Within each of us is a desire to be our own boss. We’ve all had our “million dollar” idea or one too many horrible bosses that make us want to start our own company.
Yet the truth is this: Regardless of your idea, owning your own business takes hard work, determination, sacrifice and a very clear understanding of not just your business, but also of your personality as well. Read More
by Dylan Alford
Reposted with permission from Brazen Careerist; see original article here
With the economy starting to turn a corner, and hiring in some industries and regions picking up, you might be contemplating making the jump to a new job. But any career move comes with risks you need to be aware of before you make a change. Read More
I’d give anything to travel back in time and tell my eight-year-old self that I’d eventually build a business from public speaking. In third grade, opening my mouth and speaking my mind to a group of people was a recipe for public humiliation: voice habitually quavering, thoughts lost between my brain and my headgear, and shaking so intense that my classmates sparked a rumor that I suffered from Tourette’s syndrome. Read More
Do you know what your job is beyond just your job description?
Sure, you can do your work and collect a paycheck, but that may leave you stuck for the rest of your career. Opportunities may go to someone else. You won’t make as big a difference or reach your highest potential.
The truth is, your job – your most important role at work – is to inspire other people.
This is the best kept secret of those who achieve superstar status in their fields. Anyone can merely get the work done. The superstars, however, do their work in a way that profoundly inspires others.
Take motivational speakers, for example. Most of them offer advice that make a difference in the lives of their audience. But no one inspires, energizes, and instills confidence like Tony Robbins. People leave his seminars excited, confident, and ready to bite the bark right off a tree. That’s why he has the biggest audiences. That’s why he is a gazillionaire. It really is that simple.
Think of the blogs and books you read, the things you buy, and the ways you like to spend your time. On some level, they all make you feel inspired, right? Learn to do that for others and you will never lack in work, money or friends.
The 4-step inspiration action plan
Inspiration is so valuable because it’s rare. Simply understanding the importance of inspiration and making a conscious effort to inspire is often all it takes to make a difference. But to get into the nitty-gritty, here’s a quick inspirational cheat-sheet:
Everyone has an audience, and that’s who you need to inspire. It could be your boss, the interviewer, the girl at the bar or your business’ target market.
Get definitively clear about who you want to inspire, and you’ll be that much more likely to do it well.
Inspiration is all about feelings. Once you know who you want to inspire, determine what feelings they want to feel. Do you want to build confidence? Spark adventure or creativity? Prompt deeper thinking? Inspire action?
Once you know who your audience is and what they want to feel, you can more easily develop a plan to deliver the message.
Of course, inspiration starts with you. Find the courage to lead by example. You can’t simply shake someone by the shoulders and force them to be inspired, feel confident or feel moved to take action.
Cultivate and express the inspiration within yourself first, and it becomes infectious.
You cannot hope to inspire while being phony or hiding behind a mask. The moment you are your true self, imperfections and all, people start to take notice and listen to what you have to say. Be open and sincere.
This is the easiest way to make your message stick. Honesty builds trust and gets others to believe in your inspiration.
The ability to inspire others is an important skill, one that will help you achieve the success you desire. Keep your message authentic and human to amplify your results, inspire others, and excel in your work life.
Andrew Olson is passionate about helping you find your inspiration. He is the creator of Empty Fist, a blog that shares practical ideas on living a more awesome life. You can find much more of Andrew’s writing here.
Want to find a job that gives you the opportunity to inspire others? Check out our How to Get a Job online bootcamp.
Following a few years of following the traditional post-college career path, I decided to strike out on my own and build Accompl.sh full-time. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster of emotions, productivity, success and failure, and it has helped me to better understand what I need to do to keep myself on task.
I’ve learned that it’s entirely possible to put a LOT of hours into your job, get a good night’s sleep and still make time for fun.
Here’s how:
An obvious first step, but an important one. If you don’t know (or aren’t told, as the case may be) what’s important to you, it’s pretty impossible to focus on it. These days there are a few things that matter to me:
Knowing what you want to and need to focus on helps to filter out all of the noise and distractions. Assigning a weight to a certain bucket in your “what matters” list helps to eliminate the need for a lot of time-consuming decision making.
There are two ways to attack this one: Become extremely self-aware, or use an app that does it for you. A combination of both is most effective. Start paying attention to how you spend your time. How many times a day do you check Twitter? How many days a week do you find yourself sucked into primetime TV shows? How many times did you check Facebook before your morning coffee?
I’ve been using RescueTime for a while now, and though I don’t actually check on my statistics very often, I know I’m being tracked, so I tend to be on my most-focused behavior. And when I do check my stats, I can see where my huge time-sinks are.
Get them out of your life. Or at least minimize their potential for distracting you. Notifications and status icons are a gateway drug — you thinkyou can just check one or two, but before you know it, an hour has gone by and what have you accomplished? Nada.Some things to consider killing:
Now that all of the distractions are out of the way, get to work! You’ll be amazed at how much more time you have in your day now. Maybe you’ll use it to get more work done, maybe you’ll finally get to go out to dinner with those friends you’ve been ignoring for the last few months, or maybe you’ll find a new project. The options are endless! Enjoy it!
Keeping your time in check is an ongoing process. Every couple of months (or couple of weeks if you feel yourself slipping), stop and take an audit of your time again. If you have something like RescueTime running, you can just check in on your stats and adjust as needed.
Don’t forget to build in time for play. Not everything you do needs to fit into your “what matters” buckets. Sometimes you just have to turn off your brain. Burnout is a much bigger problem than losing a few hours to a movie or aimlessly poking around Facebook. Don’t forget to have a social life. Don’t forget to water your plants. Don’t forget to have fun. Most importantly, don’t burn out.
Jenn Vargas is the Founder of Accompl.sh, the online community to achieve your dreams. Jenn has been designing and developing websites since she was 14 years old and has worked as a Product Manager at Yahoo, Flickr, and Etsy since graduating from Cornell University in 2009.
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC leads #FixYoungAmerica, a solutions-based movement that aims to end youth unemployment and put young Americans back to work.
