"Feel The Fears" to Achieve Success in Your Career

You may be holding a reasonably good position in an organization and earning well. But there may be times you may have an insecure feeling, and thanks to this feeling, you may at times think of quitting your job. Can you make this decision all of a sudden? Issues such as taking good care of your family, educating your children, and paying your bills regularly and on time may be preventing you from making this drastic decision. If you do not have a regular income, you cannot fulfill these obligations. 

Especially, if you feel that the ambiance in your organization is not conducive or if you think that your performances are time and again ignored, you may be a frustrated employee. But will quitting your present job solve these problems? What is the guarantee that you will get a job in which you will have satisfaction? Can you be certain that the ambiance in a new company will be better than what you experience in the present organization? The following tips may help you overcome your frustrating thoughts so that you can focus on your growth and achieve a big success in your career. 

1. The frustration you experience is overwhelming. But how to overcome it?

It is true that the frustration you experience is unbearable and overwhelming. That is the reason you feel like quitting your present job. But your decision comes with several what-ifs that you cannot ignore at all. So, you will keep on thinking alternatively between quitting your job and the uncertainties that come along with it. This situation can be paralyzing. If this situation continues indefinitely, you will experience increased frustration that may again feed the what-ifs. Ironically, frustration, if unchecked, can get stronger and stronger on its own. You need not take any specific steps for strengthening it.

So, what is the way out? Experts advise that you should feel the fears but at the same time, you must take action. For example, if you think that your performances are not being recognized and you are not getting the elevations you think you deserve, you must take action by taking immediate steps to improve yourself by enriching your knowledge and acquiring new skills. You should become a fountain of knowledge that supplies innovative ideas to your organization. You should take this step even if the fears and what-ifs are haunting you. Action alone is the antidote for fears and uncertainties. Simply put, instead of allowing your fears to paralyze you, you should turn them into inspiration tools.

2. How to go about this?

As Zig Ziglar says, "You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." Start small and keep acquiring small skills. Get into the reading habit. But you should read only those books and materials that can enrich your knowledge in your field. Once you go to the top position, you may have ample time to read other books or materials. 

Even if you make small improvements to your knowledge and skill levels, it will do a world of good for improving your confidence. Remember the quote of Michelangelo who once said, "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it."

To conclude, if you take action, you can achieve success in your career even if the present situation seems to be unfavorable and despite the fact that fears are haunting you.

What Is The Best Strategy That Can Help You Climb Your Career Ladder Fast?

You may have pleasant feelings if your colleagues, peers, and managers praise you either for a job well done or for the new ideas or insights you provide for improving the business of your organization. But will you be able to consistently get such praises? It is doubtful because several factors including extraneous ones and those that are not under your control may play their role as well while you are judged. At the same time, experts point out that you can consistently be in the good books of your managers if you adopt a particular strategy. You may ask what benefit you will derive if you consistently get laurels for your work and for your ideas. You will easily be able to climb the career ladder. Let us dive into this and find out what this strategy is.

Make sure to take advantage of every opportunity to adopt the strategy.

Before revealing this strategy, we want to stress the importance of adopting it at every opportunity. If you stick to this rule, you will certainly see the results and this means that you will be thankful to yourself for embracing this strategy. 

Be committed to consistency.

You should consistently adopt the strategy. To put it differently, you should be committed to this consistency so that it becomes your second nature. 

This strategy will remove fear from your mind.

Getting elevated in your organization is certainly a happy thing. But it can be scary as well. You will be expected to be more responsible and accountable, will have new types of jobs, or perhaps, you may have to manage or supervise a few people. Because of these new things, you may be afraid whether you will succeed in your new role or will be an utter failure. But fortunately, if you adopt the strategy that is suggested in this post, you will not have any fears at all. You will be confidence-personified which means you will continue to win laurels for your work.

What is the strategy?

The strategy is: Think as if you are at a level that is one or two levels above the level you are presently holding. Of course, you should not just stop thinking like this. You should act accordingly also. 

Now, what is the benefit you will derive by adopting this strategy? You may be aware that a human brain is a wonderful machine. You can expand its capability by changing your thinking pattern. If you constantly think that you are at one or two levels above your present level, your brain will start believing it. So, it will hand out very rare insights or ideas that you cannot imagine at your present level. When you share these ideas or insights with your managers, you are certain to be showered with praises. More importantly, you will not have any fear when you are really promoted to that level. Of course, once you go to this higher level, you should start thinking of the next level and act accordingly.

By adopting this strategy, you can easily climb your career ladder fast.

This Particular Thing May Be Holding You Back from Achieving Big in Your Life or Career.

It is a known fact that goal-setting is important in life. Especially, if you are looking at extraordinary success, it is imperative that you should set goals. You may wonder why the plural form of the word "goal" is being used here. The purpose is that if you succeed in achieving a particular goal, that is not the end of it. Never forget the fact that success is a continuous journey and not at all a destination. This means that once you achieve a particular goal, you must fix another goal as your target and move on. Only if you keep setting goals one after another, you can grow on a continuous basis. If you do not adopt this approach and get complacent after achieving a goal, you are certain to stagnate. Never forget the fact that stiff competition rules the roost out there and unless you keep achieving one goal after another, others will surpass you.

Therefore, it is quite evident that getting complacent is the foremost obstacle that can prevent you from achieving big. This means if you want extraordinary success, you have to bring about a major change in your outlook. Though it is easier said than done, it is not impossible. Let us find out how you can change your mindset and set your eyes on big achievements in your life or your career.

It is your mindset that limits your growth.

If you believe that you can grow only up to a particular level, you are right. On the other hand, if you believe you can achieve big things, even then, you are right. Simply put, it is your mindset that limits your growth. So, you must change your belief if you want to achieve big in your life or career. 

Supply evidence to your mind.

The human brain always tries to rationalize things. It wants evidence to support beliefs. That is the reason you are asked to read the biographies of successful people. You must particularly choose the biographies of those people who started from scratch and built big empires or businesses or accomplished great feats. Once you supply such evidential materials to your brain, your brain will be ready to believe your big beliefs.

Talk to your mind.

We humans cannot live without talking. Of course, the quantum of talking of some people may be less while some folks talk incessantly. As you talk to others, you can talk to your mind also. You should argue with your mind and challenge it to free itself from the shackles of your limiting beliefs. If you talk to your mind frequently, it will dispense with all of those limiting beliefs. In due course of time, your mind will acquire a new mindset that can help you perceive things with a new and "I can" perspective. 

By adopting this strategy, you can remove the main obstacle that has been holding you back from achieving big. 

Do You Want a Few Winning Formulae?

Even casual research will reveal that some of your work-weeks are great while a few others obstinately hold you back and do not allow you to make the right efforts to achieve the targets you have set. The reasons for those bad workweeks may be several, the prominent being you may be succumbing to temptations or distractions. Distractions or temptations are so powerful that they may derail all your plans. If you are an employee, such bad workweeks may turn out to be unfortunate blots in your career. If you are an entrepreneur, such trends may result in the loss of sales of the products you offer or the services you render. In this context, you may wish to know how you can ensure quality workweeks consistently. Let us know.

1. Be honest to yourself.

You cannot just keep hoping for a resurrection of your focus without having the courage or honesty to accept the mistakes you commit. In fact, being courageous and honest to admit your lapses is the foremost step that can help you in regaining your focus. Remember that temptations or distractions are not snakes in the grass and hence, are never invisible. So, eliminating them from your journey need not be a complex process though it may not be easy. Most importantly, it is not necessary that you must feel like a pariah just because of these lapses. In fact, you have the company of several gullible people.

2. Create productivity routines.

For understanding this step, you should look at the methods of professional athletes. You will be surprised to see that they practice, practice, and keep practicing even when no competition is round the corner. Competitions are pressure situations. Thanks to their incessant and consistent practice even during non-pressure situations, these professional athletes do not feel the pressure when they take part in competitions, You have to emulate these athletes and make sure your productivity routines become your second nature.

3. Identify those hours when your productivity level is optimal.

Every human being is different. The productivity level of some people is at its peak during morning hours. A few people are nocturnal birds and their output will be excellent during nights. You must identify your "top-notch" hours and use them without getting distracted even a bit so that you can boost your productivity to its optimum level.  

4. Put in place these two routines.

Every evening, you should make it a point not only to revisit your goals but to think through the hurdles you are likely to face the next day. If you think that this end-of-day routine will just help you map your to-do tasks, you are wrong. It is much more than that. In fact, you are tuning your mind to "success." This will eliminate stress because you already have a blueprint to handle the hurdles that may come your way.

You may say that your days are chaotic and hence, you may not be able to incorporate this routine within your day's tasks. But you cannot afford to overlook the fact that if you do not take this step, you may very soon lose sight of your goals. You may even get frustrated owing to the hurdles you encounter along your journey. On the other hand, if you take this step, you will always remain focused on your goals. This means "weeds" such as distractions and temptations will not corrupt your mind and weaken your motivation.

The second routine you should put in place before you retire for bed is to prepare another list. This is not just another to-do list. "Excitement List" is the right name for this. This should consist of all those things that are likely to excite you while carrying out your tasks the following day. This will energize your mind so well that when you wake up the next morning, you will be enthusiasm-personified. You should not leave even trivial things that are likely to cause excitement and bring happiness to you. The best benefit of this step is that you will be able to complete your tasks quickly and efficiently thanks to your enthusiasm.

Follow these winning formulae to the hilt and very soon, you will see the results.

Develop This One Single Habit to Zoom to the Top

If you are looking for a soup-to-nuts tutorial for learning how to achieve your goal or how to get to the top in your field, you will utterly be disappointed because it is not one single factor that can get you success. Experts opine that you need several good habits to achieve your goal or for getting to the top in your field. But among all the habits, there is one particular habit that is more important than others and that can help in acquiring other required habits. Let us find out what it is. 

Is it creativity?

A few experts firmly believe that creativity and imagination will greatly help in achieving your goal. It is true that your imagination will help you in creating your dream but it cannot help in translating the dream into reality. In fact, millions of people nurture various types of dreams but do they all achieve them? Some of them may even have the same dream as you have. Standing out from them or achieving the goal you have set for yourself may be difficult if your arsenal just contains the ammunition of creativity. 

Can you succeed if you have the "initiative?"

There are experts who swear that if you have the right amount of initiative, you can succeed in achieving your goal. But this habit will help you begin the journey towards your goal which means it will just help in setting the ball rolling or getting into momentum. You cannot assume that by making a beginning, you will reach the destination because there are chances of you losing the momentum along your way. In fact, hordes of folks may have as much initiative as you have. Some of the folks may also begin at the same time when you press the "start" button. If this habit can get you success, every one of these people should succeed. But we find that not all the people who have the "initiative" are able to achieve success. This means that your initiative alone cannot get you success.

Will your ability to make good judgments about situations help you succeed?

It is an undeniable fact that making good judgments or assessments of situations is a great thing. But there may be hundreds and hundreds of people who may have this ability. Do they all succeed? Not at all. 

So, which is the habit or characteristic that can help you in achieving your goal? The habit is spelled as E N D U R A N C E. This habit demonstrates your resoluteness and hence, it alone will help you withstand ravages, if any, that may be caused by the bumps you face along your journey. Without surmounting such hurdles, you cannot reach your destination. Endurance gives you courage as well. As Henry Ford said, "Unless you have courage, a courage that keeps you going, always going, no matter what happens, there is no certainty of success. It is really an endurance race." 

Taking the action required to achieve your goal is a normal thing. But if you want to reach the top and succeed at that level, you may have to undergo severe pain. Pain triggers hesitation and fear and so, several people fail to take a plunge or undertake the journey towards their goal. Even many of those who make a grand beginning with an aim to achieve phenomenal success in their respective fields do not go beyond a certain point. That is the reason it is less crowded at the top. 

Even If you do desultory research, you will find that only a few people consistently endure pain while taking the action required for achieving their goal while several others fear pain and fail to get their "foot in the door." Even if they force themselves to get rid of the shackles that bind them and take action, they miserably lack consistency.

To summarize, it is your endurance to withstand pain during your journey or mental fortitude that will profoundly empower you and help you reach the top bracket of achievers.

Mistakes and the Magic Wand

No one can boast that they have not screwed up at least once in their lives. Even the so-called most successful people and filthy rich people will have more than one instance in their life or success journey when they have made wrong decisions or wrong choices, and have acted in glaringly unwise ways. Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, also confesses that he has committed blunders due to which he incurred losses to the tune of millions of dollars. He says, “If the size of your failures isn’t growing, you’re not going to be inventing at a size that can actually move the needle.” The points he and several such successful people insist on are that you have to learn from your mistakes, have self-belief, and develop the habit of thinking out-of-the-box to succeed in your life. Apart from desisting from committing the same mistakes, you have to avoid committing certain other mistakes as well. Let us dwell upon them a little more.

1. The decisions you make should never affect your credibility.

If you make decisions or if you act in a manner that can negatively impact your credibility, you will be affected in more than one way. Firstly, you will lose your self-confidence. When the whole world knows that you are a person with a low-credibility tag, you will be looked down upon. Such a situation will never allow you to act with focus and confidence and therefore, achieving your life's goal may become difficult.

2. Not building your goodwill account.

The foremost step to building a goodwill account is to develop relationships. The next and perhaps, more important step is to extend all possible support to those in your network. For example, if you are working for an organization, you should try to develop cordial relationships with other employees including your higher-ups and subordinates. You must then use every opportunity to extend your support to them. Only then, you can build and strengthen your goodwill account. Never forget the fact that if you ask for favors from those in your network, your efforts to build your goodwill account will get nullified. 

3. Not having a "success" mindset. 

If you want to succeed in achieving your career or life goal but if you have a mediocre mindset, you will never move an inch from where you are. For example, if you want to become a millionaire, you should have an "abundance" mindset. Similarly, if you want to have the career growth you have been aiming at, you must watch and emulate how your role model thinks, acts, and behaves. Your role model may be within your organization or he or she may have achieved phenomenal career growth in other fields.

Simply put, only if you transform the ways how you think and act, you can achieve what you want. Similarly, you must be ready to take the required action as well. A classic example is the case of a person who wishes to shed his extra pounds. Unless this person wakes up early and hits the gym regularly and on a daily basis, he cannot accomplish his aim. If he keeps procrastinating taking action or if he does not get into the action habit, he will never lose his excess baggage on his corporeal frame. In other words, having mediocre habits such as not taking the required action or having a negative mindset, and aiming high may tantamount to oxymoron-like situations.

So, in order to achieve the success you have been aiming at, you must refrain from committing these mistakes. Once you put yourself on the path of doing the right things at the right time, you can pretty well assume that the magic wand that can get you phenomenal success has become yours.

Double Your Chances of Getting Promotions in Your Organization.

Being a hard-working and sincere employee, you may often be wondering why you and your contributions are not being recognized by your boss or the company management. You may get frustrated as well. Though such situations are bad, you can double the chances of being recognized, rewarded, or promoted. You may wonder how. Please read on. 

Being resourceful and resilient is not enough; You should be relentless.

If you think that your skills and your trait of being resilient are enough, you are wrong. You should be relentless also. Only then, you can find ways for helping you dominate the situation and achieve what you want. The simple mantras are 1. Get more creative. 

2. Work still harder.

In addition, you can use the following few tips also for increasing your chances of getting the recognition you think you deserve in your organization. 

Learn to quantify your contribution to the company.

It is true that the quality of your skills is very important. But you should be able to quantify the contribution you make to the company as well. As the quote says, "There is strength in numbers." Even Peter F. Druker, one of the renowned management experts of the modern era says, “What gets measured gets managed.” Unfortunately, most of the employees do not quantify their contribution to their organizations. They stumble around and this leads to catastrophic results. 

You do not buy a car without knowing its price, the mileage it gives, and the maintenance costs you are likely to incur on it. Similarly, an anesthetist cannot administer the right dose without knowing the bodyweight of the patient and the surgical procedure involved. Setting a career goal is analogous to these. Unless you do not know how much business you can and will bring to your company or how much profit the company will make thanks to your contribution, you cannot improve. This means setting a career goal will itself become an insincere effort.

If you fail to quantify your contribution to your company, you will be dependent on your emotions and not on logic while fixing your career goal. Remember that almost all the decisions made using your emotions will be wrong. 

On the contrary, if you are able to quantify your contribution, you can work towards improving your performance and output so that you can grow in your company.

Compromising on your expectations is wrong.

We come across several employees who compromise on their expectations when they find that the results they want to have are not forthcoming. This is wrong. You cannot conclude that things will never work in your favor just because there are downtimes. Instead of lowering your expectations, you must change your strategies. Of course, ordinary and average folks bring down their expectations. Some of them may quit the race as well. Really ambitious people never make compromises on this front. Since your aim is high, you should be ready to double or even treble your efforts. 

Use social media as a business-booster and not otherwise.

Hundreds or even thousands of folks waste their time and lives by scrolling on social media sites such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter. Instead of indulging in such wasteful activities, you can use these sites as platforms for providing suggestions related to the field in which your company is operating. The reach of social media is phenomenal and hence, this strategy will help in expanding your influence in the industry. 

You can even write blog posts to express your opinions and provide your suggestions. You can post these blog posts on social media sites. Never forget the fact that creators of such content have always been the most sought-after clan. So, by continuously providing invaluable suggestions, you will increase your chances of getting recognition and landing elevated positions in your company and field.

Today's discipline and pain will lead you towards tomorrow's freedom.

Jim Rohn, a renowned personal development guru, says, “We must all suffer one of two types of pain. The pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is that discipline weighs ounces and regret weighs tons.” If you choose the former pain, you will easily grow and achieve stupendous success.

Never stop learning.

This is yet another important step that may catapult you to higher positions in your organization. You will find that there are several sources from which you can learn. Even the behaviors or activities of other employees may teach you a few important lessons. So, keep observing people, how they behave, act, or make decisions. You can imbibe the right lessons and put them to use whenever necessary. Simply put, always keep looking for lessons to learn.  

The above steps are based on common sense. If you implement them consistently, you are certain to double or even treble your chances of getting to the top in your organization.

A Few Urgent Tips to Grow in Your Career

In a short story entitled The Mist, authored by Stephen King, David Drayton, the protagonist, runs away from his place because he is afraid that he will be killed by the giant insects that have invaded his home, thanks to a wrong experiment carried out by the US Army. At the end of the story, you will find David sitting with monsters surrounding him. He is alone and the fuel tank of his vehicle is empty. No one is there to help him at the gas station where he is sitting. But what saves him is a word that is spelled "H O P E." 

The purpose of narrating this story is to tell you that hope, persistence, and sincerity alone can help you grow in your career, despite all the difficult and seemingly impossible situations you face. You will find the following few tips useful as well. 

1. Learn to survive.

This is one of the most important steps because only if you survive in your organization, you can plan to grow. You should not only be savvy but smart as well for surviving and overcoming the difficulties that you encounter so that you can hold on. If you succeed in holding on, you can find and keep the hope and faith that is very much needed in such situations and take the steps required for achieving the growth you have been aiming at.

2. Vow to work harder than how you do now.

You may have heard the life stories of your parents. In fact, they may have told you the hardships they faced umpteen times and these stories may have got etched in your memory. But despite the hardships they faced, they continued to work hard. Never forget that hard work is the antidote for difficulties. You are waging a fight against those difficult situations. The only way to win in the fight is to sacrifice a lot. Remember the Armenian expert's words that go like this: “Work is Holy.”

3, Cut wasteful activities.

Your sole aim is to grow in your career. So, all the other activities that do not feed or strengthen this goal of yours are wasteful activities. This includes watching FOX News or CNN or even reading the New York Times or other newspapers. These activities will not help you grow in your career. On the contrary, they will distract you so much that you will not feel like putting forth your best efforts on your work. Instead of indulging in such wasteful activities, use your time to think of creative suggestions to help your company grow. 

Many a time, your boss or the company management may discard or laugh at your suggestions. But if you keep firing your suggestion-salvos, your value and amazing resourcefulness will soon be recognized.

4. Never lose sight of your vision.

Whatever may be the circumstances you face, you should never lose sight of your career goal. If you take your eyes off your goal, you cannot use your energy, resources, or optimism for achieving your aim. This may ultimately lead to quitting. 

So, now is the time to not let your hope and perseverance go limp. Now is the time to harden your stance and persist. And now is the time to compete with yourself. Good Luck!

Ideas, Appreciation, and Frustration

If you are working for an organization, you may often find yourself giving suggestions to the company. In fact, the management of every company may expect its employees to provide them with ideas. But there may be occasions when the company or your boss appears to ignore your ideas. This may lead to frustration. It is true such situations may be mind-dulling. So, you may even think that you should stop giving suggestions or ideas. Is this the right reaction? Is your frustration justified? What should you do if the management does not appear to consider your ideas? Let us find out.

Experience, Expertise, and Ideas.

You may have lots of experience under your belt. Similarly, you may be an expert in the field in which your company is operating. Therefore, you may justifiably assume that your ideas are good. But this is not only a naive assumption but over-simplification as well. Further, it is a fundamental misconception if you think that your ideas automatically qualify for the "brilliant" tag just because you have rich experience and you are an expert in the field. Remember that in the present-day context, dignity, appreciation, or laurels are not automatic rights anymore. You cannot get them by applying subtle or visible pressure also. 

Similarly, the management doesn't need to consider your ideas just because you have put in a lot of effort for conceptualizing them. The point is that your management or that of any company will take into account several other factors as well before choosing ideas for implementation. You may perhaps be not aware of some of those factors. Therefore, crying foul or blaming your management for not considering your ideas is not right. It is not right also to assume that the management doubts your capability.

If you get angry over the management because your ideas have not been considered or if you get caught in what is called the "appreciation trap," it shows that you fail to control your emotions or influence your mind, not to talk of influencing others. You don't need to be a university graduate to understand that no one can make you frustrated, angry, miserable, or unhappy unless you allow it. This again means that you should check whether you are responding rationally or reacting emotionally to situations. 

Responding and reacting to situations or circumstances are not the same. Mentally mighty folks control their emotions and behaviors. If you succeed in this step, it can be said that you are on the path of learning to respond rationally and applying your wisdom to the circumstances or situations you face. Otherwise and if you react, you allow yourself to be controlled by situations or circumstances. Of course, you will find that reacting to situations is easier and quicker. 

In the former, you can turn even a negative or a potentially negative situation into a positive one. This will benefit not only you but everyone involved as well. You will be a relaxed person because you are aware that you can handle any situation, however difficult it may be. This will significantly boost your self-confidence as well. Never forget the fact that you can derive self-respect or dignity only from your within and not from external sources. Looking for them from external sources is self-delusion of the ultimate form. 

Of course, in the initial stages, there may be lapses and slips in your efforts to control your emotions or behaviors but since you have started practicing rational responsiveness, you will be able to analyze your mistakes and make course-corrections.

So, the only way to develop responsiveness to difficult situations is to practice till you reach a reasonable level of capability in this skill. This will help in constantly bettering yourself whatever may be the situations you face at your workplace. This includes instances when your management does not consider your ideas or suggestions. At the same time, understand that developing rational responsiveness is not enough; you should consistently and willingly blend it with your efforts to hone your skills and improve your knowledge as well.