The seventh secret to success is to be self-sufficient.
In order to do that, you need to develop self-focus. When researchers talk about
self-sufficiency, they're talking about understanding that you are your greatest strength. No matter what
situation you're born into or who you know, it's making the most of your unique assets that
matters.
It's easy
to develop a feeling that the "grass is always greener" for other people when it comes to success. However, in developing
self-focus it's important that you not always be looking outside yourself at other people's actions and successes. Begin to
look inward to appreciate who you are, what you've done, and what you're capable of accomplishing. Everyone has successes
and failures. Try to see yours with a balanced perspective. Every "failure" is really a learning experience waiting to happen.
By making the most of events you perceive as negative, you can achieve great things. Self-focus and self-determination come
by witnessing and appreciating all of your efforts as they pave the way to success.
Dabble in self-improvement
One
way to develop self-focus is to practice setting personal goals and seeing them through. To begin, pick one personal goal
and map out the basic steps necessary to fulfill it. Then make a schedule for it, trying to allot at least a few hours a week
toward its completion. If you have a goal to increase your knowledge about a particular area of science, like astronomy, pick
out several books on your topic and schedule time to read them each week. You might also want to schedule a trip to your local
observatory. Make these obligations as important as others are in your schedule so you don't excuse yourself from these personal
appointments.
By following these guidelines, in time you'll be able to feel proud that you've
expanded your knowledge and made time for something you care about. Also, because you've focused more on scheduling
your time, you may just find that you get more done in the other areas of your life as well. That's one more great
potential benefit of self-focus.
Optimize "flow"
Have you ever been so engrossed in a
hobby or activity that you
completely forgot the outside world and lost track of time? If so,
you were experiencing
"flow." Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a
psychologist who coined this term to describe the experience of
immersing
yourself in an activity to the point of losing self-
awareness (1990). Imagine if you could harness that kind of energy
and creativity in your work. In fact, there are several ways to
channel your self-focus to experience "flow" in your daily
activities. Here is one of them:
Step
One: Conceptualize your task as a challenging game
Step Two: While completing the task, remind yourself how it is
related
to your higher goals
Step Three: Block out all potential distractions
Step Four: Free yourself from self-doubts and
stress so that you
experience joy from the task
By following these four steps, you should be able to lose yourself
so that you can experience the intrinsic joy of working with your mind or body on either personal projects or professional
ones.
In changing your perspective and focusing your energies in a new way,
you and your task can become one entity. When this melding occurs, even the most complex work challenges can become
enjoyable. And who doesn't want to enjoy their work? In fact, enjoyment might be one definition of career success that everyone
can agree on.
