Contents:
- Visualization
- Articulating an idea
- Getting people excited
- Selling the vision
- Casual networking
- Giving more than you take
- Listening to the other side
- Keeping your word
- Negotiation
- Googling
- Handling rejection
- Getting things done
- Taking responsibility
- Delayed gratification
- Prioritization
Over the span of your professional career and after retirement, there are certain things that will be responsible for your success at work and in building successful and meaningful relationships. These don’t seem to be skills at all, because they seem more like traits.
However, I call them skills because anyone can learn to do them and win, just like they were born that way. No doubt, these skills (in the list below) will guarantee a successful career and entrepreneurial life if you plan on living it.
1. Visualization
Visualization is a lot similar to imagination, but that is done by everyone. In visualization, you tend to imagine what you want and what life will look like when you’re in that moment.
Believe it or not, we all need a reasonable amount of motivation on the inside, and this won’t come from watching motivational videos. It comes from your mind and visualization of the end goal is the only way you can make that happen.
2. Articulating an idea
Everyone has at least one good idea, be it for a book, movie or a business. However, there’s one thing that can determine whether this idea of yours will come to life or remain forever buried – and that’s the ability to articulate it.
Most people are afraid of articulating their ideas because;
- They are afraid of being discouraged
- Ideas can be stolen, refined and owned by someone that listens
- Fear of rejection
- Low confidence
Once articulated, your idea can bring about more positive than negative outcomes. All you have to do is force your way through the barriers in your mind.
3. Getting people excited
You know why people can rush to sign up for a gym membership, yoga class or anything else they didn’t think they could do before? Excitement. Here’s how;
- Maintain a happy face
- Master your tone
- Speak of only the good
If you can’t get people excited, you just can’t get them to do what you want effectively. Network marketing companies, crypto scams and con artists have mastered this skill, though many have used it the wrong way.
4. Selling the vision
This is a lot similar to articulating an idea, but this one’s a little more complex. This is more about inspiring people to invest in your vision. You can do this by;
- Translating your vision into numbers
- Projecting the long term position of your vision
- Calculating every possible obstacle and providing solutions
Being able to sell a vision can help both your career and business, and it’s very hard to go broke when you have this skill at bay.
5. Casual networking
We have heard from so many people that we have to build and expand our network, but we didn’t quite grasp the concept well. If you didn’t know, casual networking is one of the best ways to expand your network.
This is where you interact with people without asking for favors. Yes, it’s effective in the long term, because it’s always easier to ask for favors or market your products to someone you’ve established a good rapport with.
If you don’t know where to start, go out and reach out to your old classmates, just to reunite without asking for favors and see what’ll happen.
6. Giving more than you take
However crazy this might sound, it is immensely beneficial to deliver a little more than you’re paid to do. This applies in work, business and other areas in life and has the following benefits;
- Impresses your clientele
- Helps form more meaningful relationships with people
- Attracts more clients
As you do this, you should do it strategically and mindfully, meaning you don’t have to allow people to manipulate you or take you for granted just because you give more than they ask. Also, it’s hard to maintain.
7. Listening to the other side
In a world where everybody doesn’t listen, and most just listen to respond, you should try to master the habit of listening to people with the intent of simply understanding them. Here are the benefits;
- Helps strengthen your friendships and intimate relationships
- Attracts people to you
- Makes you wiser in making judgments and decisions
- People get to trust you more
To master this, you have to start with rewiring your brain to accept that there’s something someone else knows that you don’t.
8. Keeping your word
In your professional and intimate life, you’ll get a long way ahead if you learn to keep your word. This means, you do whatever it is you promised to do, no matter how hard it might seem. Here are the benefits;
- People take you more seriously
- You have the trust of people
- It’s quite understandable if you fail
So many people these days find it easy to make as many promises as it takes to impress those around them, but don’t fall into this trap.
9. Negotiation
Because many people these days don’t know how to negotiate, they fail a great deal in their personal and business life. However, knowing how to negotiate will help your career and business as follows;
- You’re able to get and maintain new clients
- Getting exactly what you want, because you know how to ask for it
- You can hardly get paid less
- It’s hard to buy something that’s overpriced
It is therefore important for you to train yourself to control your emotions and learn to negotiate your way to financial success.
10. Googling
As for this generation, Google is the library everyone has to go to, just in case they need information. However, there are things you have to know like;
- The right keywords
- Credible sites
- Fake sites
- How to detect misinformation
This will help you get information on literally everything, thus making your life a little less ignorant.
11. Handling rejection
One of the things that stop people from looking for jobs, contracts or clients is fear of rejection. “No” sounds like the worst magic spell that dooms you to eternal failure. However, handling rejection can make you successful because it is a huge part of life.
We can start by actually seeking rejection. Set out a specified number of days and go out there just ready for rejections, and see what difference it will make.
12. Getting things done
People love to work with someone they know will get things done. Let’s look at it this way, sometimes work just becomes really hard, and there are lots of things to improvise.
However, being able to do everything the way it comes, regardless of how, makes you more dependable.
13. Taking responsibility
The blame game is one of the most popular games of this generation. To be a good leader, you have to find a way to stop blaming other people for everything that happens, especially when you have control over it.
Ownership is and has always been the first step to solving problems.
14. Delayed gratification
This is when you postpone the things that you’re feeling the urge to do, especially if they are outside work. For example, you want to play a video game but you postpone it to when you’ve accomplished your set task.
This is very important because you channel that urge and use it as fuel to get things done fast and efficiently.
15. Prioritization
Prioritization is knowing what’s more important among all options and focusing on it first.
Sometimes, we’re caught between multiple options and we don’t know what to go with, thus degenerating into the multitasking chaos. However, knowing your priorities will get you a long way ahead and help you get a lot of things done.
Conclusion;
This article isn’t about perfection, but about trying to be the best version of yourself. You might never be able to have all these qualities above, but having most of them will get you a llong way in your professional, personal and intimate life.