Want to Go Further in Your Career? Here are 3 Things Successful People Are Doing.
In Simon Sinek’s book The Infinite Game the author describes how much of life contains murky scenarios where there are no winners “there is only ahead and behind.”
It’s helpful to remember this when thinking about your career ambitions. There aren’t defined rules for how to succeed in your chosen profession. It’s often a combination of skills, persistence, networking and luck.
I’ve been blessed to personally know and learn from some incredibly successful people. Here are 3 things they all do really well. These behaviors have always been key to their success.
Continue to Skill Up
I’m always perplexed by someone who complains about their current title (wants a promotion or a better job) but hasn’t done anything to make themselves more valuable in the market.
Successful people are always adding to their skill sets. You’ve probably heard the saying if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.
You have to surround yourself with people who know more and do more than you. You have to pick their brains and learn their ways.
You should be spending a minimum of 15% of every week on personal development. Join a mastermind group, take an online course, read a really good book on peak performance and take copious notes.
Don’t expect others to invest in you if you haven’t invested in yourself.
Get Serious About Goal Setting
The Greek philosopher Aristotle was one of the first thought leaders to make the connection between goal setting and accomplishments.
When your goals are set right, they are a huge driver of your behavior.
Start doing the right things and you’ll eventually start getting the outcomes you want.
But you have to be willing to set big goals. You can’t be afraid of striving for something high that will be hard to pull off.
High, hard goals — according to Latham and Locke, the researchers behind goal-setting theory, “lead to the best outcomes. Big goals significantly outperform small goals, medium-sized goals, and vague goals.”
Attention and focus are never greater than when you’re going after a big goal.
The first step to getting where you want to be is setting a specific high, hard goal for yourself.
Examples of high, hard (but achievable) goals would be:
- Hosting a nationally-ranked podcast.
- Doubling your income in less than 12 months.
- Writing a book that an agent wants to auction to publishers.
- Getting a high-paying job that enables you to travel the world.
You get the idea: these aren’t things you can accomplish overnight –– but if you create a solid plan with all of the little goals you’ll need to check off along the way and stay confident –– you’ll begin to see that there is a path to success.
It won’t be easy, but it no longer seems impossible.
Be Consistent
Both the strength of your network and your work reputation depend on you showing up when you’re supposed to and consistently crushing it.
When I started out as a journalist, I decided that editors were going to get to know me as the writer who never missed/pushed a deadline and never declined a story because it was too hard.
The consistency required to keep those promises to myself caused me to graduate from calendar entries to front-page features in rapid time.
“Consistent” gets promoted before “temperamental but talented.” Plus, if you’re consistent in your work, you will get better faster.
Being someone who is consistent in attitude and productivity in your field will immediately put you in the top 10% of available candidates. Get the right people to notice that? You are suddenly leading the pack!
For many more ways to play this infinite game we call “life” well, check out some of my other stories.
Thanks for reading!
