Confidence

The Flaw Of Succeeding

Garth Beyer

Just because you succeed, does not make you successful.

Agreeably, you learn so much from failure if you choose to view it as progress and not a setback. Admittadly, success hardly teaches you anything. In fact, you learn very little from success because what got you there were the lessons you learned from failure. 

What defines you as a successful person when you succeed is not the completed task, it is when you learn as much from it as you do from failure.

The prevention of this learning is due to the idea that success is a place that you can stop at. When you succeed, you feel you have arrived. But in reality, success is a journey and the only way to become successful is to learn as much as possible on that journey. You have the power and responsibility (insert Spiderman cliché’ here) to learn from your successes as much, if not more than your failures.

Two weeks ago I interviewed for a new job position. The day after the interview, I got the job. Woohoo! While discussing the position and signing papers, I was asked if I had any questions about the new job. What I then did was ask my boss and supervisor what they thought I could do to improve my interview skills.

What? I already got the job, who cares! Right?

Wrong.

 If I asked you if you could be more successful than you are now? You would doubtlessly say yes. The only way to do that is to improve in every factor of your life. Sure I nailed the interview with the hammer of confidence and got the job but that does not mean I couldn’t learn more from it. So I asked them what the highlights and downturns were of my interview. I succeeded in getting the job, but that does not mean I reached my destination. It does not mean I learned all I needed.

Since there is always room for improvement, there is always room for more success. And if you are not going to learn from failures because you succeed in something, force yourself to learn everything you can about your success and how to succeed further, because you can, because you deserve to, because success is a journey and not a destination.

Stay Positive & Succeed As If You Failed

Garth E. Beyer

Safety First: The Art of Preparation

Garth Beyer

While growing up one of the biggest influences in my life was my Uncle Chuck.  All I would ever hear him saying whenever we would do something together was safety first, safety first, safety first. Before we pull out in a car, before we lit fireworks, before we hiked, before we traveled, before we did anything it was safety first. This life lesson has been most prevalent in my life and I respect and admire my uncle for teaching it to me – even though it would often get annoying. Then again that just means it’s important enough to be repeated. And it was.

Knowing me, I have to improve every lesson I learn and change everything I listen to and try to incorporate it to fit my life just as you should do with everything you hear. However, this lesson I learned from my uncle of safety first has evolved itself into every aspect of my life in the form of preparation. The best process of safely succeeding and being safe if failure occurs defines preparation.

There has been no art more simplistic, straightforward and rewarding than the art of preparation.

“Let’s proclaim that art has no greater enemy than those artists who permit their art to become subservient to socio-political issues or ideals. In so doing, they not only violate art’s fundamental sovereignty, they surrender that independence from function that made it art in the first place.” – Tom Robbins

At the heart of “safety first” is preparation. At the heart of “preparation” is the transformation of oneself into an outlaw, a rebel. For the only successful artists are those who break the boundaries, status-quo and socio-pathetic expectations. Now, disaster disrupts thousands upon thousands of lives each week. What separates artists from the disaster is not preparing for the worst, but preparing for the best. Contrary to belief, in life there is always someone there to recover you when disaster strikes. The laws of the universe and connection to all things living incorporate “safety first” into all of our lives. This leads to the necessity of an  interrogation that will find out why so many people prepare for the worst case scenario when the safety net has already been placed. (It is beneficial to know that the safety net is placed as long as you accept the consequence of ill preparation)

As any art form that has ever been created, there are dozens of different ways to look at it. Preparation can compensate for lack of talent. Preparation creates confidence which results in the prevention of failure and assurance of success. Positive life impacts come when preparation meets opportunity. Know safety, no pain. No safety, know pain. By failing to prepare, you prepare to fail. Confidence is preparation, everything else is beyond control.

From now on, I expect and will hold you accountable to always prepare for the best. That is all your focus should ever be on.

Stay Positive and Safety First

Garth E. Beyer

How To Utilize The Hammer(s) Of Confidence To Nail The Interview

Garth Beyer

I recently got a promotion at work after interviewing for the Grants Specialist position. Ironically, I was already doing the majority of the tasks for that position since the previous Grants Specialist left. At the same time, a friend was preparing for her interview to be hired as a personal trainer.

Nervousness.

That was the basis of our conversations about the interviews we were going to have. A friend explained how hard she was studying the fitness assessment routines. She would repeatedly practice them, over and over and over. Not to mention, I was the victim. She went over the routines so many times because she was nervous that she would be judged. She feared getting criticized and told she was doing it wrong. It was destroying her confidence.

Persistence and practice though, will not cure you of your nervousness no matter how greatly you have the routine down. The lesson learned with her interview: Interviews are not meant to critique you or to point out the negatives. They are performed to see what you got, to see your personality and your skills and what you have to bring.

Going in with the attitude that you will be interviewed by a critic destroys the confidence necessary to show you are perfect for the job. In order to nail the interview, use this mindset as a tool – a hammer of confidence, if you will.

On the other hand, I learned in my interview that I should have rehearsed more and practiced. While I still got the job, I did not feel ready enough for the interview. I forgot that we were given two hands to hold two kinds of hammers.

1st Hammer: Her lesson taught you how to correctly and positively view an interview so that your confidence is at its peak and the interview goes smoothly.

2nd Hammer: While I was trying to teach her that lesson, I failed to learn hers and I did not prepare enough (to my own standards) for the interview.

By wielding these two hammers of confidence, you will without a doubt, Nail the interview.

Stay Positive and Hammer On

Garth E. Beyer