Life Before Noon: A Millennial’s Manual

Welcome to the second half of the year.

Yup, folks, it is July, 2008– which means the year is half way over. What have you done?

Honestly.

At work you may be starting your mid-year evaluation. Re-evaluating objectives, duties, tactics. While this is important for professional development and planning, why not create a mid-year evaluation for your personal self? Perhaps by evaluating your personal self and striving to meet personalized goals- in the same way you try to meet your professional goals-may make you more productive.

When I let myself “float along,” simply living each day without a bigger goal or purpose, I feel undirected. Of course I always strive to “try my hardest”- but when this is not defined I let myself slide. For me, this means defining my passions-even planning my social and family time or writing down specific personal objectives.

The good thing is our purposes are dynamic. They change with time, relationships and responsibilities.

I’m not sure what my purpose(s) is, but by defining what I want to include and exclude in my life, I have narrowed my ideas on how I spend my time so I can become the person I want to be.

Here are some general ideas about what I want and like to do, and how I made them more purposeful:

-Exercising. Entered in a race in July.

-Spending more time with my family. Going home more often to spend time with family, calling home once a day.

-Caring for the surroundings-people, planet. Volunteering, mindful of recycling/greener options.

-Keeping up with friends. Call, send formal email (instead of casual facebook messages).

What is your purpose(s)? Think about it. Then define it. Then do it.

-Carla

You have officially moved into your new city post-graduation. Congratulations! You have a handle on the commute, the corporate culture and your daily tasks. You are on the path to success.

And then Friday night rolls around. Crap.

You have no social life.

Maintaining a work/life balance is important, especially when moving to a new city. Friends may be difficult to find, and finding good friends who share similar values and work ethic is even harder.

But finding those friends isn’t as hard as you think. It just takes stepping outside your comfort zone to make connections. Here are some guidelines I follow:

1. Talk to people. It’s that simple. Waiting for the subway, tell the girl standing next to you that you like her scarf. Talk about the weather to the guy in line next to you. It may seem uncomfortable at first, but it can be a good networking exercise as well. Disclaimer: don’t be a creeper, just be social.
2. Be open to different types of friends. That’s what moving to a different city is about. Talk to a variety of people. Just because you had a certain “type” of friend at home or in school doesn’t mean you can’t make very different friendships in your new home.
3. Don’t sit at home. You work hard and want to relax. Go to a coffee shop and read. Sit in a park, go to the gym, take a walk. Put yourself in a social atmosphere and cancel that date with your TV and Ben & Jerry’s. Then follow #1.
4. Be friendly, but not too friendly with co-workers. Spending time outside the office with co-workers may increase camaraderie, but don’t let it interfere with your professional life in the office.
5. Don’t wait for the bar. Chances are you may make some friends at the bar. Just don’t wait to go out on Friday or Saturday night to make friends.
6. Maintain your friendships from home. Continue to maintain your friends from school and home. With ever-changing social media it is easy to stay connected despite distance.

Solid friendships may be hard to come by, but by putting yourself in different social situations it may become easier.

-Carla

As heat waves spread across the US, summer interns crowd into cubicles at their respective places of work. I’ll admit to being one of those “enthusiastic for the corporate world” interns. I have only been working for three weeks at my new company and have already learned so much about business, marketing and public relations. As I started my internship, I realized that I needed to adopt my corporate culture’s language. Once I learned the basic corporate words and acronyms, e-mails and conversations were much easier to understand. Here are a couple words and acronyms I have learned that may be helpful to you in the workplace:

BRIC- Brazil, Russia, India, China. By 2050, these countries are reported to have the world’s strongest and wealthiest economies.

EOD- End of day.

Siloed- Different divisions of the company may work sufficiently or independently of each other. If divisions are siloed, there maybe little collaborative work between them.

COB-Close of business. 5 p.m.!

ETA- Estimated time of arrival.

Reach out- Contacting a certain person. This includes any communication - e-mail, phone or stopping the person in the hallway.

There are plenty more words used in the corporate world, but these are just a few basics. So, make sure you finish your report by EOD so it can have an ETA by COB tomorrow!

-Carla