Broken resolutions are what prompted Mike Ashcraft, pastor of Port City Community Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, to take a different tactic. Instead of making – and breaking – another promise to himself, he decided to pick one word and stick with it for a year. He chose "flow," and used it as a lens though which he’d approach personal change. (Fast Company)

As 2015 progresses, an improving U.S. economy should buoy markets and provide hope for the business sector. However, before we pop the champagne, it is worth remembering that the past year has also been a turbulent one. Economic inequality continues to widen and worker strikes, once rare, are now increasing in frequency. The reality is that despite gains in profitability and shareholder value, American businesses could experience a serious labor problem in the near future, and the sooner it is addressed it, the better. (Time)

Although the overall unemployment rate has been dropping steadily lately, it’s a much different story for Americans 55 and older. And things are still pretty dismal for the long-term unemployed. But MIT Professor Ofer Sharone, author of Flawed System/Flawed Self, has a few ideas on how to turn things around for white-collar job seekers and how they should look for work. (MarketWatch)

Quick: how would a professional acquaintance describe you to others? Savvy project manager? Collaborative leader? Digital whiz? That answer is your reputation – or, in the parlance of social media, your personal brand. Career success highly depends on that snap description, says Paul Winum, a senior partner at RHR International LLP, a leadership-development firm. With the rosy outlook for hiring and promotions in 2015, now’s a good time to refresh your reputation. (subscription) (The Wall Street Journal)

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The commute to work is dark. The trip home, also dark. It's freezing, and everyone around you is sneezing and coughing. When winter settles in, our daily routines can start to feel like an oppressive slog. Seasonal mood changes are normal, with 14% of the adult U.S. population feeling the "winter blues," as doctors call it. Stress associated with the holidays, finances, family and the start of a new year are compounded by having to dress like an Arctic explorer just to get out the door. (Fast Company)

Building true confidence is a gradual process. No one is going to suddenly turn into a positive self-confident person overnight. But if you're in need of some extra confidence, here are seven secrets to building unstoppable confidence that are no longer undercover. (Inc.)

Here’s a surprising truth about the job market, circa 2015: For the first time in a while, workers have the upper hand. After a few bruising years for job seekers, employers have started hiring again, and several broad surveys indicate companies will pick up the pace in this year. Companies are competing for talented workers, so wages may rise for many, according to a recent forecast from the Hay Group, which predicts the average global salary will rise 5.4% this year. (The Wall Street Journal)

Congress is still predominantly white and predominantly male, but the 114th Congress, sworn in on Tuesday, is the most diverse ever. There are 535 elected seats on Capitol Hill – 435 in the House, 100 in Senate. In the House, three women are making history: New Jersey Democrat Bonnie Watson Coleman is the first Black woman to represent the Garden State in Washington. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, is the youngest woman ever elected to the House, at just 30 years old. And 38-year-old Mia Love, representing Utah, is the first Black female Republican ever in Congress. (DiversityInc)

The eurozone economy saw anemic growth in December and suffered its worst quarter for more than a year, a survey has indicated. The closely watched Markit/CIPS composite purchasing managers' index (PMI) for December fell to 51.4 from an earlier estimate of 51.7. But that was better than the previous month's reading of 51.1, which had marked a 16-month low. The eurozone economy has seen 18 months of continuous, albeit weak growth. (BBC News)

Greece and others have tired of austerity. Do Berlin, Frankfurt and Brussels still have the will to face them down? It’s fair to say that this iteration of the Greek debt crisis is different. But that doesn’t justify the kind of complacency financial markets are showing. (Fortune)

UCLA’s Anderson School has gone through a transformation in recent years, becoming more closely tied to movements within the tech industries in L.A., Silicon Valley, and Seattle. (Fortune)

Business students are flocking from Wall Street to Silicon Valley and graduate programs are doing all they can to keep up. For many years, a Wall Street-driven career was the obvious goal of most MBA candidates: Two-years at an elite school followed by a lucrative stint as an investment banker or consultant. The 2008 financial crisis and the explosion of tech-based entrepreneurialism, however, have reshaped those dreams. (Yahoo! Finance)

The protests in Ferguson and aftermath of the recent decisions to not indict officers connected to the killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown have ignited a fury in black America. Tired of seeing no repercussions for the killing of unarmed African Americas, social media lit up with frustration. Responding on an economic level, many protested Black Friday shopping, vowing to "spend not one dime" on any company that wasn’t black owned. Answering the call to action is Brian Williams. A finalist at 2014’s Elevator Pitch Competition at Black Enterprise’s Entrepreneurs Conference, Williams launched his company Purchase Black, LLC in 2013. (Black Enterprise)

Technology fanatics descend every January on Las Vegas for the International CES, a colossal gathering of gadgetry and geekery where some of the world’s largest companies show off their best ideas for the future. This year, as in every recent year, the show has been burdened by existential angst, with many tech writers saying they planned to skip an event no longer seen as vital. It has been ages since anything momentous was unveiled at CES. (The New York Times)

Edwardo Jackson will gladly drop a Bitcoin primer on anyone who's curious. Beyond his outer enthusiasm for the digital currency – when he talks about Bitcoin, he speeds up as if discussing a newly-discovered oil reserve in his backyard – he loves trading it and tracking its movement in the markets. In 2013, Jackson, a 39-year-old Las Vegas-based pro poker player and former writer for Upworthy, started spreading the gospel of the currency via his blog, Blacks in Bitcoin, where he claimed that he would "spontaneously combust" if he had no other outlet to voice his obsession with the digital barter. (The Atlantic)

Mobile phones are essential to shopping these days, and a majority of cell phone owners say they’re willing to share personal data with merchants in exchange for such things as coupons and discounts. But navigating mobile marketing can be confusing for small business owners, who must avoid bombarding people with unwanted texts while they’re slogging through crowds of holiday shoppers. So how can local merchants use mobile marketing effectively? Here are six tips. (Businessweek)

Four years ago, I took a career about-face, leaving my job as a psychotherapist to join the world of startups at a venture capital incubator. I gave up one kind of emotional grind for another. It's one thing to see patients for 50 minutes once a week, it's an entirely separate thing to live and breathe the crazy ins and outs of the startup life with hundreds of people hustling to make their companies succeed. (Inc.)

But the suburbs of Atlanta no longer hold just the promise of good schools, clean streets, and whitewashed homes with manicured lawns proudly displaying American flags. They are increasingly home to the very poor, who find themselves stranded in suburbs without the kind of transit or assistance that they might once have found in cities’ urban cores. (The Atlantic)

The plummeting price of oil means no more trout ice cream. Coromoto, a parlor in Merida, Venezuela, famous for its 900 flavors, closed during its busiest season in November because of a milk shortage caused by the country’s 64 percent inflation rate, the world’s fastest. That’s the plight of an oil-producing nation. (Bloomberg)

Trick your brain and your wallet will follow. We all know you can get in financial trouble by pretending to have more money than you actually do – and most of us know that you can’t make an educated guess at someone’s salary by checking out the car they drive. So you can appear to be wealthy even if you’re not. But can you get ahead by telling yourself (and intimating to others) that your paycheck is smaller than it actually is? (Money Magazine)

Although the rise in premiums has slowed since passage of the Affordable Care Act, workers who receive health insurance through their employers are shouldering more health care expenses at a time when wages are stagnant, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund that analyzed costs across the states. (The New York Times)

The blueprint for success in technology used to be straightforward: Develop a cutting-edge product people need; build a (near) monopoly; then reap the rewards of controlling that technology – be it the software or chips that make computers run or the switches that make the Internet possible. That was how Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco Systems ruled the ’90s. Fifteen years after the first great tech stock boom ended, the industry’s new colossal trio of Apple, Google, and Amazon couldn’t be more different from their ancestors. (Money Magazine)

In the last 10 years, Lego has grown into nothing less than the Apple of toys: a profit-generating, design-driven miracle built around premium, intuitive, highly covetable hardware that fans can’t get enough of. Last year, fueled in part by The Lego Movie’s Pixar-size popularity, the privately held company briefly surged ahead of rival Mattel to become the biggest toy manufacturer in the world, reporting first-half profits of $273 million on revenue of $2.03 billion. It’s a remarkable achievement, particularly considering that Mattel makes a huge range of products. (Fast Company)

At a moment when President Obama is seeking to convince Americans that the economy is finally back on track, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) delivered a major address Wednesday in which she argued that average Americans are being left behind because Washington has failed them. In a speech to an AFL-CIO conference in Washington, Warren ticked off a list of upbeat indicators: Corporate profits and economic growth are up. The unemployment rate is down. Inflation remains low. And the stock market is booming. (The Washington Post)

The upcoming tax season is likely to be the worst in years -- for the IRS and potentially for taxpayers. The reason: The IRS budget keeps getting smaller, and the tax code keeps getting more complicated. Nina Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, said at a conference recently that she worries it could rank as the worst since 1985, which was regarded as a disaster due to a computer failure, lost returns and delayed refunds. (CNN/Money)

In my research on how experienced managers and professionals step up to bigger leadership roles, I have observed both the value and the difficulty of returning to our youthful, fake-it-till-you-learn-it strategies. The only way to pick up the "softer" skills that we need to lead with greater impact is to observe and emulate people who already have them, trying their strategies and behaviors on for size before making them our own. (Harvard Business Review)

I’m told the first step in overcoming addiction is admitting you are powerless over the object of your addiction. Last month, I read yet another biography of Warren Buffett (and his company, Berkshire Hathaway). Thankfully, this addiction to his writing is beneficial, so I embrace following Buffett’s writings closely. In December, Buffett issued his latest biennial memo to Berkshire operating company managers (whom he refers to as his "All-Stars"). The Berkshire chairman and CEO requested three things from this select group of businesspeople. (Money)