Prospring Technical Staffing

By Jack Molisani, President, ProSpring Technical Staffing
I once saw a comic strip of Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson that totally described the way I used to meet deadlines:

Hobbes: Do you have an idea for your story yet?
Calvin: No, I’m waiting for inspiration. You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to wait for the right mood.
Hobbes: What mood is that?
Calvin: Last-minute panic.

While waiting until the last minute can be effective motivation, it is far more comfortable (and profitable!) to plan your projects so that you can meet deadlines without killing yourself in the process.
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That does not, however, mean you should only set small, comfortable targets. Read more »

This is a page from the book The Wealthy Spirit by Chellie Campbell, reposted with permission:

Worry

“Most people spend their lives running away from something that isn’t after them.”—Unknown

Whenever we were upset about the possibility of something bad happening, before it actually happened, Mom would smile and say, “Don’t borrow trouble. That hasn’t happened yet. If it does, we’ll figure out what to do then. Worrying about it today isn’t going to help.”

This kind of conversation was usually preceded by the phrase “What if…”: “What if I don’t get accepted by the college I want to go to?” “What if I don’t get a date for the school prom?” “What if I don’t get the part I want in the play?”

Now this is the same mother who was sick with worry if we were late getting home from our dates, but that was worry for a real event happening in the present. She didn’t waste energy being concerned about our being late days before the actual event.

Worry is a negative affirmation. When you worry, you focus all your attention on the negative, scaring yourself with pictures of disaster and failure. Worry is different from contingency planning. Certainly, you want to have a backup plan in place in case your first effort fails.

Mom had us apply to several colleges instead of just one, plan something fun to do if we didn’t go to the prom, audition for other parts in other plays. Contingency planning enables you to await outcomes with equanimity. As a successful woman business owner once said, “Plan A is always the ideal picture. But it is usually a dream bearing no relation to reality. By the time I get to Plan F, I’ve got a plan that has some chance of actually succeeding.”

I make my plans, put my dreams and goals onto paper and send out my ships. I hope they will come in. But I know I am never in charge of when they come in—or which ships come in. I am only in charge of sending them out. At that point, the winds of destiny and the hand of God take over.

Worrying about those ships won’t see them safely past the rocks and the waves. I trust that some of the ships will reach my harbor safely. God will choose which ones. And even if, at first glance, they look like leaky rowboats, they will turn out to be the right ships for me—golden galleons in disguise.

Today’s Affirmation: “All my golden galleons are arriving safely in my harbor now.”

Chellie Campbell is the creator of the Financial Stress Reduction® Workshops, and author of The Wealthy Spirit and Zero to Zillionaire. She has been prominently quoted as a financial expert in the media and more than 50 popular books. For 30 days to a Wealthy Spirit, visit www.chellie.com.

See the The Golden Rule of Social Media by DK of MediaSnackers.

This is SO true! I think most people forget that social media is there to assist COMMUNICATION. Without something to communicate, something directed from YOU to OTHERS (be it one person or thousands), then it’s not communication–it’s noise.

Once the signal-to-noise ratio falls below a certain threshold, I stop following people. And so do customers (and potential customers).

Have something to say. Then say it to ME, not the air…!

Jack Molisani
Executive Director
LavaCon 2.0: The Conference on Digital Media and Content Strategies
September 29–October 3rd, San Diego, CA
http://lavacon.org

Don’t wait for a company to post a job so you can be one of 300 people emailing a resume. Be proactive, be original, get noticed!
Read Jack Molisani’s article on Job Hunting During a Recession on our Resources page.

I received the following from Chellie Campbell’s Financial Stress Reduction® newsletter, and am reposting it here with permission.

Many people run into trouble when it comes to negotiating money. This applies to salaries, pay raises, prices of products, and fees for services.

Often fearful of asking for too much, they make the opposite mistake and ask for too little. Read more »

The most common mistake I see in resumes is having a mix of hyphens and en dashes in the resume date ranges.

There are three types of dashes in the world: Read more »

I recently asked hiring manager what “soft skills” do they look for when interviewing candidates. Here are answers from individual managers: Read more »

I recently asked hiring manager what “soft skills” do they look for when interviewing candidates. The top answers: Read more »

I recently published the following question to a Manager’s email list to which I belong: