The choices you will make in 2014 will either get you closer to your dreams or farther away from what you could have been. Make an informed decision about your life, your career and your business today and you will be happy doing you what you love with all your heart.
Prepare yourself to recognize and seize relevant opportunities when they knock. You should be ready, willing, and able to step forward and seize the next best opportunity in 2014.
These are some of the biggest personal, career and business mistakes you don’t want to make in 2014.
1. Personal
–Refusing to face your fears.
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” ~ Dale Carnegie
It takes lots of courage to launch yourself into a new career, new business, new relationship or take on new tasks. The shots you are refusing to take because of fear will haunt you in the future. Don’t be a wannabe life changer by holding yourself back because of the four F’s (finances, failure, friends and family).
You can only make that significant change by recognizing your fears and knowing what is holding you back. People can talk about changing their lives, careers or fortunes for years and never do it. The time to take action is now. There has never been an opportune moment to launch that business or move on to a career you actually love than now.
–Refusing to sharpen your skills!
You will be better prepared to take advantage of relevant opportunities when you are actually ready for it. What do you intend to do in 2014? What skills are required to get you closer to your dream business or job? Work towards what you expect, set a goal, make a plan, and go for it. You don’t want to regret the shots you refused to take.
Prepare your yourself by enhancing your skills. What are you good at? What skills can be improved? Step up your skills today for the right opportunity and when it knocks you will not turn it down because you are not skillful enough for it but only because you have a better option.
2. Career
–Making a wrong career choice!
Changing your career may be the best thing you will ever do in 2014, i.e if you intend to switch jobs or better still if you want to start your own business – or it could turn out to be a big disappointment for you until you turns things around. You are where you are today because of the choices you made yesterday.
If you are really desperately unhappy in your job, the time change it is now. “It’s not as easy as you think” could be your response. But don’t forget if you don’t make that all important step to move on you will still be stuck at where you are for a very long time.
It’s never too late to pursue your passion. Most people keep telling their close ties; “I’d love to be a-….. some day”. Whatever your answer may be, you can still commit time and resources to actually get it done.
Ask yourself: “What really makes me tick?” Begin by looking at yourself as an individual, instead of basing your career choice on how you come across on paper.
There are now almost free resources out there to get you started on what you love to do. Get connected and start creating solutions to your own problems or issues you have identified with little or no better solutions out there.
–Knocking on the wrong doors!
You can only be happy in a job or career you really love. Don’t settle for careers as a stepping stone to something bigger. Pursue that something bigger now. You could be doing your research whilst in your present career. Speak to people in your dream career for guidance and advice.
Approach the people who can connect you to the right network in the line of your dream business or job. Make the right connection and you will be amazed to find that people are surprisingly happy to talk about their jobs and how they got to where they are.
Business
–Quitting before you start!
Miles Davis once said, “When you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note that makes it good or bad.”
If you have ever started a business and failed, pick yourself up and give it another go. You are not a failure until you quit and quitters never win.
Mistakes are part of the trade, they only teach you what does not work. With the knowledge of what never works, you will be well prepared to try again, this time better informed to make the right choices. Fail fast and move on but succeed faster.
–Working on something you are not passion about!
Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter once said: “You can’t just be working on something because you think other people will like it. That’s a huge mistake. The big thing I learned at Odeo was you have to be emotionally invested in your work or failure is guaranteed.”
The time to scratch your own itch is now. You will screw up countless times along the way, if you don’t love what you do, you will give up before your project gets roots to grow. Every new post I share is like my very first post because I just love writing about starting and growing businesses.
Whatever you are planning on doing in the next 365 days, face your fears, sharpen your skills, put your heart in it, make the right right choice, don’t give up and expect the very worst but be prepared for the best.
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