This is an interesting story where Danny Kofke talks briefly about his strategies for thriving on a teacher’s salary. He mentions too that he feels like a rich man because he enjoys his work and gets to live in a way that supports his personal value system. That is career development gold, my friends!

You ever fumble around with that “so what do you do for a living” question? Most of us have at one time or another, and not only when looking for a job or interviewing but just with meeting new people or networking in general. Well, there is a simple, free, tool online that you may want to check out. Take a look at the Pitch Wizard at 15SecondPitch.com. Push the green play button when you are on the site to be prompted with questions to help you generate your elevator pitch. You may need to edit it slightly or you may wish to generate several different pitches customized for different audiences.

In fact, let’s make it an Elevator Pitch Fest! My colleague, Susan Ireland, is collecting elevator pitches generated in the comments at her blog — The Job Lounge. You’ll find my elevator pitch at the top of the list. Please consider this a personal invitation for you to join in too. The goal is to reach 100 elevator pitches and, frankly, I think we can blow that one out of the park! Thanks much.

Parties are over by now and most of us are back to everyday life. But before you get into the routine too much and before you decide for certain your goals for the year, take a second to think about 2008. Consider the challenges of the year and how you dealt with them and what you learned. What did you accomplish? I’m guessing if you take a few minutes to list them all out, you will be quite pleased with yourself. Feel that pride of accomplishment for a while before setting your course for this year.

• Always be thinking two jobs ahead to realize how the current position you are in connects you to where you want to be in the future.

• You must know your own value and be able to communicate your value to others comfortably.

• Often when a person feels most comfortable in their work is when outside contacts really dwindle. Don’t let that happen to you!

• Maintain a job pipeline by tracking leads for potential work.

• Make it a habit to log your accomplishments each week.

Want the best of the best career development tips, short and sweet? Here is my list. You can make a big difference for yourself by putting a couple of these into practice immediately.

Understand WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT.

Find a MENTOR AND/OR FORM ADVISORY BOARD.

Keep a PORTFOLIO.

Focus on LIFELONG LEARNING.

Always keep NETWORKING.

Spend more time tracking your ACCOMPLISHMENTS than your goals.

Invest regular TIME AND MONEY towards your own career development.