Comparing Yourself to Others
Where is Your Career Going?
This is a question that most professionals will ask themselves at one point or another in their lives. Once you have determined what your goals in life are, the next thing you will want to do is take action. You can begin by doing something that might sound highly unusual. You should do everything that most people would never dare do.
Let us look at the facts. Many individuals do not plan for the long term. Most people do not have goals that they set themselves in life. Most people do not ever succeed in life. In fact, a lot of people do not do much of anything. The key is, then, to do everything that “most people” would never bother doing – something that you have already begun by setting yourself goals.
If we look at how we spend most of our time, the vast majority of us devote many of our waking hours to either achieving goals or relieving stress. The planning of time can be a successful activity for the achievement of goals. Some people, however, spend much of the time attempting to relieve stress. Achieving a balance between these two activities is key for attaining and maintaining a positive attitude.
Who are “Most People”?
The fact is that many people do the minimum it takes to just get by in life. In the United States, the figures are rather alarming. According to the statistics, most Americans are seriously in debt and / or completely broke by the time they reach the age of sixty five. Thirty six percent of individuals at that age are no longer living. Five percent still have to work. Only four percent are in comfortable financial positions; only one percent of the retiree population in the United States is wealthy.
The fact is that most people are broke by the time they get to retirement age, not because they planned on failing, but because they failed to plan ahead. Those in the five percentile who do manage to accomplish something with their lives, who do not let the future overtake them, can be credited with having the good sense to plan ahead. It has been proven time and again that the more time one devotes to planning and thinking about one’s goals, the further one’s career and financial success goes.
How do I take control of my destiny?
It is no coincidence that less than ten percent of all Americans take the time to write out their goals in life. This does not necessarily mean you should take time out from your busy schedule to become a fanatic when it comes to planning every single move.
But one question you should ask yourself now is, how much time have you spent in the past year planning your career? Chances are, you have probably spent more time planning your next vacation than you have on plotting your next career move!
How can I Plan for Success?
First off, you should take a good, critical look at just where you are right now in terms of your professional life. Are you prepared to go further than where you currently are? Opportunities probably await you. Now the goal is figuring out the best way of attaining them.
The first step in achieving any long term goal is to love you. Even the most successful people in the world do not appreciate their own success when they feel that they do not deserve it. Deep down inside, you should feel confident that you, of all people, deserve to have success in your professional life.
If you do not have very ambitious goals, then this should not be much of a problem. But if you are one of those rare human beings who sets the hurdles high for themselves, then learning to love yourself may very well indeed be the biggest hurdle you will ever have to overcome in order to attain success.
This is not to say that you should be conceited or constantly boast about your accomplishments. Behaving as such is usually a sign that deep down inside, you feel inadequate.
It really just means having the self confidence to go about your daily life in a way that will help you achieve your goals. If you are lacking in the self confidence department, then chances are great that your colleagues and clients will pick up on this fact immediately.
They will then have very little faith in your talents and abilities. The people with high self esteem and positive attitude are the ones who tend to succeed in life. In order to be great, you have to emanate greatness. Once you have all this under control, then you will be ready to go out there and become successful in your chosen field.