Know what you are worth
“We try to reward people according to the value they create, value they create in society and for the company.” (Charles Koch)
Employers will not pay workers to learn!
When people pay you your asking price in terms of salary or wages, they will naturally expect you to immediately create value for them.
If we cannot meet their expectations of value creation, then we are totally useless to them. We are not worth the financial compensation we are receiving in return.
Unfortunately, a lot of people demand to be paid a salary but cannot produce the work that truly commensurate with the level of salary demanded.
Here’s the test – If you were a freelance consultant being paid on a piecemeal basis, would your employer pay you the same consultant’s fees in return for the work you are currently producing for him or her?
Value creation will take time to develop
When we are just starting out in the workplace, it is difficult to give a tangible value that people are looking for.
When we have worked for some years and experienced the journey, then we are able to give value to people because of our accumulated knowledge, experience, and skills.
Therefore, accumulate as much knowledge, experience, and skills as you can in the shortest possible time and apply them later so that you can create value for people who will be willing and able to pay you your asking price. This will give you better control over your earnings.
Here are some areas of knowledge that you can focus on:
- Job – Learn everything about your job.
- Company – Learn everything about your company.
- Industry – Learn everything about your industry.
- Business – Learn everything about the business you are in.
- Dreams – Learn everything about the dream you are pursuing.
- Niche – Become exert in your knowledge in one unique area.
- Relationships – Learn everything about the people who are important to your life, career, business, or dream.
Expanding your knowledge is a self-improvement activity that you can engage in on a daily basis.
Delayed gratification will be your key to future success.
That’s why it is so vital for you to grab all possible opportunities to learn and improve yourself.
What’s your reason, not the excuse for not starting?
“Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” (George Washington Carver)
We can give lots of excuses for not wanting to know more about our purpose in life.
For example, we may not want to exercise because it is either cold outside or you have a sore foot and can’t run medically.
The former is an excuse whereas the latter is a reason.
So, what’s your reason not to embark on this journey of self-discovery?
Could it be the fear of failure?
Is there enough information to move forward?
You don’t know where to start?
Whatever it is, reasons are surmountable by adopting the appropriate strategies and mindset, if we really want to and serious about it.
When there is no ambition, desire or commitment to succeed, then there’s nothing much we could do to change the situation.
Overcoming our fear of failure
“When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” (Ellen DeGeneres)
Let us identify the possible type of potential failures you can experience and what we can do about it.
Firstly, we can potentially make the WHY mistakes. They occur when we don’t set a clear direction for ourselves, follow a purpose that doesn’t fulfill us or fail to understand why we do the things we do.
The mitigating solution is to ask five WHYs consecutively to uncover our true reasons for embarking on the journey of self-discovery.
Embark on the journey itself to find out more about ourselves. There is not better way than to experience it ourselves.
Secondly, we can potentially make the WHAT mistakes. They occur when we follow a strategy that fails to deliver the results we want.
You can know why you do the things you do and you can know how to do the work, but still choose the wrong what to make it happen.
Apart from having a sound strategy, it is, therefore, vital for you to have someone to walk alongside you throughout this journey, a coach or mentor, depending on your personality and needs.
Thirdly, we can potentially make the HOW mistakes. They occur when we fail to build robust systems, forget to measure success carefully and get lazy with the details. We can fail to execute on a clear strategy.
The solution is to have good systems to execute your strategy.
Kill off that procrastination now
“If you have goals and procrastination you have nothing. If you have goals and you take action, you will have anything you want.” (Thomas J. Vilord)
Procrastinators may want to put things off to the last possible minute.
They may want to delay or avoid doing something they perceive as unpleasant or stressful until they are in the “right mood”.
Or they may find making decisions difficult and painful.
The good news is that everybody procrastinates, but not everyone is a procrastinator. So don’t beat yourself up if you do procrastinate or practice self-blame.
Without realising it, we may instinctively retreat to our comfort zone and try our best never to leave it.
Procrastination is a result of that and we need to address it firmly and quickly in order to find our purpose in life.
Self-reflection on the root-cause of procrastination
Do start off by asking and finding answers to these questions:
“Why am I resisting this?”
“What are the positive and motivating reasons to do this now?”
“What’s the one step I could take right now to move me towards my goals?”
Always see this self-journey as a learning process rather than as a measure of your ability or success.
Mistakes will be made.
There may be negative experiences that you will face.
It is all about learning and experiencing.
The solution to overcome
Visualise the ideal future and write a to-do list of tasks and sub-goals, prioritising and numbering them from most important to least important.
Do the difficult and most important first.
Imperfect steps taken today are okay.
Break the tasks into the smaller steps and estimate realistically how much time it will take.