Understanding the environment in which you thrive, be it structured or free-spirited, can greatly influence your success or failure in work and life. Determine whether you are a structured or free-spirited person, and seek out similar people and situations. Like people, companies and organizations are also either structured or free-spirited; success comes from understanding which type of environment suits you.
Address your weaknesses, and offset them complementary strengths when they become an issue. You want to be trusted and your weaknesses to be overlooked. When interviewing, you must bring up and address your weaknesses to your employers before bringing up your strengths. Employers are more likely to pay attention to your strengths if they have already been made aware of your weaknesses, and you in turn will have more credibility. You must always be sure to follow up a discussion of your weaknesses with complementary strengths.
In this article Harrison explains why you should never exaggerate your qualifications on your resume or in your interviews. Achievements and what you have done are important, but the most important thing is how likable you are. Come across as someone who tries hard, makes an effort, learns from mistakes, is loyal, helps the company, and who is going to be a stable addition to the company. People are not hired because of some isolated accomplishment from their past. It is very important to be yourself and to present yourself as a likable individual and a team player. Being caught up in a lie or exaggeration is not in your best interest and it weakens your case dramatically in the eyes of an employer.
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Your thought process is a powerful determinant of your success or failure. Find a connection or unifying bond among the millions of thoughts that cross your mind every day, and use them to the greatest possible effect. Rather than dwell on negative thoughts that could undermine you, strengthen your mindset by asking yourself empowering questions; you will find that the answers to these questions constitute excellent career advice.
Recruiters use a variety of approaches, each of which has its merits; the best recruiters, however, use a combination of established methods. You need to work with a recruiter who understands these various methods, and supports your job search on multiple fronts. Exceptional recruiters are even more valuable in a bad job market, as their approach or combination of approaches will make the difference in whether or not you find employment.
In this article Harrison discusses how your life is controlled by your decisions and your commitment to them. You have the power to choose in your life, and your decisions shape your entire existence. You need to choose to make empowering decisions in your life and your career. You need to make a commitment to back up your decision. People who achieve the most are those people who make decisions and then proceed to follow through with them. There is so much power in making decisions and making these decisions with commitment. If you do not make decisions about your life and stand behind them, your life will be made and shaped by someone else. Do not let others and the world decide what happens to you. Decide what you want for your life and commit to those decisions today.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of concentrating on your work and not getting distracted. The true value of the best executives comes from their ability to concentrate and get things done. If you can concentrate for a long period of time on a single issue, you will improve the quality of the work that you do. The qualitative aspects of your work are incredibly important because they end up determining your outcome. Good companies and employers value people who are organized and think through issues when they are working on something. You need to concentrate. You need to give everything you are doing your full attention. You need to work hard and be focused.
In this article Harrison discusses the power of commitment. It is important to commit to your career, to a single employer or to anything for that matter. Not being committed to your career can have enormous ramifications. Commitment is key to any form of success. You should not do any sort of job that your heart is not in and that you cannot be committed to. Without a strong commitment you will not have the success you desire.
There is probably someone in your life and career who exerts a degree of control over you, and you may act against your own self-interest for fear of that person. While there is nothing wrong with being controlled by others – it is usually inevitable – you must at all costs avoid acting against your own best interests because of external control. Examine your position in life, and determine how much of it is based on your fears and submission to authority.
In this article Harrison discusses why associating with positive people is among the most important things you can do in your life. Positive people reinforce positivity and impregnate the environment with positive energy. Negative people sap your energy and make you feel that nothing is worth doing. Even a single negative person in a group of persons is enough to bring down the energy level of the entire group. In order to be happy and successful it is important to surround yourself with other people who are happy and successful. Positive energy spreads quickly–just as negative energy does. You life is valuable and your time is as well. The last thing you need in your career is to deal with another person’s constant negativity. Your career and life will change for the better when you surround yourself with positive people–and keep the negative ones away
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of having faith. Faith is the most important thing in the world that enables you to move forward and to take chances. When you have faith in yourself anything at all is possible. Regardless of what is going on in your career, or your life, you need to have faith. Faith is something that is real and makes a giant difference in people’s lives. Your ultimate resource in your job search and in your life is faith. You need to have faith that you will get the job you want and live the life you want. Faith is what drives people to do things when they have no idea what the end result will be. The greatest accomplishments in the world are achieved when people have faith. Faith can change the world, and faith can change your life as well.
In this article Harrison explains how you can ensure success in your career by externalizing your opponents. Your job is like a game; if you work hard, play by the rules of the company and are seen as part of the team you will be viewed as a valuable player for the company. The most significant part of any game is the presence of an opponent. Don’t look for an opponent among your co-workers. Never speak negatively of your team members. Instead, concentrate on the external opponents. External opponents bring you and the team closer as you work towards a common goal. In order for you and your company to succeed it is important to have an external opponent. Harrison advises people to consistently work hard and not participate in the politics. This is a sure way to score big in your career.
True self-esteem comes from within, not from the acceptance of others. When your sense of worth comes from within, you free yourself from comparisons with others and will enjoy a greater sense of internal security. You will no longer be bogged down by the experiences of others and can become much more self-reliant.
Your greatest successes will come from some of the smallest actions in terms of meeting people. You will cause a “stacking effect” the more you meet and connect with people; conversely, people cannot connect with you when you are withdrawn and nothing will happen. You must do everything in your power to connect with as many people as possible.
A powerful sense of self will make all the difference in your life. You must understand that your sense of yourself and your capabilities come from inside of you, not from the external forces that have brought you to your current place in life. What you feel internally might be completely different from what the world is telling you, and you must learn to focus on the former rather than the latter.
Adopting a positive attitude will always bring you closer to success, as nobody wants to be associated with a losing side. Everyone wants to associate with and hire winners, and avoids losers. Nothing is more important than maintaining a positive attitude, as many employers hire people based primarily on attitude; with the right attitude, everything else will fall into place. You must look like you are on the winning team, even if times are tough; nobody wants to hire a loser.
Everyone tries to maintain a certain emotional state, and learning to control your own emotions will have a profound impact on your career. While everyone allows their emotional states to be influenced by outside events, there is no advantage in basing your own emotions on things that you cannot control. Allow yourself to discover happiness and fulfillment naturally, rather than making your emotions dependant on external circumstances. Your outlook will have a tremendous impact on your psychological health, as well as that of those around you.
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