It’s far more than an alliteration. It could be your career changer. Things have and will continue to change so rapidly that prevailing wisdom today won’t necessarily translate into the future. For example, over the past twenty years, we’ve heard that the place to be, career-wise, is information technology. That’s where all the good jobs would be. Well, guess what? They’re in India now. So, to be successful, do you have to be able to predict the future? Yes, you do.

Your Vocational Health

Careers don’t crash because you are working too hard. Careers crash because you’re not paying attention — to what’s happening in and outside of your world — and, most important, not paying attention to your own skills and abilities. You have to attend to your vocational health — your commitment to personal mastery and competence. It is what gives you the ability to harness energy and skill to push yourself toward success. It is a part of being a healthy leader.

Create Your Monday Morning Mantra

What practices and habits have you established to ensure you are paying attention? Working on personal mastery and competence? A healthy leader ‘gets inspired’ every Monday morning. She takes the time to organize, to focus moments in the week to work on developing her skills and abilities.

Here are a few examples of Monday Morning Mantras:

“I will get feedback from two people this week about my problem-solving.” Regular feedback from trusted peers and advisors helps you learn what is just noise and what is important to pay attention to.

“I will brag about one thing I am good at this week.” But I will also work on one weak spot.

“I will make haste slowly.” Learning is your best investment. Commit to the long haul and persevere through obstacles or frustrations.

“I will opt for optimism.” How you frame things (“Is the glass half empty or half full?”) can set you up for failure or success. To move forward, to make changes, opting for optimism (the glass is half full) will make your journey easier.

Finally, heed some advice from our CEO Bob Rosen in his book, Grounded:

“Vocational health is a leadership quality that is becoming increasingly vital because it is directly linked to results and performance. Without strong vocational health, you lose the ability to keep up in a competitive world. You become eclipsed by more competent, knowledgeable individuals and organizations going after the same thing.”