We’ve all got some big challenges to deal with these days: this wacky economy, maintaining cash flow, laying safety nets, building our companies, attracting more business, all while managing to stay sane and tenacious through these trying times.
That’s why we rolled up our sleeves and put ourselves to work on attacking this hairball of issues that literally can make or break your career…not to mention your spirits.

After months of all nighters and brutally long workdays, we’re finally ready to unveil a big new resource to help you find solutions to your biggest personal and professional challenges.

It’s called Fast Track to Success: 30 Days to Transform Your Life & Career.  Jam packed with perspective, inspiration and tips for leaping into action, this new tool is GUARANTEED to make a serious difference for you.  And you can take that to the bank!

How?  Fast Track is an online learning program that you can power through in as little as 30 days, 30 minutes a day.  Every lesson features online posts to read with full audio (read by me!) that you can download and listen to on the go if you’d prefer.  Then, once you’ve learned, it’s time to help you do.  Almost every lesson has a worksheet (or a few) designed to walk you though putting everything into action immediately.

Since this is all about getting to the next level, you’ll see not only your perspective, but outlook and opportunities evolve more and more every day!  We’ve even included a few videos to keep you fired up and opportunities every step of the way to share your thoughts or ask for help or advice from our team.  And again, we’re so confident this can help change your life for the better, we’re willing to guarantee it.  We’ll even send you a hard copy of our New York Times bestseller Secrets of the Young & Successful: How to Get Everything You Want Without Waiting a Lifetime as our gift.

To celebrate the launch of this new program, we’re going to spend the next 30 days sharing some of our best tips and tricks to take on this crazy economy on by storm, increase your opportunities, amp up your competitive advantage, and yes, make more money!

We want to share your best advice too, so keep your eyes peeled and we’ll offer plenty of opportunities on YoungandSuccessful.com, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to share your expertise and experience too!  So stay tuned and help us spread the word about anything you find particularly useful to your friends and colleagues.  We’ll all fare better and find the success we crave and deserve if we bond together and become a force to be reckoned with.

Here’s to all of our success!

Heading home for the holidays can be stressful. Everyone wants to know what you’ve been doing with your life, how school or work has been going, if you’ve found someone special, and if you’re on a solid track.

Before you start sweating, here are three ways to prepare yourself for the conversations you don’t want to have at Thanksgiving, but most certainly will:

1. Think about the conversations you’re going to have and what you are going to say about the choices you’ve made. If you aren’t sure about your plans, don’t say “I have no idea what I’m going to do.” Instead, try “I’m actively exploring my options right now.” That kind of spin takes you from hopeless and lost to confident and proactive with some simple repositioning.

2. Know your audience and be aware of their “push” buttons. For example, your dad might care about how much money you’re making, while your mom might be more concerned about your happiness. Speak directly to their unique questions and concerns and they are sure to be more supportive.

3. Recognize what makes YOU happy and how you define success. Even though your definition of success may differ from others, it’s important to acknowledge the validity of all sides and respect how others might see the world – while impressing upon them how important it is for you to find a path of your own.

Remember, they love you. They don’t have to say it to mean it, and at the end of the day, they only want you to be happy.

For many, finding a job or even the thought of searching for the right career can be daunting. We apply ourselves everyday towards success, whether through a test, presentation or performance, but navigating through the job recruitment system takes particular strategy. These other experiences can help you prepare, but when it comes to connecting to a career, there are a few key steps to help you focus and light the fuse.

1. Assess your assets. Between your resume and your personal talents, you have a leg up on your competition in some way or another. It’s time to start thinking about what your propellers are. Think about three major things you can bring to the table, and make sure these key words are visible in your resumes, applications and informational interviews.

If you’re having trouble picking out industries you may enjoy working in, make a list of things you enjoy, and things that you explicitly are not interested in. This creates your pool of interests and your boundary lines. Your major may not necessarily correlate with your interests, and that’s okay. Do you like traveling? If so, look for positions that allow you to move beyond the desk. It’s these simple personal tendencies that can make a big difference in your search.

2. Navigate before driving. Unfortunately, there isn’t a GPS system to acquire the perfect job or internship. So, it’s important to map out your plan of attack. This involves brainstorming and researching. Ask yourself a few questions with a long-term perspective. What do you want out of it? Why do you want this? Do you know enough about the industries you are interested in? Is there anyone in the industry who can give you insight? Dream big and act upon it. It’s scientifically proven that those who approach situations with a can-do attitude actually…can do it!

3. Branch out. While career fairs and career expos are helpful and encourage interpersonal interaction with campus recruiters, it’s also important to take a few paths that aren’t as mass marketed. By funneling through the same channels as everyone else you are increasing your competition, and decreasing your chances of being noticed. Accompany this by finding a unique avenue.

4. Have confidence and keep talking. Once you have researched, planned and taken action, don’t be afraid to peacock your distinctive qualities. The best way to do this and leverage your job candidacy is to network. Networking is valuable at a social, professional and virtual level. You never know the windows that can be opened by just talking to people and sharing stories. Be sure to slip in your career goals, and stay authentic.

Attend networking events and join social networking groups online (Ning, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, InternCircle, etc.) Cultivating a personal network will be key to your future career support. You never know when you are going to need to lean back on your network, so don’t be shy about reaching out and sharing bits and pieces of your professional self.

Article written by Chelsea Prince the founder and Editor-in-Chief of InternCircle.com, the first social networking site for interns and employers, which also serves as a central clearinghouse for internship recruitment. Chelsea operates an advice column for interns at Intern Circle, and contributes weekly advice.

We all have topics or subject areas that we could stand to learn more about or brush up on. Even those of us who are constantly reading, listening to podcasts, attending conferences and debating industry leaders, are challenged by the daunting task of keeping up with the latest and greatest insights.

Let’s face it, establishing and maintaining expertise in any subject takes a real investment of time, energy and often resources. Knowledge, still is, and will always be, a source of enormous power…not to mention, competitive advantage.

Formal education is the most logical first step to gaining this kind of advantage; But it doesn’t end there.  In fact, learning becomes most interesting when it is not only applied to the real world, but enhanced and challenged by actual experience.

Have you ever read a classic piece of literature once when you were a kid, and again years later as an adult?  Your whole perspective evolved, didn’t it?  Well that’s what happens with any kind of learning situation.  The more life and work experience you amass the more comprehensive your understanding of new information and insights becomes. Some might argue that the whole act of learning gets all the more exciting.

Complacency is fine when you’re on vacation or enjoying a lazy afternoon at home, but when it comes to building your career, it can be the kiss of death.  If you’re looking to build your credibility and earn more respect, or yes even money, make sure you’re taking your continuing education seriously.  Just don’t get stuck thinking of learning as something that has to happen in a traditional academic institution.

Check out weekend seminars, workshops, day trips, distance learning, internships, new jobs, weekend volunteering, books, or even mentors to start, you’re sure to find at least some basic information to get you started. Then engage.

You can study just about anything these days in a myriad of different places, formats, mediums and timeframes. You can chose how and where you learn to make sure it’s most engaging and interesting to you so you’re incentivized to keep adding to what you know.

Regardless of whether you have a job to contend with or some time off coming that you want to put to good use, think about what kind of commitment you can make and survey your options. Whatever you have to work with, there are lots of ways you can start to get the more intense education and experience you need. Some options to consider:

Short- Term:
Boot camps
Resort courses
Workshops
Conferences
Expos
Summer programs
Camps
Tutoring
Books, workbooks, kits

Part-Time:
Night or weekend classes
Extension program
Online courses
Counseling
Home-study programs

Long Haul:
Distance learning
Masters or advanced degrees
Total immersion programs
Leadership training
Management programs
New job

Now figure out what you need to learn and get out there! New information is everywhere. Sop up new insights, studies, trends and topics like butter on a biscuit.  (Sorry, I just love saying that!)  Your credibility, respect, expertise, and success depend on it!

Back to school season still makes me cringe a bit.  I’m just being honest.  Like most I assume, it wasn’t always easy for me.  Now that I’m a young professional…err..full fledged adult (oye)…I have a whole new view on Back to School season.  In one word:  Perspective.

So, for all of you loading up those new backpacks, sharpening your pristine yellow pencils, and scheming about how you’re going to smuggle your cell, iPhone, iPod, Zune, video games or other banned technology into your classes, LISTEN UP.  (Parents too!)  I may be able to help you see this whole experience – that is, your life as a student – in a very different light that can almost guarantee your success in the long run, but way more importantly, your personal confidence and happiness.

Hopefully these can save you or your loved ones a little unnecessary stress in their remaining life as a student.

1. The most popular and highest achieving kids in school are NOT always the most successful in the real world. Success in the academic bubble does not translate to success in work and real life.  This is really important to note, whether you’re living out what some will one day refer to as “your glory years” or you’re struggling at the bottom of the social or academic heap.
2. Everyone is cool and special and interesting in some unique way. Give people a chance.  Don’t be too quick to judge or disregard people because they fit in or don’t.  That’s just immature and childish.  Don’t blow off anyone.  Everyone has feelings, insecurities, ambitions and dreams of a brighter future.  Be kind to people.  That karma will stick with you for a lifetime.
3. The nerds make all the money in the end. No joke.  The least popular, most focused, often anti-social people are thinking day in and day out about the big things they’re going to do with their life.  And trust me, not all, but some will become the most influential and most successful people you know.  Personally, I’ve grown to love and admire “nerdy” people. They’re often the smartest, most interesting, and most creative of us all.
4. Being different is actually good. There’s so much pressure to fit in and be like everyone else in school.  For some of us, the pressure is so stifling you start to lose sight of who you really are.  And this is exactly the time you should be starting to discover yourself.  You’ll soon find that being just like everyone else is in direct conflict with what you really need to do to succeed in life – differentiate yourself and build your competitive advantage.  What makes you different, if positioned the right way, really can be what makes you special.  It’s a paradigm shift for sure, but a valuable one to note as early on as you can adopt it.
5. Pursue what you love regardless of what people say. The rules of what is cool and not in school are manufactured in a totally subjective bubble of people with painfully limited perspective on the world.  Whatever it is that you’re really into, that you want to stay up late reading about, that you’re thinking about when you should be focusing on a lecture or studying…. may be the key to what you build your life and career around in some way.  Don’t ignore it.
6. Extracurricular activities and internships are as important as academics…in some ways even moreso. Any projects, organizations, leadership roles or jobs that take you off campus or enable you to interact with the outside world are invaluable experiences.  The more you interact with adults, businesses, community groups and execs, the more comfortable you’ll be networking with them when you need a loan, a job, advice on your career, admission to grad school, etc.  It will only help you to start building those relationships now.
7. Courses and majors in school do not perfectly correlate to opportunities in the working world. This may seem obvious to some and be a total surprise to others.  Like, “What do you mean I can’t find a job as a Liberal Artist or Political Scientist?” These are courses of study, meant to expose you to new industries, fields, and cultures.  Don’t always take them so literally.  Consider them a new frame of reference, a jumping off point to discover a slew of different career paths and possibilities.  Most importantly, don’t let the course catalogue or your class list limit your thinking about your broader options later on.  There is a huge world out there and millions of different things you can do.  Discovering what’s right for you is a process.  Start thinking about it early enough to give yourself time to explore and enjoy the journey.
8. Teachers and professors should be your friends. These are your best mentors and source of perspective when things at school get rough.  They also live in the real world and can not only help you understand what you’re real opportunities might look like, but also prepare you for the MASSIVE transition into the next chapter of your life.
9. Your parents and family really do have your best interests at heart. It may not always feel that way and they may not always understand why you do some of the things you do, but give them the benefit of the doubt.  Don’t make life harder on them.  They’re doing the best they can.  And the better your relationship with your parents or guardians, the easier your life is going to be.  Period.  You may move away and grow up, but never forget the people who got you here.
10. Life is complicated. Get used to it.  Consider yourself in training for the really big stuff to come.  Learn to deal with conflict, confusion, challenges and tackling things you don’t understand while you have a safe environment to do so.  You’re in the petri dish about to be let out into the world.  Things that bog you down or cripple you in school may afflict you in some way throughout your life if you don’t master some vital coping skills.  Beat people up in the real world instead of being “a man” and you could get arrested.  Cheat at work, rather than a test, and you could be fired or sued.  Act like you’re better than everyone else, and you may end up with no friends.  There are consequences to all this bad behavior as the stakes get higher and you get older.  Master your own class in dealing with people now and reap the benefits for a lifetime.

Growing up isn’t easy. The sooner you start to get a broader perspective on your time in school, the happier you’ll be … not to mention, more successful as an adult.

YSN – Expert Advice on Career Advancement and Tools for Professional Development