April McGinnis, Empowerment Coach

I've been doing a lot of studying about happiness, life goals, finding your purpose, and other similar topics to better help myself become a happier person and reach my goals, and to learn how to help others to do the same.  I'm taking a course from Yale called The Science of Well-being . Here's an excerpt from one of the lectures: "the more and more signature strengths you use, typically,  this awesome point around four,  the more likely it is that you call your job not a job but a calling.  And so, if you want to find a job that's a calling,  it might not be a particular thing.  It might just be finding ways to use  multiple of your signature strengths at once, which is kind of cool.  Merely using these things is kind of making you feel like that's your dream job,  which is pretty cool.  And so, that is one thing that I  think we don't think about often when we're looking through a job.  What we really want to do to get the j...

I struggled with that title thinking it may sound a little simplistic.  People seem to believe that they'll be happy "when". Their happiness is determined by some event or some accomplishment in the future. Or they may believe they'll never be happy.  What if you could be happy NOW? What is stopping you? Are you out of work? Are you stuck at home because of the pandemic? Are you feeling stuck, lonely, discouraged? Are you standing in the way of your own happiness? TRUTH: You can be happy right now.  Try the following exercise and follow this for 21 days . Trust me, it's easy and it takes very little time each day. Every morning , before you start your day, write down 3-5 things you are grateful for.  You MUST write them down. Just thinking about them is not enough. Even if you have to dig deep to find gratitude, there is always something you can find. Maybe it's as simple as waking up today. Maybe it's having a roof over your head.  There are no rules or ...

  Why is goal setting important? Narrowing your efforts towards a specific goal is essential to achieving success.  This doesn't mean you can't change your goal or your strategy. It doesn't mean you have to only have one goal! Start with a brainstorming list of all the things you'd like to do in the next 30-60-365 days. It could be fitness or heath related, reading a book, moving to a new city, learning a new skill, there is no limit to what you can write down. So, spend some time with this and make it a thorough list of 25 - 50 things or more. Now, review your list and choose the most important ones.   Choose 3-5 of your goals that are the highest priority.  Of those high priority goals, what will you set out to achieve in the next 60 days? The next 30 days? The next week? Today? By setting mid term goals. then working back, you can turn something that seems insurmountable into smaller bites! Let's say you want to walk 5km. Start with a 10 minute walk every day. ...

  Look at this photo.  How do you feel when you look at it? Can you feel this boy's excitement? Can you feel his feeling of accomplishment? Have you ever won a race or conquered something and threw your hands in the air in celebration and exhilaration? Use this exercise before an interview: 1. Say these or one of these affirmations out loud to yourself in a mirror "I've got this!" or "I'm going to ace this interview!" or "This job is mine!" 2. Now, throw your hands in the air, as if you just walked out of the interview and were offered the job on the spot at a higher salary than you expected and told you start next week. 3. Repeat your affirmation(s) with your hands in the air in the mirror. The affirmation alone helps your mindset.  The physical movement of victory strengthens the affirmation. It embeds it in my mind because you feel it in your body. Trust me, it works!  If you've tried this and you found it helped, or if you try it before...

  FACT: On average, a corporate job post receives 250 resumes It takes recruiters only six seconds to review a candidate’s resume Why are you submitting resumes but getting no response? Hiring managers and recruiters are inundated with applications and they have limited time to review the applications they receive! How do you get to the top of the list where your resume is pulled and more carefully reviewed? Perhaps more importantly, why is your resume NOT at the top of the pile? WHAT KEEPS YOU OUT OF THE RUNNING? Not answering the call of the job posting Not addressing the needs of the employer Not determining what you have to offer to that specific job/employer Not identifying yourself clearly  Focusing only on what you need and ignoring your value proposition Focusing on what is important to you and not what the employer has told you is important to them HOW TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES: Read the qualifications and the description in the job posting Research ...