Your career - Hitch your wagon to the star and seize success

 

There are three rules of success. The first is “Go on”; the second is also “Go on’; and the third is “Go on” as well. These rules apply to your career as well.

Are you holding your horses waiting for success to come by? Do you suppose that if you pass time hoping that success will come your way, it will indeed come? Success is not a commodity readily available in the market and that whenever you desire, you can get it. Any subscription to this thought process is futile; you will be at an advantage if you exert yourself trying to achieve success instead of wasting your prized time twiddling your thumbs.

Men and women who taste success take initiative. They are self-assured and determined in all their endeavours. Most people do not take a leaf out of their books and assume that having an influential contact will make them successful. They also believe that success is related to good luck, little realizing that successful people author their own destiny.

If you have to hitch your wagon to a star, you have to follow a set procedure that entails hard work, determination and prudence. It involves the following imperative actions:

·   Have confidence that success will kiss your feet:  Self-confidence and self-conviction are extremely crucial building blocks. You must always think that your success is just around the corner. You have to believe that your objectives are your cup of tea; this can be facilitated if you reduce them to writing precisely in the same manner as their images cross your mind. You must build a portrait of your perfect career and intently study it on a regular basis to discern if it stirs you up. Remember that conviction is intrinsic and you have to occasionally plow and break ground to get it to surface.

·   Make sustained efforts to ascertain factual details:  The confidence in you has to be supported by actualities. You need to discover particular actions on your part that will make the portrait of success authentic. Issues related to investing in your career and acquiring additional qualifications need to be holistically considered to get the type of remuneration that you seek. You also need to examine if money is your sole criteria or whether other aspects of your life need to be bettered. If you jot down your queries, you will automatically find their responses. And it is only then that you can get into a fast-forward mode.

·   Make attaining success an obligation:  There are three schools of thought for achieving success - come what may, it will happen; making attempts to achieve it is worth it; and that some time in the future, but God knows when that it may happen. Making success an obligation is a powerful resolution and for that you have to fix on it accordingly. You will have to concentrate your all your efforts towards it so that your attitude provides you a positive rationale and intention. It is normal human tendency to avoid binders, but in this case the binder is puzzlement which definitely needs abandonment.

·   Have a line of action:  Once you are stanch, you will need to make a route chart to move towards success. The factual details that you have gathered will have to be made use of. You must split your plan into smaller ones and which will have to be appropriately embarked upon. It all entails making a record of actions required to be undertaken by you and according precedence to them. Actions that bring about a waste of time should either be left to others or discarded. Distractions will try to derail you, but then your plan can help you get back on rails.

·   Do not get bogged down:  There will be occasions when your motivation levels are low and you feel that your efforts may not be commensurate with the outcome. There is nothing unusual about this because the journey of life is never a smooth ride. But you cannot afford to get bogged down; you will have to deal with all doubts pragmatically. You have to inch forward; one step at a time to reap good dividends.

Remember that winning stems from itself. The start point is your thoughts and actions. And thereafter, it is essential that your focus stays intact; that is the underlying principle of success. Remember that you will never be able to cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Sports as a career option

“I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failure.”

--- Earl Warren

Come the IPL or T20, the country is brought to a halt. Likewise, Davies Cup, Wimbledon, CWGs, Olympics and many other sporting events interest everybody; sports lovers go crazy.  The youth views a sportsperson in high esteem, not just because of performance alone, but on account of associated glory. And with glory is also attached the aspect of very high pecuniary gains. 

A sporting career undoubtedly has inherent in it fame, glamour and recognition. However, it does not come easy. Concentration, training, endeavour and resoluteness are important factors that contribute to excellence. The sporting journey is not undemanding; you have to be always at your fittest and be willing to give up many things to reach the zenith. Sports, as a career is indeed an exhilarating option. 

Your interest in sports comes at an early age. It is like a love affair – you have to fall for and court it; only then can you enjoy it and if you do not, you will fail miserably. If you have a penchant for a game, you need to train so that your talents can be developed further. To that extent, you must have appropriate training facilities and that includes the services of an accomplished coach. Once you happen to be on the correct course, you are deemed to become a professional with a bright career ahead.  

The industry of sports, if it can be called so offers a plethora of opportunities. These opportunities are available in both government and non-government domains. You need not be an active player; journalism, marketing, management, education, medicine, diet and edicts, etc are some of the alternatives that you can select from. This industry is still embryonic but very promising; the contours and arc of which is contingent on the type of men and women who enter the fray and the manner in which they find their feet in their sporting journey.

There is also a close connection between sports and certain other professions; and this link is fast coming to the fore. You can develop yourself in a specific area of expertise and then dedicate yourself on sports. The remuneration offered depends upon the field that you have specialized in.  A distinct advantage of working in the sports industry is that you associate with people who are ardent in their endeavours. The high degree of enthusiasm is brought about by the non-conventional nature of the sports industry presently as also the youthfulness and eagerness to face exigent situations of the partakers. Because sports as a profession, is yet to develop fully, there are no concrete characterizations. As a result, there is a tremendous scope for inventiveness and advancement.

But it is not all silver linings. The widespread perception prevails that sports as a career, is not for the academically bright and industrious. But thanks to the media revolution, in recent years, some of the most intelligent and sharp boys and girls have started looking up to sports and allied pursuits. They all want to excel and bring glory to sports and earn laurels for themselves and their country. Dreaming big is alright, but you will need to be meticulous, assiduous, well-organized, sincere and venturesome if you have to make it big.

To discover budding and steadfast sportspersons is also an endeavour by itself. Sports and sportspersons have their own share of oscillations with intermittent plateau periods. With the sports industry yet to be established fully, there are intense contests and which call for continual alacrity. Your passion for your pursuit has to be great like what is evident from what Rogers Hornsby, the famous baseball player said, “People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”

Gold medals are not actually cast of the yellow metal. They are made of a mettle that is an alloy of perseverance, strength of mind, resolve and determination. Remember that you will not be able to build your character by taking up sports as a career; it will automatically come to be known.

Recipe for career success

It is everybody’s aspiration to clock an imposing and steady progress in his or her career. People think that attaining such a dream is quite difficult and which calls for sneaky management. Much against the general view, there is no magic formula for being successful in one’s career.

Career success implies a steady progress and all tactics towards its attainment are a blend of preparation, efforts and rationale. Ten time-tested approaches to achieve it are:

·   Strive for professional improvement:  Learning is a continuous affair and your tombstone is your diploma. You need to empower yourself continuously; participate in training events, take up membership of professional clubs and read as part of own-time activity to stay connected with most recent developments as relevant to you.    

·   Take on additional work willingly:  You should try to be a useful member of your team and this implies sharing workload and shouldering additional responsibilities cheerfully. It will stand you in good stead if you participate in social service programmes, become a member of boards to identify new initiatives and volunteer for organizational assignments. You will thus be able to carve an image of being impelled and obliging; it will undoubtedly pay you rich dividends.

·   Display a down-to-business approach:  All business houses attach great importance to headship qualities. Whatever be your field of work and appointment, possession of leadership attributes are advantageous. You should be practical and positive in your overall disposition and make it a point that you stand out in the crowd.

·   Change and rediscover yourself:  All professionals endeavour to transform themselves by braving up to new contests and experiments. You need to rediscover yourself and in the process set higher standards every passing day. This makes it mandatory to persistently dare yourself to accomplish more than what you set out for. 

·   Have a matured outlook:  No workplace is devoid of politics; however, you need not to be manipulative. You should be discreet in your verbal communications and stay away from all altercations and arguments that have the potential of a controversy.  

·   Keep your eyes and ears about:  You should keep abreast of what is happening around you. This is possible if you do not absent yourself from routine meetings and various company activities. An image of a conscientious and productive worker will get tagged to your name. In addition, you should sell yourself diligently to ensure that you do not fail to benefit from all future prospects.

·   Be an organizational asset:  If you are an authority in your own field of work, people will look up to you as an asset and approach you for guidance.  You will be able to acquit yourself better in this context if you write for professional journals and do not miss out opportunities for delivering talks on topics that are your domain.  

·   Give your organization the maximum:  It is a hard that you get paid for working and for delivering results. Achieving your targets is fine, but employers invariably hope that your contributions should be more than what they spend on you. Therefore, you need to walk that extra mile.  

·   Don’t digress from principled standards:  Personal values related to adherence to timings of work and appointments; meticulousness; dependability; subtlety; zeal and zest; and constructive mind-set are always important and helpful. Your career will prove to be more successful if you do not deviate from your and organizational standards.

·   Enlarge your contact base:  The more number of people you know, the better it will be for you and your career. Besides people in your own company, you should also maintain contact with prominent persons elsewhere too. You should also identify suitable individuals on whom you can fall back for direction, if required.

Professional success is not something that can be purchased off the shelf. You need to harbour a coherent approach towards your work and this implies putting in sustained efforts after painstaking preparation. Remember that concentration of effort and the habit of working with a definite aim are two of the essential factors in success which are always found together. And one will always lead to the other.

Infusing efficiency at workplace

Competent employees endeavour hard to finish all their assigned tasks; consequently, their organization is able to register more productivity. If the inspiration level of employees is not up to the mark, that is, they are unable to finish assigned tasks, workplace efficiency plummets. Time frames enunciated for various projects thus get extended.

The issue of infusing workplace efficiency does not imply only more work in minimum time. It actually entails doing high-class work with minimum sweat. How can you infuse workplace efficiency? You need to consider various factors, notable being the working atmosphere that prevails, contentment levels being derived and inter-personal relations. It goes without saying that good management practices and a display of concern for employee welfare also boost workplace efficiency.

While there can be no single sacrosanct method to bring about efficiency at workplace, the following methods will help:

·   Evaluate job requirements of various appointments:  There will be many people who would be involved in several tasks at a given time. As a result, they cannot concentrate on any of them. To overcome this problem, you have to be extremely careful in assigning responsibilities so that there is no dilution of focus. 

·   Identify reasons for employee inadequacies:  You need to know the exact cause for low efficiency of employees. The reasons could be more than one; employees may be prompted to go slow because of tedium or are deliberately showing disinterest. The employees have to be spoken to so that the causes are identified and necessary actions initiated to infuse efficiency at all levels.  

·   Reduce distractions:  Every workplace has inherent tensions and employees find it hard to devote themselves fully to their work.  You have to ensure that that there are no or minimum distractions, particularly when dates of completion of projects are drawing close. Distractions have an anticipatory effect. If there is any diversion of focus, employees tend to wait for another disruption.

·   Have a congenial atmosphere:  A workplace needs to be hospitable because the output of happy employees is always more. Contented workers remain in high spirits and are able to devote maximum time on their projects resulting in greater efficiency. 

·   Have no rigid work schedules:  Work timings cannot be regulated as if there is a military dictatorship in place. There are people who perform best in the morning; likewise, there are others who do in the evenings. Keeping this in view, wherever and whenever possible, flexible timings should be put into effect.

·   Schedule periodic breaks:  Work is always demanding and tends to cause fatigue. A short break of about ten minutes every two hours can rejuvenate the mind. Intervallic breaks should be scheduled so that employees can go the library, have a cup of tea or coffee and freshen up their minds.

·   Discard superfluous practices:  You should know what and how things take effect in your organization. It is essential that outmoded procedures are discarded and yardsticks for various tasks are created.

·   Acknowledge good work:  Employees who consistently work hard and sincerely should be publicly commended. Such recognition serves to induce other employees to also work hard and become models for office touchstones.

·   Foster camaraderie:  If employees are inspired enough, they will understand the importance of working collective towards company objectives. Team spirit can be fostered by periodic experiential training sessions and motivation lectures.

·   Detail motivators:  Pep talks help; you must organize motivational talks so that monotony being experience by employees is eliminated. They will realize the significance of their work and work hard to acquit them well.

·   Introduce latest tools:  Efficiency also calls for introduction of newer methods and practices. If there is any new technology that can facilitate efficiency, it should be adopted. Automation of records, increased use of emails to reduce paper work, video conferencing and electronic surveillance devices, etc are some tools that should invariably be introduced.

Efficiency is doing better what is already being done. It is never an accident; on the contrary, it is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.