Here are the subtle secrets of success from Rohit Bhargava, author of “Always Eat With Your Left Hand.”
How to take control of fate
Lead, don’t follow someone else
Controlling your destiny from the backseat will not be easy. It happens that you are assigned a specific role, and there is no way around it. But in many cases, you still have some choice. My career in Australia began when I was invited to work on a program for just three weeks. But soon, I saw the real reason I was hired; the project was not meeting the deadline due to poor management.
They actually needed a new project manager. And I took over his job without waiting to be asked. A week later, I officially received this position.
Sometimes the chance to break into leaders is not given to us by someone from above, but goes to the one who took the initiative.
Don’t be shy about your strange habits.
At school, we are taught that distraction and crawling are bad. Many children are given special medications to keep them calmer and involved in school. Outside of educational settings, however, strange obsessive movements can actually serve an important purpose.
Read also: Here Are 4 Ways to Discover Your Hidden Abilities
Stop being shy about your habits.
Perhaps the fact that you fiddle with a handle or twitch your leg (or annoy everyone around you with some other incessant body movements) somehow helps you to concentrate.
So buy yourself a little toy-like and anti-stress cube, or start drawing pictures during conference calls, or find any other way to support your habit instead of crushing it with willpower or medication. This makes itself felt by your creative energy, and the ability to direct it in the right direction promises you good dividends.
Go away
Several years ago, the BBC released a documentary transfer about inhuman working conditions at numerous factories in China, where iPhones and iPads are assembled for Apple. The program talked about the excessively long working day of workers, their uncomfortable living, and demanding bosses.
But most of all, I was struck by the moment when one worker started talking about the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness that generates work on a conveyor belt in the same automatic mode for 14 hours six days a week. The lack of free will destroyed the desire to live in him and even made him think of suicide.
Most of us, fortunately, have never had a chance to find ourselves in such circumstances. But sometimes, we also have the feeling that our professional and personal life is an endless run in a circle. If this feeling lasts longer, remember that you have an opportunity that most desperate Chinese workers lack. You can leave and do something else.
How to acquire new knowledge
Ask more questions
One of the greatest joys of being a father for me is hearing my children ask many questions on a wide variety of topics, from why they speak Portuguese in Brazil to why motorcycles don’t have seat belts. Unfortunately, I receive far fewer questions from my students at the university.
As we age, we are less and less curious, and for many reasons.
Sometimes we are afraid that we will look stupid. Sometimes we mistakenly believe that the information will appear by itself (or at least it will be found on Google). And at times, we ourselves do not know that we do not know something. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The first step in acquiring knowledge is to ask questions about topics you are not aware of consciously. And the inextricably linked second step is to listen to the answers.
Buy unfamiliar magazines
A few years ago, while traveling in South Africa, I took a farmer-oriented magazine called Farmer’s Weekly. One of the articles in it was devoted to, in the author’s expression, the “Amish paradox,” namely their practice of crop rotation and avoiding chemical fertilizers, designed to make vegetables and fruits on commercial farms grow larger in less time.
On the other hand, the Amish grow smaller produce over a longer period and rotate crops to avoid depleting the soil. As a result, their lands remain fertile longer.
And although I myself have nothing to do with agriculture, I took from this article one more general idea; sometimes you need to give up quick profit to achieve a more distant goal, and the source of this reasoning was a magazine that most readers would consider useless for everyone who does not work on the ground.
Also read: 5 Tips for People Who Want to Stop Being Afraid and Take Action
Sit more on the couch
Self-help books never tell you to spend more time on the couch. But these days, a huge archive of knowledge can really be accessed from the comfort of your couch: you have great documentaries, podcasts, TED presentations, and all kinds of videos on all kinds of topics on YouTube.
So sit on the couch for your own pleasure and do not hesitate to stretch these moments etc But only as long as they benefit your brain.
And if it all ends with the fact that you drunkenly watch long-standing seasons of TV shows, you need to tie up with sitting on the couch. Forget this advice, get up, and do something else. Right now.
Adapted and translated by Wiki Avenue Staf
Sources: Life hacker
