She didn’t even do that on her own; her mother was a member first, paving her way. Oooh, wait, she does have media experience… her and her twin sister Barbara were both arrested for alcohol related charges—twice within five weeks.

After graduating she became a teacher. I do have a lot of respect for teachers.

Here is her entire resume:

• Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School
• Completed an internship for UNICEF’s Educational Policy Department
• Currently works as a reading coordinator at a school in Baltimore, Maryland.

Yes, she did publish two books but, come on if you’re the daughter of a President and you can’t get a book published you just haven’t tried. It isn’t the same as actually having to try and do it yourself—which is difficult. Let’s put it this way, she went on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, 20/20, and gave interviews to USA Today, The Washington Post and People magazine. In the book, the woman “Ana” was born with HIV, she had a hard life, raped, beaten, forced to live in a detention center and then she gets pregnant. Yes, it’s an interesting story and she did give her profits to UNICEF but there are lots of smart, strong women out there writing great, important books. And guess what? They don’t get asked to be on 20/20 or the Ellen DeGeneres show.

At least the Publisher’s Weekly review was honest, “It’s not a bad book, although I doubt it would be noticed, much less published, were it not for its White House author.”

The reviewer goes on to point out that, “Inspired by Ana’s resilience, Jenna hopes to motivate young readers to volunteer to help causes like Ana’s; in an appendix, she suggests canned-food drives, becoming a pen pal, tutoring, raising money for UNICEF. (Among dozens of ideas, writing to Congress or the White House does not figure.)

“So being a pen pal is more important than attempting to make policy change? Or does she just realize what the rest of us naively hope isn’t true, that neither the Congress nor the White House really listens.

“So white Jenna is suggesting we become “pen pals” her father “refused to fund UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, which promotes family planning (abortions are excluded), prevention of AIDS and HIV, reproductive health, safe motherhood and gender equality in access to education. The United States helped found UNFPA almost 40 years ago. But in 2002, the Bush administration claimed that UNFPA funded coercive abortions in China, and despite an investigation by the State Department that refuted the allegation that same year, and despite bipartisan protest, President Bush has since withheld a total of $195 million allocated by Congress to UNFPA. (To put this in context, 180 countries contributed last year, led by the Netherlands, which gave more than $75 million.) ”

 Jenna did nothing. She actually could have made a difference, she had a spotlight, she could have done something important and she failed. And the media that applauded her “passion” should have called her out for not really doing a damn thing.

Libby Chase is frustrated her more qualified friends are losing their jobs.

Or, if possible, avoid places where there are no jobs.  If you find yourself unemployed, or if you are going to be graduating college this semester during a time of high unemployment, you may want to review this map. This map shows unemployment rates by county and is courtesy of The Washington Post. You can use this map to see how your county has fared over the past few years, it may be able to give you a good indication of what is happening in the area in which you live, and the direction your county is moving. For example: if unemployment has steadily increased in your county more than other counties, why? Are jobs leaving your area? Have taxes for new businesses increased to the point of making it inhospitable? Has your county’s major industry failed? Take Michigan, it has the highest state-wide unemployment–14.1 percent. You can look at that and the state of the automobile industry and realize that Michigan is probably not a good place to move. If you are planning on moving, use the map to see which areas have jobs now and which have consistently been improving.

Before you move, you should also look at the possible structural unemployment. This means that there is a discrepency between the available jobs and the skill set of the workers. If you have gone to nursing school and have sufficient training in that area then you should do well in a place where there are a lot of hospitals and not a lot of nursing schools. It sounds obvious but go where you are needed and you will have a much easier time finding a job. You can get a definition of structural unemployment and then read more about it.

However, moving is much easeir said then done, considering that most unemployed and/or young people do not have money to move. If you are going to spend the money to move then you want to be sure that jobs are going to continue to be available.

Seth Godin is a well-respected author, marketing guru, and successful blogger. Each day I take the time to read his marketing blog and when I find something interesting I like to pass it on. Today’s post, “The Lessons from the Two Lemonade Stands,” is a great read. It brings up important questions: How much passion do you have for what you do? Is it conveyed to your customers? And, the most important question: What kind of entrepreneur do you want to be?

Put Your Best Face Forward

1. Lead by Example
Older workers may be skeptical of your abilities, not just because of your age, but also because you, or they, are new to the position. The fastest way to win them over is to walk your talk. If you expect them to be on time, then you should be early. If you want them to listen to your ideas, then listen to theirs. Employees follow based on how you lead them.

2. Understand Your Employees

Learn what different generations value and give it to them. Here’s a snapshot: Gen X, born 1965-1976, is naturally skeptical. These employees want you to prove yourself as a manager. Baby boomers, born 1946-1964, prize work ethic, which they measure in hours worked per week. Matures, born pre-1946, are dedicated, loyal and want to fit in rather than stand out.

3. Dress the Part

This is particularly tough for Gen Y, born 1977-1995. I like my flip-flops and tattered jeans as much as the next Gen Y-er, but attire sends a message. The more conservatively you dress, the older most people assume you to be. Consider making this an advantage.

[Jason Ryan Dorsey, 30, speaks to national audiences about Gen Y, and is the author of My Reality Check Bounced!]

Set the Stage

1. Seek Input

Older employees learned that seniority comes with age, so answering to a younger boss goes against that model. A more collaborative manager-employee relationship is key. You still need to assert yourself as a leader, but be open to learning. Ask for input. Questions like “What do you think?” and “Could you give me some feedback?” demonstrate that you respect other opinions and experiences.

2. Be Interested

Treat your employee like a person, not a subordinate. If you show a genuine interest and respect about their workplace priorities, preferences and values, your employees will be more motivated and accepting of you. Look at the expectations of your employee’s generation, and offer feedback and support in a way that best suits him or her. Give each person the same consideration you would hope to receive.

3. Be Organized

When it comes to any type of training or new procedures, be organized. Give specific feedback, set clear expectations, and make sure your older employees feel like a member of the team rather than an outsider to the younger generation in your workplace.

[Christine Hassler, 32, is a life coach, speaker and the author of 20 Something 20 Everything and The 20 Something Manifesto.]

Stay Positive

1. Encourage Your Employees

Organizations tend to underemphasize the professional development of older employees. Show that you genuinely care by doing the opposite. Rather than treating employees like they have one foot out the door, encourage them to attend training courses and master new skills and technologies. Don’t take stock in generational stereotypes that dictate what older employees should and shouldn’t be able to do.

2. Delegate Tasks

Make assignments based on your employees’ knowledge, skills and desires. Clearly state the requirements of the project, explain why it’s important, suggest resources and outline next steps. But allow them to go about their tasks with the substantial freedom that their expertise warrants. You can offer direction and a supportive ear, but never micromanage.

3. Watch Your Language

When delivering criticism, soften your language by following a positive statement about performance with “and” instead of “but.” Example: “You did an excellent job designing the booth giveaways, and next time it would be helpful if you could look for a vendor that would allow us to stay in budget.”

[Alexandra Levit, 32, is the author of How’d You Score That Gig?: A Guide to the Coolest Careers — and How to Get Them.]

USAA, a diversified financial services group of companies, is among the leading providers of financial planning, insurance, investments, and banking products to members of the U.S. military and their families. For the past three years, BusinessWeek magazine ranked USAA among the top two “Customer Service Champs,” highlighting our legendary commitment of providing highly competitive financial products for approximately 7 million members. For more information about USAA, or to learn more about membership, visit usaa.com.

President Obama announced a December jobs summit today. The job summit will bring together financial experts, economists, business leaders, small business owners, and representatives from labor unions and nonprofits.

The Labor Department just reported another 502,000 new jobless claims. Microsoft announced it’s dropping 800 jobs, and video game maker Electronic Arts is laying off 1500. But, most importantly, the unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent, the highest since World War II. That makes nearly 16 million people unemployed. 190,000 jobs were lost in October alone.

TechCrunch is keeping an eye on layoffs: http://www.techcrunch.com/layoffs

If you are looking for work, temporary employment might be the way to go. Companies are more likely to hire temps right now and temporary employment grew by 33,700 jobs. Unemployment benefits have been extended for another 20 weeks. But experts worry we could be in a “jobless recovery.”

What is a Jobless Recovery?

From Wikipedia, “A jobless recovery or jobless growth is a phrase used by economists to describe the recovery from a recession which does not produce strong growth in employment. The phrase originated in the early 1990s in the United States, to describe the economic recovery at the end of President George H.W. Bush’s term; it came back into use during the early 2000s.”

Here’s what it really means to us right now:
We’ve spent trillions of dollars bailing out big corporations and banks. This is taxpayer’s money. So far, the majority of our money has gone to help the richest companies, and very little has gone to job creation.
Wall Street is recovering, but Main Street? Not so much. It means that if you’re out of work, you’re probably also out of luck.

What do you think of a jobless recovery?

By Audra D.S. Burch
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)

MIAMI — Music video director Gil Green is in a dank, bombed-out warehouse, surrounded by what might seem like the predictable panorama of stock hip-hop imagery: especially fine women, a six-figure ride and a couple of iced-out rappers.

Yet Green — who has become one of the decade’s definitive directors of hip-hop and dancehall — delivers cinematic videos that manage to be real and socially responsible. More raw storytelling than hyperbole, Green’s visual interpretation of rapper Black Dada’s remix single “Imma Zoe” is a finely woven urban narrative of a Haitian boy’s journey to the United States. Like his other three-minute productions, Green hopes his refreshing narrative vision will give more texture to the way popular music is experienced.

“There’s a way to think and step out of the box and interpret the music in a positive way,” Green, 34, offers the next morning at a Fat Joe video shoot hours before he heads to Shanghai to work with rockers Linkin Park.

“I work hard to transcend the stereotypes.”

And not just in music videos. As dozens of crew members work to tame the typical madness of a video shoot, the easy-going Green sits on a nearby picnic bench discussing his first film effort — a coming-of-age story about four teenagers who grow up in Miami.

“I am a narrative-driven director,” Green says. “I feel like if I can capture people’s attention for three minutes, that’s great. If I can do it for 90 minutes, that’s even better,” he says, struggling to be heard over the buzz of cicadas delivering their own kind of soundtrack. “I really want to do a film that after people see it, and the credits are rolling, they are reflecting on their own life or the larger society.”

Over the last dozen years as hip-hop expanded its reign over popular culture, Green had built a respectable career working in the music industry bookends of New York and Los Angeles before his recent return to South Florida because of a family illness. He has worked in almost every genre from hip-hop and reggae to pop and rock; his videos rotate heavily on those arbiters of popular music, MTV and BET. Among the artists on his roster: Akon, DJ Khaled, John Legend, Sean Kingston, Natasha Bedingfield, Lil Wayne.

Green considers his videos — many produced on location in South Florida — to be artistic compositions of resonant images, metaphors and stylized moments. “Three-minute movies shot over two days,” he says.

He has directed more than 100 videos and has declined proposals for dozens more because of the slangin’-and-bangin’ lyrics that celebrate the music’s ugliest angles. He has won a handful of MTV and BET honors and is behind some of the popular And 1 commercials.

“Gil can create the craziest images that seem to come out of nowhere. He explains it, but you cannot see it until you see it through his eyes,” says Black Dada, a Haitian-born rapper now living in Fort Lauderdale.

In 2003, Green won Best Music Video from the Source Awards for Lil Jon’s “I Don’t Give A,” a chaotic club banger that showcases the power of Southern-flavored crunk. The next year, he was nominated for the MTV Music Video Award for Elephant Man’s” Pon Di River” and was named Top Music Video Director in the Source’s Power 30 Edition. He won the 2008 MTV Video Music Award for Best Hip Hop video for Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop.”

Just as Green began working toward writing and directing feature-length films, he returned to South Florida with his wife, a special-education teacher, so he could spend more time with his parents. The couple has a 5-month-old daughter.

“It’s good to put my footprint in all three cities,” Green says. “Now it feels good to be back home in Miami, which has become a great melting pot for music. I feel like I am coming full circle.”

The son of a freelance tour guide and a regional food-product manager, Green grew up as Miami was forging its hip-hop identity, its tapestry of bass, New York rap, dancehall and reggae. He was born before Luther Campbell and 2 Live Crew put Miami on the map and was just starting out when the second generation of Miami rappers — Trick Daddy, Trina, Pit Bull, Rick Ross, Flo Rida — went national.

Green was baptized in the music first as a breakdancer at Henry S. West Laboratory School in Coral Gables and a freestyle rapper at South Miami Middle School. By the time he was a student at Coral Gables, he was a house-party DJ, peddling mix tapes and spending free time hanging at reggae sound clashes in the warehouses of Perrine. Even then, he saw the world in visual terms and turned in video presentations as his book reports.

“I think he related to me because I was one of those wild and crazy teachers who taught outside of the box,” says Diane Machado, who taught Green philosophy in Gables High’s International Baccalaureate Program. “I would burst into the classroom and say ‘Showtime!’ and he would be the one to say, ‘Let’s roll!’ ”

Machado has exposed hundreds of students to the art of thinking big and absorbing more, but Green, she says, stood apart for qualities beyond his 6-foot-4 frame, his charm, his curious blend of good guy and b-boy ways.

“Gil was never hesitant about anything.” Machado says. “From the beginning, he was ready to take off. He just needed a launching pad. He had a decided rhythm about his writing, and he was creative. You knew he was meant to do something.”

That he was a white guy fully immersed in what small thinkers would call a black world was beside the point.

“Gil is absolutely comfortable in his own skin and knows his own mind. He is one of those people who can cross so-called boundaries and do it authentically,” Machado says. “He doesn’t wear strait jackets.”

For his thesis project at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Green borrowed $5,000 and sold his car to produce a music video for his Miami rap duo Backlive, which included Andre Grant, his friend since second grade.

That 1998 video for the single, “1000 MCs,” a surprising hit, went into regular rotation on Yo! MTV Raps and BET’s Rap City and launched Green’s career.

While in college, Green worked as a production assistant, putting in endless hours to absorb the fundamentals of video — angles, pace, mood, lighting, story telling. He graduated in 1998.

When he got his first directing gig a year later, Trick Daddy’s “America,” he easily could have succumbed to hip-hop’s often one-dimensional, hypersexual, get-money repertoire. But here’s the thing: Green is the antithesis of the stereotype. He doesn’t drink, get high and rarely, if ever, curses.

So he shot for more, keeping it real but not “too” real.

Green flirts with the danger but doesn’t always indulge it. His videos are frenzied, sleek, gritty, sensual and authentically urban. There’s no shortage of eye candy, but there also are meaningful social themes: The Trick Daddy video, using the American flag as a backdrop, challenges the notion of equality for all groups. The video for Frankie J’s “Daddy’s Little Girl” showcases the intensity of the father-daughter bond.

“Of course we have pretty women and fly cars in the videos, but the idea here is not to exploit them,” Green says. “The video should be a reflection of the music in some way, but it’s a matter of striking a balance. The steady stream of exploitation has tainted hip-hop and the American culture.”

Meaning those on the frontlines have to commit to something better.

“Music is often a reflection of the culture or a particular segment of society,” says Shelton Berg, dean of University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. “Hip-hop has been around 30 years and permeated a much bigger segment of society. Now, videos have the opportunity to be recast, to tell a bigger story.”

Which is precisely the thinking that drives Green’s move to movies.

He started working on the project several years ago, casually jotting down the most poignant memories of his childhood. The themes were familiar: family, dreams, struggles, love, love lost.

“It’s about stuff I have seen growing up in Miami,” he says coyly. “It takes place through the perspectives of various kids from the many ethnic groups that make up Miami.”

The movie is just as much about Green’s next chapter as it is about his home town.

“I had spent all this time thinking about what my legacy would be,” he says. “I kept going back to how could I make the world more positive.”
———
(c) 2009, The Miami Herald.
Visit The Miami Herald Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.herald.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
—————

By Sharon Pian Chan
The Seattle Times
(MCT)

SEATTLE — The same day Microsoft reported some of its worst financial results, a dozen buses left the Redmond campus. During rush hour, they headed toward Highway 520 as a phalanx of cops on motorcycles shut down the onramps ahead, clearing the path to the Pacific Science Center.

Microsoft had rented the museum for a private party and a screening of the new “Harry Potter” movie. After the screening, about 600 attendees received a free Xbox 360 video-game console.

The recipients of this VIP treatment? Microsoft’s summer interns.

“You feel like royalty to be escorted by police,” said Joriz De Guzman, a 19-year-old intern working toward his master’s degree in business administration at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

In a year when Microsoft cut nearly 5,000 jobs, the company continues to lavish money on its internship program, bringing about 1,000 college and graduate students from across the country to the Redmond campus for the summer.

The goal, the company says, is to recruit future employees and to turn the interns into walking billboards for Microsoft back at school, chanting “Microsoft gave me an Xbox” or “I went to a barbecue at Bill Gates’ house.”

“We want to cultivate a pipeline of really, really strong employment candidates,” said Kerry Olin, general manager for university recruiting.

“Objective No. 2 is to create the kind of experience and window into Microsoft that sends them back — whether they get offers or not — as people who can be advocates for Microsoft.”

The Gates barbecue, a tradition for many years, is gone now that he no longer works full time at Microsoft. CEO Steve Ballmer instead does a Q&A session with the interns, and pizza with the MBA interns.

Olin said the company added the Pacific Science Center trip to replace the Gates house party.

Last year, the U.N.-like motorcade ended at Woodland Park Zoo, where Ben Folds and Vampire Weekend gave a private concert. Free Zunes for everybody capped off the event.

The summer of intern fun is not unusual at tech companies, which compete to hire top college graduates. Google, which brings in hundreds of interns each year, puts interns into “cohorts,” small groups that bond over weekly rock climbing and paintballing outings. All the Google interns in Mountain View, Calif., went on a boat cruise.

Besides meeting with Ballmer, Microsoft interns attend presentations by division presidents. And Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows division, hosted a model-rocket launch at a park with the Windows group interns to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing.

The benefits are one draw, interns said, as is the chance to do real work.

“It’s not your average make-coffee-and-copies-for-us internship,” said Ederlyn Lacson, a linguistics major from the University of Maryland at College Park. “People are working on products that have (shipped) or will ship.”

Lacson, at Safeco Field for an intern trip to a Seattle Mariners game, is working in the natural-language group on Microsoft’s spellchecker. She said she is weighing the possibility of coming back or working for the CIA or the National Security Agency.
De Guzman is working on compiling best practices for digital marketing for Microsoft’s Project software.

“One thing that really drew me was the (chance to have a) product-manager role, to become the CEO of this thing and drive all the decisions,” he said.

Interns get mentors and performance reviews. Microsoft offers full-time jobs to 85 percent of the interns, and more than 80 percent accept.

Olin said the company had about 20 percent fewer interns this summer than in previous years, reflecting the reduction in Microsoft’s overall work force.

Microsoft declined to give exact salary numbers; Olin said interns make about 80 percent of a starting full-time employee. That comes to about $4,600 to $6,000 a month, based on pay of entry-level software engineers.

They also receive a housing stipend and relocation costs for the summer.

Plus, there’s the baseball game, weekend outings to sky-dive and paraglide, and to balance everything out, a “Day of Caring” where the interns volunteer on projects with organizations such as Northwest Harvest and Earthcorp.

“The investment the company makes in a program like this is staggering,” Olin said.

As for the Pacific Science Center shindig, he said, “It’s actually a fairly low-budget effort because of our relationships with the studios and that kind of thing.” He said the police escort “is a nice story for the students. The truth of the matter is we just try to cooperate with the police when we’re trying to move a dozen buses across town at rush hour.”

(A State Patrol spokesman said police escorts are contracted privately and paid for by the person or company that hires them.)

The free Xboxes are an investment, too, Olin said. “We also get some of our technology on campuses in the hands of thought leaders.
“There was a Head & Shoulders commercial that ran in the 1980s, and commercial’s tag was, ‘You never get a (second) chance to make a first impression.’ That’s a pretty good truism for our internship program.”
———
JUST A FEW OF THE PERKS
—XBox console
—Housing stipend
—Competitive salary, estimated at $4,600 to $6,000 a month
—Relocation costs
—Mentors
—Sky diving
—Paragliding
—Private party at Pacific Science Center and screening of new “Harry Potter” movie
—”Intern Day of Caring,” a day of volunteering
—Puzzle day, 8 hours of 1,000 Microsoft employees working on logic puzzles
—Mount Rainier hike
—Dinner at Farestart
—Seattle Mariners game
———
(c) 2009, The Seattle Times.
Visit The Seattle Times Extra on the World Wide Web at http://www.seattletimes.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
—————

Fall is definitely here with cooler temps and leaves quickly falling from trees. Fall is the season of change and it has a lot of my clients thinking about the changes they want to make in their lives. The best way to truly implement positive changes in your career and personal life is by creating goals that are suitable, manageable, and meaningful to who you are and where you want to go.

Yes, it sounds like common sense, but the hard part is the time and planning required in achieving a goal. It also helps to have partners who guide and encourage you to stay on course. That’s why I am offering group coaching programs that focus on making and achieving your goals. I have two distinct six week group coaching programs.

If you are an entrepreneur who is building a new business, my Entrepreneur in Action group is an ideal way to create goals, share ideas, and get encouragement from other entrepreneurs. The group is limited to six participants and includes a one hour group coaching call and private online forum. Participants will get one on one coaching during the group coaching call throughout the six week group class.

I also offer a group goal setting class that is geared towards individuals who want a system for achieving goals. The group is limited to six participants and includes a one hour group coaching call. Participants will get one on one coaching during the group coaching call throughout the six week group class.  

The accountability factor is what makes these goal setting groups so successful. If you are serious about making your goals a reality, these groups are a perfect setting to develop plans and be supported by a positive people. If you are interested in information or signing up for these groups, please visit http://www.corelifedesign.com/ or e-mail Laura@corelifedesign.com

Laura Tirello is a Certified Career and Life Coach who helps her clients learn how to use their unique working style to become more productive and creative in their career and personal life. She helps her clients develop strategies for success by realizing their strengths and individual potential. To learn more about her business, visit www.corelifedesign.com or contact her at Laura@corelifedesign.com
 Enter to win a free life coach session.

Q: When it is time to take an exam, I get very tense and try to prepare myself by studying for hours on end. When I take the exam I still feel tense and don’t always perform as well as I would like to. Do you have any suggestions?

A: When we overwhelm ourselves we never perform to our best potential. I would suggest blocking out smaller time periods for the concentrated studying. Maybe block out an hour or two in your schedule to focus on your studies. Then create some activities that you enjoy after you study. Physical activity releases stress and boosts your energy. You could also go to a movie to get your mind off of the intensity of preparing for the exam. Keep in mind your fun activities should be in small blocks as well. Repeat this process a few times throughout the day and see what the results are for you.

Alternating between small blocks of studying and small blocks of enjoyable activities will reduce your stress level and help your focus. Why? Your mind won’t be wondering to things you want do because you’ve allowed yourself to do them! It does take some discipline to keep to this schedule, but it will create a healthier balance which may allow you to perform at your best during exam time.

Do you have a question for Laura? Email her at:Laura@corelifedesign.com

Laura Tirello is a Life and Career Coach.  Her company, Core Life Design, works with people who are looking to find their highest potential both in their careers and personal lives. She helps her clients develop a life plan for success and create a balanced life. For more information about Laura and her life coaching business, visit corelifedesign.com or email Laura at Laura@corelifedesign.com.

Beginning in early childhood, we are told to be ourselves. It’s the solution for everything from meeting new friends to getting a job. The ironic thing is that very few of us are actually being ourselves. A large portion of people in the United States are all about keeping up with the Jones’. Simply look at the mortgage crisis and bankruptcy rates—many people wallow in debt just to seem like they have what everyone else has. Our children compete to get the same grades, get into the same schools, and get the same jobs. We have been good little students, following others for so long that we have forgotten what we already have learned and know as unique individuals.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of listening to Michele Woodward, Master Certified Coach and owner of Life Frame Works, talk about this very concept. She was discussing how some of us tend to get into the role of seekers and are hesitant to take the step to accepting what we already know. As a seeker, we grasp for more knowledge, more accreditations, and more titles to show that we know our field. By doing this we often fall into the trap of imitating the moves of the successful people who have become before us. And though this may work to a certain degree, you can’t move fully ahead into success if you are waiting for the next accolade. People are looking to follow a leader, not a seeker. Woodward said once we accept where we are and what we have to offer; that is when a true shift happens in our business, careers, and life endeavors. She mentioned the phrase “Be Your Own Buddha”, meaning: follow your own path.

When starting a business or a new career, remember to stay clear of idol worship. Those who precede you may offer a lot of guidance, but you need to be clear about your own knowledge, worth, and individuality. This puts you on solid ground. Everyone is seeking something, but they want to see leadership in others; a distinction between seeing the value in others’ work and just blindly following it.

Once I looked at the world from this seeker vs. accepter viewpoint, I could see how it played out all around us. Most recently it made me think of Michael Jackson. Though he may have been wildly eccentric at times, he really did become his own Buddha. As the youngest in his family he could have followed his older siblings and molded himself solely in their image. But, through his gift and desire to achieve, he stood out. When his producers tried to tell him how to make an instant hit, he resisted those ideas and created a style of music and video that changed the world. He began to follow his own way, a path that led to a worldwide following.

In a clip shown on TV after he passed away, I heard him say that “the problem with artists is that they try to make the art happen. That’s not the way it is, the art happens on its own, but you have to be there and open to it when it comes.” So while others were seeking, he had the confidence to know that when it came he would know exactly what to do with it.

This technique doesn’t just work with rock stars; it works with anyone who becomes clear about their knowledge. I was coaching a client last week—there are times when you just know where a client needs to go to find the greatest relief and breakthrough. Sometimes it may not be the most comfortable place as a coach because the technique may not be your preferred method. But as a coach, it’s not about you it’s about them. When I was faced with this situation and could clearly see what a client needed, I knew I had to be my own Buddha and use the knowledge I already had to maneuver though this particular method. I had to free myself from how I thought it should be done or my perception of the right way. By freeing myself, I became my own Buddha and this gave my client the space to create her own path. In the end, she came to a great place of enlightenment. Had I just followed the prescribed version of the technique or fell back on how someone else might have done it, I would have lost the client in the process and in turn she may not have found relief.

Start looking at how you are approaching your career and life endeavors. Are you being your own Buddha and celebrating the wealth of knowledge that you already have?

Do you have a question for Laura? Email her at:Laura@corelifedesign.com

Laura Tirello is a Life and Career Coach.  Her company, Core Life Design, works with people who are looking to find their highest potential both in their careers and personal lives. She helps her clients develop a life plan for success and create a balanced life. For more information about Laura and her life coaching business, visit corelifedesign.com or email Laura at Laura@corelifedesign.com.