I’m going to share a resume writing secret with you that I recently learned at a career workshop. You can use this secret to tailor your resume keywords to employer job descriptions. It will save you time and it’s easy to use. Best of all I will guide you step-by-step thru the process using screenshots I took with my iPhone. Here goes…

Step 1
Pull up www.tagcrowd.com in your browser. It should look like this.

Step 2
Copy text from the prospective company’s job description.

Step 3
Paste the text into Tag Crowd

Step 4
Select your options and Click “Visualize”

Step 5
Check out the employers keywords and compare with your resume.

Its that easy. And the best part is…you can use the same process to evaluate your resume.

Happy tagging!

I am Thomas E. Anderson, II, writer, creator and walking billboard for My Future in Focus. I have been self-employed since age 9 when contracted as a wedding musician. No stranger to paradigm shifts, I overcame the stigma of childhood obesity, bouts of depression and death of my mother before age 18. To read my story, visit the About Me page.

My dad taught me how to ride a bike. And he taught me very well. So well, that within a year I taught myself how to ride with no hands. I distinctly remember concentrating so hard on my handlebars to keep my balance that I crashed into the back of a van. (No worries…it was parked lol). I was so focused on riding with no hands that I blocked everything else out of my view, locked in on my focal point and balanced myself on the bicycle seat with no hands.

Life is like a bike ride where we balance ourselves on top of two life wheels: work and personal. It becomes subconscious. We struggle to shift our focus between making money, managing relationships and maintaining a healthy work ethic. The personal life wheel contains the 6 vital parts of life that we balance such as emotional and financial health. Our work life wheel contains 3 areas such as production and time. Without first finding inner balance it is impossible to balance ourselves on the life wheels.

The good news is that we balance life and bikes the same way – in motion. It is easier to balance a bike while it is moving than while standing still. And it is easier to find balance between your two life wheels while you’re moving forward. If you can ride a bike you can find life balance and reduce stress. To begin eliminating negative stress in your life and consciously finding life balance, purchase my Balancing Act workbook. With it you can discover all areas of the life wheels, achieve balance and maintain your focus.

I am Thomas E. Anderson, II, writer, creator and walking billboard for My Future in Focus. I have been self-employed since age 9 when contracted as a wedding musician. No stranger to paradigm shifts, I overcame the stigma of childhood obesity, bouts of depression and death of my mother before age 18. To read my story, visit the About Me page.

Are You in a Balancing Act?

Have you ever been driving on the highway, take your hands off the wheel for a second and your steering wheels pulls your car to the left? That’s a sure sign that you need a wheel alignment. Reason being, if your car tires ever became severely out of line, they would pop.

The same thing goes for your life.

When your life is out of balance, it manifests through feelings of burnout, stress, health issues and family problems. If these areas are out of balance, it can feel like you are being pulled in 100 different directions. And it won’t be long before you feel just like those unaligned car tires—about to pop.

Engaging in a balancing act for an extended period of time causes burnout. You can end up burning the candle at both ends trying to get everything done. When you feel burned out, those feelings can result in mental, physical and emotional stress. If you have ever burned the candle at both ends, did you notice that fun things were the first thing to go. Relaxation and hobbies were next on the list. And before long, you looked around and all your favorite pastimes were a thing of the past.

Have you stopped doing the things that energize you? Is it hard to remember the last time you did something for yourself? Something that you enjoy doing? If you answered no, your life just may be in balance. If your answer is “yes”, check out my new workbook, “Balancing Act: Walking the Tightrope of Life and Business.” If this scenario sounds anything like your life, I have something that will make your life a little easier. To find balance in your life and career, click here to purchase Balancing Act.

I am Thomas E. Anderson, II, writer, creator and walking billboard for My Future in Focus. I have been self-employed since age 9 when contracted as a wedding musician. No stranger to paradigm shifts, I overcame the stigma of childhood obesity, bouts of depression and death of my mother before age 18. To read my story, visit the About Me page.

Are You in a Balancing Act?

Are you stressed out? Or maybe you are flying through your day at 100 miles per hour and you’re about to reach your limit? You may even be at a place of burnout where your passion has disappeared. If so, then your day probably sounds a little like this.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

It’s 5 AM. You get up, brush your teeth, jump in the shower and get the kids ready. You drive the kids to school by 7:30 and fight traffic across town to make it to work by 8. You have piles of work waiting on your desk when you dart the door. You put your coat down, trade pleasantries with co-workers and dive into a pile of papers to start working.

You pull up Internet Explorer only to find that 100 new emails have wandered into your inbox. Just as you start to reply, a co-worker comes in your office (without knocking) just to chit-chat. You engage them for two minutes and then…RING, RING, RING! Its your boss on the other end, calling you to a planning meeting.

On your way to the meeting, you get a text from your daughter reminding you that you have to pick her up from soccer practice after school. So, when will you have time to work on your final paper? After all, you need your masters degree to get that raise. Not to mention, preparing for that class you’re teaching tonight at church.

This is your life in a nutshell. And if you don’t get some relief pretty soon, you feel like you will end up in the nut house.

Have you ever felt like you are moving forward in life like an elephant riding a bike on a tightrope…while juggling Ginsu knives? One wrong move and it is curtains for you. Life feels like that at times, but here is the good news. That is not the case at all. By the end of this workbook, you will not only be able to make sense of your balancing act, but you will also be able to focus on a few key areas or common threads in your life.

You have just read an excerpt from my new workbook, ”Balancing Act: Walking the Tightrope of Life and Business.”  If this scenario sounds anything like your workday, I have something that will make your life a little easier. To find balance in your life and career, click here to purchase Balancing Act.

I am Thomas E. Anderson, II, writer, creator and walking billboard for My Future in Focus.  I have been self-employed since age 9 when contracted as a wedding musician. No stranger to paradigm shifts, I overcame the stigma of childhood obesity, bouts of depression and death of my mother before age 18. To read my story, visit the About Me page.