?? I Have A Herniated Disc In My Back

?? I Have A Herniated Disc In My Back 10 This is the first time I've ever blogged from bed. I hurt my back while exercising last Tuesday. I immediately stopped and decided to take a couple of days to relax, hoping the pain would subside. Which it did. Friday I was feeling well enough to exercise again but only a few minutes in, I felt a different kind of pain in my back, much worse than the earlier strain.eval This time, I knew I was done for a while. The pain only got worse over Saturday. I couldn't go anywhere so I again decided to take a couple of days to relax, hoping the pain would subside.eval Which it didn't… much. Have you ever had a job search interrupted by a major health issue? Yes, mental health Yes, physical health No, thankfully! View Results While the pain did go down ever so slightly, on Monday I started noticing tingling in my right leg. I waited a few more days to see if the situation would get any better but the numbing feeling wasn't go away. It was time to visit my doctor. The doc conducted a few simple tests on me after listening to my story: first he had me lie down and raise each leg as far as I could. I could raise my left leg without any problems, but my right leg I could barely lift. Next was to have me tiptoe, and that wasn't hard. Finally, he had me walk on my heels. I could only do it on my left heel as my right foot would immediately drop down flat on the floor every time I put down my right heel. That was all he needed to see. “Congrats! You've got a herniated disc in your lower back.” Wouldnt wish back probs on my worse enemy #herniateddisk #notajoke â€" Katie Ann ???? (@KTkateB) May 25, 2017 Argh! The prescription? No sports or other physical activity and one extreme painkiller per day that I have to take after a meal to avoid stomach problems. And if I don't? A CT scan and possibly a little thing called surgery. So here I am! For the first time in 10 years of JobMob, I'm blogging an article while lying on my bed. I don't know if this is what will be happening for the next 4 weeks, and a lot will depend on how the treatment goes. In the meantime, I have to figure out how I can get things done while horizontal. My wife is already making jokes about how she feels sooooo bad that I need to lie down and relax for a month… So how am I blogging this? If you're curious, I'm using my smartphone while talking into a Google Doc using Google voice typing as my keyboard. https://youtu.be/b1Zpw2taB4I It's actually pretty cool! It types pretty quickly although I probably need to speak 20% slower than usual so the software can keep up. And I definitely need to follow it up with more proofreading than usual. What do I have planned for the next month of bed rest? Besides hoping it won't really be a whole month (or more!) I don't know yet. Right now I'm definitely most comfortable when lying down. If I stand, my right leg starts falling asleep. If I sit, my right leg starts falling asleep AND I get the added bonus of extreme lower back pain whenever I get up. My doctor said that if I follow his prescription, I should be able to sit down more comfortably soon enough. Which means I might get back to working on my laptop sooner than later. In the meantime, I'm going to rearrange my priorities and experiment with different ways of working with my smartphone. Now seems to be a good time to start making videos instead of long blog posts, who knows? That, and outsourcing. Update: July 2018 Looking back one year later… The key advice that helped me get better came from my sister, my brother-in-law and an old friend from high school who is a physiotherapist. My sister said that I should sleep with a pillow under my thighs, forcing my legs to be raised, releasing pressure on my lower back. My brother-in-law recommended that I do the exercises in the video below, because they helped him with this own back problems: My old friend from high school confirmed the above good advice but clarified that I should do the exercises every 2 hours, and I used a timer on my smartphone to remind me regularly. She also said that my doctor was incorrect to prescribe so much bed rest, because with a herniated disc, the right exercise is what will help the fluid dissipate in the disc, lowering the inflammation that was pushing against nerves in my spinal cord. And she was right, of course: the strong anti-inflammatory pills lead to less pain, but it was the regular exercises that led to progress within a few days, and within a week I was able to sit again without too much discomfort. I continued with the exercises for another few weeks until I stopped taking the anti-inflammatory pills and 95% of the pain was gone. A few weeks after that, I went back to exercising regularly, just like before this whole story began, but very quickly I decided to change regimens to something that put less stress on my lower back. Ultimately, it took almost 6 months for me to feel full normal again. This was another video I found helpful: Question of the article Have you ever had a herniated disc? Do you know anyone who has? Tell us in the comments. I'd love to hear how you or they got through it.

Getting Over the Hump of Hump Day Marla Gottschalk

Getting Over the Hump of Hump Day Marla Gottschalk Wednesdays â€" the grumpy middle child of the work week. If only Wednesday could magically turn into a Friday, or dare I say transform into Saturday. While you might have breezed through Monday and Tuesday â€" somehow Wednesday just seems to snag. Our refreshed feeling from the weekend has definitely faded. You may find that you struggle through meetings and zone out while others are speaking. If you arent having a particularly exciting week or already feel overwhelmed, you may wonder if youll get through to Friday. Ive actually held a grudge against Wednesdays for years â€" and I dont think Im alone. Its really a bit unfair. So, its time to change our tune. Wednesdays dont need to be the day that we just get through. In this vein, here are a few strategies that might help make Wednesdays your favorite day of the work week: Save the best for Wednesdays. Hoard something you enjoy work-wise for mid-week. For example, a project that really interests you. Even if the time increment is modest (say 20 minutes) â€" youll feel more energized. Get out of the building. Anoint Wednesdays as the day you make plans to leave the office (and yes, your computer) for lunch. Invite someone new to join you each week â€" someone that has an interesting role or personality. Start the day with a boost. Do you have a favorite colleague or business contact? Allow yourself time to reach out to them first thing on a Wednesday â€" a great way to boost both perspective and mood. Laugh a little.  Start out Wednesdays with a workplace humor. Read a few New Yorker cartoons or listen to a clip from your favorite workplace inspired movie. (I love clips from Office Space.) Improve you. Make Wednesdays, the day of change. Disallow a workplace behavior that probably isnt doing you any favors â€" and revise the status quo. For example, aim to go the entire day without contradicting someone. Listen without interrupting. Refrain from sending e-mails that could replaced by a walk down the hall. You get the idea. Be nice. Show a little gratitude. Make Wednesdays the day that you thank as many people as possible for adding something positive to your work life. Bring your stars a coffee or a danish and vow to stop taking people for granted. Build on a success. Review the events of last week and tease out at least one success. Write down 2 or 3 actions that would build on that progress â€" and keep the forward momentum going. Now follow through. How do you get through Hump Day? Share your strategies. Dr. Marla Gottschalk is an Industrial Organizational Psychologist. She also writes at liveworkthinkplay.com.

Communicate Your Personal Brand in the Job Interview - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Communicate Your Personal Brand in the Job Interview - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career In a job interview, they are looking to learn about your qualifications, of course, but also your “fit”. The questions behind their questions are: Is he lazy? Does she have common sense? Does he have fire in the belly? Is she qualified? Is he lying? Will she fit in? Will he embarrass me? So in addition to the standard questions asked in an interview: • Tell me about yourself. • Why are you interested in joining our company? • What do you see yourself doing five years from now? • What sort of money are you looking for? • What are your strengths and weaknesses? • Why do you feel you’re qualified for this job? • Why did you leave XYZ company? Expect more questions like: • What do you like to do in your spare time? • Ever have a disagreement with a boss? Why? Why not? What did you do about it? • Have you ever been fired? • If hired, how long would it take for you to make significant contributions to our company? • What do you expect from a boss? • How do you affect people? • If there was something you could change about yourself, what would it be and why? • How many hours are in your workday? • What makes you happy? Unhappy? • Talk about your failures. Tell me more. • Tell me about your best friend in high school. What would they say about you? • What should I know about you that we haven’t already discussed? They are trying to learn about the person behind the credentials. Many people look good on paper or online but face to face don’t meet the “will she fit it/will he embarrass me” criteria.

8 Ways to Improve Your Company Brand in 2013 - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

8 Ways to Improve Your Company Brand in 2013 - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Whats one way youre resolving to improve or shore up your company or personal brand in 2013? The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the worlds most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons. 1. Focus on Customer Satisfaction We plan to keep reinforcing our brand and building our reputation through a continued focus on customer service and satisfaction. A companys brand is essentially how it is perceived. A satisfied customer is more than an endorsement; its a strong branding statement. David Ehrenberg, Early Growth Financial Services 2. Improve Social Profiles Ive noticed that I am spending a tremendous amount of time on social media sites for business related purposes. In fact, my company gets more leads through social media than through our website, which does very well in search engines. Therefore, I am spending a lot of time making sure that my LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, AngelList, and Pinterest pages are the best they can be. Lawrence Watkins, Great Black Speakers 3. Implement Video Tutorials Next year we are looking to step into the video tutorial realm in order to offer our customers a different medium by which to receive our information. It’s sure to be a challenge, but we feel that by doing so we can improve our brand and further set ourselves apart from the competition. Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance 4. Write, Write, Write! We have built some killer technology with great results for clients, but we have practically kept it a secret all year by not investing in marketing. Over the next twelve months, well be writing case studies, best practices, infographics, blog posts, and everything under the sun. We think the best way to market is through creating compelling, valuable content. Erik Severinghaus, SimpleRelevance 5. Giving Before Getting A great way to help your brand is to educate your customers. Share your knowledge and give free advice. When you educate and teach, people will appreciate you and look up to you as a leader and a mentor. Give before getting and your brand will build with raving fans on its own. Fans will help your brand, and word of mouth is by far the best referral your brand can get. Ak Kurji, Gennex Group 6. Delegate There are things that only I can do, among them manage my personal communications and brand. But everything else should be on someone elses desk if I really want to grow that brand. Otherwise, Im limited by the hours that Ive already carved out in my schedule for such things. Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting 7. Making Friends Our outreach strategy is make friends and were good at it! The rest takes care of itself. Weve been more or less reactive in the past, though, and are starting to work on being more proactive in the future. Derek Flanzraich, Greatist 8. Commit to Blogging If you’re a thought leader in your industry, spread your insights with those around you on your blog. You’ll be surprised at the types of opportunities that will come your way. It’s an amazing networking tool because it allows people to get to know you on a mass scale. Matt Wilson, Under30Media

How to conquer your fear of public speaking - Debut

How to conquer your fear of public speaking - Debut Love it or hate it, public speaking is a huge part of our working life. We would all love to be offered a job from an  application or CV  alone  but, lets get real here: it is how we speak and communicate that  sells who we are. Yeah, Paul Rudd. Its pretty scary. The reality is, public speaking makes up a large part of  what employers want to assess when they meet you. Interviews for jobs are unavoidable and almost all graduate schemes and internships now require group-based assessments with communication tasks such as presentations. Learning to love your own voice and being able to regulate it, is key to tackling these challenges successfully. It is easy to feel tense when speaking in public, or to strange people in unfamiliar situations like interviews. To an untrained speaker it can feel unnatural and nerve wracking. After all, you are exposing yourself in a most extraordinary way. An important aspect of my training with the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama was learning  how to work with and control my voice in order to speak with confidence and articulation. Here are a few tips to help you learn  to love your voice. Sit up Posture is fundamental to clear speaking. Sit up, don’t slouch. You don’t want to squash the diaphragm and voice box resulting in restricted sound. Speak from the stomach (the diaphragm technically) not from the throat. Speaking from the diaphragm regulates your breathing, opens up the sound and relaxes the voice box, slowing down the speech and improving projection and diction. Breathe Breathing exercises before you start keeps you relaxed, calm, focused and gets you ready to go. I find taking a breath or pausing if you lose your train of thought helps. It brings you back, helps you re-focus and keeps everything relaxed. Don’t be afraid of silence. It is natural and an effective communication technique. Listen Listen, and respond carefully and calmly. You will have points you want to make and things you want to say about yourself â€" it is easy to just want to get all these out as quickly as possible but as a result you can rush, stop listening and miss what the interviewer is saying. Respond slowly, thinking about what you say before you speak. Have Conviction Conviction is crucial to sounding real. Feeling comfortable with your own voice makes it easier to believe in what you’re saying. Conviction helps portray some confidence and keeps your answers clear. To do this try to avoid rising inflections at the ends of sentences. Bringing your intonation down makes a statement sound definitive. There are a million ways of saying one line, the key is to make what you’re saying work for you before anyone else. Believe what you say â€" it is amazing how much you can manipulate your speech to sound exactly how you want it to. Articulate Be clear and concise. You need to be succinct in the explanation of your previous work experience. Slurring words together or dropping endings can impair clarity. Speak slowly. The language you use can be surprisingly indicative of your successful working methods and your level of confidence. Using words such as ‘we’, ‘team’, ‘collaboration’ and phrases such as ‘my goal is’, I’m confident that’, I believe that’ and ‘my track record shows’, shows that your previous team work and attitude to work gets results. Words like ‘hopefully’, ‘perhaps’ and ‘kind of’ can have the opposite effect and can come across as weak, therefore modifying your conviction. Stay Fresh You have heard what you’re saying numerous times in your head, it makes sense to you, but this is the first time your listener has heard it. In order to keep it fresh and sounding real, don’t waffle. Even if you don’t get acknowledgement or validation from your listener, stop when you’ve answered the question. Every voice has the potential to become confident, clear and wonderfully distinctive without elocution lessons or years on the stage. It’s all about practice, control and love. Feel comfortable using your voice in all situations. Sing every day, make silly noises and sounds â€" anything, just keep the voice warm and smile, in fact, laugh, when you hear your own. Pro tip:  Download the Debut app and you could totally grab yourself a summer internship  way before anyone else.

Interesting weblog - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Interesting weblog - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog I notice that Bigger Pictures weblog now has contributions from both Liselotte Str?yberg and Finn Kollerup in addition to Oles. Thats certainly worth reading (in danish). You might start with Finns defense of annoyingly creative people. Well stated! Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Top Mistakes in Writing Your Resume

Top Mistakes in Writing Your ResumeFor anyone who is considering going back to school, it is very important to pay attention to the top mistakes in writing your resume. This is a critical document that you should take the time to get right.The first mistake that most people make is listing their professional qualifications in their cover letter. While this is okay in some cases, it is not good practice to do this. It is highly unlikely that you will be contacted by any prospective employers who are not familiar with your work experience. Do not list the wrong positions, but instead list positions that have the highest potential for employment.Another thing to remember when writing your resume is to avoid using the traditional format. Many employers may choose to screen resumes on a computer and feel that the traditional resume format is more intimidating. You should be able to present yourself in a professional manner as long as the information you include on your resume is accurate. The next common mistake is to put too much information in your cover letter. I know that if you sent one resume to an employer, they would be impressed with what you had written. However, if you send many different resumes, it can really mess up your overall resume presentation. Take a little bit of time to try to understand each company. If you write multiple resumes, then you may end up with an essay with several different sections.Another thing that you can do to make sure you do not make the same mistakes is to talk to a local recruiter. Ask them if there are things that you can do to help yourself be a success. If there are, you will be very grateful for the advice that you receive.Finally, the biggest mistake that people make is to expect that a potential employer will know everything about you. Employers often have strict timelines. Most employers will only hire candidates within a certain time frame. Most people who need additional training will not be able to receive this i n this time frame.It is important to realize that if you do not receive the position within the specified time frame, then you are not guaranteed a job. So, keep this in mind when writing your resume. If you are unsure about what position you might be given, then you should ask for a reference letter.These are just a few of the top mistakes in writing your resume. Keep in mind that hiring managers read hundreds of resumes every day, so take your time and write something that will attract their attention.