The Road to Success Newsletter

If you would like to read this issue on the web, visit http://www.asparker.com/rtscareernew.html

	June 2008 You'll Never Walk Alone* Alvah Parker is a Career Coach who works with clients who want to find work that is meaningful, satisfying, and fulfilling. Alvah is an Authorized Life Blueprint® Facilitator and uses Laura Berman Fortgang's Now What? Program that steps clients through a process to find their life purpose. Once her clients uncover their life purposes they are able to develop a plan to find work that allows them to express that purpose. * Title of a song from Carousel by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein Using song titles is just my way of expressing my love of music and musical theater. Each time I come up with a title I rediscover a song I love. Special Offer for June It's Not "Just a Job" It's Your Career - 110 Powerful Tips to Keep Your Career Moving Forward This e-book is written especially for those considering a career change or those wanting to find a new job. It contains 11 tip lists that I have written over the past 8 years along with some new comments and suggestions from me. The tips are practical and will keep you at the top of your profession. People comment that the lists are: easy to read useful to job seekers and those currently working. a great resource for now and the future. The cost of the e-book is $5.95 ($7.50 on my website). Along with the e-book you have the option of purchasing a half hour coaching session for the low introductory fee of $50. There is no option for single session coaching in my practice. This offer is for newsletter readers and website visitors only. To schedule your coaching session and to buy the e-book please send me an email at asparker@asparker.com with your name and telephone number. I'll call you to make the necessary arrangements and to answer any questions. Be sure to check other offers for Career Changers. Table of Contents- 1. Welcome 2. "June is Bustin' Out All Over" - Be Happy and Healthy. Take a Vacation! 3. "Some Say" - Quotes 4. "Good News" - What's New? Welcome Road to Success is an email newsletter written for those who want to find new ways to approach their work and personal life so that their whole life is more fulfilling and productive. I write this newsletter on topics that I find challenging in my own work-life. As Lily Tomlin says, "The road to success is always under construction." I welcome your ideas and hints too. My vision for this newsletter is that it will be a means for us to learn from each other. While I'd love it if you read every word I write, I know that you are busy, so you skim. To help you do that I plan to keep this paragraph and the one above constant. If you are skimming, just jump to paragraphs three and beyond. There have been lots of new subscribers this month. Welcome to you all! At the beginning of this year I moved my list to a new host. That entailed having everyone re-subscribe. Financially it made a lot of sense but psychologically I had to gear up for it. For one thing I knew that only about 200 of the 1300 subscribers were actually opening my email so I suspected that my list of subscribers would decrease to 200 or fewer. Today my list has 377 subscribers, almost twice what I had expected. I want you all to know how much I appreciate you! While losing 1000 subscribers by switching is upsetting, my email gets opened by around 75% of my subscribers each time. I feel really good about that because the industry average for newsletters being opened is about 20%. I'd like to continue having you read my newsletter so if there is a topic that you are interested in, please let me know. I'll do my best to address the topics you suggest. In addition if you know someone who would appreciate my newsletter, please send them a copy of this one and suggest that they subscribe. I welcome new subscribers. In this newsletter I strive to provide interesting comments on current topics and thoughtful material that is easy to read and skim. Thank you for reading Road to Success and Parker's Points. Sincerely, Alvah Parker PS Thanks to Ted Behr who after reading the June issue of Parker's Points sent in another website that has also has a job agent. As Ted points out it lists non profit jobs exclusively. Check out http://www.idealist.org/. June is Bustin' Out All Over* Be Happy and Healthy. Take a Vacation! It is summer and vacation time again. This year there is a new twist. The economy and specifically gas prices are making people reconsider vacations. Americans have always been good at putting off vacations so this year they have a built in excuse. According to an Expedia.com poll a third of all Americans do not take all their vacation days. The Bureau of Labor Statics says that one quarter of all Americans get no paid vacation! That was a surprise to me although as a business owner in a solo practice I get no paid vacation either. I have written on the topic of vacations before. You can find many of the benefits in my list of Ten Reasons Everyone Needs a Vacation A recent New York Times article by Alina Tugend entitled Vacations Are Good For You, Medically Speaking makes the point that recent studies show that vacations are necessary for good health. The article sites two different health studies (one with females and the other males) that showed a high percentage of coronary problems occur for those who do not vacation regularly. A vacation gives you time to unwind. It allows you to de-stress and relax. There is research evidence you sleep better during and after your vacation. I have always been amazed that the relaxed vacation calmness lasts for a few days after I return. By the way for those who carry cell phones to check on work back at the office on their vacation, there have been studies to show that you are less likely to receive the benefits of vacation according to the NY Times article. So if you haven't planned your vacation yet, now is the time to do it. If you are the type to check in with the office, find a place where cell phones don't work so you can truly relax. If you have young children, vacations with them can be exhausting. That is not the kind of vacation that relaxes! Young families need to take two vacations, one with the family and one for the parents alone. As a Grandmother I am always delighted to be asked to baby sit while my daughter and son-in law go on vacation. I once went to Disney World with them so they could have time with each other and I could watch the children. For my vacation this year, I will be participating in the Berkshire Choral Festival. I enjoy vacations where I do something I don't get enough of during the year. For me that is singing. I'll spend a week learning and rehearsing Carmina Burana and then with a group of other singers we will perform it on July 19^thfor an audience. If you live near Sheffield MA I'd love it if you came to hear me! Whether you like adventurous vacations, learning vacations, traveling vacations or just sit by the pool vacations, it is important to change your environment once or twice a year and just have some fun. (What is all that work for?) Where you go or what you do isn't as important as just enjoying yourself and letting go for a bit. If you haven't scheduled your vacation yet, do it today. Take Action Vacations don't have to be exotic. How many of us have gone abroad but never visited the interesting places tourists from other countries visit near our own home. Make a list of the places close by that you have always wanted to visit and plan your vacation around them. Are you an email junkie even on vacation? Start to think about ways to cut down on checking even when you are not on vacation. Make a list of ways to eliminate the need to check while you are on vacation and implement your ideas before vacation. If you are having difficulty scheduling a vacation, perhaps I can help. Here are two different lists that might help you to manage your time in such a way that you have time for a vacation. Delegating work helps you to free up your time. Here is a list on how to delegate. Managing interruptions is another way to free up your time. I hopr you find this list on managing interruptions helpful. Two years ago I took an unusual vacation workshop in Italy. Read about my experience singing in Italy! Need help managing your time so that you do have time for a vacation. I can help. Schedule a few months of coaching and we will establish your priorities, find what it takes to adhere to your priorities, and uncover lost time that you can recapture for your vacation! A song from the musical Carousel* by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein Some Say* Quotes Ernest Hemingway I still need more healthy rest in order to work at my best. My health is the main capital I have and I want to administer it intelligently. Leonardo Da Vinci Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen. Herodotus (484 BC - 430 BC), The Histories of Herodotus If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it. Ovid (43 BC - 17 AD) Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop. Morris Fishbein A good vacation is over when you begin to yearn for your work. Ellen Goodman What do I want to take home from my summer vacation? Time. The wonderful luxury of being at rest. The days when you shut down the mental machinery that keeps life on track and let life simply wander. The days when you stop planning, analyzing, thinking and just are. Summer is my period of grace. Title of a song from Once on This Island* by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty "Good News"* What's New? 1. Making Right Turns - Here is an article about UPS finding a really creative way to save time. Are there creative ways for you to save time in your job or at home? 2. Resilience - Here is link to a Wall Street Journal article on the topic of bouncing back after failure. There are lots of interesting stories of famous people who failed but kept on. Read If At First You Don't Succeed You're in Excellent Company 3. Simple ways to donate - No Money involved! - http://www.thehungersite.com/ and http://thebreastcancersite.com/ are two websites that allow you to make a donation with the click of your mouse. The hunger site donates a cup of food to the hungry each time you click. The breast cancer site donates one mammogram for each click. No money is involved here. The advertisers pay everything. All it takes is a minute to click. You are allowed to make the donation to each site once every day. 4. Change of Address - Many subscribers change email addresses during the year. I am always delighted when someone requests that I add the new address to my list. Just an additional request - since I like to keep my email list as current as I can, please send me both your old and new address so I can also remove your old address from my list as well. Send changes to asparker@asparker.com 5. Not receiving your newsletter regularly? - Many subscribers have a limited amount of email space provided to them (Yahoo, Juno etc). When you reach the limit you can no longer receive email. Another problem may be spm filters. Make sure that asparker@asparker.com appears in your address book to insure delivery. If you do not receive your copy of Road to Success* or Parker's Points one month one of these may be the reason why. I never resend the newsletter. I now publish the most current issue on my website http://www.asparker.com/rtscareernew.html * Song title from the musical Good News by Ray Henderson, B.G. Deserve, Lew Brown, Ann Morrison, Linda Michele, Michael Gruber, Wayne Bryan About Alvah Parker Alvah Parker is the Career Changers Coach. An award winning Account Executive and Sales Manager for AT&T for 15 years, Alvah has successfully coached others to define and achieve their career goals. At AT&T and now as a coach Alvah uses her knowledge of the work world to help her clients. Alvah is committed to helping her current clients find their life purpose. Once her clients know that purpose they are better able to select a career and job function that expresses that purpose. This leads to more satisfying and meaningful work experience. Alvah specializes in working with people in transition who are interested in exploring new career options. Her coaching helps her clients to get clear about their vision and then design a plan and strategy for the future based on that vision. Alvah coaches her clients over the telephone. This means she can be reached from anywhere in the world. You can reach Alvah at 781-598-0388 or asparker@asparker.com. You can find Alvah on the web at http://www.careerchangerscoach.com/ Copyright © 2008 all rights reserved. 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