There are several keys to success in career. But which of them is the greatest of all? And how can you use it to boost your career productivity and change your entire life? That is what this article is all about.
Many have resigned to an irresponsible life of ‘what-will-be-will-be’. They ignorantly walk through life believing that somehow fate will smile on them and success would just happen. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Every man’s career accomplishments are essentially determined by his or her ability to identify the things that are most important and committing to it completely.
It is true that we all have equal capacity and chances for success, but our degree of resoluteness sets each of us apart. And of course your degree of resoluteness determines your depth of achievements. How do you excel exceptionally in your field without cutting corners? The answer is CATCHING A VISION.
EVERYONE NEEDS A VISION
You may not be a CEO or a management executive but if you have a vision you can excel in your field. The secret of career leadership is INFLUENCE. The world has celebrated leadership by position before now, but in the 21st century, only those who develop capacity to influence others top the ranks.
Think about people like Ngozi Okonjo-Eweala, Dora Akinyuli, and Charles Soludo, who suddenly found themselves in the helms of political power during Obasanjo’s regime. None of these were politicians prior to their appointments. But each of them assumed substantial positions because they built character and competence in their respective career fields. It’s great to discover your turf (as I discussed in the last article). But if what you want is a genuine impact on this nation and the world at large, then what you need is something so powerful that it drives you constantly to think beyond the horizon; something that pre-arranges your future in fine mental details, and then reprograms you for greatness. We call it VISION. Its influence on you can be so deep that it constantly provokes you to creativity and productivity.
The greater your vision is, the greater your influence. Local visions attract local impacts. Global visions attract global impacts. Just as the book of Genesis puts it, As far as your ‘eyes’ can see I have given you.
HOW VISION CHANGES OUR LIVES
People with definite visions are so easy to identify. Vision is so dynamic that it intoxicates and controls whoever is carrying it. A man with a vision has no problem with getting people to support his or her cause. The passion, vigour and tenacity with which he holds on to his dream, become so intense that you’ll almost touch it. Let us take a look at three things you will notice when you catch a career vision.
1. IT DEFINES YOUR CAREER OBJECTIVES AND GOALS
Your career objectives are meant to determine your priorities. It is virtually impossible to achieve anything significant in life without the power of focus and that is what vision makes easy for you. It forces you to define your career objectives and goals. It draws a line between those things that are vital to your cause and helps you to say ‘no’ to distractions. As someone has rightly averred, ‘if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything’ It is at the point of goal-setting that you properly define what career success means to you in 5, 10, or 20 years from today.
You can push yourself to achieve much more than you have ever dreamt of, if you consciously set definite, challenging and achievable career goals for yourself. Visionaries are those who are sure of where they are going, judging by the quality of goals they set for themselves. In a nutshell, your career objectives and goals are a direct reflection of your vision.
2. IT DICTATES THE DIRECTION OF YOUR PLAN
A man with a vision creates an effective and workable plan. The beauty of deliberately creating a unique career plan is that it brings about an internal transformation. This transformation makes you to act consistently as a ‘man on a mission’ who is willing to make necessary sacrifices that would bring about the reality of your dreams. The mere fact that you have thought through the process of your aspiration has made you better placed than most aspiring people out there.
When it comes to career development, the man or woman with the superior strategy or plan becomes more successful than the one with the bigger talents. The comedian AY has proven to be far more successful than many of his contemporaries who are more talented because he carries a vision that drives him continuously.
3. IT ENERGIZES YOU TO TAKE MASSIVE ACTION
The world is only interested in your results. They are not interested in your fantasies or daydreams. A company right here in Nigeria currently pays a young lady in her twenties about three million naira every month simply because of the consistency of her results in the past. You need your plans to get results but the world wants to see what your plans will produce.
Virtually everyone at some point in their lives has made an attempt to do something exceptionally well. But building capacity to succeed requires more than just one or two attempts. It requires massive and endlessly repeated actions in the direction of their dreams. But this action requires physical, emotional and spiritual energy from within which can only be inspired by a great vision. The man with a vision will defy any obstacle to reach the top in his career. A man with a vision can start rejoicing because it carries a self-fulfilling force that no one can stop.
HOW TO ACQUIRE A GREAT VISION
A great vision is people-based. An ambition is about acquiring material possessions but a vision is about genuine and positive impact on people. If what you call your vision does not reflect a passion for helping people- whether as a lawyer, engineer, doctor, or teacher etc.-then what you have is not a vision. Pray to God for a genuine vision today. He is sure to give you one.
Success!
Friday, November 26, 2010
Discover Your Life's Work
Everyone has a number of things they do fairly well but each of us have ONE or TWO things we can do exceptionally well. Discovering this uniqueness in us is the foundational key to a successful career. Companies and business owners are beginning to understand that getting the best man for the job is more than just an attractive CV and a prestigious university certificate. Every job or career field comes with its unique demands and it takes the ‘right’ person for the job to be creative enough to qualify as being employable.
This makes it absolutely important for each of us to consciously discover the unique career path for us. Many make their choices only to discover later that they were wrong. Then instead of finding a way to get back on track, they spend the rest of their lives trying to prove that they were right! You can’t choose a career based on a momentary frenzy. You can’t choose a career just because you ‘like’ it. Neither can you choose a career because someone –no matter how close to you- feels that it is what you should be doing. Your career must be a well informed personal assessment based on your innermost desires and natural inclinations.
There are five indicators that would best help you discover your ideal career path and I’ve tried to enumerate them through the FLARE acrostic model we designed at Richseed Consulting Limited not too long ago. FLARE is an acronym for the indicators-Fulfilment, Love, Abilities, Rest and Experience.
Now let’s discuss them:
FULFILMENT
What could you spend your life doing that would make you satisfied and happy while making a BIG difference in your immediate society? What draws out the greatest passion and energy in you? Everyone gets motivated by a joy-inducing cause, what is yours? If what you choose to do, does not promise you satisfaction and happiness for a good part of your working life, then you’re probably in the wrong place.
LOVE
The greatest force in the world is the force of love. Love would make you face and conquer the toughest challenges on your path. Love would make you persevere through your ‘capacity building‘season. What productive venture would you keep working at even if you don’t get paid for years? Identify what you genuinely loved from childhood; a field or profession where you could sacrifice your time, energy and money while productively contributing to your society. In a nutshell, love is what makes you stand out in a world full of wishers and talkers.
ABILITY
The key to success in career is uncommon expertise- your ability to do something creatively and exceptionally well. It would be a great tragedy to pursue a career for which you lack natural abilities to match. What skills have helped you excel in the past with little or no training? What have you been good at since you were a child? Which of your actions attract the most impressive comments from people? What skills have you used the most in your personal and working life? Find the productive dimension to it and pursue it.
REST
The most productive people of this generation are those who consider their heart when choosing their career path. Which of your dominant activities in the past is devoid of nervousness and unrest? A wrong career path will disconnect you from your innermost being-your heart- thereby hindering you from being exceptional productive at work. Therefore you must search your heart before taking a major leap into any career path. Every career can be a great money-spinner but that is only true if the right person goes into it. Your ideal career will guarantee you constant peace and rest all through your working life.
EXPERIENCE
What obstacles have you successfully overcome in the past and how? Which of your life experiences could benefit others? What are three things about you that are remarkable? I have seen people who feel they are totally worthless because they don’t have the kind of enviable education, status or influential backgrounds that their peers have. Yet some of the very negative experiences in your past are valuable enough to build a career upon. The Black American billionaire, Oprah Winfery built her career on her disgusting childhood experiences, through which she helps millions of hurting people today. So you may consider your experiences when choosing your career.
EMBRACE YOUR UNIQUE SWEET SPOT
Having jotted down your observations as directed by the above five indicators, locate where most of the indicators (fulfillment, love, abilities, rest and experience) intercept. That is likely to be your unique sweet spot (or ideal career path). Embrace it when found. Experiment with it. Start small so you can learn without much discouragement. Take a job or serve under a productive person in that field. This way, you can identify how best to establish your effectiveness and productivity as you develop. Everyone has a unique sweet spot. How well and how soon you locate it determines how great you excel.
The FLARE® model has helped me and several others, and I believe it would help you too, if you take it seriously.
Choose the wrong career and you have settled for struggles and mediocrity; discover the right one and you can be sure to become a leader in your field. I wish you the very best as you do so.
You will get there!
This makes it absolutely important for each of us to consciously discover the unique career path for us. Many make their choices only to discover later that they were wrong. Then instead of finding a way to get back on track, they spend the rest of their lives trying to prove that they were right! You can’t choose a career based on a momentary frenzy. You can’t choose a career just because you ‘like’ it. Neither can you choose a career because someone –no matter how close to you- feels that it is what you should be doing. Your career must be a well informed personal assessment based on your innermost desires and natural inclinations.
There are five indicators that would best help you discover your ideal career path and I’ve tried to enumerate them through the FLARE acrostic model we designed at Richseed Consulting Limited not too long ago. FLARE is an acronym for the indicators-Fulfilment, Love, Abilities, Rest and Experience.
Now let’s discuss them:
FULFILMENT
What could you spend your life doing that would make you satisfied and happy while making a BIG difference in your immediate society? What draws out the greatest passion and energy in you? Everyone gets motivated by a joy-inducing cause, what is yours? If what you choose to do, does not promise you satisfaction and happiness for a good part of your working life, then you’re probably in the wrong place.
LOVE
The greatest force in the world is the force of love. Love would make you face and conquer the toughest challenges on your path. Love would make you persevere through your ‘capacity building‘season. What productive venture would you keep working at even if you don’t get paid for years? Identify what you genuinely loved from childhood; a field or profession where you could sacrifice your time, energy and money while productively contributing to your society. In a nutshell, love is what makes you stand out in a world full of wishers and talkers.
ABILITY
The key to success in career is uncommon expertise- your ability to do something creatively and exceptionally well. It would be a great tragedy to pursue a career for which you lack natural abilities to match. What skills have helped you excel in the past with little or no training? What have you been good at since you were a child? Which of your actions attract the most impressive comments from people? What skills have you used the most in your personal and working life? Find the productive dimension to it and pursue it.
REST
The most productive people of this generation are those who consider their heart when choosing their career path. Which of your dominant activities in the past is devoid of nervousness and unrest? A wrong career path will disconnect you from your innermost being-your heart- thereby hindering you from being exceptional productive at work. Therefore you must search your heart before taking a major leap into any career path. Every career can be a great money-spinner but that is only true if the right person goes into it. Your ideal career will guarantee you constant peace and rest all through your working life.
EXPERIENCE
What obstacles have you successfully overcome in the past and how? Which of your life experiences could benefit others? What are three things about you that are remarkable? I have seen people who feel they are totally worthless because they don’t have the kind of enviable education, status or influential backgrounds that their peers have. Yet some of the very negative experiences in your past are valuable enough to build a career upon. The Black American billionaire, Oprah Winfery built her career on her disgusting childhood experiences, through which she helps millions of hurting people today. So you may consider your experiences when choosing your career.
EMBRACE YOUR UNIQUE SWEET SPOT
Having jotted down your observations as directed by the above five indicators, locate where most of the indicators (fulfillment, love, abilities, rest and experience) intercept. That is likely to be your unique sweet spot (or ideal career path). Embrace it when found. Experiment with it. Start small so you can learn without much discouragement. Take a job or serve under a productive person in that field. This way, you can identify how best to establish your effectiveness and productivity as you develop. Everyone has a unique sweet spot. How well and how soon you locate it determines how great you excel.
The FLARE® model has helped me and several others, and I believe it would help you too, if you take it seriously.
Choose the wrong career and you have settled for struggles and mediocrity; discover the right one and you can be sure to become a leader in your field. I wish you the very best as you do so.
You will get there!
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