6 gems to a positive start in the New Year
Learn to cheer yourself on and be gracious to yourself when you fail. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH
What you need to know:
- Having in mind what you have been able to achieve will keep you optimistic and remind you that there are many things that you are capable of achieving with the right focus and properly directed energies.
Pay attention to the lessons learnt and purpose to add them to your learnings list and confidently continue towards attaining your goals.
January is here with us again, and the freshness and delight the beginning of anything carries is good motivation. It is totally understandable if this heady feeling overwhelms you, in any case, you need all the energy you can get to carry you throughout the year.
With this in mind, what is the best way to ensure that we make use of the positivity and the energy that the start of the year heralds? This is the subject this week.
We share with you some of the time-tested ways that you can adopt in your quest to carry the positivity that you have now throughout the year and see it come through in your career life – whether you are still in school, working or even running your own business, these tips will come in handy.
Jon Gordon, an American author and speaker on the topics of leadership, culture, sales, and teamwork, highlights health enhancement and longevity, happiness, career advancement, athletic performance, team building and financial success as some of the benefits of staying positive. This is where to begin:
1. Teach your brain to focus on the positive
When the realities of the year hit home and we have to go back to work or continue looking for work or clients for our businesses, it might become natural for the positive vibe brought about by the New Year to begin to wane.
2. Trail your focus on the positive stuff
The good that you have been able to attain this far in your life (it could be successfully completing your undergraduate, registering your business or completing your internship). Having in mind what you have been able to achieve will keep you optimistic and remind you that there are many things that you are capable of achieving with the right focus and properly directed energies.
3. Look for lessons in everything, even fails
Former US Secretary of State, also one of the most powerful women in the world, Condoleezza Rice, says in a past interview, “Today’s headlines and history’s judgements are rarely the same, so I will let history judge these things.”
Well, you might not have gotten to the point of making global headlines, but what are the headlines in your life?
The point is, things that look like detours should not dim your light or make you question your worth. Pay attention to the lessons in there and purpose to add them to your learnings list and confidently continue towards attaining your goals.
Five years from now, what looks like the biggest blunder now could turn out to be the best thing that happened in your life. Just remember, even if it is an epic fail, it is a lesson.
4. Have an honest assessment of yourself
We live in a world of pressure. And because of this pressure, it is easy to get overwhelmed because we are constantly comparing ourselves to other people – their education, their opportunities, their achievements. There is something called nature and then there is nurture. It is important to look at your circumstances and position in life realistically so that even as you plan what you want or fail at what you tried to get, your level of disappointment is not disproportionate with the realities at hand. Learn to cheer yourself on and be gracious to yourself when you fail.
5. Break down your big goals into small deliverables
When you have a big, magnificent goal that you are trying to achieve, it can become overwhelming. Understandably so. If your goal is, for example, to become an expert in your field and make it to the list of eminent personalities, do not begin by worrying about how you will get a big chance to make a difference by maybe working for a multinational.
Begin, instead, by recognising the little steps, opportunities that you have taken to positively change your immediate environment. When you appreciate this space, you are likely to feel buoyed to keep working, and with time, you will achieve your greater goals.
6. Have someone to prop you when you slack
While it helps to stay on course and build our hopes within our means, sometimes we need that voice of reason to remind us of our full potential so that even as we work gently towards being the best version of ourselves, we do not lose sight of the great and abiding potential that we have in God.
