This short blog came to me when I was thinking about the rule of 80/20 (Pareto principle) and its relevance in my career development and growth. The question I have been asking myself has been, what were those 20% decisions and lifestyle habits that led to 80% of this growth?
I have prepared the 5 most impactful topics of my professional and personal growth, along with a few books that have helped me along the way (affiliated links are included).
- Free Your Mind
Allow yourself to think strategically and creatively. Carve out time to free your mind from daily stress and routines. My favorite ways are doing something that keeps my motor skills active but my mind free such as running, long hikes, HIT workouts, and early morning meditations. I recommend reading “The wealthy Body in Business” where the author breaks down the connection between eating, physical activity habits, and brain functionality. Throughout this book, there are great tips on how to enhance your intelligence and maintain concentration which will help to improve your cognitive mind. My takeaway from this topic has been to create an environment to let your mind wander and recharge.
- Challange Yourself
Try new foods, activities, and put yourself through new emotional and social settings. Vary your hobbies to challenge different aspects of your mind, emotions, and physical limitations. This will help you to better gauge your emotional and social intelligence limitations, manage and surpass them. The key to personal and professional growth is to rapidly adapt to your surrounding environment by listening, reacting, and learning how to overcome your current limitations. To further familiarize yourself on these topics, read Emotional Intelligence 2.0, Social Intelligence, and Be proactive section of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
- Create a Safe Environment
Embrace change, take a calculated risk, be observant, then reflect and repeat the cycle. Once you identify a limitation, create a safe environment, and experiment with small changes that could lead to improvement and growth! This is the hardest and most important step, mostly because change is difficult and most people go through their lives without really knowing how to embrace it. A takeaway from this topic is, change is the catalyst for both professional and personal growth. Learn how to embrace managed change and you’ll have the most valuable skill to guide you through your journey.
- Financial Stability
I am not a financial advisor by any means so this is my opinion. I believe people that have the luxury of not worrying about their day-to-day finances take more calculated risks geared toward their personal and professional life. Thus, I have been reading about financial independence for a very long time. I have discovered that I really cared about financial stability more than financial independence, which is not the same but it will lead to financial independence. During my research, I came across a book called The Power of LESS by Timothy Ferriss, this is where I switched my mindset from financial independence to stability. Focusing more on what’s essential and building a financial safety net has enabled me to make more calculated risks toward improving my personal and professional life.
- Seek Mentors Like You Seek Your Passion
It’s very important to have a mentor both inside and outside of your industry. Select mentors that provide you a new perspective and be picky with who you spend your time with. Respect their time and make sure they know you are driven by learning from their experience. They will be busy so work around their schedule and stay persistent. My favorite book that hints on this topic are Improvise by Fred Cook, read the “Ask the Captain” chapter and you’ll see what I mean.
The five topics above were the key drivers behind my career and personal growth in the last 10 years. It took some reflecting to boil it down to the topics above but each of them was a major contributor to my career. If I may leave you with one take-away out of this article is to free your mind. Once you have given your mind enough time to reflect on what’s important in your life and what you are passionate about, everything else will follow.
Summary of 5 Essential Elements:
- Free your mind from day-to-day activity and focus on what’s improtant to you!
- Challange yourself through various aspect of your life to master your emotional and social skills.
- Create a Safe Environemnt as a sandbox to rapidly adapt change and improve your skillset.
- Financial stability will enable you to take risks and show you the path to financial independence.
- Seek Mentors like you Seek your Passion!
Continuous Learning Leads to Lifetime of Growth 