Successful people are clear on their purpose in life – and they are committed to it.  They take personal responsibility for creating the successful lives and careers that they want and deserve.
As a career success coach in Denver, I’m always looking for ways to get my common sense message about career and life success across to my clients, people who read my blog and listen to my podcasts.  That’s why I was struck by a passage in Tracy Chevalier’s new book, Remarkable Creatures.  If you don’t know Tracy Chevalier, you should.  For my money she …

Commitment to taking personal responsibility for creating the successful life and career you want and deserve is one of the four keys to success in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Star Power, I Want YOU…To Succeed, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.
Commitment to taking personal responsibility is simple really.  Success is all up to you, and me, and anyone else who wants it.  All you have to do is commit to taking personal responsibility for our …

If you want to create the successful life and career that you want and deserve, you need to perform at a high level consistently.  High performance is one of the competencies in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Star Power, I Want YOU…to Succeed, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success. 
High performers manage their time, life and stress well.  They pay particular attention to their health and well being.  It’s impossible to perform at a consistently high level …

Did you watch the Super Bowl yesterday?  About 100 million people did.  The game was entertaining and fun to watch.  New Orleans won 31 – 17.  Drew Brees, the Saints quarterback was the Most Valuable Player, and he endeared himself to the country by bringing his little boy – who was wearing noise reduction headphones – on to the field and carrying him around after the game.
I bring up the Super Bowl because you can learn a lot about branding from it.  If you notice in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, big …

Self confidence is one of the four pillars of career and life success in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success; Star Power; I Want You…To Succeed, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  If you want to become interpersonally competent, you need to do three things: 1) become an optimist; 2) face your fears and act; 3) Surround yourself with positive people.
A while back in a post I did on optimism and self confidence, I mentioned a quote …

The other day, I was at a workshop and one of the speakers was clearly nervous.  He began his talk by telling the old story about the survey that asked people to name their greatest fear.  Public speaking came in first, by a large margin.  Death was fourth.  So, if you believe the results of this survey, most people would rather die than stand up and give a talk.  He was one of them.  He urged us to be kind to him because he was nervous doing this talk.
He was suffering from what is known …

Yesterday I wrote a post in which I quoted George Bernard Shaw, my favorite playwright.  I showed how his words related to two of the four pillars of my Common Sense Success System: clarity of purpose and direction, and commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and success. 
After I wrote the post, I came across a Japanese proverb…
Vision without action is a daydream.
Action without vision is a nightmare.
“Great,” I thought.  “Another twofer.”  And a twofer on the same two pillars – clarity and commitment. 
“Vision without action is a daydream” goes to the heart of …

Yesterday, I quoted George Bernard Shaw in my post.  He is one of my very favorite playwrights.  I always enjoy a production of one of his plays.  Today, I’d like to quote him again, as he makes such a great point about how important a personal clarity of purpose and direction is to your career and life success.
“This is the true joy in life; being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the …

The other day I saw a great quote from Margaret Thatcher…
“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.”
Ole’ Iron Maggie really nailed it with this one.  I like this quote because it gets at the essence of commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and career.  Commitment to personal responsibility is one of the four pillars of my Common Sense Success System.   I discuss it in several of my …

This week in Sue Shellenbarger had an interesting column in the Wall Street Journal called “Thinking Happy Thoughts at Work.”  The column focused on the application of recent research in positive psychology in the workplace. Put simply, positive psychology emphasizes building resiliency and positive attitudes instead of solving emotional problems. 
This is an approach whose time may have come.  The latest Conference Board survey shows that 45% of US workers are satisfied with their jobs, down from 52% in 2005 and 61% in 1987.  In my coaching practice, I’m finding that many people are unhappy with …