17 Oct Lessons I’ve learned from others
- Know how you’re smart, not just how smart you are, in comparison to others. This is an extremely important factor as often we are too hard on ourselves. Should I compare what I know to an Elon Musk or Bill Gates or Warren Buffett? Absolutely not, I’d give up before I started. In your chosen field you must understand your value to others.
- Know what you care about. Millennials seem to be able to verbalise this far better than previous generations. Maybe that is because of social media, maybe they have just been emboldened to speak out- whatever it is we generally know what they are passionate about. Us Generation Xers seem to have taken our time to both understand what we are passionate about and to be able to speak up about it.
- Know what values that motivate your choices. “Tackling fuel” as The Waterboy would say. Are our choices made out of fear? Desire? Greed? Or out of compassion? Purpose? Possibility or potentiality?
- Know what your personal velocity is- the intensity and drive with which you naturally operate. Some operate best at a smooth almost rhythmic pattern. Some respond best under pressure, others crack under that same pressure. Once you understand your optimal, and natural speed of operation the trick is then stick to it.
- Know the background imprint, positive, negative or neutral- that you carry with you & what effect it has on you. Ouch…this one hurt me. How the burdens of the past affect the decisions of my future. I needed to break the cycle and create new patterns. This wasn’t easy and slipping into old patterns is one of the easiest things in the world to do.
- Know your behavioural style – how you come across to other people. Only now do I understand that I can be perceived as gruff, even when I don’t think I am being so. I am forthright in my opinions and expect others to be so too. I don’t handle sarcasm very well and can be confrontational if I think there is an issue. Say what you mean, mean what you say. It is sometimes better to assign others to deal with certain people.
- Know the patterns in your choices, so that you are continually learning more & more about what it’s like to be you so that you can do an even better job in the future.
- If you don’t reposition yourself you could miss the best time of your life. Life is fluid, we rarely know or understand what is around the corner. Being able to reposition your business as and when needed is critical to your long term future.
- Ask yourself every day ‘how would the person I’d like to be do the things I’m about to do’.
- Don’t seek success- seek to become a person of value. Make yourself valuable and they’ll pay for you.
- See things from the client’s point of view. It may sound simple and we’ve all heard the ‘walk a mile in another man’s shoes’ but actually doing it, sitting down and asking why is this client not buying from me can be both confronting and liberating.