Once again we turn to the popular wisdom of Quora, where, in an interesting thread, all kinds of people have offered hundreds of tips so that anyone, whatever their age, can start making changes, taking decisions and picking up new habits today that will help them both in life and in their career, whether to achieve success in a short time or simply to improve their chances and get better. We have picked the best answers and, as usual, we add our own point of view.
1. Hold on to something and work hard at it, advises David Cannon, co-founder of Findproz.com. Learn how to waste less unproductive time on Facebook and keep your social media addiction under control. Used well, social media can be an excellent way to learn and to build “productive” contacts; used badly, it becomes nothing more than a serious form of entertainment and a waste of time.
-
Video games are a waste of time unless you have found a way to make money from them. If you can’t play for an hour a day and then say, “That was fun, now I’m going to do something else”, you should give them up as you would any other addiction.
-
Get into the habit of exercising for at least 30 minutes a day; otherwise, your sedentary lifestyle will take its toll sooner or later.
(Read: 15 habits and choices for success)
-
Learn some programming, whatever your profession is or will be. Today, in a technological age, everyone should have at least basic knowledge of it, just as they should speak a second language.
-
Learn about finance. It is the subject that 90% of poor people have never got round to: they think that because they have no money they don’t need to understand finance, when in reality not understanding finance is what keeps them from having money.
-
Know, starting today, that when someone begins a sentence, or you get an email, with the words “make easy money”, you should ignore it completely, because it is either 1) a scam or 2) a waste of time. As a rule, it is someone trying to take you for a fool. And yes, there are plenty of fools. (Read: 8 realistic ways to make money online)
-
Read at least two books a month, but make sure each one gives you something. Forget reading for entertainment until you have finished your productive reading. And that reading doesn’t have to be related to your profession. Open your mind. From experience, I can tell you that my big leap forward in sales came when I stopped reading about sales techniques and started reading about human psychology and people’s biases.
-
Put a value on your time. Divide your income into days and hours, and that tells you how much each hour of your life is worth. The secret is to raise the value of your time. If you are unemployed and receive no benefits, so your income is €0, the sad truth is that your time is worth nothing. So you can afford to do all kinds of things without considering them a waste of time. Take this strategy to the extreme. Suppose your time is worth €20 an hour. When you have coffee with someone, ask yourself whether it was worth paying €20 for that person’s company. It sounds very drastic, but it will change your view of what really matters.
9. Set short-term goals. We always say that our objective should be very ambitious and long term, but our goals should be achievable, short term and realistic. If you have no goals, you have no motivation. If you have no motivation, you’re not really living.
10. Pay attention to people. People in general are the best university. Some show us what not to do in life, while others show us what they did to become who they are today, which is what we want to achieve. Don’t be afraid to ask someone how they did it, even if you don’t know them well. They will be delighted to answer.
-
Stan Hayward, a film writer, says that success comes from knowing how to work, not from knowing how things work.
-
Join a group where they teach you to speak in public. People don’t realise how hard it is until they stand in front of dozens of people (read: 9 common mistakes when speaking in public). Once you are ready to speak in public, you will be ready to talk to anyone without freezing up.
13. Learn and study everything related to persuasion and influencing people. There are books on the subject, and, funnily enough, people who aren’t very persuasive consider them a waste of time. Sooner or later you will discover the benefits that many persuasion techniques can bring you.
-
Learn to sell. Don’t like selling? Then you’re in big trouble, because in this life everything is constant selling. You sell when you want to win someone over on a date, you sell yourself in a job interview, and you negotiate (sell) your salary. If you add persuasion and influence to sales techniques, you can become a very capable person. (Read: 15 habits of successful salespeople)
-
Start saving NOW. No excuses. You have to start saving today. If you really can’t save, that tells you that you need a new source of income. Look for it NOW. No excuses. If you can’t find a job, and you’re one of those people whose time is worth nothing, find a way to create your own job. If you have no money, no job and no prospects, congratulations: you are one of those people who have nothing to lose and, therefore, everything to gain. Don’t put it off.
-
Buy Belén Esteban’s book (she is a Spanish TV celebrity). OK, that’s a joke.
Highly recommended: 7 lessons for success from William H. McRaven, the SEAL commander who hunted down Bin Laden
Featured image: Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
