Thursday, October 29, 2009

Sweet are the uses of adversity

“Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like a toad, though ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in its head.”


When adversity strikes, we tend to be cowed down by the overwhelming circumstances. It is during these tough times that the tough get going. And mental toughness is about accepting reality, analysing facts, realising achievable changes and above all, it is about keeping a sustained positive attitude towards life.

Here’s a story.

A son and his father were walking on the mountains.
Suddenly, the son fell, hurt himself and screamed: "Aaahhhhh!!!"
To his surprise, he heard a voice repeating, somewhere in the mountain: "Aaahhhhh!!!"
Curious, he yelled: "Who are you?"
He received the answer: "Who are you?"
Angered at the response, he screamed: "Coward!"
He received the response: "Coward!"
The son looked to his father and asked: "What's going on?"
The father smiled and said: "My son, pay attention."
And the father he screamed to the mountain: "I admire you!"
The voice answered: "I admire you!"
Again the man screamed: "You are a champion!"
The voice answered: "You are a champion!"
The boy wassurprised, but did not understand.
Then the father explained: "People call this ECHO, but really this is LIFE. It gives you back everything you say or do. Our life is simply a reflection of our actions. If you want more love in the world, create more love in your heart. If you want more competence in your team, improve your competence. This relationship applies to everything, in all aspects of life; Life will give you back everything you have given to it. Your life is not a coincidence. It's a reflection of you! ”


The power of positive thinking is enormous. You thoughts influence how you react with your environment. If you think negatively, you will act negatively and the environmental response will be negative. This will further reinforce your negative thinking, and over a period of time you will be engulfed in the spiral of negativity and failure. Positive thinking will make you act positive, and the probability of positive results will be higher. One positive result and you will be acting towards achieving more such results. This is an upward spiral that will lift you heights of success.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Reasons the world will end in 2012.

Don’t know whether its true or not, but just thout of sharing it to you. 7 reasons the world will end in 2012.

Scientific experts from around the world are genuinely predicting that three years from now, all life on Earth could well finish. Some are saying it’ll be humans that set it off. Others believe that a natural phenomenon will be the cause. And the religious folks are saying it’ll be God himself who presses the stop button…

1. Maya Calendar



The first mob to predict 2012 as the end of the world were the Mayans, a bloodthirsty race that were good at two things:

Building highly accurate astrological equipment out of stone and
Sacrificing Virgins.

Thousands of years ago they managed to calculate the length of the lunar moon as 329.53020 days, only 34 seconds out. The Mayan calendar predicts that the Earth will end on December 21, 2012. Given that they were pretty close to the mark with the lunar cycle, it’s likely they’ve got the end of the world right as well.

2. Sun Storms


Solar experts from around the world monitoring the sun have made a startling discovery: our sun is in a bit of strife. The energy output of the sun is, like most things in nature, cyclic, and it’s supposed to be in the middle of a period of relative stability. However, recent solar storms have been bombarding the Earth with so much radiation energy, it’s been knocking out power grids and destroying satellites. This activity is predicted to get worse, and calculations suggest it’ll reach its deadly peak sometime in 2012.

3. The Atom Smasher


Scientists in Europe have been building the world’s largest particle accelerator. Basically its a 27km tunnel designed to smash atoms together to find out what makes the Universe tick. However, the mega-gadget has caused serious concern, with some scientists suggesting that it’s probably even a bad idea to turn it on in the first place. They’re predicting all manner of deadly results, including mini black holes. So when this machine is fired up for its first serious experiment in 2012, the world could be crushed into a super-dense blob the size of a basketball.

4. The Bible says…


If having scientists warning us about the end of the world isn’t bad enough, religious folks are getting in on the act as well. Interpretations of the Christian Bible reveal that the date for Armageddon, the final battle between Good an Evil, has been set down for 2012. The I Ching, also known as the Chinese book of Changes, says the same thing, as do various sections of the Hindu teachings.

5. Super Volcano

Yellowstone National Park in the United States is famous for its thermal springs and Old Faithful geyser. The reason for this is simple – it’s sitting on top of the world’s biggest volcano, and geological experts are beginning to get nervous sweats. The Yellowstone volcano has a pattern of erupting every 650,000 years or so, and we’re many years overdue for an explosion that will fill the atmosphere with ash, blocking the sun and plunging the Earth into a frozen winter that could last up to 15,000 years. The pressure under the Yellowstone is building steadily, and geologists have set 2012 as a likely date for the big bang.

6. The Physicists


This one’s case of bog-simple maths mathematics. Physicists at Berekely Uni have been crunching the numbers. and they’ve determined that the Earth is well overdue for a major catastrophic event. Even worse, they’re claiming their calculations prove, that we’re all going to die, very soon – while also saying their prediction comes with a certainty of 99 percent- and 2012 just happens to be the best guess as to when it occurs.

7. Slip-Slop-Slap- BANG!

We all know the Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that sheilds us from most of the sun’s radiation. What you might not know is that the magnetic poles we call north and south have a nasty habit of swapping places every 750,000 years or so – and right now we’re about 30,000 years overdue. Scientists have noted that the poles are drifting apart roughly 20-30kms each year, much faster than ever before, which points to a pole-shift being right around the corner. While the pole shift is underway, the magnetic field is disrupted and will eventually disappear, sometimes for up to 100 years. The result is enough UV outdoors to crisp your skin in seconds, killing everything it touches.

Everything happens for a good reason!...Destiny Exist...

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there…to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help figure out who you are or who you want to become. You never know who these people may be but you lock eyes with them, you know that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way.
people come into your life

people come into your life


And sometimes things happen to you at the time that may seem horrible, painful and unfair, but in reflection you realize that without overcoming those obstacles you would never realize your potential, strength, will power or heart.

sometimes things happen to you

sometimes things happen to you

Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of luck. Illness, love, lost moments of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test limits of your soul.
Everything happens for a reason

Everything happens for a reason

Without these small tests, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere safe and comfortable but dull and utterly pointless.

The people you meet affect your life. The successes and downfalls that you experience can create whom you are, and the bad experiences can be learned from. In fact they are probably the most poignant and important ones. If someone hurts you, betrays you or breaks your heart, forgive them because they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to whom you open your heart.
people you meet affect your life

people you meet affect your life

If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but also because they are teaching you to love and open your heart and eyes to little things. Make every day count. Appreciate everything that you possibly can, for you may never experience it again.
someone loves you

someone loves you

Talk to people whom you have never talked to before, and actually listen. Let yourself fall in love, break free and set your sights high. Hold you head up because you have every right to.

Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will believe in you. Create you own life and then go out and live it.
Talk to people whom you have never talked to

Talk to people whom you have never talked to
“If you take your eyes off your goals, all you see is obstacles.”

The Mysterious Thing Called LOVE.



If you find yourself in love with someone
who does not love you, be gentle with yourself.
There is nothing wrong with you. Love just didn’t choose
to rest in the other person’s heart.

If you find someone else in love with you and
you don’t love him/her, feel honored that love came and
called at your door, but gently refuse the gift you cannot return, do
not take advantage, do not cause pain.

How you deal with love is how you deal with you,
and all our hearts feel the same pains and joys, even
if our lives and ways are different.

If you fall in love with another, and he/she falls in
love with you, and then love chooses to leave, do not try
to reclaim it or to assess blame, let it go.

There is a reason and there is a meaning.
You will know in time .

Give it back to the person who brought it alive in you.
Give it to others who deem it poor in spirit.
Give it to the world around you in anyway you can.

There is where many lovers go wrong.
Having been so long without love, they understand
love only as a need.

They see their hearts as empty places
that will be filled by love, and they begin to look at love as something
that flows to them rather than from them.

The first blush of new love is filled to overflowing,
but as their love cools, they revert to seeing their love as need.

They cease to be someone who generates love and instead become someone
who seeks love.

They forget that the secret of love is
that it is a gift, and that it can be made to grow only by giving it away.

Remember this, and keep it to your heart. Love has
its own time, its own seasons, and its own reason for
coming and going.

You cannot bribe it or coerce it, or reason
it into saying. You can only embrace it when it arrives and give it
away when it comes to you.

But if it chooses to leave from your
heart or from the heart of your lover, there is nothing you can do
and there is nothing you should do.

Love has always been and will always be a mystery.

Be glad that it came to live for a moment in your life.

Monday, October 26, 2009

10 Ideas to deal with Difficult Situations in Life

Many times we have to deal with difficult people in our workplace or even in family. Conflict ions in mind always occur between people. Views on same situation differ from person to person. We are humans and we have emotions and ego. When something like this occurs, it bothers everyone. How you handle those people who oppose your ideas? How you deal with them to maintain peace and

Here are some 10 ideas to Deal with Difficult People and situations:

1. Wait before responding: The opposing situations or incidents can make you emotionally charged and during this condition your response will only add oil to the fire. Although the opposing person triggers a response from your side but just wait to cool yourself and think before going. When we react instantly without thinking, we are actually giving them what they want. Avoid it.

2. Ask yourself:
Before responding to any situation, ask yourself two questions, “what is the worst thing that can result If I do not respond?“ and “what is the worst thing that can result If I do respond?” You will view the whole scenario in the answers of these two questions and find that nothing good will come out of reacting. It will create nuisance and a total waste of energy.

3. Forgive: Forgiveness is the biggest solution. When you forgive the concerned person, you will find that the situation is over and the chapter of hatred is finished in your mind. Life becomes again on an easy going way.

4. Avoid talking about it: People used to keep talking about your conflicting situations of life and you have to repeat the story again and again in front of all expressing your hatred towards that. Do not waste your energy on repeating the story. It will only disturb you and add more hate in your mind towards it. Avoid talking about it again and again.

5. Eliminate Negative People: Try to avoid negative people in your life. Unhappy people will want to bring you down emotionally, so that they are not down there alone. Squeeze any interaction with them. Try to be surrounded by people who have the qualities you admire: optimistic, peaceful and encouraging people.

6. Learn from them: Negative situations give some lessons to our life. Learn from them. Do not let them waste if they occur. Learn how to deal if this kind of situation occurs again in life.

7. Observe yourself:
Observe your thoughts, your views and the situation. It will keep you away from emotions. Instead of identifying with the emotions and letting them consume us, we observe them with clarity and detachment. When you find yourself identifying with emotions and thoughts, bring your focus on your breathe.

8. Relax your body: Try any workout or go for a swimming or a run to relax your body to release the negative and excess energy in us. Physical exercise is a good mean to clear your mind.

9. Write instead of speaking:
If you feel negative of some people or feeling disturbed of any opposing situation, express your feeling on paper. Write down all your views and feelings on it till the last bit of the situation remains in your heart and mind. Pour all your anger and hate over the paper. Now roll the paper and throw it away. You will feel better and relaxed. Try!

10. Go for light music: Music is a good remedy to wash out negative thoughts in your mind and give a soothing effect. Go for a light and some good music which you like. It will help you.

These are my points and my experience only. How you people cool down yourself in opposing situations of life? Any other good idea??

What is the most important part of our body?

My mother used to ask me what is the most important part of the body? Through the years I would take a guess at what I thought was the correct Answer.

When I was younger, I thought sound was very important to us as humans, so I said, 'My ears, Mommy.'
When I was younger, I thought sound was very important to us as humans, so I said, 'My ears, Mommy.'

She said, 'No. Many people are deaf. But you keep thinking about it and I will ask you again soon.'

Several years passed before she asked me again. Since making my first attempt, I had contemplated the correct answer.

My mother used to ask me what is the most important part of the body? Through the years I would take a guess at what I thought was the correct Answer.

When I was younger, I thought sound was very important to us as humans, so I said, 'My ears, Mommy.'

She said, 'No. Many people are deaf. But you keep thinking about it and I will ask you again soon.'

Several years passed before she asked me again. Since making my first attempt, I had contemplated the correct answer.

So this time I told her, 'Mommy, sight is very important to everybody, so it must be our eyes.'

She looked at me and told me, 'You are learning fast, but the answer is not correct because there are many people who are blind.'



Stumped again, I continued my quest for knowledge and over the years,

Mother asked me a couple more times and always her answer was, 'No. But you are getting smarter every year, my child.'

Then one year, my grandfather died. Everybody was hurt. Everybody was crying. Even my father cried.

I remember that especially because it was only the second time I saw him cry.

My Mom looked at me when it was our turn to say our final good-bye to my Grandfather.

She asked me, 'Do you know the most important body part yet, my dear?'
I was shocked when she asked me this now. I always thought this was a game between her and me.

She saw the confusion on my face and told me, 'This question is very important. It shows that you have really lived in your life. For every body part you gave me in the past, I have told you were wrong and I have given you an example why.

But today is the day you need to learn this important lesson. 'She looked down at me as only a mother can. I saw her eyes well up with tears. She said, 'My dear, the most important body part is your shoulder.'

I asked, 'Is it because it holds up my head?'

She replied, 'No, it is because it can hold the head of a friend
or a loved one when they cry. Everybody needs a shoulder to cry on sometime in life, my dear. I only hope that you have enough love and friends that you will always have a shoulder to cry on when you need it.'

Then and there I knew the most important body part is not a selfish one. It is made for others and not for yourself. It is sympathetic to the pain of others.

People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did . But people will NEVER forget how you made them feel.



The origination of this letter is unknown, but it brings a blessing to everyone who passes it on.

Good friends are like stars...You don't always see them, but you always know they are there.

“Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.”

Good times and bad times are cumulation of our decisions and actions. Since no one is perfect, we do tend to take certain decisions that may result in bad patches in our lives. Relationships that we build along the journey of life, our family, friends and loved ones make all the difference during these times. The most essential life skill, hence, is the ability to cultivate support systems in the anticipation of those rough spots. If we can understand this, we can be prepared for life's inadvertent set backs.

Family and friends are frequently primary sources of emotional support. Colleagues and mentors are often sources of career support. Social groups and special interest groups form a support system for stress busting. Relationship networks give us a sense of belonging. We tend to be healthier, happier and more resilent.

Relationship building is a simple function of give and take. Reach out and share yourself with others. Make the extra effort to give help when needed. Appreciate the little things that people do. And, more than anything else, take interest in people’s lives.

The cardinal rule of retaining relationships is staying in touch. Be pro-active in your communication. A simple ‘hello’, once in while, whether by email or SMS can go a long way in forging the relationship. You remind your friend that he/she is in your thoughts. Also, never fail to return calls or messages.

Today’s world is competetive and cut-throat. Sure, we must be focussed on our dreams and goals. But, care must be taken that this does not distance us from those around us. When we reach out for support, we must not find ourselves adrift mid-ocean in the sea of adversity, with no tow-boat in sight.

Support systems are not built in a day. And we cannot build them at once, when we need them the most. They are to be built brick by brick, day by day, so that when we need them, the pillars are in place.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Right Skills & Attitude

I believe that people are the life blood of any business. Getting people with the right skills and attitude keeps the company moving in the right direction. At times, it is difficult to get people with the right skills, but it is never difficult to ensure that people with the right attitude are hired.
I believe in hiring nice, pleasant people. People with the right attitude can be trained easily, and can gain skill and expertise. Also, positive people keep the office environment healthy. Employees with a wrong attitude, negligent, unmotivated employees, affect the service factor of the company and kill customer brand loyalty.
I believe that an employer must be flexible. Every company has certain objectives. Every person has certain personal objectives. It is the job of the employer to make sure that both the objectives are aligned. Understanding this, if certain allowances are made, an employee will make sure he/she reciprocates with commitment and conviction. Given the amount of time an employee spends in office, the work environment must be open and friendly.
Also, I believe in communication. Employees need to know where the company is going. They need to contribute their ideas for growth. Being heard increases an employee’s involvement. At times, tough decisions taken by the management need to be explained so that there is no miscommunication through the grapevine.
Also, Shiny, you may like this story that most management students would have already heard. But it answers your question aptly.

Here's a short story :
A turkey was chatting with a bull.
"I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."
"Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "T'hey're packed with nutrients."
The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.
The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.
Finally after some more nights, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.
He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him off the tree.
Moral of the story : Bull shit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there long.

Of course, very rarely, there are people who misuse the company goodwill. If you have a finger on the employee pulse, it is easy to identify such people. If you turn a blind eye to or make allowances for such people, the good workers get demoralised, as they feel cheated. Hence, it is important to eliminate people with a wrong work attitude from the system.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Anthropomorphism and the Illusion of Life


luxo jr.What is anthropomorphism?

I think a lot of times when roboticists talk about anthropomorphism, it has an air of cynicism. Like “oh those silly people, they think the robot has thoughts and feelings.” Which is obviously not true for most people, but it’s interesting to think about why people have the propensity to anthropomorphize, and to understand what, if anything, we should do to design for this.

Dan Dennett’s Intenional Stance offers some insight. It explains that while people realize that some thing may not actually have desires and intentions, it ends up being an efficient and successful way to reason about a lot of phenomena that we come across. Put another way, as social animals, humans became very good at reasoning about mental states (beliefs, desires, intentions) to predict the actions of other animals. Human’s applied this reasoning strategy to anything that produced some self-motivated action that could not be described by physics. These days it’s not just animals, there are a lot more things in the world that produce seemingly self-motivated actions that are not (on the surface) describable by physics (cars, computers, robots, …); therefore, the mental state reasoning strategy kicks in.

Don Norman has a similar stance and has long studied how an object’s design and appearance communicate and inform people of the object’s possible functions. In a recent book he takes this into the realm of robots, arguing that anthropomorphism is an abstraction that will help people understand how to interact with a robot, and that robots should use familiar mechanisms like emotive expressions to communicate internal state to a human user.

Maximizing anthropomorphism

The field of animation has a long history of maximizing anthropomorphism. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston wrote a beautiful book in 1981, The Illusion of Life, about the principles and process employed in some of the Disney classic animations. In a SIGGRAPH paper in the late 80s, Pixar’s John Lasseter describes how the Disney principles of creating the “Illusion of Life” in 2D animation should translate to 3D animation. In the paper he steps through the 11 fundamental principles of traditional animation and discusses their 3D corralate, arguing that many of the principles transcend the particular medium. Which to me begs the question….How can these principles of animation inform how we create of an “Illusion of Life” in a robot?

Animation Principles for Robots

I’ll mention six of the principles (interpreted pretty loosely) that I find most directly applicable and interesting for thinking about robot behavior design. Most of these can be summed up as: It’s not just what you do, but how you do it. In robotics, I think we tend to work on how to select a particular motor control program, action, or behavior (selecting what to do). These principles of animation argue for having additional mechanisms to dynamically control parameters of how you do it.

AppealCreating a design or an action that the audience enjoys watching. This is what usually comes to mind when people talk about robots and anthropomorphism. It is the principle that would argue for creating robots with baby or pet-like proportions, so they are inherently appealing and nice to watch.

AnticipationThe preparation for an action. This is the technique of doing something to prepare the audience for the action that is about to come. Directing their attention to the right part of the screen. I think the best example of this is the “wheely feet” that cartoon characters get before taking off running. Or making sure that an arm movement winds up before exerting some energy. These are definitely cues that robots of all morphologies could use to help a human partner understand more about what they are “about” to do. It would make people feel more comfortable if they felt they could accurately predict the robots behavior. Thus, I think cues to help with audience/user anticipation are important. I’m not currently working with any mobile robots, but if I was…I would be making them some “wheely-feet”!

ArcsThe visual path of action for natural movement. Many of these principles argue against motion control that is simply based on an efficient path, or some inverse kinematics. Arcs, refers to the fact that even in a reaching action or something where the end point is the goal, there is something about the path that is taken to the end point that can make the motion more natural (and, I would hypothesize more predictable. This could ease interaction because a person would find the robot’s actions more intuitive to follow).

Secondary ActionThe action of an object resulting from another action. So, the part about objects moving in relation to a character’s actions, robots get for free with physics. But a more subtle aspect of secondary action is within the character’s body. As one example, when you nod your head, it is more than just your neck bone moving. A natural head nod will have secondary actions in some of the robot’s facial features (e.g., if it has eyebrows, or ears). These secondary actions, while not instrumental to the getting from A to B goal, create a more natural looking behavior.

TimingSpacing actions to define the weight and size of objects and the personality of characters. Robots can certainly use this one. Slow motions communicate something different than fast motions. Thus, not just getting the hand from A to B, but again, it’s about how you get there with a particular speed.

Follow Through and Overlapping ActionThe termination of an action and establishing its relationship to the next action. I think this relates most to the prior point about anticipation. Not only does a single action need to have “set up,” but all of the robot’s actions have to make sense together. One is the anticipation of the other. And importantly, a particular action or behavior might terminate differently depending on what action or behavior is coming next.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”


There are examples galore of leaders and their leadership styles- Political leaders, captains of industry, social activists, religious leaders….. Every leader you think of is unique in his calling, his vision and his style of functioning. Yet, there are certain attributes that are common to all leaders.

Trying to unravel a ‘leaders’ personality, I came down to my own simple 3C formula, or the three dimensions of personality that make a leader.

He must have a Cause
#
Faith in his vision, mission or purpose
# The ability to articulate the vision
# The passion to realize the vision

He must have Competence
#
Skill for achieving the purpose
# Complete self confidence
# Clarity of thinking and planning

He must have Charisma
# Capability to inspire and motivate
# Capability of being a change agent
# Live by values, lead by example

The clear and passionate articulation of the cause builds conviction of people in the mission.
The proof of competence builds respect for the person leading the mission.
The power of charisma builds a strong appeal for being part of the mission.

When there is a conviction in the mission and respect and appeal for a person, a following starts, and when there is a following, a leader is born. A leader does not set out to be one, but becomes one by the fervent dedication to his intent, the calibre of his actions and the integrity of his conduct.

“Change is inevitable. Change is constant.”



Continual innovations in technology have ensured that the environment around us changes very fast- ways of doing business, means of communication, lifestyle trends, people’s expectations- and hence, opportunities and threats are continuously changing. Considering this, remaining on top of the knowledge curve in ones chosen vocation is of paramount importance.

Here is a story.

A boy, particularly good at chopping trees, went looking for work, axe on his shoulder. Chancing upon a logging site, he asked the supervisor if there was any work available.

“Well”, said the supervisor, “Chop down that tree, and we shall see.”

The boy completed his task with dexterity and was immediately hired. It was Monday.

At the end of the week, the supervisor called him and told him his services were no longer needed.

The boy was shocked! “I am your most productive worker. You can’t sack me.”

“Well, you were the most productive worker on Monday, but by Thursday you had sunk to the least productive. And you’re doing even less well today.”

“But, I spend all my time chopping down your trees. I start early and finish last. I work through lunch.”

“I agree”, replied the supervisor, “but how much time do you spend sharpening your axe?”

Just the awareness of change and the intent to adapt are not enough for consistent success. In order to adopt new strategies and be more creative, you must keep your mind tools sharpened at all times.

How do you keep your mind tools sharpened? Just three simple tasks!
# Listen: Keep your ears to the ground. Understand feedback objectively .
# Read: Keep abreast of new theories, new laws, new research and new ideas, both specific (to your vocation) and general. The more you read, the more things you will know. There is a saying that goes, "Today a reader, tomorrow a leader."
# Write: Capture in writing the insights you have gained through your experience, feedback and your reading. Writing clarifies your thoughts and ideas. It also helps you analyse your learning needs.

At all times, do not lose sight of your goals. Learning can be said to have occured only when you put to use the new insights gained in following your goals. Hence, you must take the time to reflect and fit new knowledge with your strategies so as to enhance achievement.

Remember, mental faculties must always be “Work In Progress”. Being proactive is the only way to stay on top of change, or, in this fast-changing environment, we will quickly be extinct.

Monday, October 12, 2009

The 10 Worst Mistakes Career Changers Make


Changing careers is never easy. Half the world thinks you've lost your mind,
headhunters say you'll never work again and your mother-in-law steps up the old,
"I told you so" routine. But for many burned-out, bored or multitalented folks
who are sitting on skills they're not getting a chance to use, changing fields
is the only way to keep from losing their marbles.

Regardless of your career change strategy, never make these 10 mistakes

1. Don't look for a job in another field without some intense introspection.
Nothing is worse than leaping before you look. Make sure you're not escaping
to a field that fits you just as poorly as your last. Check out these self-assessment articles.
Get thorough information about the fields you're considering by networking,
reading and doing online research. Having informational interviews with alumni from your college,
colleagues, friends or family is a fun way to get the scoop on different fields.

2. Don't look for "hot" fields unless they're a good fit for you.
You wouldn't try to squeeze into your skinny cousin's suit,
so why try a field because it works for him?
People who are trying to help you will come along and do the
equivalent of whispering "plastics" in your ear. Instead of jumping at their suggestions,
take time to consider your options. Decide what you really want to do.
When you enter a field just because it's hot, burnout isn't far behind.

3. Don't go into a field because your friend is doing well in it.
Get thorough information about the fields you're considering by networking,
reading and doing online research. Having informational interviews with alumni from your college
, colleagues, friends or family is a fun way to get the scoop on different fields.

4. Don't stick to possibilities you already know about.
Stretch your perception of what might work for you.
Read some job profiles and explore career fields you learn about from self-assessment exercises.


5. Don't let money be the deciding factor.
There's not enough money in the world to make you happy if your job doesn't suit you.
Workplace dissatisfaction and stress is the number-one health problem for working adults.
This is particularly true for career changers, who often earn less until they get their sea legs in a different field.

6. Don't keep your dissatisfaction to yourself or try to make the switch alone.
This is the time to talk to people (probably not your boss just yet).
Friends, family and colleagues need to know what's going on so they
can help you tap into those 90-plus percent of jobs that aren't advertised
until somebody has them all sewn up.

7. Don't go back to school to get retreaded unless you've done some test drives in the new field.
You're never too old for an internship, a volunteer experience or trying your hand at a contract
assignment in a new field. There are lots of ways to get experience that won't cost you anything
except your time. A new degree may or may not make the world sit up and take notice.
Be very sure where you want to go before you put yourself through the pain and debt of another degree program.

8. Be careful when using placement agencies or search firms.
Do some research to be sure to find a good match.
Ask those who work in the field you're trying to get into or other successful career changers for suggestions.
Try to find a firm that knows how to be creative when placing career changers -- not one that solely focuses on
moving people up the ladder in the same field.

9. Don't go to a career counsellor or a career transitions agency expecting they can tell you which field to enter.
Career advisors are facilitators, and they'll follow your lead. They can help ferret out your long-buried dreams
and talents, but you'll have to do the research and the decision making by yourself.
Anyone who promises to tell you what to do is dangerous.

10. Don't expect to switch overnight.
A thorough career change usually will take a minimum of six months to pull off,
and the time frequently stretches to a year or more. Changing fields is one of
the most invigorating things you can do. It's like experiencing youth all over again,
except with the wisdom of whatever age you are now.

Thanks