Shutterstock The intersection of the secret of happiness, how you don’t get to choose your mission and how different missions call different people different ways leads to some people being happier than others at any given moment. This is why it’s so important to latch on to an unmet need or a new way of connecting with people’s hearts, minds or souls. The Secret Of Happiness Happiness is good.

Shutterstock Dear Liz, I would be very grateful for your advice on my frustrating job situation. I work for a big bank. The bank has employees all over the world. The individual units and department heads have a pretty big say in management decisions. I have friends who work in other units in the bank and their policies and goals are very different from mine. I like my job but right now I’m in a discouraging place.

Photo credit: Getty LinkedIn, once thought to be exclusively for job search, is clearly becoming the social media tool for helping you do your job better, advance your career, and support your employer. The focus of this post is not how to use LinkedIn to find a new job at another company. Instead, here’s how to use LinkedIn to help you accelerate your promotion. Of course, you can’t get promoted just from being a star on LinkedIn.

Shutterstock If you’re feeling stuck in your job, you’re not alone. It can happen for a variety of reasons: Maybe you’ve become captive to your routine, you’re coping with a difficult boss or you feel like you don’t quite fit in. But the good news is: It doesn’t mean you have to do something major, like up and quit. You can take smaller steps toward advancement and see if that makes the job you have the one you want, too.

Shutterstock Life has a way of testing your mental strength when you least expect it. The true sign of mental strength doesn’t lie in what you do; it’s what you don’t and absolutely won’t do. The greater the challenge, the more difficult it is to respond with mental fortitude. It’s hard to be mentally strong, especially when you feel stuck.

Nothing will make or break your startup success more than the employees that you hire. And that’s a problem. Most budding or first time entrepreneurs have no idea what to look for when hiring an employee for a startup. They assume that credentials and likeability are the only important factors. It’s true that they might get lucky sometimes and hire a truly stellar employee.

Shutterstock Why does failure cause some people to give up on their dreams while others bounce back even better than before? It has to do with the way they think about failure. Failure can be part of the long road to success—but only if you think about it in a way that’s productive. Beating yourself up for your lack of success or declaring yourself a hopeless cause leads to unhelpful feelings, like shame or resentment.

This article is first in a series that will go deeper into the points I presented in “How To Be A Collaborative Partner” last week. Today I’ll address the importance of listening to your gut as an entrepreneur. Your gut instinct—and the instinct of your team—is one of your greatest resources. Instinct is invaluable, but not infallible, as I’d like to explain.

Shutterstock If you think it’s harder to get a promotion now than it used to be, you’re right. One ongoing outcome of the 2008-2010 recession is that many companies of necessity have found leaner ways of operating - fewer layers of management, broader spans of control. New technologies have also radically shifted some industries and automated many thousands of jobs in others, leaving fewer positions and less potential for promotion.

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