I am always looking for interesting content for this career advice blog. Recently, Kristie Lewis who writes for a site called www.ConstructionManagementDegree.com asked if she could share her story about her career success journey. When she sent it to me, I realized that Kristie’s story is some great career advice about clarifying the purpose and direction for your life and career – the first point I make about life and career success in my new book Climbing the Corporate Ladder. Here is Kristie’s story…

Successful people follow the advice in Tweet 37 in Success Tweets. “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it. Don’t dwell on the negative, use it as a springboard to action and creativity.” In her book No Problem! How to Focus on Solutions, Elizabeth Hanley offers four tips for dealing with problems and setbacks: 1) Define the problem. 2) Own the problem. 3) See the truth in the problem. 4) Stay balanced. These are great tips for proactively taking charge of your life and career. Get the book, read it, follow Elizabeth’s career advice and you’ll be on your way to the career success you deserve.

Successful people create positive personal impact. People who create positive personal impact develop and nurture their unique personal brand. The best personal brands are authentic. Peggy Williams, the recently retired president of Ithaca College, has a unique personal brand. She doesn’t take herself too seriously. And, believe me that is a truly unique personal brand in higher education. She is true to her brand. She is authentic. If you follow Peggy’s model, you too, will create positive personal impact and be on your way to a successful life and career.

Follow the career advice in Tweet 124 in Success Tweets. “Everyone has something to offer. Never dismiss anyone out of hand. Take the initiative. Actively build relationships.” Following this career advice will help you create the life and career success you want and deserve. More important, it will lead to a richer and fuller life. When you engage people, when you expect to find them to be interesting, you will open yourself up to a world of ideas that will not only help your career success, but will also help you succeed as a person.

Successful people build and maintain a network of relationships. If you want to build solid relationships, forgive, forget and apologize. This advice is simple common sense, but it can be difficult to actually do – especially if you have a strong need to save face. My best career advice is don’t worry about face, worry about building and keeping strong relationships with the important people in your life.

Successful people are outstanding performers. Outstanding performers live a healthy lifestyle. They follow the career advice in Tweet 93 in Success Tweets. “Becoming a high performer is easier if you’re physically fit. Increasing your heart rate is a great way to improve your fitness level.” In this post, I’ve shared 100 good reasons to work out today. I’m sure at least one of them hit the mark for you. So, like the Nike ads say, Just Do It! Or as this career success coach says, “Get around to it.”

Successful people are interpersonally competent. Interpersonally competent people are good at building relationships. Thanking people when they help you is a great way to build relationships. Follow the career advice in Tweet 78 in Success Tweets. “Say ‘thank you’ often. You’ll succeed, build a strong personal brand and build a legacy of being a nice person.” Besides thanking people in person, handwritten notes are a great way of saying thank you. Handwritten thank you notes establish you as someone who cares about other people and is willing to go a little out of your way to build relationships – the hallmark of interpersonally competent people

Joseph Bernard is a friend of mine. He is a life coach – and a talented one at that. The other day, Joseph sent me an email listing 21 Audacious and Mind Expanding Personal Development Ideas. These ideas are different from the kind of information I usually post here. For that reason alone, that makes them worth posting. I urge you to check out these 21 ideas. Try a few of these ideas that appeal to you. They will help you to focus on what you are becoming.

Successful people are self-confident. Self-confident people face their fears and act. They follow the advice in Tweet 36 in Success Tweets. “Don’t be afraid to fail. You fail only if you don’t learn something from the experience. Treat every failure as an opportunity to grow.” If you don’t like my advice, how about some career advice from Pope John XXIII: “Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for you to do.” Our most common fears are failure, criticism, and rejection. Follow this career advice. Choose to find – and use – the learning opportunity in your failures and you will become more self-confident and successful. It’s sad but true – failure, criticism and rejection are often the price you pay for becoming a career success. Facing your fear of failure, criticism and rejection, and acting will pay big dividends when it comes to your life and career success.

Last week, Jason Sadler of IWearYourShirt.com wore my shirt. He was promoting my book Success Tweets which you can download for free at http://budurl.com/STExp, or on my website/blog www.BudBilanich.com. Jason compared my common sense tweets in Success Tweets with some tweets Kanye West has posted on Twitter. The result is a pretty funny little video. Check it out. And, if you like it, forward it to your friends. http://youtu.be/-UFQDjShDrQ/