Blog | Page 2 of 2 | Catherine Thorburn Inc.

How To ACE a Job Interview!

2016-10-15T20:55:18+00:00By Catherine Thorburn|Career|

Being a Career and Outplacement Coach, I’ve helped a lot of people prepare for an interview. I’ve also interviewed hundreds of people over the years while being an active Human Resources Professional. And while it’s true that there are better answers for some questions and it’s good to know what those answers are, I often find what makes or breaks someone in an interview has more to do with how they say something or act in an interview, than the actual answer itself. Here’s my suggestion on how best to ACE a job interview: “A” stands for ATTITUDE. And by attitude, I mean your attitude. You have to go in with the right mindset if you are going to be successful at the interview. Think as if you ARE going to be offered the job, and that it’s only a matter of time before that happens. Right now you are [...]

Merry Christmas? Bah Humbug!

2016-04-29T14:59:21+00:00By Catherine Thorburn|Attitude|

People’s expectations are so high at this time of the year, and after watching only a couple of holiday specials, it’s not difficult to discover why. How many of them go something like this: A beautiful, well-to-do family sit lovingly together next to the fireplace and perfect tree, with their equally beautiful dog lying next to them as they begin to open up their perfectly wrapped presents while listening to the sounds of Christmas carols being sung outside by passing merry-go-lucky carolers. Hmmm……now, how many of us live up to that scenario? Most of us would probably say our lives don’t resemble anything like the above. For many, it’s by choice, for some, it’s simply reality, and for others, it’s a bit of both. So how do you have a Merry Christmas, or simply a Happy Holiday if your life doesn’t resemble anything like the above? By setting realistic expectations. [...]

Go To Your Happy Place

2016-04-29T14:59:06+00:00By Catherine Thorburn|Attitude|

Anyone who has ever been coached by me knows what I mean when I say “go to your happy place” because it’s something I find myself saying over and over again. That’s because I believe if you are in your happy space, everything else becomes better. So what exactly do I mean by this? I mean, we should do whatever it takes to make ourselves happy. When we are happy, everything else goes much more smoothly. It’s like when we first fall in love. Everything just seems to be so much better. No matter what happens, we are wearing our rose-coloured glasses and nothing seems to get us down. Well, it’s not the being in love part that is doing this for us, but rather, it’s the happy state which we are in and the feelings that come with that state that allows us to remain in a good mood, [...]

Cut Your To Do List in Half

2016-10-15T20:55:22+00:00By Catherine Thorburn|Productivity|

Have you ever felt overwhelmed? Have you ever felt like your ‘to do’ list never has an end? Do you sometimes feel like you have so much to do you don’t know where to start so you just don’t start? Perhaps instead you decide to roll-over and catch a few more zzz’s, only to wake up later and feel even worse than you did before because your ‘to do’ list is still there. If so, it’s time to stop the madness I say! Maybe the problem is you actually do have too much on your ‘to do’ list which is why you are feeling so overwhelmed. If that’s the case, start taking action by following these simple steps: Begin by looking at your list and identifying the tasks by category. Some categories you might want to consider are: administration, housekeeping, children, yard work, home maintenance, organization, well-being, learnings. Once you [...]

Just Do It

2016-10-15T20:55:27+00:00By Catherine Thorburn|Action|

Every client I had this week had one thing in common: They all felt the need to incorporate more exercise into their lives but hadn’t figured out quite how to do it. As the Nike motto goes…..”Just Do It!” That’s what we must do about exercise. It’s not something we have to plan. In fact, it’s probably best NOT to plan. It’s the planning part that often gets us stuck. We plan on joining a gym. We spend the time researching into which gym. Then once we find the right gym and we join it, we then plan when we can go to it. Did you know the reason gyms survive is because they are counting on their customers not going to them? If each of their customers actually used their memberships, they wouldn’t possibly have enough equipment to support everyone. Rather, they count on people to set out these great intentions [...]

Previous 12