When you think of what you have versus what you do not have, it may make you feel grateful or depressed. Holding onto a job you can’t stand for fear you’ll never find one that you will love, is like staying in a bad relationship because you are afraid to be alone. When you face the fear that holds you back, you have a fighting chance to rise above the chaos surrounding your career and find what you truly desire.

Like anything you own, occupy or truly possess, you career needs to be treasured like a sacred piece of land.  You just don’t stumble into your career these days, you need to claim it, seize it and by all means retain it if you want to get ahead. Staking your career claim is like venturing into uncharted terrain looking for the last piece of unclaimed land like the Land Rush of the 1800’s.  You are competing against many other hungry and at times desperate folks who are searching for the same thing and are running against the wind to beat you to the finish line.  Your career search may have you looking over your shoulder wondering who might be picking up their pace, closing in behind you.

When you are in doubt, despair, or you just plain can’t do it anymore like the song says, “There will be an answer, Let it be.”  Sometimes you just don’t know where the answer will come from but chances are, when you are at your most concerned, the answer will appear if you just “let it be.”

We all have been charged with picking up the sword to fight the good fight whether we are drawing the battle lines or not.  It’s always a good idea to have a plan in the event that you are called into action lest you be caught off guard.  This strategy applies whether you are fighting a health scare, personal loss or a change in your career.  It’s always good to know what propels you into battle before the appropriate boundaries are drawn.

The next time you feel like throwing a pity party because you are stuck in a dead-end job or still haven’t found one that you are afraid will wind up in a dead-end, stop and take a moment.  Suffering from the fear of failure or maybe even success, or worrying about what is coming next is not going to help you move forward no matter how much you tell yourself it will.  Doubt is a feeling we all struggle with especially when we are burdened with an unstable economy and a sagging job market.  Finding your way out from the middle of your own fears, no matter how scary truly is the only way to look ahead.

Living your best career not merely implies if you are lucky enough to have a job or not, but it does make you think about how you choose to spend your time in what you love vs what you do.  Making a living is vital to most all of us.  But how we manage our time and focus our attention on what we have to do as opposed to what we love to do separates you from living your best career from just working.

Sometimes you find yourself in situations where the choices are limited and you have to do what you have to do to survive.  But finding something you love in what you do, even if it’s not your primary choice, helps to guide you towards living a meaningful and fulfilling career no matter what your job title is. How you find your drive, passion, potential no matter what your job is today is key to living and finding your best career.

We all get caught up in questioning the reasons why we choose to work.  Some of us think it’s the only way to build a career and follow your life’s dream.  Others see it as a means to pay the bills, one paycheck at a time.  And others still, have the attitude, “Well, what else would I do with my time if I didn’t work!”  Do you ever stop and wonder why we “work?”  The concept of “work” is a bi-product of the Industrial Revolution where you needed to produce in order to survive.  But today, work has taken on a whole new meaning or has it?  Have we just bought into the notion that we are living in a material world and it’s the only thing we need to focus on in order to move through this lifetime?

You may think you’ve done this enough times to know what you know and how best to interview for your dream job.  Sure, practice is everything.  But sometimes you get so comfortable in our habits of how you dress or show up for a meeting, or how you prepare by maybe even carrying a lucky talisman around, that you might appear a bit “auto-tron” in your delivery.  It’s not that you are getting set in your ways, but changing it up is never a bad thing especially when you are out to impress.

When you think about the past year what are you most grateful for?  Are you grateful for the job you have or the one you expect will come?  Are you still wishing for something big and wonderful to come into your life?  Opportunities abound and the future lay bright and sunny but do you ever stop and give thanks to what you have today?