5 Uncomfortable Things That Made Me More Successful
Take a deep breath and follow me through this list. It won’t be easy to realize that we all have to work on some skills that are pretty hard to master.
1. Being able to take a compliment
Wait a second, is this really a skill I need to learn. Yes! Most people actually don’t really feel comfortable when getting a compliment. It makes them feel insecure in some way. We have a self—doubt and when somebody gives us a honest compliment we doubt ourselves.
For a long time I actually didn’t know how to react to positive feedback. It felt awkward and I would sometimes not even know what to respond. That situation has to stop and that’s why I figured out a good process to handle it:
• Appreciate the feedback
• Listen to the full feedback
• Wait a second
• Say “Thank You. I really appreciate that. Glad to hear you liked XYZ”
• Now, move on with the conversation and don’t get into any awkward silent moment.
2. Waking up early
Our lives are getting busier every day. We stay up long and we work hard to get to the career opportunity we’re looking for. We all know that getting up in the morning is hard. We all try to squeeze out some extra minutes of sleep just to slowly get up. Actually the morning is the best time to for “Me” time. You don’t have anybody pushing you around, you’re not yet online and can purely focus on your well being.
When I was living close to the yard, I used to get up at 6.30 am to go horse riding and then start my day of work. It was brilliant and a great motivator to kick off a strong day. The time before your breakfast is so valuable once you start getting up. Getting up early is also just practice and routine. Once your body knows the rhythm and your morning schedule you’re good to kick off early.
Here are some tips to get up in the morning:
• Try to make waking up early a nice experience.
• Prepare some nice smoothie the evening before so that you are already looking forward to that treat in the morning.
• Play some nice music to wake you up or start going outside for a couple seconds to get some fresh air.
3. Exercising
We all wait for that one reason to stay on the couch. There aren’t too many people that go crazy for the gym. But when it comes to your stress level and productivity there is nothing better than hitting the gym. Get all the negative energy out of your system and find your reason to work out. You need the commitment to stay on top of it and schedule time per week where you can’t get around it.
The time after the workout is most pleasant because your body releases all these great hormones to let you relax and enjoy the workout. I often find that time so relaxing that it keep me going.
4. Public Speaking
Oh well, we all know that feeling of having to present in front of a big group. Lets get it over with. Most people don’t enjoy it. The fear of public speaking is real and hard to face.
You turn read you start mumbling and forget your talking points. It all has happened to the best of us. But being a great public speaker is so important for your career. It gives you the ability to lead and inspire a group of people. A lot of people usually ask me, how I got over the fear and the answer is not that surprising. It unfortunately comes down to practicing. The more you do it, the better it feels.
You can first start off with small presentations about some recent projects you have been working on. This means that you won’t need to remember a lot of points because you’re just talking about something that you’ve done. Also realize that your listeners know how hard it can be to present and nobody will point a finger on you if something doesn’t go as planned. A great tip is also that you can always try to fake it. Believe me, a lot of public speakers can fake their appearance. They will look comfortable but they might not be. When you use a power pose in the beginning to boost your confidence and truly believe that you are going to deliver a great talk, then you are already in such a positive mindset that the talk can’t go wrong. It’s all just in your head because you talk to people all day long. There is no difference to that at all.
5. Switch Off
Switching off can be hard. I just received an out of office email from somebody at work saying “I am on holidays to relax but if it’s urgent email me. We never switch off 100% nowadays”. I sadly feel that this statement says it all. Our generation lacks the skill to just switch off and do nothing. Like literally nothing! When was the last time you did nothing? Not being on Facebook, not having your phone with you, or not watching any tv show after work? It just doesn’t happen anymore.
If we are connected and online for so much time of our day it will make it much harder for us to stay relaxed and bring our stress level down. Even trying to sleep is harder because we just can’t fully switch off.
Start thinking about how you can block out time to do something offline. Go for a walk, cook a meal or have a nice conversation with someone. Life moves on even though you're not online 24/7.
I would also think of some other points.
1. Define goals and think about a strategy how to reach them.
Goals without a plan are just ideas. So you should take the one big idea/goal and break it down into smaller tasks which can be easily fulfilled.
Often tasks are also dependent on each other, which means you can only do task b if task a was fulfilled. Whereas task c could already be worked off parallel. Often you find those dependencies when you break it down into simple clear instructions. The more abstract you keep your goals the harder it will be to reach them. So put time and thought into it and try to make them clearer and more defined, in best case with a step-by-step plan.
2.Create Lists
Lists will help you manage your life much easier. Have lists for different timeframes (today, this month, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, ...) and different categories/themes/context (home, work, shopping, another_awesome_project, ...). Putting stuff on lists helps you to keep your brain free to work on new stuff because you will not need to remember what` s planned next and what you could eventually forget. And everyone forgets things. The uncomfortable thing about lists is that you need to check them regulary and also update them frequently. Lists will also help a lot for point 1. Write your ideas/plans/tasks down and work on their implementation.
3. Stop procastinating
Probably everyone knows it, the world is full of temptation.
And often enough there are tasks which you don` t like at all but they have to be done sooner or later. So instead of procastinating, waiting and getting more and more under pressure to get it done you should simply work it off and feel good to have it done. Often this will save you lots of problems and trouble already in advance.
4. Never stop learning
I think you should never stop learning and try to become better every day.
See learning as a gift because knowledge will open you lots of doors. Perhaps not immediately but eventually in the future.
Also nowadays it`s so easy to learn new things with the help of the internet.
And the more you know, especially when your knowledge is split over lots of themes/contexts, the easier you can take decisions. Being dependent on other peoples knowledge can make you easily take decisions which you later perhaps regret. So do your own research.
And put active time into learning something new every day.
Knowing how the world and things around you that we` re using on a daily basis work can help enormously in daily life.
If you see it more abstract you could also say that you have to kick your own ass every day to get out of your comfort zone, become better, be active and to create your own surroundings.
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing more valuable tips. That's exactly why I love Steemit so much. The community is great. You will never find this interaction on Facebook or medium..
Glad you find them useful. I could go on with some more but originally i wanted to do something other than writing a comment on steemit for more than 1h already. :D
I think that fits point 3. We have to fight it everyday again and again. Perhaps i` ll come back later and add some more.
Yeah, the atmosphere and interaction on steemit is really nice at the moment, very familiar but that` s also part of the fact that it` s still beta and a relatively small community compared to facebook or g+ i think. Also a lot of people are very hyped, which is quite normal for exicting new things. But things often lose their attraction over time. I hope it stays this way. Familiar and exciting, but not small.
Nice to meet you and to be part of the beginnings of steemit.
Interested to hear why you chose do downvote my comment.
Sorry, that wasn` t intended. Gave you an upvote as i can only second what you said. This can be really a timekiller here.
No problem just want to make sure I don't offend anyone accidentally! P.s. Welcome aboard.
Ok cool. It` s all fine. But good that you said it cause i hadn` t recognized it. Thanks for the welcome. I think i was clicking around in the slide-in menu on the right and then clicked into the main screen and hit the flag button and simply continued without checking it again.
my fav club... i also joined it
A lot of good advice in here. I'm wondering how many people will find 'switching off' that much harder now that they have steemit in their life.
Hehe! Good point :) We're online all day long and I feel it's much harder now to just turn everything off. #fearofmissingout
Yeah, steemit really ratchets up the FOMO!
Ok. So I am headed out for a week of vacation, going to try to shut it (steemit) off. Wish me luck. While I'm gone, if you could steer new users who need some help to my "Minnow Code of Conduct" post I'd appreciate it!
Nice job on the payout here, glad that many others found it an enjoyable read.
THERE IS NO SWITCH OFF FROM STEEMIT!!!
I can think of one that's highly relevant to Steemit:
Networking
Network intelligence is becoming more crucial than ever. Unfortunately if you're like me, networking is uncomfortable and doesn't come naturally. However it's becoming increasingly difficult to be successful these days without building out and nuturing strong networks.
In the not so distant past, we use to get all of our information from print or by word of mouth from those closest to us like immediate friends and family - if you wanted the number of a good plumber you looked in the phone book or called the neighbor.
A little more than a decade ago we started relying on new and advancing internet technologies to solve our problems - got a question? Google it! Want to hear the latest news? Head over to NYtimes.com
Now the internet is coming of age and we're developing fast, deep and powerful networks. Looking for a job? If you want to find your dream job you don't ask your best friend, look in the classifieds or go to Monster.com - instead you hit up LinkedIn or Facebook and start networking your ass off!
Network literacy is fundamental to being successful on Steemit too. If you're not interacting or contributing to the community you're going nowhere and progress as a whole is hindered. But by working together we can find and spread knowledge quicker than ever. Solve problems better and more efficient than ever. And as a result we're able to create a unique and vibrant ecosystem that's more powerful and valuable than the sum of it's parts. Steem on!
Yes, sometimes we don't even know what our neighbors are doing and who they are. Living in the digital age changes a lot. I must say though that Steemit so far was able to create a powerful community. People on the platform are really nice and there are no spammers or haters around! Thanks for your input!
It is another positive post worth reading and even sharing, you got my upvote! Namaste :)
I sometimes still hard to learn to point number four because of my limitations in the English language
but your posts are very helpful, man! thankss
Great advice, thanks for sharing :)
Being able to take the blame can be really hard, but sometimes it's better to just "shut up and nut up" in a way.
I think that another way to improve could be by participating in improv, a similar route to public speaking. Improv can be very scary to do at first, but if you keep practicing you realize that you learn how to process quicker and are able to be part of a team!
I think improv is a great team activity overall. It helps you bond with others and improves your ability to come up with quick answers if needed.
good ones @inboundinken
Hate public speaking, but yeah, it's necessary