Professional Development

• 8 Tips to Help Achieve Your Career Goals [Mashable]
• Meditation Guide for Busy People [Lifehack]
• How to Tell a Job from a Career [Fast Company]                     
• Location Doesn’t Always Matter When Pursuing Your Dream Job [Lifehacker]
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Do you know what a MOOC is? It may sound funny, but it can be a seriously valuable resource for you. MOOC stands for massive open online course. Basically, these are free or inexpensive online courses available to anyone—and they are being offered with increasing frequency by many big-name schools, including Harvard and MIT. You don’t get college credit for the courses, but it’s a good way to learn new skills or information, and may also be a way for you to do a trial run if you are considering going back to school as a paying student.

Did your 2012 annual review look much like your 2011 one? If so, you’re not alone. A new study by the authors of the New York Times best-seller Change Anything reveals that 43 percent of employees experienced a déjà vu performance review -- receiving the same negative feedback that surfaces year after year.

These days, employers often expect works—especially administrative professionals—to perform many roles and handle a lot of diverse tasks. Basically, you need to know at least a little bit about a lot of different things. And you usually don’t have a lot of time to get up to speed on new skills or concepts.

Looking to make 2013 the year that you really move forward in your career? While it is easy to blame the economy or your company as reasons you aren’t where you want to be, it is more productive to think about other factors – ones that you can control -- that may be stopping you from obtaining what you want.

Career and life coach Deborah Brown-Volkman, president of Surpass Your Dreams, Inc., and author of Coach Yourself to a New Career, says that one of the greatest obstacles to overcome is fear.