In this article, Harrison explains how the company you keep will inevitably be a major cause of success or failure in your career and life. Wrong associations can be harmful and although you cannot really avoid it all the time, you need to distance yourself from it. Unethical people can repeatedly injure your progress and you need to be aware of and understand the people you deal with, to protect yourself from those who could taint you and drag you down.
In this article Harrison discusses how your problems can help you move forward. Most of us are never satisfied with what we have and we are continually seeking more and more of what we do not have. Harrison points out that problems in life are in a way special gifts which force us to move ahead. They are a much-needed drug. They seek to challenge us and keep us on our toes. Embrace your problems. Problems create energy and energy creates change. You feel the best when you were working through some challenge, with a solid goal in mind. Problems are the fuel of our life.
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Your happiness and quality of life depend largely on the meanings that your ascribe to the things around you, so you must communicate with yourself in a way that makes you feel positive, not negative. You must interpret your life’s events in a way that makes you feel good about yourself rather than otherwise.
Avoid complacency, as it can literally destroy your career and your life. You are either moving up or moving down, and complacency will always place you on a downward trajectory. Surround yourself with people who will continually challenge you to become better. Surrounding yourself with mediocre people will introduce mediocrity into your own life; when you surround yourself with people who accept nothing but the best, you are likely to become exceptional as well.
Even with technological advances, newspaper ads are still the best source for jobs and a very smart place to look. Regardless of your experience level, it is vital that you include newspapers in your job search if you are to be thorough. Many employers still rely on newspapers, but fewer people use them in their searches, which makes them a very effective tool.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of first tending to the smaller tasks in life in order to be able to focus on the real large ones. Harrison believes that the inability to keep small details organized in your life is a reflection of your ability to master details in your work. If you cannot keep your surroundings organized, in all probability you will never be able to master your work. There is a certain level of discipline that is required to keep things neat, clean, and organized. If someone does not have this level of discipline on their desk, in their office, in their homes, then they are certainly people who will be incapable of keeping their careers and lives organized. Our surroundings are a reflection of what is going on in our minds.
You must plant seeds in the minds of others, so that they will be more likely than otherwise to think of you when a future need arises. In planting seeds, you are making people aware of what you have to offer; you must make sure that you are ever present in the minds of your potential employers. Planting seeds is the most effective way to generate top-of-mind awareness, and ensure that the right people remember you at the appropriate time.
Just as a Unique Selling Position (USP) is important to sell a product, your own USP is vital for marketing yourself to potential employers. You must define your USP before even creating your resume, as it comprises the basic product that you are trying to sell in your interview. Focus your USP on a specific niche, for which there is market demand, and make it thoroughly persuasive.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of imagination and visualization. Harrison believes that the most important skill any of us can master is creative visualization. Creative visualization is the art of creating pictures in your mind of something you would like to happen in the future. There have been an incredible number of studies that have confirmed the power of positive thoughts. You can get tremendous amount of strength and power from visualizing positive as opposed to negative results. Therefore it is crucial that you are able to visualize positive events and outcomes. Focus on the results you want to achieve.
There is vast potential beneath the surface of each individual person, and it is the same with the job market. Many people fail in there job search because they only pursue one tactic, find nothing, and conclude that there are no jobs available. When looking for a job, you need to go deep beneath the surface, and exhaust every job board, employer website, and other possible avenue in order to get ahead.
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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