The Best Long Term Investments for Your Career
We all want to be successful and feel fulfilled, but you can’t be so if you sit on your sofa all day and hope for a miracle. You have to keep working on yourself in order to become better and more confident, which will make others recognize your worth too. With that in mind, here are a few investments you should make in order to improve both your personal and your professional life.
Keep practicing
When it comes to learning something new, regardless of what it is, the only way to become good at it is to keep practicing. After all, you know what they say – practice makes perfect. Thus, don’t give up when something just doesn’t seem to work or becomes too difficult to do. Look for solutions and keep trying. It will become easier over time, and you will be much better every time you overcome an obstacle that almost made you give up. Being persistent is one of the best skills you can learn, as good things hardly ever come easily, and your chances of reaching success will be much higher if you never stop practicing.
Ask questions
Nobody can know everything, but a smart person is not the one who has all the answers but the one who knows where to find them. So, don’t be afraid to ask questions. People who have the answer to your question will be more than willing to share it with you if you ask sincerely and respectfully. And don’t worry about looking foolish or ignorant – asking questions shows that you’re eager to learn, and there’s nothing foolish about that. Also, the person being asked is more likely to respect you and like you if you show them that you’re constantly trying to improve. So, don’t be afraid to admit that you don’t know everything, and ask!
Improve your tech skill
Considering the age we live in, knowing your way around technology is a must. Whether it is just for research and communication or promotion and sales, almost every job requires the knowledge of using a computer. You might think that you already know everything there is to know about technology but regardless of how tech savvy you are, there is always room for improvement. So, sign up for some of the professional courses, many of which are even held online, and learn how to make presentations, analyze different types of data, edit photos, or anything else that interests you.
Learn how to work with kids
If you currently don’t have much contact with kids but you still love them and would like to know how to take care of them and behave around them, why not learn? Consider taking an early childhood training course and even if you conclude that it’s not a career choice you prefer, you’ll still gain some valuable knowledge that you’d be able to use on your own kids, nephews, or friend’s kids. Plus, seeing as kids are very observant, saying wrong things around them can upset them if you don’t know how to make it clear that you’re joking. Learning how they think and what you can and cannot do around them is definitely worth the effort.
Read
And not just popular fiction – as interesting as these books are, most of them aren’t very mentally challenging. If you really want to improve your vocabulary, critical thinking, and way of expressing yourself in general, choose some classic books instead. Classic novels can change your whole perspective and make you understand things you previously didn’t even notice. Don’t be afraid of unknown words and dense passages – you can always look up the words in a dictionary, or try to figure out the meaning from the context. Plus, the more often you run into a word, the faster you’ll learn it and the richer your vocabulary will be. The point is to enjoy reading and eventually turn it into a healthy habit that will definitely improve all aspects of your life.
Use your time wisely
For starters, make sure you give yourself enough time to rest. No matter how much work you have, you’re more likely to do it properly if you are well-rested. Next, reduce the time you spend watching TV – checking the news or watching a movie from time to time is fine, as long as you don’t spend hours in front of the screen. You wouldn’t be doing anything productive, and there are better ways to spend your time. You need some time to reflect as well. Things can often get hectic when trying to balance work life and private life, so take some time to be alone and just think about who you are and where you want to be in five/ten years.
Learn when not to get emotional
It’s okay to like the people you work with, and it’s great if you do because it will make your job that much easier. However, don’t allow yourself to get too attached to your colleagues, especially your superiors. You need to understand that your superior is your boss first, and your friend second. This doesn’t mean you can’t joke around or go for a drink, but there always has to be a certain amount of respect between the two of you. Also, be careful what you say to your boss – your colleague pulling a stunt at work and getting away with it is not something you should share with your boss, no matter how funny it was and how friendly your boss might seem. The same goes for your colleagues – be friends, look after each other, but know how to separate business from pleasure. Being able to control your emotions is one of the most important skills you can have, which can save you from many unpleasant situations in professional environments.
By investing in yourself, you’d be investing in your future as well. So, work on your intellectual skills, learn how to organize your time, be persistent about what you want, and sooner or later, your effort is guaranteed to pay off.
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This article is written by Isabel William, a consultant by day and freelance writer by night. Her area of interests are well being, mental health, self improvement as well as beauty of millennial transitions in all aspect of life. Isabel is also a lover of literature, philosophy, running, and is a believer that sometimes it is just enough to enjoy a really good book, smooth jazz and a cup of coffee to travel somewhere else.
