Get outside of yourself and focus on helping others.

Doesn’t it feel nice to know you’ve helped someone land a job because you offered to be their reference? You can do even more. Introduce people who you think might benefit from the connection; make yourself the sounding board of a colleague with a problem; volunteer for the company’s charitable activities.

Make it a habit to say “thank you.”

Courtesy and gratitude seem to have lost their popularity and have become very uncommon. You can revive it by simply uttering the words “thank you” or by tucking in a neat thank you note whenever and wherever appreciation is needed. It might make you uncommon; but it sure is going to make you hard to forget. By appreciating the positive side of every person and situation, you maintain your own positive state of mind; nothing can be better.

Try to be “super-dooper” honest.

It’s not always easy; and trying to apply an honesty metric gauge on what you say can be tough. But the question, “is this honest?” may prove to be simpler in the end; compared to the intricacy that one lie can weave. Truthfulness makes other people respect and trust you; but even more important, is the self-respect that you keep intact when you live in honesty and integrity.

Put your goals into writing.

Writing something down gives it form and clarity; gives it the power of being doable; and makes it not just a mere concept but something that can be made real. Achieving your goals may require time and a lot more effort along the way, but giving it a visual outline reminds you of your purpose and keeps you from deviating.

Have a contingency plan ready

Not to be morbid but have you ever asked yourself what you would do if you suddenly lost what you have now? Sure you have to be positive but having a fallback plan does not necessarily mean you are being negative. It only means you have excellent foresight. And quite frankly, it is really, really smart. So keep close watch of the state of your industry; continuously update your resume and be alert for other opportunities. Bottom line: be prepared and formulate that contingency plan.

Tags: job history in resume, new years resolutions

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 3:06 pm and is filed under Applying for a Job, Career Changes, Cover Letters, Free Advice, Job & Interview Questions, Resume, Resume Do's and Don'ts, Resume Help, Social Networking & Jobs, how to write a resume. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.