Maximize Your Chances for Success!
There are some essential skills that you need to develop and master to better your chances for success in life.
Many of these skills should have been taught when you were younger, but they are often given a low priority or ignored completely.
Use this guide to determine what skills you should either acquire or continue to build upon.
TIME MANAGEMENT –
You’ve heard the saying, there are only so many hours in a day. What you likely haven’t heard is, “and those hours fly by!”
If you don’t schedule out your day, chances are you’ll find yourself always short on time. Time Vampires are a productivity killer, so limit these as much as possible.
You need to learn how to prioritize tasks. How to make informed decisions. If you do, you’ll find you have the energy to complete the most important tasks.
But the rewards of proper time management aren’t just in your work life, but show themselves by getting to spend more time with friends and family. Life should never just be about work.
RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT –
Relationships are a key component to having a rich life. The saying goes, that the truly rich person has a wealth of good friends. So, take the time to nurture these relationships.
Friendships are often easy to ignore and relationships are often easy to take for granted. But if you don’t spend the time on these they tend to fall apart.
Foster relationships in both your work and personal life. You want someone to lean on during the challenging times and to celebrate with during the good times.
MONEY MANAGEMENT –
Money management is way more than just learning how to manage your debt. You should know by now that running up credit card debt is detrimental to your health and well being.
Assuming you know to steer clear of that landmine, you need to raise your Financial IQ.
You need to learn how to invest. Don’t stick your head in the sand hoping your financial future will just work itself out. It won’t. You have to be proactive about it. Learn the do’s and don’ts of investing. Understand risk tolerance. Learn how to analyze a financial opportunity.
Identify how much you need in retirement. And set a PLAN. If you don’t know your target, you’ll miss it every time.
MANAGE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH –
Your mental health is just as important as your physical well-being, yet we often don’t prioritize it the way we should.
Don’t be embarrassed to talk about your mental health. Understand that issues with confidence and self-doubt can be addressed and rectified.
Take time for meditation, yoga, or just reflection on your accomplishments and failures. Invest in yourself by dedicating time to make sure you’re at your peak mental state.
STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT –
Too many people are task checkers. They accomplish whatever is in front of them and call it a day without taking the big picture into consideration.
If you’re an employee, try to understand why you’re doing what your doing. How does this help the overall bottom line? What trends and insights do you see that you can implement into your thinking now that will benefit the company in the future?
Compile these findings and see if you can’t work out a strategy of how to take advantage now.
As a business owner, developing a strategy is essential. You will waste time, effort and money if you’re simply spinning your wheels on the day to day. You need to make a concerted effort to understand the trends and factors that affect your market.
No one can be Nostradamus, but the more you know about what’s happening in your industry, the more effective your strategy can become.
BE A PROBLEM SOLVER –
It’s one thing to identify an issue and another to RESOLVE it. Be the person who can identify or foresee challenges on the horizon and develop strategies on how to navigate your way through them.
If you’re an employee, it’s one thing to come to your boss with a problem. It’s another to mention the problem and follow it up with potential solutions. Or, perhaps reporting on how you’ve already resolved the issue at hand.
If you’re a business owner, the more adept you can become at solving problems, the better your business will be. You have to be flexible and be willing to try new ways of doing things to solve difficult issues. Those who don’t have these skills often fold under the pressure.
TEAM BUILDING –
The most successful entrepreneurs and executives recognize that they are only one piece of the puzzle. They understand that having team members with varied skill sets allows them the freedom to focus on the things they’re great at, while still accomplishing the bigger picture.
You must develop the ability to motivate those around you. This can be through recognition of their achievements and rewarding their successes.
It’s also important to acknowledge their failures in a way that is constructive. How can the employee learn from what went awry? How can the result be different the next time around?
Effective team builders also push their employees to take risks. An old adage goes that if you’re not failing, you’re not taking risks. Allow your team to fail and teach them how to learn and grow from their failures.
Identify skill sets that you don’t have. Learn to recognize your weaknesses so that when you find a person whose strength is your weakness, you quickly know that’s someone worthy of adding to your team.
Involve your team in the process. Don’t keep things hidden. Transparency fosters trust and motivates your team to want to succeed with you, not in spite of you.
