Practical ways of becoming and remaining successful - Acting like you belong
In today's blog we are going to continue with the series, Practical ways of becoming and remaining successful. Today we will focus on the second installment entitled,
Acting like you belong.
I attribute a large portion of my ability to think successfully to my dear mother. More specifically to the advice and support that she gave during my formative years as a student. My mother was an elementary (primary) school teacher for some 34 years and she was and still is loaded with wisdom from her vast experience. Let's face it, after all that time she should know what she is talking about.
Probably the single greatest piece of advice she ever shared with me was;
the classroom is the greatest equalizer. Allow me to expound on this concept. Having been a teacher for all those years she was able to determine that all the perceived advantages that one student might have over another student, did not automatically guarantee more success. And by perceived advantages I mean; a stable home, parents that care, a family that values education, a family who has the means and willingness to help their child succeed, etc. The idea is that, if you work equally as hard, or harder than the student sitting next to you, then you give yourself an equal opportunity to be successful.
Don't get me wrong, there is overwhelming evidence that tells us that a child from an unstable home is unlikely to be as successful as a child from a stable home. However, as my mother would often quip, disadvantages are ready made excuses. And I take it further by saying excuses are excuses. The only one who suffers when you ultimately don't succeed is you. So excuses are simply your justification for doing so.
This mindset has continued with me as I transitioned from academia to the professional ranks. Despite the fact that there are no more physical classrooms, the philosophy remains the same and translates into, what I call acting like you belong. In the professional world the odds are likely to be stacked against you. There will always be people with more years and better quality experience, more degrees or qualifications from better schools, more connections and the list can be never ending. Today's blog is to ensure that you too adopt this principle.
You become your greatest enemy when you itemize these perceived disadvantages and allow them to psyche you out. Acting like you belong is basically assessing these disadvantages, formulating a plan and working toward overcoming them. For example, if you get hired for a job, the experience and qualifications of everyone else should not have any effect on your ability to exercise your duties. What you should assess is how effective each individual is and what role their experience and qualifications play. In fact, it helps you realize what you are missing and what you should consider doing to get you where you need to be.
In closing, acting like you belong is all about you. Even though others can help provide motivation, you are the only one that can implement the changes required for settling in. Doing so will boost your confidence by removing any self-doubt and also by shaping the perception of others toward you. Ultimately what matters the most is how you see yourself! So today, make a decision to act like you belong. Look past your disadvantages, setbacks and mistakes of the past and take the first step to overcoming them all.
Until next time remember:
as long as you have life you should live it to your fullest potential.
Today our journey continues with the fourth installment of the series, Practical ways of becoming and remaining successful: Eliminating the noise. We are almost to the end with only one more remaining. If you are joining this discourse and have not read the others that preceded, I recommend that you go back and read them once you have concluded reading today's offering. It is really important that you get the entire picture of what is being communicated in this series. Now let us begin with today’s message.
I submit to you that you that your ability to eliminate the noise has a direct bearing on the level of success that you can attain. It also impacts the timeline in which you can see this success. Distractions and a lack of discipline are lethal dream killers, which leave many individuals who once were loaded with potential, wondering what went wrong. Focus then, is a powerful and necessary character trait one must develop. To better understand focus, let us examine the image above of a racehorse.
As you may have noticed in the picture the horse is wearing blinders or blinkers. In general if you have ever carefully observed a horse race you would notice that most if not all the horses where blinkers. Have you ever wondered why? The answer is encapsulated in the very nature and anatomy of a horse's eye. It is said that the equine eye is the largest of any land mammal. It has the ability to see a staggering 350 degree range of monocular vision. However most of this vision is peripheral, which is relatively poor. As a result a horse is easily spooked when it is approached from its periphery and tends to rear on its hind legs or take flight as a defensive strategy.
I did some research to find out why race horse owners see it fit to put blinders on their horses and this is what I discovered:
