MAKE 2012 YOUR BEST YEAR EVER

What will make this year your best ever? What changes do you have to make to do it? We took a poll from our employees, clients, applicants and friends. Here is our list of the best ways to change your personal and professional lives for the better!

1. Follow your "BLISS" - We all have things that make us happy (love, money, health). We all have things that make us miserable (love, lack of money, poor health). Lets make a pack to do what makes us blissful, whether in good health or bad, loss of money and too much of it or too little love or too much. I say we take advantage of this 80 degree weather and get walking, hiking or just sitting outside at the Coffee Bean and being blissful in this weather.

2. Disconnect and Reconnect - Get OFF THE INTERNET - I start my day at 4:15 AM and it is with my BackBerry in hand reading my emails. I love and dread this time. What 4:15 AM does for me is give me the 30 minutes I need to respond to requests and delete what is not necessary or a time waster. I get to start my day contacting applicants and employers and meeting face-to-face with both. I do not open my emails until I have contacted at least 25 people in the morning. Get off the Internet and get back to making human contact. You have a better chance of getting a new job if you can speak to the hiring source. Disconnect and reconnect!

3. Take Small Steps - What do you want to do this year? What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to gain? What do you want to change? Who do you want to be by the end of 2012? WRITE YOUR GOALS DOWN! Look at them every morning when you wake up and every night before you go to bed. Everyday take one new step to get you to that goal. Of course, one of mine is to lose weight this year. I wrote down my goal weight and every morning before I can open my mouth to eat, I read my goal, I look at a picture of myself that I would like to look like again - it is not one from 1980 either! I take a small step everyday - more exercise, more water, less sugar, etc. I read my goals again at night before I go to bed and I log what small steps I took to achieve that goal that day. If you don't know what you want, you can't get it. Write down what you want and each day write down the small stepS you took to get there.

4. Embrace Gratitude - What are you grateful for - family, friends, country, religion? I am grateful for all of these, and yet on many a day, I seem ungrateful for anything. This economy has beat me up pretty bad.....until I read a story about a missing child, see a homeless mother begging for money, or simply atch the news - I have so much to be thankful for and this year I am going to be grateful, show more gratitude to the things I take so for granted. Spend a reflective moment each day embracing your gratitude.

5. Get Your Body Moving - We all think better, stand taller and move faster when we are in shape. Make it a point to get some form of exercise in everyday. Walk at lunch. Park further away than you normally do. Squeeze you stomach in 20 times a day for 15 second intervals. Squeeze your old bottom in at the same time. Just move - it will make you work better and sleep better.

6. Quit or Get a New Job - What are you passionate about? Why not pursue that for your career this year? My brother has always been a cook, a very good one at that. He has worked in every hotel and high-end restaurant in Los Angeles. His real passion is simply fast food, but with a twist. He is opening his own "whole-in-the-wall" food stand this year - hot dogs, hamburgers, great chips and fries. It took him 20 years to get here but this is the year he is making the move. Make your move - whether it is from the corner office to a window or from a desk job to a park and rec position - do what you love and you will be truly happy.