Perhaps you quit or were downsized out of a job. Maybe your firm was bought out. Your contract may have ended and you don't have a new one yet. You may have received a golden (or not so golden) handshake. There are many reasons you may find yourself between jobs or contracts.

Today private and public employers seek alternatives to full time employees. It is not hard to understand this trend. We live in a fast changing world. Temporary and contract workers give employers more flexibility to adjust to fluctuating human resources needs. It frees them from the considerable long term responsibility of employing permanent full time employees.

Depending on your circumstances, you may welcome some time off. Or not. In either case, it's a good idea to make the best use of your time between jobs or contracts. Here are 10 things you can do to boost your career during your hiatus.

1. Make A Habit of Self Love

"If we really love ourselves, everything in our lives works". (Louise Hay)

Some of you may be thinking, "What's with this airy fairy stuff?" I have no hesitation about putting self love at the top of the list. Your relationship with yourself is the only guaranteed 24/7 lifelong relationship. Your self love is your most crucial asset. The strength of our self love largely determines our satisfaction in life. We can never love ourselves too much. Don't sacrifice it for anyone or anything. Associate with those who increase your self love and shun those who reduce it.

We must not let our self love ride on the vagaries of the job market, or any other market for that matter. You need to know, deep inside, that you are a great guy or gal whether rich or poor, employed or unemployed, thriving or struggling...

Self help guru Louise Hay advises us to to tell yourself how much you love you at least 300 to 400 times daily. Make it your mantra, she urges. Hay notes she has personally seen hundreds of people transform their lives with this simple but powerful habit.

Hay's advice may sound extreme and impractical. It isn't. Think of the thousands of negative thoughts we typical;ly think each day, without being aware of them. I suggest you dedicate 10 minutes in the morning, upon awaking, and 10 minutes before bed, to telling yourself you love or appreciate yourself. With passion!

Make a habit of it; just as many people make a habit of exercising regularly. There are few better ways to use your time and building your self love. Look for other ways to express your self love too. Ask yourself this simple but powerful question: How would I act if I loved myself 10% more? What about 20% more?

2. Refocus On Your Big Vision

Have you lost sight of your Big Vision in your career? Has it changed? Your hiatus is an excellent opportunity to refocus on it. Ask yourself questions like:

What is your Big Vision?

Are you passionate about it? If not, what vision DOES make you passionate?

Where do you want to be in five years?

What is distracting you?

How can you eliminate or reduce distractions?

Build the habit of refocusing on your Big Vision regularly.

3. Update Your Resume or Promotional Material

Your resume or promotional material can never be too strong. Update it regularly.

Add new experiences, accomplishments, skills, references and qualifications.

Make it look more contemporary, appealing and stand out positively from those of your competitors.

Proofread it repeatedly. Have others, who know you, proofread it. They may catch errors and omissions you miss.

Have it checked by one or more authorities in your field. They may have helpful suggestions to offer you.

4. Get A Mentor. See A Good Headhunter. Or both

It is hard to overstate the value of a good mentor. When people achieve quickly, in almost any field, it is largely due to mentoring from someone more experiences. Approach people in your field, that you admire, and respectfully ask them to by your mentor. Offer them something valuable in return. Make it win/win for both of you.

A good headhunter, specializing in your field, can also offer you much insight into career opportunities. You can only benefit from the expertise of such people.

5. Audit Your References

Your references may have said wonderful things about you two years ago. That doesn't mean they are still saying such things. They may have lost their enthusiasm they once had when recommending you. You need to keep on top of your references.

Maintain mutually beneficial relationships with your references. Every relationship, business and personal, must be give and take to thrive. Help them out with referrals which benefit them too.

I suggest you have a friend, who owns their own business (and who is not known by your references) call them; pose as a potential employer or client, and ask their opinion of you. They can report to you what was said.

You may tactfully ask your references to be a little more enthusiastic in recommending you. If your references are lukewarm, you'd be wise to replace them with references who sing your praises more highly.

6. Send Surveys to Former Employers Or Clients

There are many good reasons to send surveys to former employers or clients, provided you parted on good terms. It shows you truly care about delivering value. It could help you obtain more work from past employers or clients and/or referrals to new ones. It also helps you offer services which better match your prospective employers' and clients' needs.

Make the survey brief and to the point. Ask for input as to how you can better help them. You could also ask them if they know of other firms or departments which could benefit from your services. Thank everyone who responds to your survey.

7. Get Your Finances In Order

Now is a good time for a complete financial check up. Seek the help of a competent professional in this area.

Do you have adequate savings to cover emergencies?

Do Your investments meet your life goals? Is their risk level appropriate for your personality and present life situation? For instance, if you are planning to retire, you may want to reduce your financial risk and maximize security.

Are you on track to meet your financial goals?

Find and plug your financial leaks. Are you paying unnecessary interest and/or other expenses?

8. Break Free From What Drags You Down

Deep inside you likely know certain thoughts and people drag you down. They make you feel less capable, less powerful, less alive. They can drag down everything from your health to your career. You need to break free from them. This may not be easy. Aim to minimize your time invested in negative thoughts and people. Maximize your time with positive influences.

One suggestion many find helpful is to use positive procrastination to weaken unwanted habits. Put off indulging in what drags you down. Invest time in people and thoughts which build you up instead.

9. Network

The best time to build your network is before you need it. As the proverb goes: "Drill your well before you are thirsty". Hopefully, you have been building up your network of contacts. If not; better late than never.

Make time to attend relevant networking events, in your area. Build the habit of networking everywhere. You never know who you might meet and how much you may be able to help each other.

The overall key to good networking is; be genuine. Here are three more tips:

* Join groups you are keenly interested in and become active in them. Don't join groups simpl;y for the sake of meeting people.

* Be genuinely interested in the people you meet. Talk about what interests them.

* It is not about handing out lots of business cards. Its about collecting lots of business cards. You need to be able to contact people you meet. Rather than waiting to hear from them.

10. Volunteer

By volunteering, you help others and you can also benefit greatly from the experience. Choose to volunteer where you can develop and hone desired skills and where you can forge valuable connections.

Volunteering also helps you:

* Check out a new occupation, industry or skill

* Build your credentials and confidence

* Garner valuable references and referrals

Your idea is fabulous and you want to make progress on it but you need a strategy to execute your vision as it relates to long-term success or it needs to be reevaluated to ensure that it is on course. Strategy is, "a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal usually over a long period of time," per Merriam-Webster dictionary. However, we need a functional definition as it relates to your companies vision and goals. Therefore, I would say that strategy is, "the intent to act, the volition to act, and the design to achieve plans of action as they relate to the direction and future of your business." Strategy development is a long-term process that is evolutionary and it should be evaluated yearly, quarterly, and more if conditions warrant a strategy session.

We will evaluate briefly the ten major areas of strategy creation as they relate to you achieving your goal. These ten areas will be listed and broken down to help you evaluate and reevaluate your current position in strategy design. They will be listed logically as they relate to an idea in your head and build upon that. In addition, the creation of a strategy is not a single day event. It takes time to gather what you know is needed and what you find is needed once you begin. We begin at the beginning. You should at this point have a vision and goals developed to help guide your organization in fulfilling its purpose.

Products/Services Offered

Your product or service is what you offer the world to add value to the lives of others. This can be either qualitative or quantitative but you should be aware at this point. Ask these questions and others that help define this category well.

What product or service do we sell or plan to sell?
What does it look like?
What is the outcome of its use?
How do we update our products/ service to stay competitive?
For instance as a consultant my product/service is the ability to improve my clients condition based on over a decade of experience helping organizations professionally. This relates to you because you have to list your products and services that are offered in there fine detail. They must but listed in a way to allow rapid access to the information for future needs as the strategy secession progress.

Customer/User Groups

You have to serve by helping customers or clients in some way. Your invention, technology, pastry, picture, music or designs have to connect with others. Asking ourselves a few questions clarifies that for future understanding.

Who is buying our product or service?
What organizations are buying our service?
Who uses it regularly?
How do we expand the diversity of the group?
Your target customer is the person you have identified as the one who is most likely to purchase your products, according to Entrepreneur.com. This is a specific person, who is elated to use your product/service when needed or desired. Be very narrow in your description here, as it will provide clarity. Examples would include specific age, specific education, and specific income. These identifiers are so spot-on that a picture could be painted of the individual without negating the various individualities of who uses your service.

Market Served

This is an expansion of the above and is a broader category of client or customer base. This will be larger demographics through a range and not specific. Each product or service may cater to different aspects of the market served and they should be listed in conjunction with your product/service. Target market should also list the reason why these specific customers are likely to buy. In addition, this information will help in creating a primary component of your marketing plan.

Technology

Technology is how you use information to create and maintain a competitive advantage. The planning associated with this is a tie in for numerous other aspects of your organizations success. Technology is used in commerce, in design, and much more. Your organization marketing will also take into account the use of technology to deliver your value proposition.

How is technology changing that we can grasp early?
What changes in technology make it more affordable to deliver our goods?
Use technology as a multiplier of your organizations success. Evaluate what you have been using and determine if it needs to be upgraded, eliminated, or in line with current competitors use.

Production capability

Creating knowledge, a teddy bear, a balloon, a house all have production element that deals with methodologies useful to arriving at a final product.

How will we create our product?
How will we produce the intellectual capital for our services?
What needs to change to produce of product/service faster?
What needs to change to produce our product/service less expensively?
Evaluating production on a constant basis ensures costs are controlled, quality is maintained, and your customers/clients are happy. I would remind you that, quality in gets quality out. This has been how Apple, Inc has maintained lead over its competitors. Production can be done with a planned ramp up to the best quality. Plan to find the most expensive means of production first, then scale it back your companies' production budget.

Natural/Human Resources

The ability to create tangible or intangible goods and services are always acquired in there rawest form. Whether it is raw intellect, precise hands, or machines, they will need to be accounted for. A few examples to ask of the executive leadership team deal with the following questions:

What is our companies' raw material needs to produce goods or services?
Who is needed to create the value in our goods or services?
What automated systems can create this value?
This subset deals with elements that are inputs to production and delivery. This group must be managed to ensure it is efficient, effective, and motivated. In addition, the natural resources have to be measured per there influence to the environment and there frequency of price change.

Methods of Sale

This can be an extensive list of varying options but they will deal with financing on store credit (Macy's Credit, Home Depot, Dillard's, etc.), third-party credit (American Express, Visa, MasterCard, etc.), cash or other arrangements. Cash will be king but credit cards speed up payments. Ensure you have both options.

What impact does our method of sales have on future profits/returns?
How will we accept payment?
What needs to change in the future to increase revenue from sales?
Ensuring that this subset is managed well will provide the resources, data, and fuel to innovate internally with information based on the organizations initiatives.

Method of Distribution

Moving goods from manufacture, to warehousing, storage, and in store handling, etc. is a sophisticated dance of timing.

How will the product/service be delivered through manufacturing, shipping, retail options, shipping again, and varying other combinations?
What are retail distribution options?
These questions ask a lot out of a leader but being stretched is why you are here. "How will item p get to y and both be happy?" This is a measure of logistic sophistication and there can be multiple routes. The best choice is better than the perfect choice. There should always be a balance between quality and cost. Erring on the side of higher cost to ensure quality is delivered.

Size/growth

This micro strategy subset deals with using past data of the size and speed of growth of your organization and comparing it to where you would like to go.

What is our target in growth?
Have we prepared for a boom in our business?
How will we know we are on the right path?
These question deals with the future as well as benchmarking the present state. Thru analysis of vital KPI's we would compare your organization to your peers so we can ensure that your leadership is thinking of growth.

What is the most useful size?

This deals with people, facilities, customer base served by projection, and more.

Return/profit

This is where all the hard work pays off for shareholders in for profit organizations; in addition to where nonprofits determine where they can return more to the individuals that are served.

Where do we reinvest the profits?
What expansions can be completed now?
What needs to be saved?
The likely outcome of a for-profit venture is a profit if you plan for success and are vigilant in guarding and executing your plans. In addition, non-profits can benefit from strategy planning to enable an orderly creation of the means to return funds, goods, services, etc to the recipients.

Strategy design is a real worldview of the future of your organization. It provides planning and tactics to the board of directors, executives, management, and other associates. These questions are designed to increase your understanding of your organizations direction and actions to take to accomplish that. Remarkable, what can simply be listed, but the task does not end at creating a list, Alan Wise says, "Strategy doesn't fail in creation, it fails in implementation," and we will cover that in future white papers. In addition, each section of the strategy design is an overview of what will be much more information intensive reports. These subsections are created by individual leaders.