More than half of the time we spend at workplace. Our behavior and actions as workplace decide our success or failure. There are some of the mistakes we make which leads us to big loss in our career. We can eliminate them if we identify them. To accelerate your growth you can avoid these career mistakes.
Lack of focus.
We are surrounded by an endless number of attractive options. However, by spreading our energy all over the place we lose direction and reduce our task-specific output. Lack of planning, focus, mismanagement and unprecedented events can lead to mental and physical exhaustion. The adrenaline rush is helpful before deadlines since we get things done quickly. However, in the long run stress impedes growth of brain cells and reduces overall productivity, job satisfaction and happiness.
Professional and personal life.
We can easily mix personal and professional life it leads to career mistakes. Either you’re doing well in both or bad in either case. These two are not mutually exclusive. And there are no exceptions to this rule. Build up a well connected circle of friends, a partner who complement your personality and a few exciting hobbies. This is where your energy comes from! Also your stability, focus And balance. These elements are indispensable to foster a creative brain.
Be part of a social community.
True happiness comes from people, not from your work! Integrate yourself into a self-chosen community, e.g. a political party, sports club, student body or band. Besides the fun and output you produce you will also build up soft / team skills, which are crucial the higher you climb up the ladder in your career. It also gives you a different perspective and adds freshness to life.
Stable support system.
You will come across a series of ups and downs in life. The ups are only going to be half as awesome and the downs twice as disconcerting if you don’t have friends on your side. Make good friends. People whom you can have a serious conversation with. They will understand your problems well since they are in a similar situation. Relationships with college seniors, family, managers, teachers and professors are just different due to the inevitable generation gap. These differences will never completely go away, but they can be mitigated to a certain extent with conscious effort.
Strength training.
All of us live in a busy world. We give priority to work over physical fitness. However, working out is not only meant for top performers but for an average human being too. You will realize its importance later in life when you start having knee problems, leg pain and backache. Weight training not only strengthens bone structure and density but also increases your resting metabolism. As opposed to pure cardio exercises (e.g. cycling, badminton, dancing) the rate at which you burn calories is much much higher. Ideally, you should alternate between cardio and strength training. Monotonous cardio makes your body weak. Lifting weights regenerates your muscle tissues and makes them stronger. Hit the gym twice a week for 40-50 min to maintain a toned and healthy physique. It will also make you more disciplined in all other areas of life.
Presentation matters.
Professional knowledge and domain skills are important and will give you a good head start. However, how far and at and which pace you move forward will be highly defined by the way you present yourself. If you don’t present your skills convincingly to the outer world no one is going to take you seriously. People will judge you by what they see on social media and your demeanor. And take a call on whether they want to work with you. Presentation matters. Both in your professional and your personal life. You are not going to impress that smart pretty girl in class with a suit and flowery compliments; a well-rounded balanced package is what matters!
Don’t be a boss, be a friend.
The system (school, university, company, culture, family) imposes a series of restrictions upon us. Each of us is gifted with certain characteristics and features. Thus, all of us cannot be measured upon the same criteria. Bend the rules. Make the system flexible by asking for people’s opinions. Identify their strengths and use them to your advantage rather than enforcing your rules and arguments upon them. Move forward together – as a team! A sense of belonging and team spirit matters! The output you produce will primarily be defined by the synergy and connection between the team members and far less by individual contributions.
System.exit(0).
Java is an object-oriented programming language which allows to experiment with new ideas, but at the same time also ensures stability using exception handling. There are 3 different types of exceptions. Some can be handled – others are unknown and therefore result in unexpected behavior of the program. In such cases Java provides the command “System.exit(0)” i.e. “terminate the application immediately no matter what code comes next”. If you find yourself in a situation where no one can help you -> leave. Eventually people will figure things out and create a germane exception to deal this issue. Wait until you have enough evidence to take a decision with full confidence. Don’t experiment!
Favor long-term benefits to short-term output.
Pick a work environment you are comfortable working in rather than one which looks appealing at first sight / from the outside. We make mistake in career thinking about short term profit such as salary. You might not understand everything from Day 1, but the more often you shadow your mentor, communicate with your peers and colleagues the faster you will learn and make progress. It will take longer to produce the expected results but you will have a smoother and more memorable journey altogether. Be patient. Iterate. Stretch your brain. Iterate once again! #agileDevelopmentMethodology #stateOfConvergence
Consult someone with higher clout.
You cannot have all the required experiences in life by yourself. Borrow some of them from others. Observe other people’ behavior for particular situation and use the same strategies for facing them if you encountered. Keep moving forward in the hierarchy by identifying the next best player, who is _free_ and is standing at a more favorable angle. Keep going until you obtain ~ 80% of the desired outcome. Don’t aim for perfection – it doesn’t exist.
Also Read: Are you efficient or hardworking?
