Ways To Exceed Your Career Aspirations

John Lennon famously said in the song “Beautiful Boy,” “Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.” Simply put, when you stop focusing on those things that matter most to you and what you believe in – then you allow life to pass you by. Do you strive to be relevant as a leader, business owner or entrepreneur – or do you allow the marketplace and what others want you to be dictate your career destiny?

We all have career aspirations to achieve; yet many of us do not hold ourselves accountable enough to build the right foundation to achieve our aspirations.

Accomplishing goals, whether personal or professional, is often difficult.  To begin with, you have to commit to goal setting – which many people would rather have others do for them. People may want to improve their lives and careers but don’t always know how to start the journey.

Unfortunately, we have a lot of talented people in the workplace who – because they lack courage – have become jaded by others that were envious, disrupted their goals, and never had their best interests at heart. As a result, these people have stopped believing in themselves and instead only listen and act upon what others need from them – for the benefit of others rather than the advancement of themselves.Opportunities are everywhere, but few have eyes to see them.

To assure that you not only see and seize previously unseen opportunities – but also avoid the traps of complacency along the way – here are eight ways to exceed your aspirations throughout your career and life’s journey.

1. Don’t Allow Negative Judgment To Disrupt Your Goals

The only one that stands in your way – is yourself. Don’t ever second-guess your ability and capabilities. Life is about confronting constant disappointments. Not everyone will value you or understand why they should. Rather than get frustrated, take a moment to understand their different perspectives

2. Take Ownership And Strive To Be Relevant

Most people become irrelevant in their careers because they listen to those that don’t understand what makes them unique and gives them distinction. Taking ownership requires action. The action you take in pursuit of being relevant may often be met with failure, envy and misunderstanding of your points of view. When seeking to be relevant, you will either create new marketplace demand or you will latch onto a marketplace segment that is still maturing. If you don’t experience either, you are off track. But never stop believing in yourself and never ignore what the marketplace is telling you.

3. Work Harder And Smarter Than Everyone Else

Get your hands dirty and learn to work harder than your competitors so they can never outsmart your efforts. Be courageous and take well-thought out chances. Allow risk to be your best friend. Aspirations fade when people are tempted to give-up and stop trying. Success isn’t easy. Being significant is even harder. To achieve both, you need to stay focused and work harder to understand everything about the goals and aspirations you seek to achieve.

4. Stay Away From Envious People

Most people spend their lives battling the gulf between assimilation and authenticity. They struggle with being more of what others want them to be – rather than what they seek to be themselves. Envy has the ability to cloud your mind and make you question your own intentions. Don’t let envy define your future or sway your aspirations.

5. Associate Yourself With People That Genuinely Have Your Back

Stay away from leeches and loafers (the envious ones) and learn to gravitate to the leaders and lifters (those who genuinely have your back. The types of relationships you have are indicative of your level of success. If you associate yourself with those that pull you down, rather than lift you up – you will find it difficult to evolve and achieve your aspirations. In the end, it’s all about people and you must know yourself well enough to be a good judge of character – to make the right decisions between the relationships you choose to invest in long term and those that don’t add any real value.

6. Diversity Of Thought Is Constructive Disruption

To exceed your aspirations, you may have to choose unconventional ways to get to your desired end game. Embrace diversity of thought and be a constructive disruptor. Don’t allow people to confuse diversity of thought as a form of disorganized thinking. It is only disorganized to those that have grown complacent and lack courage to challenge the status quo.

7. Wisdom Prevails During Times Of Adversity

Adversity is very big when it is all you can see. But it is very small when in the presence of all else that surrounds you. The key to overcoming adverse circumstances is a matter of focus. Zoom in on it and you will see no opportunity. Zoom out and you will see it in the full context of all else that surrounds you — and many opportunities previously unseen will come into view.

8. Don’t Allow Other’s Ignorance To Misguide You

Don’t ever allow the ignorance of others to misguide you – or assume that someone who has an important title or works for a large company has all of the answers. Oftentimes they know a lot less than you might think. With this in mind, never stop testing your ideas and ideals – or start letting other people’s ignorance get in the way of achieving and exceeding your career aspirations.Every successful person has had to make a choice to be courageous. And every courageous person opens themselves up to the opportunity to exceed their goals and aspirations – by not only being successful, but significant.

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