I finally watched the movie Julie and Julia. Wow! Talk about a story that inspires. It totally has me thinking about passion and commitment. Thank you, ladies. This year – more than any other – has been particularly challenging for many of us. As optimistic as I can be, there were far too many days in 2009 when I just felt like I couldn’t face another day of the world’s insanity. Maybe you felt that way too? So here we are on the eve of a New Year. I am pondering what will be different – what I will do differently. No big resolutions for me other than to give up doing things the same way and thinking that this time…the result will be different. It never is. With that in mind, I’m making changes to the site/blog, which you may have noticed. More to come on that. SOOOO…what will you do differently in 2010?

Surprisingly, I just received email from a former colleague that hasn’t said boo to me in years. Now that she’s been displaced from her job, she wants my help (and I assume others) to connect her to new opportunities in other corporate accounts. Hum. I’m all for lending a helping hand…

AND I think it’s just a tad rude to ask me to do something for you when you haven’t kept in touch, nor did you offer to do anything for me in return.

People please don’t let this be you. I am empathetic to people finding themselves suddenly out of work. But it is up to you to keep your network fresh and to stay in touch with people regularly even IF you have a great job today. Lack of time cannot be your excuse. Not when you have plenty of social tools to make your life just a little bit easier.

Remember, you never know when you might need someone’s help down the road. If you haven’t done your part cultivating the relationship, then don’t expect a lot when you need something.

WOW – LinkedIn has been quietly testing changes to their overall design and are now in the process of rolling out the new design to all of their users. If you don’t see the change yet, you will sometime in the next week.

Some of the changes to the new design include:

• No persistent left-hand navigation. All global navigation is in the top navigation bar. LinkedIn wanted to free up space for page content – that means you can include more information about your and your network.
• New global navigation bar takes up less vertical space. Page content is moved up higher on the page – less scrolling!
• Drop down menus provide quick and easy access to popular LinkedIn features
• Additional applications and services are available under the “more” menu.

Learn more about what’s coming at the LinkedIn blog.