Complexity is the enemy of businesses and individuals, preventing people from reaching their maximum potential. You must control and minimize complexity before it controls you, and instead sharpen your focus on your career and life goals. Learn to concentrate on the task in front of you and minimize distractions, and you will better serve your career.
The truth is you can become almost any sort of person and achieve just about whatever you want to achieve if you have faith and take the action need to get there. You can only get there, though, when you give it your all.
Imagine you are a doctor working in a small clinic in the suburbs of Chicago. You are surrounded by uninspired doctors who are happy going back and forth to work each day in exchange for a salary. You, in contrast, have no interest in money and are concerned with curing a fatal heart disease. In fact, you have been working on curing this disease for the past 15 years.
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In this article Harrison discusses the role of self-motivation and self management. Self-motivated and self managed people always perform well. In contrast people who are forced to follow massive amounts of procedures and rules can never perform. It is important that our rituals and sense of responsibility is internal, and something we learn to do naturally–not something we only do when it is imposed on us by people on the outside. The best people in every job are self- managed and responsible individuals. Also, the more self-managed people there are working for an organization, the stronger the organization generally is. Instead of creating problems in the workplace, you should seek out responsibilities, and ritualize your work routine. These responsibilities will drive you forward in your daily work, in your career, and in your life.
Many people are in a situation in their own lives where they have given up. After enough discouragement, pain and suffering they have concluded that trying anymore is worthless–that no matter what they do, they are not going to get the result they want. Instead of trying, fighting and moving forward, they stop.
Several years ago a long-term relationship I was in ended and I felt absolutely terrible: the person I was with could not stop fraternizing with other men. At least a few times a week, she would be out with a different man and say it was related to work. We lived together and she would come home late – sometimes she would make excuses that she was staying with friends and would not come home at all. Eventually, I was so angry about this all the time that the relationship ended.
Being proactive in your job search begins with ensuring that you are actually seeing all of the available job openings. Leave no stone unturned, and apply to every possible job even if it seems like a remote possibility. Targeted mailing is another method of proactive job seeking, and can be one of the most effective means of obtaining your career goals.
Successful people manage their minds well; your mindset is the prime determining factor in anything and everything that happens to you. Just as you strive to become and stay physically fit, you must ensure that your mind is stable and moving in the direction of your goals in order to achieve happiness.
In this article, Harrison states that one of the biggest secrets behind successful marketing is communicating relevantly with people. The more the relevance in communication, the more people are willing to respond. Going the traditional way to communicate does not always work. Understanding your audience’s needs is of prime importance and it works wonders connecting with them in a personal way. You need to bridge the gap that exists and reach out in the most genuine manner. People need to trust your interest in their well being and only when this happens, will serious communication take place.
If you really want the job you are going after, you need to get your prospective employer’s attention. The most important thing for you to do is ensure that said employer sees your resume; following up with a phone call is also an effective strategy. While many employers consider a phone call an annoyance, it does help ensure that your resume gets viewed. Set yourself forth as a safe choice for the company.
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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