Trust that the dots will connect
If you accept yourself for who you are and what you have, everything will start to fall into place. Believing in yourself means knowing that you have what it takes to make anything happen. It starts with loving yourself. Finding your purpose will help you uncover the reason you’re here in this world — and remember, your purpose comes from the heart.
Build your confidence in your abilities by completing tasks and projects that are out of your comfort zone. Remember that the ‘sweet spot’ is the intersection of what you love, what you’re great at, what the world needs and what you can be paid for. The more passion you execute on, the closer you’ll come to the right opportunities. But don’t be fooled: it’s hard work!
The 4 Ps philosophy
Live each day deliberately by balancing your life around the 4 Ps: Purpose, People, Planet, Profit. Your purpose is your why: make sure it’s ingrained in your values. Be conscious of who you spend time with by making sure the people you spend the most time with are helping you to learn, grow and power ahead.
Having a strong connection to nature will restore your wellbeing and help you know what’s truly important. You need money to survive, but accumulating wealth and knowledge is also about giving back to others, and to society. Make sure you know what’s okay to sacrifice, and what isn’t, to create a perfect balance.
Making every moment count
Learning is not only challenging, engaging and fun — it’s empowering and humbling, so try to learn something new every day. Habits such as spending time with your family and in nature will keep you grounded and happy. A strict, regular sleep routine is a must if you want to stay on top of your game.
Being deliberate with each hour of your day will prevent you from losing precious time. Remember: time competes with time. Creating healthy pressure on yourself will give you direction and help you achieve your goals.
Be bold about your personal vision
Never stop promoting yourself or your brand: be positive about what you’re doing and share it with the world with passion and energy, but not in a boastful way. Being coachable is about listening to feedback even when you haven’t asked for it. Be grateful for what this teaches you and don’t be offended or upset.
Believe passionately in what you’re doing and follow your vision wholeheartedly. If you don’t feel you can do that, move on to something that you can get behind 100 per cent. Change things up regularly and see change as a good thing. Even small changes can make a big difference if you want to grow and evolve. Learn to network — a lot of the time it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
You have to walk your talk, so ensure you can back up any claims that you make. Don’t let naysayers get you down. Ignore them, be bold and pursue your vision. Never let fear stop you from taking action: focus on what’s important to you and keep reminding yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing. Beware of how you use social media. It can further your personal brand or ruin your career.
Hard-hitting truths
Being successful means facing some hard-hitting truths about life and facing your fears about whether you’ve got what it takes. There are six smarts you should focus on if you’re looking for success: be informed, be selective, be open, be determined, be committed and never stop learning. And remember: we’re all smart at what we’re smart at.
You’d be surprised what you can pull off if you fake it — so don’t turn down amazing opportunities just because you’re worried you might not be ready for them. Build your parachute: it’s vital to have a network of people around you who believe in you and what you can achieve.
Hard conversations are a part of life. Setting expectations early is the best way to make what would be a hard conversation easier. Selling is about asking questions to find out what problems people need solved, listening carefully to their answers and then finding a win–win.
Make sure you give negotiations your full attention so you don’t get fooled. Once the deal’s done, there’s no turning back. If you’re persistent, there’s a good chance you can turn a ‘no’ into a ‘maybe’, and a ‘maybe’ into a ‘yes’. Get inside the other person’s head to understand their point of view and then wow them with your passion.
To make a sale, you have to believe in yourself and in what you’re doing before you actually do it. Don’t try to avoid rejection. It’s a learning curve that forces you to think about why you got a ‘no’ and to turn it into a ‘yes’ next time around. Don’t let fear or doubt get you down. Choose to be empowered instead by looking at things with as little emotion as possible.
Ambitious people set the bar high, so sometimes when they reach their goals they feel like frauds — like their accomplishments can’t possibly be real. That’s the imposter syndrome kicking in. Don’t dwell on the feeling: ground yourself in the reality of your achievement and set your next goal. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Keep your focus on the bigger picture and don’t let things upset you that aren’t worth the time, emotion or energy.
Give life your all
When you get up in the morning and start the day, always remind yourself that if you screw up this day you’ll never get an opportunity to relive it. You’ll encounter tough times — possibly financially or even health-wise. If your livelihood is on the line through no fault of your own, stay humble and work hard and smart.
Value relationships — especially those with your family. You don’t have to come close to dying to reconsider life and relook at how you spend your days, as I did. So try to live your life fully now. Take advantage of the talent around you to make your life more efficient — there are so many tasks that can be outsourced, freeing up your time to do the things you’re best at. Remember to stay connected to the people you are working with, no matter where they’re located.
The power of less
Where are you now? Where do you want to be? How do you get there … and what do you need? Most people are so caught up in wanting more of everything that they lose sight of the power of less. We all want many things that we don’t need — learn the difference between a want and a need.
The goal is to be happy with a basic, simple, cheap and uncluttered life. So analyse what you need to survive, fundamentally, and then throw in a few nice-to-haves (if you can afford them without going into debt). Learn to sacrifice by focusing on your purpose instead of spending money on unnecessary things such as holidays and cars — it’s often the little, consistent sacrifices that add up to the big savings.
Remember that money intrinsically has no value. It’s what you do with money that has value. It’s simple really: spend less, save more! To manage money effectively, automatically transfer 10 per cent of your income to a savings account, and keep track of your debit and credit every day.
Keep your financial plan simple, and keep it in sight. Then, every six months or so, revisit your budget. Good debt is when you use money to make money — use good debt to generate an income and to increase your net worth. Bad debt is anything you buy that won’t go up in value or generate an income, so you shouldn’t go into debt to buy it. Don’t use other people’s money (OPM) to make money unless you know how to do it. In general, short-term investing is used for generating an income, and long-term investing is for generating wealth.
Shoot for the stars, get mentored and make it happen
Part of doing an excellent job is knowing what the process is and then improving on it by making it as simple and straightforward as possible. When you’re working with others, it’s important to be a team player. You have to support each other professionally and personally because you go through so much together.
If you have a mentor, you have a second perspective in your head when it comes to making decisions, which gives you an opportunity to learn from other people’s mistakes and successes. If you feel awkward asking for a potential mentor’s time, remember that great, successful mentors want to give back and help others move up.
When you find a mentor, set clear mentoring guidelines upfront. It’s important to have people who hold you accountable and on track, and who you have to answer to; it’s also important to answer to yourself.