What's Your Competitive Advantage?

I almost bailed on attending my Health & Safety class today as a half-hearted attempt to balance some other pressing “to-do’s” on my  ever growing agenda.  Instead, my type A personality gave the necessary boot in the butt as I glanced over at my visual goal chart with guilt.  I scolded myself, “It’s only Tuesday, you cannot be tired until at least Thursday.”  I briefly considered my teacher knowing I had skipped his class, and I immediately felt lame.  After beating myself up mentally over the thought of skipping a slightly dry two hour class, I showered and drove to school while singing obnoxiously in my car to shake off the sleepies.  I was right, class was a little on the dry side.  I blame content, not the teacher.  WHMIS just doesn’t get my blood flowing.

After class, I strolled through the business wing to ensure my marketing diploma was approved (confirmed - I will in fact be graduating from two business programs this spring) and decided to drop in to say hello to my favourite former marketing teacher.  He informed me of a potential opportunity with an exciting online brand management company.  After a quick conversation, I exited his office asking myself three essential questions:

• What are my competitive advantages? 
• How do I set myself apart from the crowd?
• Do I have a strong online presence and is it branded in accordance with “I incorporated”?

While tweaking my resume, and writing my cover letter to reflect the imperative answers to the above three questions, I became incredibly aware of how passionate I am about applying my experience, knowledge, and ideas within a growing company.  Although I am passionate about lifelong learning, I have long outgrown the desire to be a full-time student, and am eager to become an asset in business.  

Before meeting with any prospective employer, I recommend challenging yourself in some form of the above listed questions.  Know what makes you an asset over your classmate who is coincidentally applying for the same position and has passed all of the same required courses as you have.  I challenge you to Google yourself, and make a plan to build your wings both on and offline.  

To see how I measure up in Google search, click here.  Have you Googled yourself lately?  What are your areas for improvement and what is your action plan to address them?

Famous and Fabulous

A fun and timely article from ModernMom: Five Iconic Wedding Dresses

Go Time!

This New Year has already been crowded with curve balls and I’m only 15 days in.  A dreadfully long list of goals for 2012 means I have an even longer to-do list.  An incredibly sick toddler makes starting back to school complicated, not to mention makes Mommy feel guilty, helpless and worried.  A romantic wedding planned for 8 months from now is encouraging detail after detail to sprint laps through my brain day and night.  Wait. Did I say planned? Wishful thinking.  A not-yet-planned wedding is wreaking havoc on my previously occupied brain.  Back to school is... currently inconvenient.  Class schedules which significantly clash with day care drop off and pick up times tempt my perverse desire to time travel.  These are just a few examples of some problematic circumstances which have required some hefty problem solving skills on my part in the first two weeks of 2012. 

Let me be clear...

I am the BIGGEST advocate of education and life-long learning.  I plan to begin attaining my business degree (part-time, while working) post graduation in the coming fall, and that certainly isn’t my final educational goal.  This is something I will elaborate on more in the coming months as this is something soon-to-be-hubby and I will be doing together.  

Dum, dum, da-dum... honestly, I am really not the “bride type”.  I am a marriage type (if there is such a type), but the one day isn’t it for me.  I am all about every minute that follows the big day.  With that said, am I over the moon thrilled to be planning our wedding? YES, event planning happens to be a personal and professional area of interest for me.  That’s right, even our wedding will benefit from our creative marketing backgrounds. 

Day care.  I have such a love-hate relationship with this service which, is intended to offer convenience and care.  Is it convenient that Hubby-to-be is able to go to work, and I am able to finish school?  Absolutely, and we are grateful to have found the perfect place for our Bean to spend so much of her time.  She has friends and even a best friend, too.  The programs are educational based, meals are organic and healthy, and her day is structured identical to our home routine.  Yet, as pleased as I am with our day care facility, I will never be convinced that care outside of the home is better or even on par with the benefits a child receives while being cared for at home with a parent. Is it convenient that day care happens to harvest more germs daily than a hand rail in a Toronto subway?  It seems to be the same cycle every week.  We send our little Bean sprout to day care Monday morning healthy as a miniature ox.  By Wednesday she has an ear infection, cold, flu, fever, or a combination of two or three.  We spend the rest of the week playing guessing games to get her healthy for the following Monday.  Repeat.  We miss work/school days, and our poor babe is up and down like a yo-yo.  I am told this cycle will eventually end and our daughter will begin to develop her own immunities, yet because she is relatively fresh to day care, she has yet to build a strong immune system.  It has been nearly five months, and the three of us are quickly becoming worn out.  Most recently we have experienced a terrible flu, dehydration, constipation which has landed us in the hospital with a sick little girl three times in the last two weeks.  Imagine how thrilled we are to send our finally mended babe off to day care tomorrow?  I know what you’re thinking, (and you’re right) I should choose a better attitude, though I think I would be better equipped to do so if I could be in two places at once.  

Is planning a wedding, being 15 weeks shy from finishing a second college diploma, and raising the most amazing toddler in the world all wonderful blessings to be entirely grateful for?  Yes.  Yes, a million and one times, to the moon and back, yes.  Did I need to do all of these things at once?  Probably not, that’s my thing though.  When I want something, I want it now, and I won’t quit.  Lately though, this way of doing things is wearing me out and making me feel less like a super hero.  I have been having difficulty keeping all of my upcoming goals and milestones visualized.  They have all been on my mind forcing awkward moments of blank stares thought which provokes hubby-to-be to ask “what ARE you thinking?”  I then ask myself, the same question.  

It’s like this; I am in the final stretch.  I have set these goals, and made it more than half way successfully, all I have left to do is maintain stamina and see the necessary steps through.  I can and will do this.  Today my daughter and I sat down at the table and made a colossal chart categorized by month.  We filled in the major milestones for each month from birthdays, to potty training, graduation, new vehicle purchases, to acquiring a house instead of the condo.  We included our wedding, the “family-moon  Being able to visualize by month each of these significant events for this new current year calmed my nerves and allowed me to gain necessary perspective again.  We hung the chart in our bedroom as an inspirational tool designed to fuel each required step.  

8 weeks left until I begin my career opportunity search, 14 weeks until Bean turns two years old, approximately 15 weeks until I am finished college, and 229 days until I say “I do”.  It’s go time.

Always Growing

Everything we do and/or say is a direct reflection of our personal and professional character.  How are you perceived by others? Check out Marc and Angel's helpful hints @ 28 Dignified Ways to impress...

Goals For A Special Year

2012 is going to be an incredible year, I’ll accept nothing less.  It is going to be a milestone packed year!  Are you ready for this?

I will:

• Go to the gym, and physically challenge myself at least 3 – 4 times a week.  It’s a requirement for a slim fitting white dress I have purchased and decided to wear later this year!

•  Gradually commit to a strict, yet healthy vegetarian diet.  This will be a gradual process as it will surely be a learning curve.  Being vegetarian is something I have wanted to explore for years, it may not be forever, but it’s something I would like to wholeheartedly try.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about the circle of life - I enjoy the Lion King, I own it on Blu-ray.  I am bothered though, by how many animals are treated, and cared for while being raised for slaughter.  It angers me to think that some of these animals lives are not respected – whether their sole purpose in life is to be eaten by me or not, they deserve to enjoy (however they do) their life up until the point of termination.  That is my belief.  I want to know that the burger I’m about to eat smiled while hanging out with some animal buddies basking in the sun at some point in their life.  Irrational?  Perhaps, but life is life.  It should be respected.  My reasoning behind giving up meat and animal by-products is also strongly influenced by the research supporting potential benefits gained in relation to a person’s health, demeanor, energy levels etc. Admittedly this will be a difficult transition for me as I quite literally eat chicken every evening for supper.  I am also a huge advocate of high protein diets.  I have researched other ways to replace the protein in chicken, and am really excited to try out the new recipes and food with my family! Oh, that’s right, 2/3 of us are on board with this particular goal.  Our daughter will not yet be participating as I feel it’s a personal decision she can make when she is mature enough.  As it stands now, she is still four months shy of being a 2 year old.  She requires healthy portions of high quality meat as she is a growing little person.

• Purchase an SUV.  The Honda Fit, although roomy, is simply not roomy enough for this growing family.  My better half is not able to learn drive standard, therefore an automatic transmission would make life a lot less complicated with already hectic schedules.  The e-break turns in the winter have been thrilling, and I like to think I have become exceptionally gifted with controlled sliding in snowy conditions, however now that I have a child in the car with me, the Honda Fit has proven not to be the safe and secure ride we need.  Time to move on.

• GRADUATE college, preferably with Distinction.  It has been a long road, one I will elaborate more on in the coming weeks.  I cannot wait for graduation day.

• Establish myself in a career building occupation immediately after graduation.  Hire me. 

• Get hitched.  Have I mentioned I am getting married?  Be prepared for many posts on the process of planning our wedding. 

• Relax and enjoy our family honeymoon.  This is another topic I am busting to write about! 

I believe goal setting is a necessary part of living a positive and fulfilling life.  Francis Bacon once said, “A wise man (or woman) will make more opportunities than he/she finds.”