In today’s economy, finding a good job can be tough — and experiencing career growth can be even tougher. That’s why it’s so important to build your personal brand and bring your A game every day.
If you’re tired of your career remaining stagnant, here are three ways to catapult its growth:
1. Push yourself outside of your comfort zone every day
If you want to experience growth in any aspect of your life, you have to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. When it comes to your career, you’ll remain stagnant if you let yourself get too comfortable.
This can be especially true for the self-employed person and the commission-based employee. For instance, when I first started building my own online business, I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone multiple times a day. I always kept it in my head that the worst thing I was going to hear from someone was “no.” As I pushed myself, my business consistently grew. When I stopped, my income stagnated.
If you want to find success, you have to be willing to do the things that other people won’t do. That means pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone often.
2. Be adaptable
Due to technology and a less-than-stellar economy, the workforce is constantly changing.
Jobs that were available last year have now been outsourced or eliminated. Technology from just a few months ago has already been replaced by something bigger and better.
From a career standpoint, this means you need to be highly adaptable. Keep your skills sharp, and constantly try to learn about changes in your field. This way, you’ll be able to keep up with the changing economy — rather than have it leave you behind.
3. Do the hardest things first
There’s an undeniable power that surfaces when you do your most difficult tasks first.
When you structure your day to attack your toughest challenges before anything else, your productivity will soar. You’ll get so much more accomplished.
In his book, “Eat That Frog,” author Brian Tracy recommends making a list of the tasks that have the biggest impact on your career. Now concentrate on those two or three important tasks, and complete them before working on anything else.
By focusing on this strategy, you’ll not only grow professionally — but you’ll also eliminate a lot of work-related stress.
In today’s competitive job market, it’s important that you position yourself to stay on top. What are your best tips for career growth?
{ read the comments below or add one }
These are some interesting tips. Even I believe in always pushing us out of the comfort zone. When we become comfortable, it becomes a “danger” zone. By pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone, we will always grow.
Comfort breeds laziness and laziness leads to under performance.
To have a good Career growth we need to have ourself adapt to latest trends happening in our industry. We need to attend conferences and update ourself so that we can deliver best which will help to speed up the career growth.
Speaking of this, I should sign myself up to a few more conferences this year!
One of the best ways to boost your career is to attend public speaking courses. Not everyone will need to constantly present in a group setting, but being comfortable and competent in articulating a concept in public will catapult your position (and salary) to new heights!
I think #3 is the toughest one. I believe a lot of us are willing to try something new (#1) and/or change for better (#2). When it comes to 3#, let’s do the easiest thing first!
#3 is tough, but it makes so much sense. Work on the most critical tasks first, because the other ones just aren’t as important.
Let me see if I can put this in action starting tomorrow!
David;
Here you seem to be confusing critical (or important) tasks with the difficult ones.
I agree with you that one needs to work on the most critical tasks first. But I would also say that there is no need to work first on the toughest; rather the opposite is advisable for tasks of the same importance:.
Finish first the easiest tasks and keep the most difficult ones for afterwards (this way, you will at least see that you are progressing and that could give you some motivation to continue working). This obviously makes sense only when one has to prioritize tasks of the same importance but differing in toughness.
Starting by the most difficult tasks (which are not the most important) may make you work for a long time without really finishing anything, and that may eat into one’s self-confidence and it may be cause for stress, potentially leading them to not even start the easier tasks.
You are right Pelmane. I did get the two mixed up in my comment. And I agree with you somewhat as well, depending on how long it takes to accomplish the easy/difficult tasks. Sometimes, it even makes sense to get a few non-critical but simple to accomplish tasks out of the way to feel less overwhelmed.
I agree: comfort zone-busting opportunities abound, especially in keeping your online presence engaging. Technology is fun, not frightening!
Those who force themselves to practice with technology will never find it frightening. Practice does make perfect!