Monday Must-Reads: Evaluate Yourself and Have a Good Week

I hope you all had a great weekend!  The weather here in Chicago was beautiful.  The highlights of my weekend include:

• Putting on a very fun “Social Media 101” workshop in the suburbs where I met lots of great people.
• Indulging in Mari Luangrath‘s “Foiled Cupcakes.”  They beat out any fancy-schmancy $80 dozen of city cupcakes (i.e. More and Swirlz).  Unbelievable.  AND they deliver to anywhere in the Chicagoland area for less than your first born child.
• My friend Mark proposed to my friend Meredith! Seriously, a match made in heaven.  We got to celebrate at an over-the-top suite at the Trump with all of their friends and family- all of this a surprise to Meredith!
• A funny trip to the dog beach with Giada.  You’ve never seen more breeds of dogs (or humans) in one place.

And now it’s Monday- time to get back to getting tons done with a smile on your face.  Here are some great posts that may help you start to see your self-created roadblocks and start to overcome them this week.

Give Up In this post, Dave Navarro asks you to think of something in your life that you can’t stand.  Then he bluntly tells you that it’s kind of your fault that it’s still in your life.  Are you playing the victim?  Are you saying “I don’t have time, I’m too shy, I’m too fat”? You don’t have to tell us, but admit it to yourself. This is one of those posts that takes a bit of time to absorb.  It’s also a post that not everyone will like.

Top 10 Myths of Self Improvement THANK YOU!

Long Term Productivity means Looking After Yourself Thank you Ali for writing about taking care of yourself when pushing yourself to stay productive.  This is something I’m trying to do right now amidst my crazy work load.  I figure that even if I have to give up a few hours a day to get enough sleep and work out on occasion, I will be able to keep this work engine going longer without crashing.  Also, I’ve identified the things that sap my energy and those that give me energy.  I feel finding your energy sources and killers is crucial.  What do you do to re-energize in order to stay productive?  I could use your tips!

A Request from a Hypocritical Chicken Shit This post is from one of Ms. Career Girl’s regular readers and commenters, Eran.  She’d like you to hold her accountable to her entrepreneurial goals.  She also confesses something that most of us have probably faced at one time or another: we only like to do things we are good at.  As you probably know by now, my theme for 2010 is “get comfortable being uncomfortable.”  The Social Media 101 workshop this weekend was one way that I “got comfortable being uncomfortable.” Now that I’ve lead a workshop once, I’m totally confident about doing it again.  What have you stayed away from because you were afraid you wouldn’t be “good at”?  Have you missed out on an opportunity because you were afraid you wouldn’t be good at it?

Taking a Stand Being a blogger puts your opinions and personal brand at risk of being challenged.  This is just “part of the job.”  How opinionated should one get and how much of their views should they expose?  Would you be willing to miss out on a new job because you stated your opinion on something controversial?  Have you been cut down online?  If so, how did you deal with it?