Forbes List

CareerBliss also compiled a less gloomy list: The Happiest Cities To Work In.

If you’re hoping to smile more at work, think about moving to Knoxville, Virginia Beach or St. Louis. Those are three of the happiest places to work.

But the most content workers of all are in Dayton, Ohio. With an index score of 4.02, employees in Dayton said they are more than satisfied with the people they work with and their daily tasks.

“The people you work with has a great impact on happiness,” Miller says. “In the cities that ranked highest, co-workers and one’s direct manager had a great influence on how that city fared compared to others.”

Knoxville holds the No. 2 spot, closely followed by Honolulu, Hawaii. These cities earned a 4.02 index score, and 4.00, respectively.

Memphis (3.99) and Pittsburgh (3.96) round out the top five.

“Bigger is not always better when it comes to finding happiness,” says Heidi Golledge, chief executive and co-founder of CareerBliss. “As you can see, cities such as Dayton, Honolulu and Memphis reveal that even mid-size cities can provide rewarding and positive work environments for people.”

She says everyone should be able to find a job that truly makes them happy. “Through our unique tools, three million jobs, company reviews and salary information, we want every person who is looking for a job in 2013 to be equipped with the resources they need to find true career bliss,” Golledge concludes.

 

12 Great Motivational Quotes to Start of 2013

Geoffrey James of Inc. recently published this list of Motivational Quotes that he liked as a way to start off 2013 “galvanized into action.”  We recognized some of these quotes from motivational speakers and writers from the 1970’s. And one of them is from The Bible!  My favorite is the one by Zig Ziglar.  This shows that a good quote can stand the test of time.

12 Great Motivational Quotes for 2013

1. “Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.”
Napoleon Hill

2. “The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.”
Brian Tracy

3. “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”
Dale Carnegie

4. “Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats.”
Og Mandino

5. “A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”
Tony Robbins

6. “If you can’t control your anger, you are as helpless as a city without walls waiting to be attacked.”
The Book of Proverbs

7. A mediocre person tells. A good person explains. A superior person demonstrates. A great person inspires others to see for themselves.”
Harvey Mackay

8. “Freedom, privileges, options, must constantly be exercised, even at the risk of inconvenience.”
Jack Vance

9. “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.”
Jim Rohn

10. “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
Zig Ziglar

11. “The number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep on trying.”
Tom Hopkins

12. “You have everything you need to build something far bigger than yourself.”
Seth Godin

5 Ways to Get Back Into the Work Mindset

Okay the holidays have been over for a while now and most of us working stiffs have gotten back into the swing of things at work by now. But if you are still feeling lethargic after the holidays here is some advice from Recruiter.com about getting your mind right about going back to work. This is also good advice for coming home from a vacation later this year.

5 Steps to get Back into the Work Mindset
SHALA MARKS
You’ve opened up gifts, stuffed your belly and spent time with loved ones. Now it’s all coming to an end.  And, for many workers, once the holidays have ended, so have their not-doing-work days.  It’s extremely easy to get accustomed to being on vacation, even if it’s just for a short while.
But no matter how comfortable we get, at some point we all have to go back to work. Even though you know your vacation days are numbered, the idea of returning back to your typical 9-to-5 routine can be daunting.  Is there any way to soften the inevitable blow?
Below are five steps you can take to get yourself back into the work mindset, post-holiday season:
1. Rest
You may be thinking, but this is what I’ve been doing this entire time, right? Well, yes, but you still need to rest up a little more before going back to work.  Give yourself at least a day to relax, free of busy activities and functions.  Prepare yourself for work the night before you actually return to the office-iron work clothes, gather your work materials and work bag, set your alarm, go to bed on time.  Just as they say you don’t want to go back to work the very next day after flying back home from out of town, you shouldn’t return to work without some time to fully relax and prepare the night before.
 2. Head start
Now this may not sound appealing, but going into work a little early on your first day back can help jump-start your normal routine.  Instead of dragging your feet out of bed and sluggishly returning to the office, going in earlier than normal will push you back into the familiar.  This can also help you get a head start on your workload for the new year (or quarter).
 3. Follow up
Many people go on vacation and leave behind unfinished work. Following up on emails, looking back at your past work history to see what you were working on before you left, and checking voice-mails and returning missed calls is a great way to get back into the swing of things.
 4. Review
Take some time to review any goals for the new year, whether set by your employer, specific department, team or yourself.  What do you hope to accomplish in 2013?  What goals did you or your team set to wrap up 2012?  Have you reached them?  What steps do you need to take to fulfill each one?  Reviewing your goals will help remind of you the necessary work you need to complete once your vacation has ended.
 5. Converse
Don’t forget to make time to mingle with your coworkers once you return to work.  Ask them how they spent their vacation time and compare stories on how all of you willed yourself back to work.  Not only will this help you easily transition back into the work environment as the sense of familiarity and comfort takes over from chatting with your colleagues, you can also discover new ways of preparing yourself to go back to work as you learn what did and did not work for the others on your team.