The ability to expand your mind and strive for lifelong learning is more critical to
your success than you think. Don’t give up on lifelong learning. Ever. Research shows
that it pays beyond the skills you acquire. More than ever before, a challenged, stimulated
brain may well be the key to a vibrant later life.
Start spending time preparing for the future even when there are important things to do
in the present and even when there is no immediately apparent return for your efforts. Begin to
plant seeds every day that will yield the best and most fulfilling life now and in the
future. These skills can radically improve your life.
They may not seem earth shattering at first glance, but you’ll be surprised at just
how much they can affect your life and career now and for the rest of your productive life.
The only person that can really push you a little bit further in life is yourself. Grit
is both a trait and a skill. And the good news is, you can cultivate or better still
grow your grit to strive for what means a lot to you. It’s a skill that can be learned
and practiced over time. Grit is associated with perseverance, resilience,
ambition, and the need for achievement. It involves maintaining goal-focused effort for
extended periods of time. You can develop your capacity for grit. Your
response to a challenging situation is more important than the obstacle you face. Ryan
Holiday says “the obstacle is the way”. And you need grit to push through the obstacle
every time you face a challenge. The ability to stick with and pursue a goal
over a long period is an important indicator of achieving anything worthwhile in life.
Grit is a better indicator of success than talent. No matter how talented you think you
are, if you don’t put in the work, it will amount to nothing.
We live in an ever-changing world which is unlikely to slow down. So, what mattered yesterday
(e.g. skill, knowledge, social circle, etc.) might not be worth a dime tomorrow. Change
used to be slow and incremental: now it is rapid, radical and unpredictable.
Adaptability enables us to dwell on new circumstances and stay on top of the situation. Of course,
this skill is best when combined with insight, giving us fresh perspective before the change
itself. Growth depends on how adaptable you are. To stay relevant, most companies will
need people who can change with time.
According to research by psychologist Ethan Kross, there’s more to the idea of “your
best self” than life affirmations spoken to your reflection in a mirror.
Your best shot at winning against your inner voice is to dare yourself. Start trying, creating
and making something you are afraid to do. Don’t stop trying, and your inner critic
will be proven wrong. You can’t give in to the voice that wants
to shut you down. You can’t give up on yourself. When you fail to identify and separate yourself
from this inner critic, you allow it to impact your behavior and shape the direction of your
life. Stop looking for what’s wrong about you
and everything you want to pursue, and see what’s right about you instead! Focus more
on what could go right instead of wrong. When you catch yourself criticising, stop and be
realistic about what can actually happen when you concentrate on getting stuff done instead
of thinking about it.
Saying YES drives most people insane, but they don’t know how to say NO. Stop telling
yourself you can’t help it. Yes, you can. Stop wasting your time and energy. Especially
if you work for yourself. You always have a choice. Choose your work and projects cautiously.
Of course, it’s not always easy to know if the activity or task in question is worthy
of a yes. If what you are accepting to do won’t improve,
enhance or make you a better person, just say NO and focus on projects that are mutually
beneficial to you and the other party. Find tasks that energize you and light you up,
and say yes to those instead. You will be a happier and better person in the end.
The ability to actively and skillfully conceptualize, apply, analyse, synthesise, and/or evaluate
information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning,
or communication, is of immense importance to work.
It will continue to be a huge asset to your employer. They are desirable skills you should
develop. Decision making and problem solving require gathering reliable information, evaluating
the information for a variety of solutions and selecting the most appropriate option
based on the criteria and situation. People who can look at problems from a different
angle often end up solving them in completely unexpected, often elegant ways. At the same
time, they expose how narrowly the majority had viewed the problem, or whether it even
was a problem. Creative thinkers are innovative and inventive
and are more likely to devise new ways of doing things that add value to the work environment,
making systems and procedures more efficient. Creative thinkers can offer new perspectives
about the job and the company. And they will be indispensable in the near future.
Emotional intelligence plays a role in everything. Highly emotionally intelligent people rank
high on responsiveness, empathy, listening, and self-awareness. And they excel at interpersonal
interaction. The reason emotional intelligence is so widely
valued is pretty simple: “It plays a role in everything,” says A.J. Marsden, a professor
of psychology at Beacon College, like “task performance, contextual performance, interactions
with customers and peers” — the list goes on.
People skills are so important now and will continue to be in high demand in the future.
Emotional intelligence allows us to create relationships with others, provides insights
into people’s motives and allows us to predict responses.
Any discipline that benefits from the emotional intelligence that only humans can provide
will be in high demand. If you are not a people’s person, it’s not too late. You can still
learn how to better relate with others. You will need soft skills to thrive in the future.