I want to respond to the latest post at Employee Evolution, as I’ve done in the past here. This time, Ryan Healy writes on ways your family can help you with your career. Here’s my take:

I didn’t grow up in upper or middle class, nor did I grow up in poverty.

But a large part of my childhood was being raised in the ghetto of my town by my single mother. People are incredulous when I tell them this.

“Do you even know what the ghetto is, Rebecca?” they ask.

My babysitter acted as my second mother and the neighborhood protector. While my mother worked, my babysitter was the character standing on the corner of her lawn, yelling like a madwoman at the drug dealers to “get the f&*k away” from her street. After one such declaration, I remember thinking that they were going to shoot her. Dead. Then and there. But she was tough. The dealers were afraid of her.

My mother did end up moving us to a decidedly middle class neighborhood as soon as she could, but what I learned from my old neighborhood stuck with me.

The point being that I’m intensely proud of my background, but it wasn’t financially affluent.

So I would never say to my boss, “I live with my parents. I don’t need this job.”

Because I’ve been working from the time I was able, and trust me, I do need this job.

I understand that much of our generation grew up middle class, if not upper middle class. That’s a good thing. If you have the connections, privileges, and opportunities, you should use them. Take full advantage of the help that is available to you.

But we all need to be more grateful of what we have. And we need to realize that not all of us have parents and parent’s friends who can help finance our new company, lifestyle, or potential unemployment.

In my world, performance reviews aren’t based off of your connections or your financial stability. They’re based off of your work and your credentials. But we don’t live in my world. We live in the real world. In the real world, who you know and how much money you have are negotiating gems.

It’s good that you can get ahead by building relationships. This is something you have control of.

It’s not so good that you can get ahead with money if you don’t have any. But this is the reality. If you have the privilege of being able to leave a company that refuses to give you additional responsibility as in Ryan’s example, do so. Grow up. Stop whining. And then move out of your parent’s house.

If you can’t risk losing your job, however, but want more challenge at the workplace, pat yourself on the back. Courage should be rewarded.

Then get creative. Think about how you can take on more work even if the employer isn’t helping you do it. It’s rare that you won’t be able to find more to do.

Maybe it’s related directly to what you’re doing now. Or maybe you start a group of co-workers to green the workplace practices of your employer. Or you develop a set of best practices for your peers. Or you could develop and manage an informal mentoring program within the company. You define your success. True fulfillment isn’t created by your employer, anyway. It’s created when you push yourself.

And most importantly, be proud of your background. Realize that it actually puts you ahead of some of your prosperous peers who don’t have to worry about the rent, or the power bill, or budgeting groceries. Some of the most successful people I know are those who have experienced a large amount of adversity. This doesn’t surprise me. Because when you hit bottom, you only have two choices. Stay there or get up. And when you haven’t hit bottom, you don’t have the same appetite to succeed. Adversity is your ally.

Career backgrounder.

With being green all the rage, here are 3 top blogs that deal with leading environmental issues:

For people who want to live a more ‘green’ lifestyle, but don’t know where to start,  check out the lazy environmentalist.com

Looking for the latest in environmental law, have a look at Environmental Law Prof Blog.

If you’d like to be a more ‘green’ aware parent read the teensygreen blog.

You know the acronym…K.I.S.S., “Keep it simple, Stupid“…Well, I prefer, “Keep it simple, Sweetie“, myself… but the basic idea is the same.

So, today I would like to say a word about MAKING YOUR FITNESS ROUTINE EASY!!

In order to work over the long-haul, fitness needs to fit into your lifestyle, not the other way around.

I am always struck by the number of people who tell me that they are going to start an exercise program.  “Great”, I say, “what are you going to do?”.  Well, and then they proceed to tell something like this. 

“I’m going to bundle up the baby and take her to my Mom’s, then pick my friend Sue up at her house, then we’ll drive together the 30-minute trip to the Y, we’ll swim for an hour, then I’ll drop her off and go home, shower and change”.   

How long do you think that routine is going to last in the “real world”? …I say two, maybe three times…max. 

Many people chose fitness activities that will NEVER work on a day-to-day basis.  Sure something like that might work (possibly) once a week, but day-to-day it has the shelf-life of a fish fillet. 

You need to find something (really SEVERAL somethings) that you can do easily on a daily basis.  Here are some questions (and suggestions) that may help you make fitness choices that will work for you day after day.

Can you get to a gym?  I’m a gym rat.  I lovebeing in the gym, but on the weekends (and some weekdays) that’s just not an option for me.  It’s too far away from my home.  So I put together a little gym in my house.  It doesn’t take much to set one up either, just one decent cardio piece (like a bike or a treadmill), a bench and some free weights and bands and you are more than good to go.  I also have a bunch of fitness DVDs to pop in if I need someone else to motivate me.

Do you LIKE being outside?  It’s great to say that you are going to walk outside everyday, but if you HATE the cold and live in the northern part of the country, you’re going to outta luck a good part of the year. 

Is your workout space a space that you ENJOY being in?  One of my clients told me with pride that she moved her treadmill/clothing and hat rack into the garage(?). 

“Is it a real garage or did you convert it?”  I asked.  “No, she told me, it’s a real garage.” 

Is it heated, I asked.  “No”, she replied, “it’s not”. 

I responded, “Okay, so let me get this straight.  You are going to go into your freezing cold garage every morning and get on the treadmill?”. 

“Yes,” she responded, “I don’t mind the cold.  “Besides, once you get moving it’s really not that cold”. 

I gave her one of my patented “all righty, let me know how that works out for you“ looks. 

Fast forward…weeks went by and the only time she touched that treadmill was when she brushed by it accidentally.. while getting into her car.  Needless to eventually say the treadmill ended up back in the house where at least it can be a useful coat rack.

Another client told me that she and her husband set up a workout space in the basement. 

“Great!”, I said enthusiastically, “is it a furnished basement”.  “No”, she replied, “it’s unfinished”.

“So what are you facing while you are on your treadmill?”, I asked. 

“A cement wall”, she replied.   

Now keep in mind that this woman is a landscape architect by trade.  A visual person!!!  How many times do you think she uses that treadmill facing the unfinished CEMENT WALL????   Maybe we could get her some nice bamboo shoots to put under her fingernails while she’s on there?

The point is, it needs to be a space that you are comfortable in on all levels.  It shouldn’t feel like your own personal Gulag Archipelago.

Is this a time of day that you can workout consistently?  Carving out a realistic workout time is key.  It’s great to want to workout at lunchtime.  But if you take 45-minute to shower, change and blow dry your hair, fitting a workout into your workday is going to eat up over 2-hours.

Once a client wanted to train with me at 1 PM.  I had that time open, because nobody wanted that time.  It’s smack dab in the middle of the day for Pete’s sake. 

She went on to tell me how she planned to make it work.  It was a long, convoluted story that basically ended up with the everything revolving around getting to the gym to see me in the middle of the day.  I knew there was NO WAY that she was going to be doing that for more than a week or two.  That’s just not the way life works.  So, I talked her into a more realistic time of day.

The bottom line is…it has to be as convenient and easy as possible.  The faster you can get moving, the less steps and prepping needed.  The better.  Anthony Robbins talks about “rolling out of bed, into your gear” and getting a move on ASAP. 

So think about your own program (or lack there of) what is it for you?  How can you KEEP IT SIMPLE, SWEETIE?

Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer, author of Fit + Female:  The Complete Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type and the creator of The Best Me Ever, a comprehensive weight loss and wellness system just for women.  It’s a first of its kind program designed to fit into a busy women’s life.  Lose weight and look great — 90 Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee!!

Something that I have noticed in my business coaching work is that many entrepreneurs have built themselves a company that sucks them dry. The joy and passion that got them started slowly dwindles and eventually they end up depressed and angry with themselves for getting the business-building-bug in the first place.

It doesn’t have to be that way!

Here are 3 Ways to Build a Business that doesn’t Suck You Dry:

1. Know what you want: what lifestyle are you looking for? Are you single and willing to work 24-7? Are you married with children and only have a limited amount of time and energy available? Build your business according to the lifestyle you want first. Nothing else matters as much as this!
2. Know what you need: how much money do you need to make? Take a hard look at the market or industry that you are considering, and make sure that it will be able to afford you the income that you desire based on the answer to Question No. 1
3. Get help: hire people to help you strategically based on what you don’t like to do. Try to avoid the perfectionist trap of not being able to let go of all the tasks because you don’t think that anyone can do them as well as you can. In order to achieve your answer to Question No. 1, you simply must figure out how to get and accept help.

With the slowing economy, a new phenomenon has taken hold. It’s pretty common for young people in their 20’s to move back into their parents home, but now we are seeing adults, in their 40’s and 50’s moving back in with mom and dad.  Either because of a sluggish job market or the credit issues which have caused havoc with the housing market, in many cases adults have no choice but to bite the bullet and move back home.

Common wisdom among financial planners that I know is that parents shouldn’t jeopardize their financial independence in order to help out their adult children. Once your kids become adults, you should wipe your hands of responsibility.

But as I love to say, there is more to life than economics and financial planning. My question is, what is family for? Should parents take a cruise to the Caribbean when their responsible daughter was just laid off and is in a financially tough spot? Dying and getting buried with lots of money doesn’t really help. Isn’t the point of having money, aside for trying to provide a comfortable lifestyle, to try and help out those less fortunate? Wouldn’t a struggling daughter fit that bill?

If parents are themselves stretched financially, they don’t have to actually shell out money for the child. Rather, they can provide a roof and help that way, allowing the child to save hundreds of dollars a month.

I have worked with parents in similar situations. I have found that for both parents and the children who have moved back in, they find that their relationship has grown much stronger as a result.

Neither parents nor children view moving back home as a desirable outcome, but if left with no choice, would you actually refuse to support your child?

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com