The obvious path of advancement is to do the job, check the boxes and deliver on your promises.
The not-so-obvious, but ultimately the fast-track of advancement is to do the above PLUS lighten the load for others.
It’s likely not often that the buck stops with you (or the final product gets shipped by you), rather you influenced the project with your expertise and now it’s the next person’s turn to keep it moving toward market. (Even as an author, you have an editor and a publisher and maybe a promoter you’re working with, too.)
The real artist thinks through what can be done now to make it easier for the next person. (She hits spellcheck, perhaps.)
Do your work and do it with intention, but then consider how to make it easier for the next person.
Help enough others and you’ll find that you’re also helping yourself advance more quickly.
A side hustle doesn’t have to be an additional source of income, that is, if it’s an additional source of information that helps your main hustle.
If you’re a marketer, it helps you market better by starting your own business – it gives you the edge you need to understand your clients.
If you’re an author, it helps you write better by starting your own publishing business – it gives you the edge you need to understand what writing resonates.
And they’re not once enough others think they’re good.
The flip, of course, is that ideas and decisions are good.
They are good… until they are not.
And they’re not once enough others think they’re bad.
We can spend a lot of time evaluating whether a decision is or was good or not, but too often we jump to a conclusion too soon. A few people think it’s bad, so we quit or a few people think it’s good, so we keep doing it.
Better to keep your focus on doing work that matters than evaluating too soon.
The best leaders make decisions. Not just big ones, but many of them.
There’s a lot that goes into making a great leader after a decision has been made.
But there’s no leadership without a decision.
Are you the one making them?
p.s. if you’re in a situation where you’re more in a position of doing what you’re told and checking boxes… you can still decide the how and decide to push the envelope and decide to put your spin on it. And if you’re still stuck, you can decide to take your talents elsewhere. (That’s what a leader would do.)
Stay Positive & Decide Some, Then Decide Some More
There are two ways to figure out if it’s all just in your head.
The first is if you’re surrounded by empathetic people who know you and can call you out when the stories you’re thinking are truly just stories in your head – not reality.
Example of a story in a head: If I speak up, they’re going to think I’m incapable and that I can’t keep up and they might even consider firing me if they know I’m struggling.
Solution: A friend who hears you talking about your workload and is there to remind you of the team that’s around you ready to support and help you through the influx of work.
Sadly, we don’t all have these empathetic friends near us. (And to be forward, with how many negative stories we think, it would equal a few full-time jobs to combat it.)
So the second way is to write out the story that’s in your head in one column and then the other column is “reality.”
It’s funny how when you write it down on the “in my head” column, you realize it’s not something you can write on the “reality” column.
Just an quick way to keep yourself in check and moving forward.
Stay Positive & Control Your Head, Don’t Let It Control You
