Career ideas for a warm summer day

Career ideas for a warm summer day Heres an idea: Instead of thinking of your summer vacation as something that detracts from your work, think of it as a way to boost your work performance or even your business. The weeklong getaways that run a day or two over, the hour-long siestas that turn into three hours, and the three-day weekends that go on for four can all help your career. You just have to use the time well to take care of your physical and mental health. Why? A healthy body makes for a healthy, balanced mind, and thats the chief asset of a truly good worker. Its not about the hours you spend behind a desk its about whats going through your head while youre there. Here are four ways to ensure that your summer fun in the sun enhances your career success, whether youre still on vacation or are back from one: 1. Go for a run in the park, or swim in a lake at sunset. It used to be that working out was optional. Now we know that regular exercise makes you calmer, smarter, happier, and richer. So how can you possibly say that its not one of your highest priorities? It makes sense that if you feel better about yourself and the world youll do better in business. Because business is about thinking clearly, acting with confidence, and making good connections. But dont work out just because people who work out make more money. Do it because itll change your outlook on life. Really. Youll be less likely to be depressed and more likely to be optimistic. If youre younger, join an athletic team. People who play sports do better in their careers. This is true whether youre on a small liberal arts college fencing team or a Big Ten football squad. The self-confidence, teamwork, and drive that athletes display makes them higher performers at work. Sure, there are exceptions, but the advantage is so pronounced that some corporate recruiters at colleges ask to see only the athletes. 2. Mentor a summer intern. Each of us needs mentors to guide us through our careers at different points in time. Sometimes we need help navigating office politics, sometimes we need advice on making a life change. At each point, knowing how to ask for help is essential, and the best way to learn how to ask for help is to give help. If you mentor someone, you help yourself as well. Youll find out what a mentoring relationship is like from the other side. For example, youll learn what feels useful to the mentor and whats annoying. Youll also discover why its important to ask good questions, because as a mentor youre helpless if the person youre trying to help doesnt know what he wants. Summer interns are ripe for this task. Theyre there because they want to learn. You can teach them not only about the workplace but about themselves, and how to figure out where they fit. You can be an advisor and a coach and a friend. These are all great ways to mentor, and after the experience youll have more confidence in seeking a mentor of your own. 3. Curl up in the sun with a book. Information overload comes from sifting through ideas all day. In a knowledge-worker environment, with the Internet constantly streaming new ideas, the most successful workers are those who can sort information most efficiently. Learning  top-flight productivity skills  is essential in todays workplace, but that can only get you so far. At some point, youll need to read 300 pages on the same topic. For most of you, this means turning off the computer, but luckily summer is a great time for curling up with a good book. I dont mean  a  Tom Clancy novel, either   Im talking about big ideas. This means that instead of sticking with a subject for the time it takes to scroll down a page, you have to stick with it for an entire weeklong vacation. That might sound dire, but remember the thrill of the rigorous thinking you did in college, when there were no all-department meetings and no memos to read during lunchtime? Big ideas take time to understand, and they need to grow in your brain so you can make them your own. Take the opportunity to do so this summer, when the world gives you more permission to take long breaks. 4. Differentiate yourself by lying quietly in the grass. When was the last time you had a grand epiphany in an important company meeting? Probably never. If the meeting is important, then you prepare and you concentrate and you think about what everyone else is doing all things that keep your mind from being open to something random and profound. Grand thinking requires space, flexibility, and time. These things are hard to come by if you lead a life that doesnt allow for stillness. We owe it to ourselves to take time to be alone and do nothing, or almost nothing. Even if no big ideas come to you at that moment, theres a clear, still moment where your brain gets a rest. And lying in the grass lets your body rest, too. Career coach  Susan Bernstein  says that success and fulfillment in a job come when you connect your body and your mind to your work. The first step in acquiring this balance, I believe, is quiet contemplation.