This is a real giveaway too, not like when you tweet “Where in the world can I get an iPad” and you get 30 responses along the lines of  click here to win an iPad..just kidding now your computer is loaded with spyware. Ha!  That’s not going to happen if you click here.

I’m not one to ever promote things like this on my blog. Honestly! Look back over the last 2 years of this little blog and you won’t find me promoting other people’s giveaways, but I love Erin’s blog and I would love it if you or I won.  And even if we don’t win, at least I’ve introduced you to this fabulous blog.

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My yoga instructor is always reminding us to practice with intention.

She also reminds us to practice yoga on and off the mat.

Today I’m making my first application of the principles of yoga to real life. More specifically, to careers, job satisfaction and generally being in a good place.

I just finished reading Job Jenny’s new ebook, To Whom it May Concern or how to stop sucking at your job search. In her book Jenny asks, “What do you want your life to look like?” and “What are you aiming for with your next career move?”

In my mind these questions immediately translated to “What is your intention?”

Intention (n.)
1. a determination to act in a certain way
2. what one intends* to do or bring about (source)

What I want my life to look like: Fulfilling career in marketing; large, supportive professional and personal networks; health insurance; higher education; comfortable, yet modest living and twice yearly vacations.

What I am aiming for in my next career move Challenging projects; an experienced (and talented) team that I can learn from; a healthy, supportive work environment. Inspiration.

There are the changes that I intend to bring about. In order to make my intentions a reality, I need to be determined to learn more; to step outside my comfort zone, to have a great attitude and to hold out for the right job.

The best part of intention is that as long as you’re trying, it counts.  Maybe you only lift one toe today (yoga metaphor),  you can still reap the benefits of lifting that one toe and with each practice, you’ll get a little further into the pose process.

What is your intention?

*I love it when a word is used to define itself. Actually, no I don’t. Not at all.

I hate networking events. While I haven’t had to do any of that (yet) in my current job, my brief stint as a wedding coordinator was all about making those connections. You know, getting those referrals! Before that, I networked in the fun-filled world of conferences and conventions with the most interesting laser engineers in the world. I’m sure you can imagine how thrilling it was for a 20something year old female with a passion for social media to find a common ground with a 55 year old male engineer from Montana.

Lately, I’ve come to realize the importance of networking to build my personal-professional network. I need to know more people who know about things I would like to learn. After all, I am in the market for a mentor. On the more philanthropic side, I need to share my knowledge and my existing network with those who want to learn from me.

But I digress…

In Scott Straten’s book, Unmarketing, he writes about using social networking to connect with people prior to a networking event. It takes the awkwardness out of the event if you already know who you are going there to meet. Additional benefits include that people are more likely to introduce you to their network if they already know a little something about you. And so I tweet with new purpose and I actually check LinkedIn. As soon as I have the opportunity for some real-life networking I will report back and let you know how it works out for me. I can already smell the sweet sweet success!

I must say that Scott does a much better job of explaining the benefits of leveraging social media in when you are attending an “in real life” networking event. His version is a bit much more inspirational than my takeaways.

Whether you’re a social media marketing maven or new to social media the book is a great read just to gain some perspective. It’s written in such a way that you feel like you’re having a conversation, rather than sitting in on a lecture. I can’t say enough wonderful things about it so just do yourself a favor and get your copy!

My definition of education continues to evolve and when I saw this great video from SkillShare on Amber Rae’s blog, it changed my view just a little bit more. Check out the awesome work SkillShare will be doing in your community and sign up to help them do it!

20somethings today are experiencing a different type of quarter life crisis and not in a good way. While it may make us stronger in the long run, it’s currently turning our 20-years-young hair a not-so-charming shade of gray.

As I write this, I have a ball in my throat and a knot in my stomach. I have big motivation and no outlet for it. I just read this article forecasting sunshine for recent grads.  $50,000+  average salaries right out of school I seriously thought I was going to vomit. I have a job that is keeping me afloat but it’s not going to give me my career wings.  Where are the jobs with decent salaries and benefits that this article speaks of?

This economy has shattered the post-graduation dreams of more college graduates than I care to research. I feel like my hands are tied and I’m stuck on a sinking ship.  I know I’m not the only one! My peers are moving back into their parents’ houses 7 or 8 years after they moved out. They are paying for their necessities on credit cards and hoping that they’ll be able to pay it (along with their student loans) back one day.

I want so badly to tell you what the bright side is, but even the bright side seems to have its major obstacles and colossal drawbacks.

Do you have words of wisdom or big solutions? Gen Y would greatly appreciate your feedback.

In an effort to continue to grow and learn, I spend hours a week reading marketing blogs, books and trying to engage in conversation with the social media gurus of Twitter. (Most of them are a little too busy to talk to me, but I am so grateful for people like Scott Stratten and CC Chapman who can take time to tweet to those of us who are eager to learn the tricks of the trade.) While talking about this struggle, Patti suggested that I find a mentor. Brilliant! Patti served as a mentor to my dearest friend and co-blogger when she started out in the advertising industry. It was a little easier for them, as they were part of a team. Regardless, the whole mentor idea was brilliant. Seriously, brilliant!

I have big dreams of living, eating and breathing social media marketing and branding. I want to learn how great marketers get great results. I was given this incredible idea of connecting with someone – a mentor- who has lots of knowledge and is interested in sharing it. Now that I have all of this straight in my head, there’s just one problem.

I can already tell that this search for a mentor is going to be more than I bargained for. With as many tools as there are now to connect with complete strangers, it’s sad that it’s still so hard to find someone who wants to share their knowledge with you.

Do you have a mentor? How did you connect with him or her?

I may need a mentor to mentor me on how to find a mentor – leave your advice in the comments!

While the company I work for isn’t quite ready to take the internet by storm,  I am fortunate enough to be working on redesigning the company’s website (something else I’m learning as I go). Simultaneously, I am working on building a personal brand.

And so one of my many personal goals is to educate myself and, in turn, anyone who stops by my blog on what personal branding is and the steps you should be taking to brand yourself…if you’re motivated to do so, that is.

Stay tuned for updates, slowly but surely!

I have personal goals for both my mind and body, I have career goals and I have academic goals. It would be entirely too long (and entirely too time consuming) to post all of these in one post so let me focus on just one set of goals today.

Career Goals

I feel like I should already have an amazing career. Like I should already be a quarter of the way up the proverbial corporate ladder.  Unfortunately the economy has had it’s ups and downs (mostly downs) and that hasn’t quite happened for me yet.

However, I have found that I love marketing– more specifically new media– and I love the services industry. I am fortunate to have found a job that combines both of these things. Job: check.

Goal:

To create and grow the company’s web presence and to demonstrate this growth with measurable results. I aim to be an asset to my company and to add to my portfolio so that future employers can see what I am capable of.

What I have to do to get there:

Develop a social media strategy for my company and for my personal brands. This is SO hard for me, because I am the type to jump right in. I want to send that first tweet and use every new media outlet as soon as it is available. This year I will take time to study the work of successful social media marketers. I will read about developing social media strategies and I will embrace every aspect of social media marketing– even the boring stuff.

I will have an actual plan on paper (read: digital eco-friendly plan) and I will track my progress.

When am I going to do this?

Inquiring minds want to know.  I’ll keep you posted on this one.

Academic goals coming soon. Stay tuned.

At my new job we meet every Monday morning to discuss our goals for the week. We write them down and we share them with our supervisors and peers. We also review our goals from the previous week. We discuss which goals we met and which goals we didn’t and what prevented us from reaching our goals. The reasoning behind this is that statistically people are more likely to achieve their goals when they are written down and even more likely to reach them when they share those goals with other people. I am entirely too busy to provide empirical evidence for this, but for those of you who have time, please post any literature related to this in the comments.

With this being the case, I thought maybe this blog would be a great place to write down my professional, academic and the occasional personal goal. I have been so busy lately trying to adapt to working long weeks at work and in school that I am exhausted and I am having trouble finding the balance between what I love and what I am responsible for.

Unfortunately, tonight I am on my way out the door to an event for my other little blog (that I am quite proud of, if I may say so) so I am not in a position to sit and think and write carefully about my goals. But maybe if I promise you that I will be back to do just that before the end of next week, it will actually happen.

Until next time….

- L

Clearly, there is a lot of change and a lot of adapting in my future. Hopefully this change involved regularly updating my lonely (yet still lovely) blog.

I will start by promising you this: by the end of this week I will post about goals. I have a lot to say about goals…my goals…your goals…reaching goals. If I promise that I will share it with you, it will increase the chances that I actually will. So here’s to accomplishing that this week.