There are no shortcuts or a secret formula to success, no matter how many books and talk show hosts claim to say so. However, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t surefire ways to manage your progress. It’s all about self-improvement, discipline, and finding the right motivation. We’ve listed some tips that can help guide you through your journey to building the perfect career.
1. Choose your career path and define your goals
What do you do best and where do you want to be in five or ten years? These are some of the questions you need to reflect on. Before you start your journey, you have to pick your destination and the route you will take to get there. Assess your talents, where your passions lie, and what you need to achieve. This way, you get a clear picture of your end goal, and it will be easier to plan ahead. For example, suppose your best skill is in cooking and your dream is to be able to run your own restaurant–from there, you can get a better idea of how to proceed in achieving that goal. In the next five years or so, maybe you can strive to upskill yourself by working alongside professionals and saving money for your capital–and along the way you can pick up some knowledge on how to run and sustain a business. Let your goal be your compass.
2. Build a strong foundation
As mentioned earlier, you can upgrade your skill set by working your way up the food chain. Start small, gather resources and build a network: this applies to any industry. Say you are an aspiring artist, immerse yourself in the community and start by creating a name for yourself. Put your work out there–whether it be online or through joining galleries, go to conventions, meet people and market yourself. The stronger your base is, the easier it will be to push yourself forward. Take Walt Disney for example, currently the biggest name in entertainment history. Disney wasn’t born a billionaire, but he was born an artist. Even at an early age, he knew the value of entertainment and art–he drew pictures for his neighbours in exchange for money, made cartoons for his school newspaper, and after going through a rough jobless phase, Disney finally went into the field of advertising where he first started earning big. Disney’s venture into advertising served as a launchpad for his career in animation and that’s how he became the entertainment powerhouse we knew today.
3. Brace yourself for challenges and changes
Life will always throw us curveballs that could leave us derailed, but the difference between successful people and those who aren’t is their ability get back up when they’re knocked down. This is always the hardest part, and sometimes it could seem like it never ends. If a job is starting to have more pitfalls than advantages, maybe it’s time to leave. Don’t be afraid of starting over, because as long as you carry on and learn from your mistakes, it still counts as a huge improvement.
4. Create your own definition of success
Success is such a relative term, that it could mean different things to different people. What is success to you? Is it monetary gain? Is it satisfaction? Sometimes we get so caught up in the daily grind that we forget to appreciate what we already achieved. Though it’s good to have a strong drive, it’s equally important to know when to stop pushing yourself. Reward yourself for all your hard work and efforts, and learn how to thank the people that got you where you are. Once you feel like you’ve found what success means to you and finally achieved it, you can help out others reach their own.
It’s not wrong to dream big, but if you don’t put in the efforts to make that dream a reality, it will only stay a dream. Believe in yourself and your own capabilities, that’s what will truly launch you forward!
