Rut-Busting Tip of the Week for 6/16/13

Don’t use someone else’s yardstick when measuring your achievements. If you want to compare yourself to someone, then do it against the “you” that you were yesterday, last week, last year. That is the only valid comparison.

Weekend Words of Wisdom: Take that chance

“We take risks knowing that risk will sometimes result in failure. But without the possibility of failure, there is no possibility of success.” Timothy D. Cook, Apple CEO

No one gets an ironclad guarantee  of success. Despite what we may have been told at the job interview, no job is without its issues or problems. No matter what all those career books promise, nothing is quite as easy as the authors make it sound.

Rut-Busting Tip of the Week for 6/9/13

Sometimes the biggest success we have involves facing our fears. What are you most afraid of? Once you identify it, confront it head on. 

It is not the act of facing fear that weakens us but the running away from it.

"Obstacles are not really deterrents"—Interview with Monica Bhide

What holds us back from pursuing our dreams? Sometimes it involves practical issues: we don't have the time or money to do what needs to be done to make a major life change. Other times it's a question of preparation: we know what we want but we first have to get the education and training that will give us a strong platform to succeed.

But too often, we don't go after our dreams because we are held back by self-doubt. We don't know if we can succeed, so we don't try. We remember other times we have failed and we resolve not to add to that list. Our lack of confidence drains our courage and so we stop in our tracks and leave our dreams simply as that: dreams, instead of actionable goals.

In today's interview, engineer turned food/travel/parenting writer Monica Bhide shares with us how and why she made such a major career shift, and why it is so important that we encourage ourselves with our "success list" of achievements as a way to strengthen our self-confidence.

But first, a little about Monica... Based in Washington, DC, Monica has been published in many major national and international publications, including Food & Wine, The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Saveur, and many more. She is a frequent contributor to NPR's Kitchen Window and is a monthly columnist for Cooking Channel on lucky foods.

Her work has garnered numerous accolades and in 2012, The Chicago Tribune picked her as one of seven note-worthy food writers to watch while Mashable recently picked her as one of the top 10 food writers on Twitter. But while Monica has published three cookbooks, the latest being Modern Spice: Inspired Indian recipes for the contemporary Kitchen (Simon & Schuster, 2009), she's not just a food writer—her book, In Conversation with Exceptional Women: Seeds of inspiration to help you bloom where you are planted, explores how to develop and thrive as a creative professional. (For more about Monica, visit her website, and follow her on Facebook  and Twitter.)