What do successful people do to advance in their careers?
As a career coach, I love to observe people. I watch and learn how many career professionals act, and see what they do, when progressing in their careers. I also watch how they act and react when going through a career transition.
I’ve noticed there are some common activities that propel them towards success and these observations will help you to achieve your goals (and these activities inspire me too!)
They are Early Risers
We feel confident and powerful when we have a sense of control and the feeling of accomplishment. Getting up early helps us to feel both.
By waking up early you gain a sense of control that you might not enjoy if you woke up later.
How many times have you said that you wished you had time to exercise, to meditate, to read, to stretch, to breathe, to say your morning affirmations? If you get up early, you’ll have time to do all this and more!
That feeling of accomplishment when you’ve had a power walk, or you’ve had a good stretch, or you started the day on a healthy note is worth waking up early for.
Sleeping in is easier – hitting the snooze button several times is tempting – but it doesn’t prepare you well for the day ahead.
If you want to get stuff done, get up early and GET IT DONE! A positive morning routine is a good thing.
Regularly getting up early, making it a habit, will change your mindset, the effectiveness of your morning routine and your productivity. Start your day on a positive note, get good things done early and you’ll set yourself up for a great day.
They Plan their Days in Advance
If you plan for tomorrow, tonight, you will have your roadmap to career success. If you don’t have a plan when you go on a trip, how on earth will you know where you’re going? It’s the same when it comes to your business or workday.
All you need are small, efficient action steps that, as you accomplish each, serve to bring you closer and closer to your goal. Know what you goal is in order to plan effectively. If you don’t know where you’re going, or you don’t care, then it won’t matter what you do. But if you want to get SOMEWHERE, then a plan will get you there faster!
Plan your day the night before and when you wake up you’ll know exactly what your priorities are for the day.
They Cut Out What’s Not Important
Don’t set multiple goals for each day that overwhelm you. I can guarantee that you won’t do any of them! There are probably 100 different things that you need to do. But creating a massive 100-item to-do list will overwhelm you and leave you feeling defeated.
Successful people keep it simple and focus on the one or two things that will move them closer to their desired outcome at work, in their business or career.
For successful long-term planning, create variable time-frame goals; yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily. Your DAILY goals are the most important because those daily actions will help you hit your monthly, quarterly and yearly goals. Without the daily goals, nothing else gets done – wouldn’t you agree?
Whatever you goal is, keep it simple and do less to achieve it. Ignore the noise and distractions and most importantly get past the mindless activities that aren’t helping you reach your destination. You know what they are … social media, certain emails, and people knocking on your door for things THEY want done. Focus on what’s important to you and get that done every single day. Steven Covey’s First Things First is an excellent book – he recommends that we spend our time on the IMPORTANT and NON-URGENT in order to reduce stressful situations and to get stuff done!
They Do MORE of What’s Important
What do I mean? Successful people do less when it comes to mindless activities, but always do more than their competition. Your competition may be a colleague, a competitor, or even your self. Ensure you are better today than you were yesterday.
Learn more. Create new solutions. Fix a problem. Create a strategy. Implement your strategy. Become the best. Go above and beyond. Do more.
To get to where you want in your career, your business and your life, you must do more. If you want a promotion, work for it! If you want something, work towards it. Be smart and identify what needs to be done to get to where you want to be.
They Focus Focus Focus
Do you know what you really want? And do you know WHY you want it?
Before you take action, give yourself time for self-exploration. What is it that you really want? Do you want a raise? Why? If so, how much? Do you want a promotion? Why do you want the promotion? Do you want more responsibility? Do you want more money? Do you want to become a leader? Do you want to grow you team? Do you want a new job title? Do you want recognition? What is the REAL reason you want this?
Be specific when it comes to your end goal. If this is something you’re willing to work on every day it needs to be clear and to the point. It must be specific enough that you can actually feel what it would be like to reach it.
Many people fall by the wayside because they don’t really have a strong enough DESIRE for success. Or are not willing to put in the WORK to achieve success.
If you stay focused on your end goal, you will stay on track to accomplish the one or two things that will propel you towards your destination. Rome wasn’t built in a day, as they say.
Follow these 5 steps that successful people do to advance their careers with dedication and desire, and you will be successful.
Of course there will be distractions and if you find yourself veering away from your goal, acknowledge this has happened and steer yourself back on the path towards success.
I’d love to hear what you do that works – leave a comment and share your experiences.
I can’t wait to hear how you go. Believe in yourself, and go and create career MAGIC!
