Last Job Search Guide - Page 86 of 356

You don't race down the steps of a collapsing World Trade Center building without rediscovering some spiritual faith, or sit in the cockpit of a fighter jet over a Middle East terrorist enemy without a prayer that God's hand rests on your shoulder, and the shoulders of your colleagues and family. While the moments may not seem nearly as dramatic, each of us in our daily lives races down some important steps or sits in a dangerous cockpit!

How do you set a spiritual goal? Personally! For some, it may be church attendance. For others, it may be prayer. For others, it may be getting to heaven. For some, it may be adherence to the Ten Commandments. For yet others, it may be shared faith among family and friends. For some, it is good works.

For me, I was raised a Christian in a small East Central Illinois farm town, where my faith was important to me. At 22, in 1969, when I married a girl not of a similar faith while away from home during Vietnam-era U.S. Army Intelligence Command service, the accommodations we later made to build a successful marriage over most of our 27 years together led me to permit the diminishment of my faith and religion in my life. It was my own choice, and no one else's, but I was wrong to let the spiritual side of my life dissipate.

Today, while I do enjoy a broad and inclusive view of faith and spirituality, my striving in my goal-setting is to re-establish and nourish a personal connection with God. You can, too, whatever your faith. Your goals should be your own goals, and no one else's! Although, ideally, you'll want them to embrace your family, and your family will embrace them with you.

Physical: Wellness, Fitness, and Nutrition

For most of us, it's a bit easier to be specific with regard to physical and body wellness than with spirituality. Health embodies a number of components, including freedom from disease, fitness, exercise, weight, and nutrition.

Admittedly, a few things occur that we cannot control, including some cancers and genetic issues. Most of the contributing factors to disease, though, are personal, not environmental or genetic. The number of people who indulge complaints about speculative environmental issues (beyond their direct control!), while continuing to smoke or eat to the point of obesity or not follow a pattern of even moderate exercise, is astounding!

Criteria in which to set goals include:

1. Create healthy habits , including becoming tobacco free. Studies show that the women and men who run the tobacco industry shorten the life of one in three addicts they create, and they reduce the quality of life for the balance. It's the greatest single plague that anyone has inflicted on us as Americans. That Americans are doing it to Americans - creating addicts to create billions in profits - is morally bankrupt, I feel. Obviously, being drug-free and using alcohol only in moderation, if at all, are givens. Buckle your seat belt. Don't drink and drive. Practice safe sex.

2. Maintain a healthy weight. Clinical obesity (20% or greater than your target weight) kills, and even lesser amounts of excess weight, injure and shorten life, and reduce its quality, too.

3. Exercise for fitness. Daily. Moderation is okay. Just do something!

4. Nutrition. Eat well! Healthily! My own meat-and-potatoes Midwestern diet has its limits, particularly since I don't eat fish, but I've learned to be more careful about how I eat.

5. Use and respect medical counsel. See your MD regularly, at least annually after age 50, for physicals and checkups. And see that those you love are protected, too, starting with the March of Dimes regimen for good pre-natal care.

The above is an excerpt from The Last Job Search Guide You'll Ever Need: How to Find and Get the Job or Internship of Your Dreams, which is available for sale for $19.85 in our bookstore or $27.00 at Amazon.com but for free to those who subscriber to our free career newsletter. This hot new book contains job search secrets of the most experienced, most knowledgeable and most respected career experts. Learn career planning, job hunting tools and tactics, interviewing, cover letter and resume writing (lots of samples!), networking, and how to find an internship. Written by 149 career experts. To receive a free copy, subscribe to our free career newsletter.

Career Videos

Featured Employers