My 6 Sayings for Success

When I look back at my career and look forward to the future, I have learned many things and know I am going to learn many more. But, when I speak to others about how I manage or juggle or develop my career, I find myself leaning on a few sayings that help me that I have nicknamed my six sayings for success.

1. Accept who you are: By this I mean take the time to really understand who you are and embrace that as part of you. Trying to change or make yourself something you are not will do you a disservice in the long run. I, for example, am naturally a shy person. Those who know me in my work life will be surprised by that, those who know me personally won’t be – I hide it well when I have to. I don’t naturally insert myself into conversations and I find networking hard – but knowing that has allowed me to develop tactics and behavior to overcome my challenges. For example, before I go into a room where I know I will need to network, I give myself a mental pep talk. I remind myself that I’ve been included in this group because I have something to offer and people are going to be interested in what I have to say.
2. Take ownership of your skills: You haven’t got this far in your career without having some skills and abilities. Whatever those skills are own them and be proud of them. Some people find it very difficult to accept praise, me included, but praise is simply recognition that you are doing great at what you know. Don’t downplay your skills, if you are good at something, own it and stand up and say you are good at something. False modesty isn’t going to get you anywhere.
3. If you don’t ask, you don’t get: This is probably the one thing I say more than anything else. No-one is going to hand you anything if they don’t know you want it. You may think that the world revolves around you and that you are in everyone’s thoughts but it’s simply not true! If you don’t put yourself forward, don’t apply for the job, don’t ask for the pay increase you are just not going to get it. You have to be responsible for your own progress and you can only do that by asking for what you want. This goes hand in hand with a fear of rejection, you are not always going to get what you want but if you don’t get past that fear and put yourself in the running you don’t stand a chance. There is incredible strength in taking risks where you may not succeed but – you may just succeed and imagine how great it would be if you do!
4. Accomplish one thing every day: How ever you manage your daily tasks or to-do list, the busier you get and the more you progress in your career, the less time you will have to accomplish all your tasks. As one that saw the word “conscientious” crop up on report cards at school I find it difficult to leave tasks outstanding. I have had to train myself to accept that if I can knock one item off my task list every day, I’m doing OK. Its all about setting expectations for yourself that are realistic and achievable and not setting yourself up for failure.
5. Trust your instinct: This is a hard one and one that takes time and experience to work up to. It’s only by learning from mistakes that you will really learn to trust your instincts. I have learned that when I second guess myself and do something that doesn’t follow my first instinct, then I usually end up regretting it. I now know to try and ignore that little voice that is trying to tell me to change my mind and instead follow my gut. I even go as far as quickly hitting send on an email to lock my decision in so I don’t have the ability to second guess myself. Figure out what works for you and learn to trust your own instincts.
6. Have fun!: We spend more time awake at work than we do at home and need to have fun – I’m a firm believer that when it stops being fun then it’s time for something to change. Work is meant to be challenging and we all know we work under more and more pressure and we all need a release but we are responsible for how we approach life and work. There is nothing that makes me happier than to walk out and see an employee laughing with a customer or my staff with smiles on their faces – that’s when I know I’m doing an OK job.

So those are my six sayings for success that I use to frame my work and non-work life. I hope this has given you some ideas or even the desire to create your own personal sayings for success.

Claire Jubb is part of the GovLoop Featured Blogger program, where we feature blog posts by government voices from all across the country (and world!). To see more Featured Blogger posts, click here.