Month: September 2017

Imagine that you’ve landed the leadership role of your dreams. It is such an amazing feeling to excel in your career, especially when you’re in a job and workplace you’re passionate about. However, even though it is exciting to climb the ladder, the transition can be a stressful one. It comes with more responsibilities that you want to show everyone (including yourself) that you’ve earned. Here are two important tips that will help you make the transition smoothly when that time comes in your life:

Understand And Accept That Not Everyone Will Agree With You

More than likely, one of your new responsibilities will involve leading other people in some form or fashion. You may be worried about what they’ll think of your leadership style. That is okay. That is natural. Go ahead and accept that sometimes, your coworkers will not agree with a decision you make. Just do what you think is best for the overall good of the team, and you’ll figure out what works with trial and error. Every leader does this at some point in their career, and no one can fault you for trying your best.

Remember That You’re Here Because You Deserve To Be

Everyone, even CEOs, doubts themselves professionally at times. It is part of life. But if you’ve been working hard, making connections and proving your dedication to your company, you’re exactly where you deserve to be. Don’t let a mistake or bad call cause you to question your adequacy. We’re humans, and we all make them.

Keep in mind during your transition that you deserve your success. When you make it to where you want to be, never stop striving for greatness. It may be challenging at times, but it will always be worth it.

The answer to the question posed by the title of this piece is simple. It’s the execution that so many people struggle with. The short answer is that there’s a direct correlation between people who continue to push and advance themselves personally, and the magnitude of success they see in their professional lives.

Simply put, the more you learn and know, the more value you can create, either in terms of striking out on your own and starting your own business, or for your boss at whatever company employs you.

While the self-satisfaction of “knowing stuff” matters, even if you look at it through a purely economic lens, it just makes sense to devote your life to continuous learning and improvement. The real question, though, is exactly how do you go about doing that?

It’s both easier and more difficult than you might imagine. What it ultimately comes down to is the fact that you’re going to have to teach yourself to be a self-starter, because let’s face it, nobody’s going to make you learn and grow. You’re an adult. That’s your decision to make, and yours alone. Unless you master the fine art of becoming self-motivated, you’re going to struggle to stick with it.

Here’s something fun to consider. The average American spends a staggering 23 hours a week playing around on social media. Imagine if you cut that time in half, and devoted just 10-12 hours a week to learning something new. To expanding first your mind, and then to putting the new things you’re learning to good, practical use?

This is one of the easiest ways of breaking out of the confines of the current shape of your life, and given how many free educational opportunities there are on the internet, anyone, regardless of their current circumstance, can take advantage of this. Even if you don’t have an internet connection at home, almost all county libraries offer free computer use and internet access.

The bottom line is, if you’re reading these words, then you already have everything you need to improve your current situation through devoting yourself to lifelong learning. From here, all it takes is the will to start!

William Gurstelle is a man of many talents. By day, he’s the Ballistics and Pyrotechnics editor for Popular Mechanics magazine, but in his spare time, he studies risk. He’s been studying it for years, and his insights on the topic are worth paying attention to.

In conducting his research, Gurstelle looked to the extremes of risk-taking and developed a system that can measure what kind of risk-taker you are, in much the same way that you can measure your IQ.

Unsurprisingly, he found that most people exist right in the middle of the risk-taking spectrum. Those who live and thrive just to the right of the scale are the group that Gurstelle refers to as the “Golden Third.” These are the people we regard as the lucky ones. Things just seem to go their way on a regular basis, and as a result, they are happier and more satisfied than the rest of us.

Gurstelle, though, has a different view of this group. He doesn’t regard them as lucky at all. It’s simply that they understand the value of the calculated gamble. The well-considered risk.

They’re not daredevils; they simply weigh the odds and consider the consequences of failure and when they feel that the risk is warranted, they’ll make the leap and take a chance. More often than not, they guess correctly and it all works out fine.

From the outside looking in, we say they’re lucky. They’re not. They’re calculating and they understand the potential rewards that come from taking some risks.

As with any other behavior, this can be learned. It involves being mindful of opportunities that present themselves to you, and having a good understanding of how likely you are to succeed at whatever it is you’re thinking about trying.

It can be uncomfortable to push the envelope like that, but according to Gurstelle, that just means you’re doing it right! If you’re feeling trapped by your life and the circumstances you find yourself in, this is definitely something to think about. Take control of your life and your happiness. Take a few well-considered chances!