If you’re unsure where you’re going, how do you know when you’ve
arrived? Where will you be in one, two, five, or ten years? Obviously,
experience helps us determine what we want to pursue as a career. But
there needs to come a time when we’ve figured out what we like doing, what
we’re good at (with which we can make a living), and pursue it with all
our energy. Does this mean we’ll always have a job that we like one
hundred percent of the time? No. But you should always evaluate your
current job scenario and ask yourself if it’s taking you where you want to
go. And if the answer is no, you really need to do some soul-searching, to
figure out what you should be doing with the time spent on the working
day.

What would you really like to do with the forty-plus hours per week
that you give to your career? If you find you’ve strayed from the path to
your dream job, form an action plan for how to get back on track. You may
be unable to make it happen immediately, but you should start on a plan as
soon as possible. The plan should also include evaluating your strengths
and weaknesses. I believe that, as individuals, it’s impossible to be
masters of everything; so it’s in the best interests of ourselves and our
employers to know our weaknesses and strengths. I highly recommend you buy
the book Strength
Finders 2.0, and take the test inside to establish
just what are your strengths. It has been life changing for me, which is
why I believe everyone should read this book.

There’s no point knowing what you want to do, if you’re not setting
out to be the best in that field. And the way to achieve this is to keep
on learning. This can be as simple as reading books or articles online, or
interviewing experts in your field. Education is a pathway, rather than a
destination, and it’s a path we should pursue throughout our whole
lives.

For the most part, people want to help others. I suggest you try to
find a successful person in the field you want to prosper in, and ask them
if they’d be willing to mentor you. Ask them questions like, “What do you
wish you knew one, two, or five years ago that you know now?”

It’s also good sense to extend your knowledge beyond what you’re
specifically doing at work. The more tools you have (ideas, know-how, and
so on) the more value you’ll be to your current employer—as well as those
who’ll employ you in the future.

Many would say that this is just common sense, but it’s been my
experience that very few employees practice these fundamental skills. If
you make a habit of applying these core principles when performing every
aspect of your job, you’ll be extremely valuable to your employer. Even if
you’re not the best in your field, if you have these attributes, you could
find yourself scoring the job promotion over better candidates, simply
because you have these fundamentals. Don’t underestimate how important
this is in an employee.

An example of being reliable, would be to arrive at work 15 minutes
early every day, and not leave at 5.00 p.m. on the dot (even if it’s just
a little after). Your employer will notice this, even if it’s not
mentioned. And it will be even more obvious if you work with others who
are tardy, or seem to always leave right on time. Practicing these core
skills has been the one aspect in which I’ve excelled, enabling me to earn
raises, bonuses, and promotions over longer-term employees. Communication
is a huge factor, especially if you work with customers. But how you
communicate with your supervisor and co-workers is also very important in
order to gain those hard-earned rewards.

Every person who has a job can work at becoming more productive. Yet
very few people actually bother to, or at least manage to ask themselves
how they can achieve this. What tasks do you consider to be wasteful in
your working day? How can you achieve more in less time? Actively seek
ideas about how to be more productive. How can you make your product more
valuable to the company and to the consumer? Discuss this with your
supervisor or boss.

As well as making you a valuable employee, this is a great learning
experience that goes beyond your current employment. By making a habit of
asking yourself this in your daily work life, you make yourself infinitely
valuable to any employer fortunate to have you working for them.

Every worker requires a degree of organization skills. People who
perform their job well have learned how to organize their tasks to achieve
better results.

Let’s take a simple work scenario: being a dishwasher for a
restaurant. You might think that there’s no room for improvement in such a
basic job. But if you were to load the dishwasher more efficiently,
thereby fitting more dishes in the machine, and have them come out clean,
this indeed would be more valuable to the restaurant.

I’ve learned that by being organized, I’ve been better able to
handle my weaknesses; for example, I know that I can easily become
overwhelmed if I’m constantly interrupted with changes to projects that
I’m working on throughout the day. One habit I’ve formed is to only open
my email client at certain times of the day. This way, I’m unable to see
when new email comes in, so I don’t interrupt my work by checking its
content. The same theory applies to my phone; often I’ll let messages go
through to voicemail if I’m already occupied with an important task. These
two changes have enabled me to increase my productivity tenfold, yet I’d
have failed to even notice them had I not been organized to see how much
of an effect they have on my day.

Note-taking, managing emails, handling meetings, and so
on—performing these tasks is easier when we’re more organized. Especially
when we’re not naturally organized, like myself!

The key is to be proactive with your career. Success in your chosen
field doesn’t just happen; it takes hard work, dedication, and focus.
Don’t run the risk of your dream job going to less talented candidates,
because their other skills make up for their deficiencies.

Learn to earn success. Don’t just hope that it comes to you—go out
and grab it!

Feature
image by kaibara87.