I was doing some coaching work with one of my corporate clients recently.  As we were chatting she showed me a list of career derailers that her company had developed.  It was an interesting list – and one that has universal applicability, not just in the company that developed it.  There is some great career success advice in this list.

Career Derailers

• Unable or unwilling to adapt and grow.
• Excessive self-interest.
• Lack of courage and conviction.
• Overly controlling style.
• Saying one thing – doing another.

Let’s take a look at each of these derailers in some detail…

Unable or Unwilling to Adapt and Grow

The world changes rapidly.  Successful people have to adapt and grow with these changes.  In 1859 in his seminal book, On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin said…

“Looking to the future…which groups will ultimately prevail, no man can predict; for we well know that many groups, formerly most extensively developed, have now become extinct.”

You don’t want to become extinct.  Tweet 82 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Learn faster than the world changes.  In a world that never stops changing you can never stop learning and growing.”

In order to adapt and grow, you need to become a lifelong learner.  All of the people I know who are committed to lifelong learning have several traits in common.  They all…

…Are humble.  They admit what they don’t know.  This is the first step in learning what they need to know.

…Question the status quo.  They realize that because something is right today, it may not be right tomorrow.  They know that doing things “the way we’ve always done them” is not good reasoning.

…Are intellectually curious.  They truly want to learn and find learning fun, interesting and stimulating.  They see life as a journey in which they are constantly learning.

…Are willing to try new stuff.  They experiment and see what works.  When things work, they use them.

…Are not afraid to fail.  They see failure as an opportunity to learn.  Just as they incorporate what works into their repertoire, they use failures as stepping stones to other experiments.

…Are tolerant of ambiguity.  Learning creates ambiguity.  These people are willing to let go of past ways of doing things in order to come up with new ways of doing things in the future.  The gap between the past and future can make for an uncomfortable present.

…Focus on staying ahead of the pack.  They are early adopters – of new technology and new ways of thinking.  They realize that knowledge has a short half-life today.  They keep learning to stay ahead.

Excessive Self-Interest

Business is a team game.  You can’t succeed if you don’t build strong relationships.  Helping others is the best way to build strong relationships.  Tweet 128 in Success Tweets says, “When meeting someone new, ask yourself, ‘What can I do to help this person?’  You’ll build stronger relationships this way.”

The next time you meet someone new, ask yourself, “What can I do to help this person?”  Most people ask the opposite question, “How can this person help me?”  By thinking “how can I help” first, you’ll be better able to build strong relationships that will pay off and help you create life and career success.  Way back on January 20, 1961, in his inauguration speech as President of the United States, John Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country.”  These words – with a slight twist — are true today and will help you become a life and career success.  Ask not what others can do for you.  Ask what you can do for others.
Lack of Courage and Conviction

Sometimes you’ll be called on to make tough decisions.  Often these decisions take courage.  Your personal values will help you find the courage to do what’s right.  Tweet 18 in Success Tweets says, “You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.  Your values help you make decisions in ambiguous situations.”

If you know your rock and roll, you know that the first sentence in Success Tweet 18 is borrowed from a John Mellencamp song – one of my favorites.  And it’s true.  You, me, all of us, need to stand for something if we’re going to create the life and career success we want and deserve.  Your personal values are what you stand for.

Here are my personal values: common sense, simplicity, optimism, human potential, value, trust, individuality, hard work, the power of 1.  These values are the foundation on which I have built my life and career.  They guide my decision making.  I turn to them when I need help figuring out what to do.  They have served me well.

In April of 1988, I was facing a major life and career decision – stay in a good, secure, albeit somewhat unsatisfying job with a top-notch corporation, or strike out on my own as an independent career success coach, speaker and consultant.  I looked to my values.  Optimism, human potential and hard work jumped out at me.  I am an optimist.  I believe in human potential, including mine.  I have always been a hard worker.

Reflecting on my values – especially these three – made the decision easy.  An optimist, someone who believes in human potential, and a hard worker would take the chance and start a small business – which is what I did.  I became The Common Sense Guy many years ago and have never looked back.  My values guided me through the decision-making process.

Overly Controlling Style

No one wants to work with an ego maniac.  If you want to create the career success you deserve, you have to learn to work with people.  The best way to do this is to listen to them.  Don’t always push your ideas.  You will build stronger relationships by listening to what other people have to say and responding appropriately.

Tweet 107 in Success Tweets says, “Listen more than you speak.  Pay attention to what other people say; respond appropriately.”  Listening is the key to avoid becoming known as someone with an overly controlling style.  Learn to listen well.  Listening, like a lot of career success advice, is just common sense.  Show the other person you are engaged.  Focus on understanding, not on rebutting points with which you don’t agree.  Don’t get distracted by words that trigger your emotions.  Ask clarification questions to ensure you understand what is being said.  Repeat what you’ve heard.  Most of all, get in the habit of listening more than speaking.

Saying One Thing – Doing Another

In my book, Your Success GPS I suggest that everyone you meet rates you.  I have created a little model about your ratings:

• R stands for Responsiveness
• A stands for Assurance
• T stands for Tangibles
• E stands for Empathy

When you do what you say, people see you as responsive to their needs.  They feel assured that they can count on you.  They know the tangibles you promise will be there when they need them.  Finally, when you do what you say, people know that you are empathic.  That you put yourself in their shoes and do what you say you’ll do.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  If you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve you need to avoid the following five career derailers: 1) Being unable or unwilling to adapt and grow; 2) Excessive self-interest; 3) Lack of courage and conviction; 4) Overly controlling style; and 5) Saying one thing and doing another.   To put this career advice in a positive way… 1) Change and adapt as the world, business, and your company change.  2) Focus on what you can do for other people – not just what they can do for you.  3) Know your personal values.  Let them guide your decision making.  Stand up for what is right and the things in which you believe.  4) Relax, let others take the lead on occasion.  5) Do what you say you will.

That’s my career advice on how to avoid common career success derailers.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

This is the third in a series of three blog posts I’m doing on presentations.  Today I want to focus on the importance of preparing for your presentations.  Tweet 119 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Discipline yourself to prepare for presentations.  Practice out loud until you are totally in sync with what you’re going to say.”

Many people fear making presentations.  That’s why they’re not very good at them.  I subscribe to James Malinchak’s ezine on speaking.  It’s always full of interesting anecdotes.  A couple of days ago, James told a very interesting story about a conversation he had with Michael Jordan.  He posed the following scenario to Michael…

“It’s Game 7 of the NBA Finals and your team is playing on the road at your opponents’ place.  There’s 00:01 second left on the clock and your team is losing by 1 point.  You’re at the free-throw line to shoot two shots.  This is literally win or lose time, and the ball is in your hands.  If you make both free throws, your team wins their first ever championship.  If you miss both, your team loses the championship.  How would you feel?”

Michael Jordan’s response…

“That’s easy!  That situation wouldn’t bother me because I would have already disciplined myself to make sure I had already prepared for success in that, or any other situation!”

James went on to say…

“Not the answer I was expecting, but it’s very profound when you think about those two words that most would rather simply skim over: 1) Disciplined; and 2) Prepared.  The more I thought about those two words, the more I began to realize just how important they are for becoming a successful speaker, author, trainer or coach!  Most people are not disciplined to prepare themselves for success.”

James is on to something here.  Disciplined preparation is the key to becoming a dynamic presenter.  I teach my coaching clients a five-point model of presentation success.  The fifth point is “practice, practice, practice.”  I suggest practicing your talk out loud using your visuals.  I suggest doing this as many times as it takes to become 100% comfortable with what you are going to say and how you are going to say it.

When I say this I am often met with frowns and a lot of excuses about not having the time to do the kind of preparation I suggest.

And that’s why many people suck at presenting.  In Michael Jordan and James Malinchak’s words, they don’t have the personal discipline to prepare for a successful presentation.  And without disciplined preparation it’s basically impossible to do a good presentation.

A couple of years ago, Cathy and I were in Florida to celebrate our niece, Morgan’s, wedding.  Cathy was hosting a bridesmaid luncheon.  The night before the luncheon, she practiced the welcoming talk she was going to give at the luncheon at least five times.  And you know what?  It got better every time she practiced it.  She practiced one more time the morning of the luncheon, and she had it down cold.  She disciplined herself to prepare for her talk.  She was ready to do it.  And she gave a killer talk.  Good for her.

Cathy often accompanies me when I travel.  If I am doing a talk the next day, she knows my ritual before going to bed.  I will practice my talk – out loud – at least twice, and as many times as it takes for me to feel that I have it perfected.  It takes a little bit of time to practice like this, but the audience applause and, more important, my feeling of satisfaction after delivering a great talk are worth it.

By now it should be pretty clear that I think that practicing your presentations – out loud – is the most important presentation success tip.  I’ve mentioned practice in the last five success tweets.

Here’s a recap of why I think it is really important to practice your presentations out loud.  Practicing your presentations out loud…

• Calms your nerves.  When you practice several times, the presentation is familiar and comfortable to you.  This makes you less nervous.
• Helps you edit your talk for impact.  There is nothing like saying it out loud to show you the rough spots in your presentation.  Once you identify these rough spots, you can correct them before you’re in front of an audience.
• Helps you get better.  The more times you repeat a talk out loud, the better it gets.  It’s almost impossible to be over-prepared.  Practice does indeed make perfect.

These three reasons should convince you that it’s important to practice your talk out loud.  Yet, I am always amazed that so many people don’t take the time to practice.  They have some great excuses…

• It takes too much time.
• I know what I’m going to say, I don’t need to practice.
• I feel foolish talking to myself.
• I won’t get any better.
• I’ve done this talk a million times, I don’t need to practice.

And I say, “WRONG!!!”

Practice is the main ingredient of any successful presentation, not funny slides and animation – practice.

Thomas Edison is famous for saying, “Many people miss opportunity because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.”  I am semi-famous for saying, “Most people know the right thing to do in most situations, their common sense tells them.  They don’t use their common sense for a bunch of bogus reasons.”

So don’t come up with bogus reasons for not practicing your presentations out loud.  If you want to become a dynamic communicator, and create the life and career success you want and deserve, you have to practice your talks – out loud.  That’s some of the most important career advice I can give you.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  If you want to be able to deliver dynamic presentations that will enhance your career success, you have to follow the career advice in Tweets 119 and 120 in Success Tweets.  “Discipline yourself to prepare for presentations.  Practice out loud until you are totally in sync with what you’re going to say.” (119) “Practice presentations.  You can control your nerves by practicing out loud.  The more you practice, the less afraid you’ll be.” (120)  Disciplined preparation is especially important to becoming a great presenter.  If you want to become a great presenter, discipline yourself to prepare for your talks by practicing – out loud and with your visuals – until you are totally in sync with what you are going to say and how you are going to say it.  Besides controlling your nerves, you’ll get better each time you practice.  Trust me on this one, time spent practicing a presentation is time well spent.

That’s my career advice on the importance of practicing your presentations – out loud.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Yesterday I blogged about my five steps for becoming a dynamic presenter.  Here is some more career success advice on presentations.

Tweet 118 in my career success book Success Tweets says, “Presentations are easy to create.  Write your closing first, your opening next.  Then fill in the content.  Practice.  Practice.  Practice.”  Let’s look at this career advice in a little more detail.

Begin at the End

Writing your presentation closing first is some of the best presentation and career advice I can give you.

People remember two things about your talk: how you begin and how you finish.  They remember how you finish because that’s the last thing they hear.  You want to finish strong, reinforcing and highlighting the main points you want people to remember.  That’s one reason for writing your closing first.

Another reason for writing your closing first is because it will help you map out the rest of your content.  You’ll probably have more information than you need for any presentation you make.  If you write your closing first, you can use it to help you decide what information to leave in and what to leave out of your presentation.

For example, when I do my talk “How to Create the Life and Career Success You Want and Deserve” I always end by saying something like…

And there you have it, my best advice on how to create the life and career success you want and deserve.

It comes down to Four Cs: clarity, commitment, confidence and competence.

If you want to create a successful life and career, you have to

a) Clarify the purpose and direction for your life and career.
b) Commit to taking personal responsibility for your life and career success.
c) Build unshakeable self-confidence.
d) Get competent in four areas: creating positive personal impact, outstanding performance, dynamic communication, and relationship building.

Hopefully, you know more about how to create the life and career success you want and deserve now than an hour ago.  But, like the US Steel pencils my dad would bring home from work used to say, “Knowing is not enough.”  You’ve got to use the information you learned here today if you are going to create the life and career success you want and deserve.”

When I was writing this talk, I wrote this closing first.  I began by listing the key points I wanted to make – in this case the 4 Cs of Success.  Any time I was wondering if I should include a specific piece of information in the talk, I asked myself, “Does this information reinforce the point you want people to remember about this talk?”  If the answer was “yes,” I left it in.  If “no,” I took it out.

OK, got it about writing your closing first?  Good.  Now let’s talk about writing your opening second.

Capture Your Audience’s Attention and Tell Them What You’re Going to Tell Them

You want to accomplish two things in your presentation opening: 1) Capturing the audience’s attention, and 2) Giving them some idea of what you will be covering in your talk.

When I do my talk, “How to Create the Life and Career Success You Want and Deserve” I always begin by saying something like…

Hello and thank you for coming.  Today, I want to dispel one of the biggest myths about life and career success.  And that myth is, “good performance is enough to create the life and career success you want and deserve.”  Good performance not only is not enough, it is merely the price of admission in today’s highly competitive world.

If you want to create a successful life and career, think C – no, think 4 Cs…

Clarity, Commitment, Confidence and Competence.

If you want to create a successful life and career, you have to:

a) Clarify the purpose and direction for your life and career.
b) Commit to taking personal responsibility for your life and career success.
c) Build unshakeable self-confidence.
d) Get competent in four areas: creating positive personal impact, outstanding performance, dynamic communication and relationship building.

Over the next hour, I’m going to tell you more about each of these four Cs and show you how to put them to work to create the life and career success you want and deserve…

See what I mean?  I captured the audience’s attention by telling them that I was going to explode a myth about life and career success.  Then I shared the myth.  Then I outlined what I was going to cover in the next hour.

This format is the golden rule of journalism: Tell them what you’re going to tell them.  Tell them.  Tell them what you’ve told them.

By writing your closing first and your opening second, you’ve done two of these: you’ve told your audience what you’re going to tell them, and you’ve recapped what you’ve told them.  Filling in the content becomes pretty simple once you’ve completed these two steps.

In tomorrow’s post I’ll cover the importance of putting in the preparation time necessary to ensure you deliver a dynamic presentation.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  If you want to create dynamic presentations that communicate and get you known as a high performer, follow the career advice in Tweet 118 in Success Tweets.  “Presentations are easy to create.  Write your closing first, your opening next.  Then fill in the content.  Practice.  Practice.  Practice.”  Writing your closing first gives you the direction you need to create a dynamic presentation.  Writing your opening next helps you capture the audience’s attention and gives you an outline for creating the rest of your content.  I learned this bit of career advice early in my career – way back in 1973 – and have used it ever since.  If you use it, you’ll be on your way to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

That’s my career advice on how to write a dynamic presentation – one that engages the audience and sells them on your ideas.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I really appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

I’ve received a lot of questions on how beat presentation anxiety from My Corporate Climb members lately, so I thought I’d devote a blog post to becoming a dynamic presenter.  Presentations are an important communication tool.  More than one career has been launched by a great presentation.

Tweet 117 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Presentation steps: 1) Determine the message; 2) Analyze the audience; 3) Organize the information; 4) Design visuals; 5) Practice.”

A lot of people suffer from presentation anxiety.  Public speaking can be frightening, although it doesn’t have to be.  Presenting is like any other process, there is a series of logical steps to follow.  The five steps to effective presentations in the Tweet have served me well for over 35 years.

In this post, I’m sharing the material I cover in a three-day workshop on presentations skills.  So this is a quick overview, but one that captures all the basics you need.

Breaking the presentation process down into the five easily manageable steps listed in Tweet 117 in Success Tweets is the best way I know to get over presentation anxiety.  Let’s look at them in some detail.

1. Determine your message.
2. Analyze your audience.
3. Organize your information for impact.
4. Design supporting visuals.
5. Practice, practice, practice.

Ask yourself these questions to help you determine your message:

• What do you want or need to communicate?
• What information does the audience need?
• Why do they need it?
• At the end of the presentation, what should the audience: Understand? Remember? Do?

Determine the best way to communicate your message by analyzing your audience.  Ask yourself these questions:

• Who is the audience for this presentation?
• Why are they attending?
• What is their general attitude toward you and the topic?
• What is their knowledge level on this topic?

Use the golden rule of journalism: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, Tell them, Tell them what you told them” to organize your information.

• Begin at the end.  Prepare your presentation ending first.  This is helpful, because it keeps you focused on where you’re going.
• Prepare your presentation beginning.  A good beginning has two things: a hook, and an outline of your talk.
• Fill in the blanks with your content.

Design visuals to support and enhance what you are saying.  Good visuals support the points you are making, create audience interest, improve audience understanding, save you time – a picture is worth a thousand words, and they are memory aids.

Practice, Practice, Practice.  There is an old saying, “practice makes up for a lack of talent”.  Prior to getting in front of an audience, say your presentation out loud – several times.  Listen to yourself.  Consider videotaping yourself.  If you don’t have the equipment, practice in front of a mirror, or your spouse, or your dog or cat – just practice.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  You can beat presentation anxiety and use presentations as a way to enhance your career success.  Dynamic communicators present with impact.  Many people are frightened by the idea of standing in front of a group of people and doing a talk.  Unfortunately, presentations can make or break your success.  You can conquer your fear of public speaking by following the career advice in Tweet 117 in Success Tweets.  “Presentation steps: 1) Determine the message; 2) Analyze the audience; 3) Organize the information; 4) Design visuals; 5) Practice.  If you follow the career advice in these five steps – especially number 5, practice – you’ll become a confident, successful presenter and a career success.

That’s my career advice on becoming a dynamic presenter.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I really value you and appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

If you read this career advice blog with any regularity you know that I am a sports fan.  While I was a rugby player for many years, I also spent a lot of time playing pickup basketball.  I really like watching the game too – both college and professional.

On Sunday I watched the New York Knicks beat the defending NBA champion Dallas mavericks.  I got caught up in Linsanity.  If you don’t know, Linsanity is all about a young player for the Knicks, Jeremy Lin.  He is the first Chinese (Taiwanese) American born player to play in the NBA.  He also has a degree in Economics from Harvard.  On Sunday, against Dallas scored 28 points, had 14 assists, and played over 45 minutes.

Since he’s joined the Knicks, they are 7 and 1.  He’s scored over 20 points in each game.  He’s also had a couple of game winning shots.  Jeremy Lin’s Linsanity is this NBA season’s  Tebowmania.  It’s a very cool story.  Here’s a guy who played college ball at Harvard, a school unlikely to get into the Final Four.  He graduated.  He didn’t get drafted by any NBA team.  He was cut by two NBA teams before he caught on with the Knicks.  On Sunday, Spike Lee showed up courtside at Madison Square Garden wearing a replica of Lin’s Harvard jersey.

Through all the ups and down, Jeremy Lin stayed optimistic.  He is the personification of the career success advice in the Optimist Creed.   I have The Optimist Creed hanging in my office. I like it so much that I have created a .pdf of it and give it away to my career success coach clients. You can get a free copy to hang in your office at http://budbilanich.com/optimist. Check it out…

The Optimist Creed

Promise Yourself:

• To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
• To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
• To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
• To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
• To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
• To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
• To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
• To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
• To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
• To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

Jeremy Lin is the Optimist Creed in action.  I think that the fourth point, “Promise yourself to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true,” is especially true in his case.  Granted it’s a little easier to look at the sunny side of things when you have a degree from Harvard.  But if you really want to play in the NBA, that Harvard degree can be small consolation.

Optimists think of the glass as half full. A couple of years ago, Cathy and I saw a stage production of the Irving Berlin classic film musical, White Christmas, at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. There is a number in the show where one of the leading men is comforting a small girl who is having trouble sleeping. In a song, he tells her, “When you can’t sleep, count your blessings, not sheep.” On the way home, we were talking about that song. We know that we are blessed. However, sometimes we forget how much we are blessed. We both decided that we would begin counting our blessings when we felt a little down and depressed.

Counting your blessings and not sheep is a great first step to “look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.” Realizing that you are blessed and that there is a sunny side is a good first step. However, don’t forget the second part of the quote – “make your optimism come true.”

These last five words are what’s key here. If you want to become the career success you deserve to be, you not only need to be optimistic. You need to do the work necessary to make your optimism come true. That’s practical optimism.  And that’s Jeremy Lin.  He wasn’t drafted by an NBA team.  He was cut to by two of them.  But he kept working and improving his game.  Now he is the toast of New York.

Optimism can put you on the path to success, but hard work is will keep you moving forward. In my book, Straight Talk for Success: Common Sense Ideas That Won’t Let You Down, I talk about the importance of taking personal responsibility for your life and career success.

“It’s simple, really. Career success is all up to you, and me, and anyone else who wants it. We all have to take personal responsibility for our own career success. I am the only one who can make me a career success. You are the only one who can make you a career success.

“Personal responsibility means recognizing that you are responsible for your life and the choices you make. It means that you realize that while other people and events have an impact on your life, these people and events don’t shape your life. When you accept personal responsibility for your life and career success, you own up to the fact that how you react to people and events is what’s important. And you can choose how you react to every person you meet and everything that happens to you.”

The career success coach point here is simple common sense. Optimism coupled with hard work can help you make your life and career success dreams come true. Just ask Jeremy Lin, the newest NBA superstar.  If you want to create the life and career success you deserve, you need to be like Jeremy Lin.  Become a practical optimist. Pay attention to point four in The Optimist Creed. Look at the sunny side of things. Count your blessings. See the glass as half full. Then, take personal responsibility for doing the work necessary to make your optimism and career success dreams come true. Optimism is a great career success catalyst, but it alone will not guarantee your life and career success. You have to do the work – no two ways about it.

That’s my career advice on being a practical optimist. What do you think? Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment. As always thanks for reading my musings on life and career success. I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained. One is 140 bits of career advice, all in 140 characters or less. The other is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail. Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy. You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site on last September. It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations. You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Ever since she retired as a flight attendant, Cathy my wife, has been volunteering as a reading tutor for elementary school students in the Denver Public Schools.  Last week she brought home a little paper from her school about Random Acts of Kindness Week.  I’m a little late reporting on it here as Random Acts of Kindness Week ran from February 13 – 19.  But that’s OK – there can never be too much kindness in this world.

If you want to know more about Random Acts of Kindness Week go to the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation homepage: http://www.randomactsofkindness.org.  This year, they were encouraging kids to perform a random act of kindness on Valentine’s Day by “making a Valentine card for a teacher or a classmate with whom you don’t usually talk or play.”  Pretty cool idea, huh?

Random acts of kindness have some career success implications too.  I devote 20 tweets in my career advice book Success Tweets to building strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships. Strong relationships greatly enhance your chances of creating the career success you deserve.

The career advice in these tweets has a strong pay it forward  flavor to it.  For example, Tweet 128 in Success Tweets says, ““When meeting someone new, ask yourself, “What can I do to help this person?”  You’ll build stronger relationships by thinking this way.”  Tweet 130 says, “Be generous.  By giving with no expectation of return, you’ll be surprised by how much comes back to you in the long run.”

When my book, Straight Talk for Success, first came out I did a big launch campaign that resulted in it becoming an Amazon.com bestseller.  A few months before the launch, I settled on April 22 as my launch date; mostly because the timing was right.  When I looked closer at my calendar, I saw that April 22 happens to be Earth Day.  I can remember participating in teach-ins at Penn State on the very first Earth Day in 1970.

I decided that there was some karma involved here.  Since I had chosen April 22 without knowing it was Earth Day, I thought it would be nice for me to pay it forward and donate 10% of my net proceeds from book sales that day to an organization that supports the environment.  I knew the perfect one.

I am a member of Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, an apolitical environmental organization.  Their mission is to “motivate and enable Colorado citizens to be active stewards of Colorado’s public lands, thereby creating enthusiastic and beneficial stewardship of Colorado’s natural and cultural resources.”  They are my favorite environment related non-profit.  They do great work.  I was happy to help them out by donating a part of the money I made on book sales that Earth Day.

I called Ann Baker Easley, VOC Executive Director, and told her what I had in mind.  I was expecting a “thank you.”  I got that, and much more.  Ann put me in touch with Piep van Heuven, VOC Deputy Director of Development and Communication.  Piep included a message about my book launch in the VOC newsletter, and sent an email to their membership on the day of the book launch, asking them to purchase a copy of Straight Talk.

What started off as a philanthropic endeavor on my part turned into a partnership.  And, it proved my point about giving with no expectation of return.  I approached VOC thinking that I could help them by making a small contribution.  They embraced my idea, and took it one step further.  So now, we are partners.  I think this is great.

This doesn’t always work.  Prior to my book launch, I participated in a book launch campaign for another author.  When I asked her to return the favor, I got an email saying, “I am not participating in any book launch promotions just now.  I am laser focused on building my business using Facebook.”

In other words, “Kiss off, Bud.”  But that’s OK.  I helped her with her successful launch, and many other people – some very unexpected — helped me with mine.  In my experience, for every experience where my help is not reciprocated, there are two or three more like my experience with Volunteer for Outdoor Colorado.

That’s why paying it forward through random acts of kindness is such great career advice. You participate in creating a kinder, gentler world, and you improve your chances of getting something back – in unexpected ways.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Random acts of kindness not only help make the world a kinder gentler place, they help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Successful people are interpersonally competent.  Interpersonally competent people build strong relationships by giving with no expectation of return.  They follow the career advice in Tweets 128 and 130 in Success Tweets.  “When meeting someone new, ask yourself, “What can I do to help this person?”  (128)  “Be generous.  By giving with no expectation of return, you’ll be surprised by how much comes back to you in the long run.” (130)  You’ll build stronger relationships by thinking this way.  The next time you meet someone new, ask yourself, “What can I do to help this person?”  Most people ask the opposite question, “How can this person help me?”  By thinking “how can I help” first, you’ll be better able to build strong relationships that will pay off and help you create life and career success.  Way back on January 20, 1961, in his inauguration speech as President of the United States, John Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country.”  These words – with a slight twist — are true today and will help you become a life and career success.  “Ask not what others can do for you.  Ask what you can do for others.”  Practice random acts of kindness – for your own good, and for the good of us all.

That’s my career advice based on Random Acts of Kindness Week.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  And as always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.  Practice a random act of kindness today, tell us about it in a comment.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Ever since she retired as a flight attendant, Cathy my wife, has been volunteering as a reading tutor for elementary school students in the Denver Public Schools.  Last week she brought home a little paper from her school about Random Acts of Kindness Week.  I’m a little late reporting on it here as Random Acts of Kindness Week ran from February 13 – 19.  But that’s OK – there can never be too much kindness in this world.

If you want to know more about Random Acts of Kindness Week go to the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation homepage: http://www.randomactsofkindness.org.  This year, they were encouraging kids to perform a random act of kindness on Valentine’s Day by “making a Valentine card for a teacher or a classmate with whom you don’t usually talk or play.”  Pretty cool idea, huh?

Random acts of kindness have some career success implications too.  I devote 20 tweets in my career advice book Success Tweets to building strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships. Strong relationships greatly enhance your chances of creating the career success you deserve.

The career advice in these tweets has a strong pay it forward  flavor to it.  For example, Tweet 128 in Success Tweets says, ““When meeting someone new, ask yourself, “What can I do to help this person?”  You’ll build stronger relationships by thinking this way.”  Tweet 130 says, “Be generous.  By giving with no expectation of return, you’ll be surprised by how much comes back to you in the long run.”

When my book, Straight Talk for Success, first came out I did a big launch campaign that resulted in it becoming an Amazon.com bestseller.  A few months before the launch, I settled on April 22 as my launch date; mostly because the timing was right.  When I looked closer at my calendar, I saw that April 22 happens to be Earth Day.  I can remember participating in teach-ins at Penn State on the very first Earth Day in 1970.

I decided that there was some karma involved here.  Since I had chosen April 22 without knowing it was Earth Day, I thought it would be nice for me to pay it forward and donate 10% of my net proceeds from book sales that day to an organization that supports the environment.  I knew the perfect one.

I am a member of Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, an apolitical environmental organization.  Their mission is to “motivate and enable Colorado citizens to be active stewards of Colorado’s public lands, thereby creating enthusiastic and beneficial stewardship of Colorado’s natural and cultural resources.”  They are my favorite environment related non-profit.  They do great work.  I was happy to help them out by donating a part of the money I made on book sales that Earth Day.

I called Ann Baker Easley, VOC Executive Director, and told her what I had in mind.  I was expecting a “thank you.”  I got that, and much more.  Ann put me in touch with Piep van Heuven, VOC Deputy Director of Development and Communication.  Piep included a message about my book launch in the VOC newsletter, and sent an email to their membership on the day of the book launch, asking them to purchase a copy of Straight Talk.

What started off as a philanthropic endeavor on my part turned into a partnership.  And, it proved my point about giving with no expectation of return.  I approached VOC thinking that I could help them by making a small contribution.  They embraced my idea, and took it one step further.  So now, we are partners.  I think this is great.

This doesn’t always work.  Prior to my book launch, I participated in a book launch campaign for another author.  When I asked her to return the favor, I got an email saying, “I am not participating in any book launch promotions just now.  I am laser focused on building my business using Facebook.”

In other words, “Kiss off, Bud.”  But that’s OK.  I helped her with her successful launch, and many other people – some very unexpected — helped me with mine.  In my experience, for every experience where my help is not reciprocated, there are two or three more like my experience with Volunteer for Outdoor Colorado.

That’s why paying it forward through random acts of kindness is such great career advice. You participate in creating a kinder, gentler world, and you improve your chances of getting something back – in unexpected ways.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Random acts of kindness not only help make the world a kinder gentler place, they help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Successful people are interpersonally competent.  Interpersonally competent people build strong relationships by giving with no expectation of return.  They follow the career advice in Tweets 128 and 130 in Success Tweets.  “When meeting someone new, ask yourself, “What can I do to help this person?”  (128)  “Be generous.  By giving with no expectation of return, you’ll be surprised by how much comes back to you in the long run.” (130)  You’ll build stronger relationships by thinking this way.  The next time you meet someone new, ask yourself, “What can I do to help this person?”  Most people ask the opposite question, “How can this person help me?”  By thinking “how can I help” first, you’ll be better able to build strong relationships that will pay off and help you create life and career success.  Way back on January 20, 1961, in his inauguration speech as President of the United States, John Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country.”  These words – with a slight twist — are true today and will help you become a life and career success.  “Ask not what others can do for you.  Ask what you can do for others.”  Practice random acts of kindness – for your own good, and for the good of us all.

That’s my career advice based on Random Acts of Kindness Week.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  And as always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.  Practice a random act of kindness today, tell us about it in a comment.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Calvin Coolidge was the 30th President of the United States.  He was a small government Republican.  Comments on his presidency are eerily similar to what is being played out in US politics today.    Many historians look favorably on the reduction of the size of government programs during his presidency.  Others feel that the federal government under Coolidge should have been more involved in regulating and controlling the economy, and are not so quick to heap praise on his administration.

Coolidge was known as “Silent Cal” as he was a man of few words.  But when he did speak, he came up with some gems.  One of my very favorite life and career success quotes comes from Silent Cal Coolidge…

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”

I was skimming through Napoleon Hill’s classic book Think and Grow Rich the other day when I came upon his thoughts on persistence.  They reflect President Coolidge’s…

“One of the main causes of failure is a lack of persistence.  You may overcome this weakness through effort and intensity of desire.  Will power is the basis of persistence; increasing your will or desire will help to strengthen your persistence…Persistence is not reliant on education or intelligence, and requires only a little bit of time and effort.  There are four simple, but necessary, steps that will lead to the practice of persistence:  1) a stated purpose, backed by burning desire, 2) a definite plan, expressed in continuous action, 3) a mind closed against criticism and discouragement, and 4) a friendly alliance with at least one person who will encourage you to follow through with your plans.  Persistence should become a habit.”

I really like Dr. Hill’s third and fourth points.  Tweet 49 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Surround yourself with positive people.  Hold them close.  They will give you energy and help you create the career success you deserve.”  Tweet 50 says, “Jettison the negative people in your life. They are energy black holes.  They will such you dry; but only if you let them.”

Persistent people, successful people, surround themselves with positive people – people who are both positive by nature, and positive about their life and career success.  Positive people are optimistic; and optimism is the first step in building your self-confidence and life and career success.

As Napoleon Hill points out, positive people help you feel good about yourself and become more persistent, because they feel good about themselves – and life in general.  They help you build your self-esteem because they have a strong sense of self-esteem.  Positive people are there when you begin to doubt yourself or when you want to give up.  They are not threatened by you or your success.  They realize that self-esteem is not a fixed pie.  There is an unlimited amount of it to go around, so positive people are always giving it away.  You can build your self-confidence and jumpstart your life and career success by spending your time with upbeat, positive people.

It’s pretty simple.  When you surround yourself with positive, self-confident people, you become positive and self-confident.  On the other hand, when you surround yourself with negative or cynical people, you become negative and cynical.

The choice is yours.  I choose to surround myself with positive people.  Not only do they help my self-confidence, they are more fun to be around.

I’m a big fan of Mark Twain.  One of my favorite quotes of his gets at the heart of surrounding yourself with positive people and jettisoning the negative people in your life…

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.  Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Mark Twain and Napoleon Hill thnk alike when it comes to negative people.  Negative people are a drag on your goals and your ambitions.  They can hamper your chances of becoming a truly persistent and successful person.  They are quick to tell you what you can’t do, offer little encouragement, and hate to see you prove them wrong by succeeding.  Hold these kinds of people at arm’s length.  Don’t spend time with them.  Instead, invest in friendships with positive, upbeat people; the kind of people who not only don’t belittle your ambitions, but do what they can to help you make them a reality.

Cynics are negative people.  They are also dangerous, because they are seductive.  They always have something witty to say about others – usually others’ shortcomings.  At first, they seem to be funny and amusing.  But spend time with cynics, and you’ll find that they have little joy in life except in pointing out and reveling in others’ problems and failures.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Persistence will help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  But as Napoleon Hill points out, no one — no matter how persistent — can go it alone.  Follow the career advice in Tweet 49 in Success Tweets.  “Surround yourself with positive people.  Hold them close.  They will give you energy and help you create the success you want and deserve.”  Positive people are great.  They feel good about themselves and life in general.  They are enthusiastic – and their enthusiasm is contagious.  When you surround yourself with positive people, you’ll become more positive and enthusiastic.  And, you’ll be on your way to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  Who are the most positive people you know?  Get to know them better, spend more time with them.  Don’t let negative people into your life.  Follow the career advice in Tweet 50 in Success Tweets.  “Jettison the negative people in your life.  They are energy black holes.  They will suck you dry, but only if you let them.”  Avoid cynics.  They are jealous and petty, unhappy when others succeed.  Avoid jerks too  – people who are rude, insulting, sarcastic and two-faced.  They will only drag you down.  Make a conscious choice to spend time with positive, optimistic people.  Avoid negative, pessimistic ones.

That’s my career advice on how positive people can help you become more persistent – and to achieve the career success you deserve.  What do you think?  Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  Thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I really appreciate your support.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

I have never been a big fan of manifesting as exemplified in The Secret – the book or the movie — because I think it oversimplifies the concept of life and career success.  In case you’re not familiar with the concept of manifesting or The Secret, here is what an internet search on The Secret turned up…

• Ask – You must know what you want. I mean, really know what you want. The universe can’t deliver without first knowing what it is that you want to have manifested into your life.
• Believe – You need to truly believe that what you are asking for will become yours. Doubts need to be pushed away. The idea that failure is a possibility will mess up the delivery.
• Receive - It is important that you become an active player in reaching your goals. When opportunity comes your way you must not hesitate. Grab the brass ring when it appears.

I always thought that there is a pesky little step between Believe and Receive – and that step is “work hard.”

I was pleased to come across something on manifesting the other day from Yee Shun-Jian of RichGrad.com.  Yee suggests that learning is an important part of working hard….

“So seek and be hungry for new knowledge. Also, make an effort to be amongst people or communities where you can support each other, learn from each other and also share new knowledge that you have found.”

I think that lifelong learning is so important that I devoted five tweets to it in my career advice book Success Tweets.

Tweet 81: Become a lifelong learner. The half-life of knowledge is rapidly diminishing.  Staying in the same place is the same as going backwards.

Tweet 82: Learn faster than the world changes.  In a world that never stops changing, you can never stop learning and growing.

Tweet 83: Master your technical discipline.  Share what you know.  Become the go to person in your discipline in your company.
Tweet 84: Stay up to date in your industry.  Read industry publications.  Know the hot topics for your company, competitors and industry.

Tweet 85: Always be on the lookout for new ideas.  Find opportunities where others see obstacles.

From these quotes, it should be pretty obvious that I believe that learning is an important key to life and career success.  One of my favorite quotes on lifelong learning comes from Louis L’Amour, the great American writer of stories about the old west…

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished.  That will be the beginning.”

I know a lot about career and life success.  I’ve written several books on it.  I have a new one called Climbing the Corporate Ladder coming out in about a month.  I’ll let you know when it is available.

I give lots of talks about life and career success.  I’ve coached hundreds of people – helping them build the life and career success they want and deserve.  I write this blog.  At one point, I thought I knew it all.

And you know what?  Every time I write about life and career success, every time I speak about it, every time I coach someone offering my career advice, I gain a deeper understanding of what it takes to create life and career success.

I begin anew every day, doing whatever I can to learn about life and career success so I can pass on this knowledge and wisdom to others.  I choose to keep learning.  So should you.  I’ve learned that if you don’t keep learning, you don’t stand still – you fall behind in the game of life.  I’ve also learned that what I learned after I knew it all was some of the best and most important of my learnings.

Thomas Carlyle once said, “What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us.  The greatest university of all is a collection of books.”  He lived in the 19th century.  If he were alive today, he might have amended his statement to say, “Books and the Internet are the greatest university of all.”  Today, so many of the great books, as well as other life and career success information, are available on line.  The Internet is a great way to access this information.  The important thing is to keep learning – how you do it and where you get your information is secondary.

I have a huge collection of books on a variety of subjects.  These books are the first place I turn when I am looking for information to post on my blog, when I am working with my career success coach clients, when I am preparing a speech and when I am designing a training program.  When I can’t find what I’m looking for in my books, I go on line.

My best common sense suggestion for becoming a lifelong learner is simple.  Read.  Read technical journals.  Read trade magazines.  Read business publications like “The Wall Street Journal,” “Business Week,” “Fortune” and “Forbes.”  If you think they’re too stodgy, read “Fast Company.”

Read your company’s annual report.  Read your competitors’ annual reports.  Read your local newspaper and “The New York Times.”  Read news magazines like “Newsweek” and “Time.”  Read business and industry blogs.  Read ezines and eBooks.  Read books.  Reading is the best way to stay up with what’s happening in business, in your industry and in the world.

There are other things you can do to keep learning.  Attend seminars.  Join the major groups or trade associations for your industry.  Attend their meetings and participate.  Volunteer for committee work.  Become known locally in your field.  Take a class at your local university.  Use your company’s tuition reimbursement program to get a free undergraduate or Master’s degree.

Your education doesn’t stop when you graduate from college or get an MBA, it begins anew.  There are many ways to keep learning.  Decide which ones work for you, and then follow through.  Outstanding performers are competent.  They stay competent because they are lifelong learners.

I agree with Albert Einstein who said…

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong learning attempt to acquire it.”

The career success point here is simple common sense.  Successful people are outstanding performers.  Outstanding performers are lifelong learners.  They follow the career advice in tweet 81 in Success Tweets.  “Become a lifelong learner.  The half-life of knowledge is rapidly diminishing.  Staying in the same place is the same as going backward.”  Lifelong learning is really important to creating the successful life and career you want and deserve.  Remember what Louis L’Amour says: “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished.  That will be the beginning.”  Treat each new day as an opportunity to learn.  Stay open to new people and new ideas.  If you do this, you’ll come to realize that you are never finished learning and that what you learn after you know it all is the most valuable knowledge you’ll develop.

That’s my career advice on the subject of manifesting and lifelong learning.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I really value and appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

February is Black History Month in the USA.  Over the past two weeks several people have shared some great quotes from prominent African American leaders.  Yesterday, I received an email with a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King.

“If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. But by all means, keep moving.”

Dr. King was talking about the struggle for racial equality in this country, but his words apply to anyone interested in creating the life and career success they want and deserve.

Tweet 30 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Success is a journey, not a destination.  When you accomplish one goal, reach higher and set a new one.”  The idea of life and career success being a journey, not a destination, squares with Dr. King’s words.  A journey implies movement.  To create the career success you deserve you have to keep moving – even if it seems that sometimes you’re only crawling.

You’ve probably heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – it’s a staple in undergraduate social psychology.  In case you haven’t, or need a refresher, here is a quick recap.

In 1943, Dr. Abraham Maslow wrote a paper called, “A Theory of Human Motivation” in which he described his ideas about what motivates human beings.  He suggested that we humans have a series of needs which we strive to meet — and that the best way to motivate someone is to appeal to the need most relevant to him or her at a given time.  He arranged these needs in a pyramid.

Physiological or survival needs like breathing, food, water and sleep are at the base of the pyramid.  Dr. Maslow suggests that until these basic survival needs are met, human beings will not be motivated by any other needs.

Safety and security needs are the next up on the pyramid.  Dr. Maslow suggests that once people feel that they will survive today, they will be motivated by the need to survive tomorrow, the next day and in the long term.

Love and belonging needs are next.  Dr. Maslow suggests that once human beings experience a reasonable level of security, their needs turn to developing friendship and family relations.

Esteem needs are next.  Once people feel secure and loved, Dr. Maslow says that they seek the gratification that comes from achievement, self respect and the respect of others.

Self-actualization needs are at the top of the pyramid.  Dr. Maslow often described self-actualization as “being all that one can be.”  And therefore, one can never be truly self-actualized.  Dr. Maslow suggests that self-actualization is the pursuit of perfection.  In other words, once you accomplish something that you previously thought of as the pinnacle, you will find that there is more that you can accomplish.

These ideas are in keeping with Tweet 30 in Success Tweets which suggests that you set new and higher goals whenever you accomplish one of your goals.  Or to paraphrase Dr. King, you need to keep moving.

That’s why I say that success is a journey, not a destination.  Successful people see themselves as works in progress.  Successful people are never finished becoming all that they can be.  Successful people keep moving.  If you want the life and career success you deserve, you need to think of yourself this way.

I’m not suggesting that you take no time to celebrate your successes and look back at them with pride.  I am saying however, that if you want to build long-term career success, you will keep moving — using your successes as springboards to bigger and better things.

Once you accomplish a goal, set new one.  Develop a plan for achieving your new goal.  Work your plan.  And then do it again.  Keep moving.  Think of yourself as someone who is “becoming” not as someone who is “complete.”

Successful people realize that there are always new challenges and opportunities.  Some of the best career advice I ever received was from an early mentor who told me to see beyond the horizon, to keep actively looking for new ways to learn, grow and succeed.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people follow the advice of Dr. Martin Luther King.  They keep moving forward.  They never stop learning and growing.  They follow the advice in Tweet 30 in Success Tweets.  “Success is a journey, not a destination.  When you accomplish one goal, reach higher and set a new one.”  This is the idea embodied in the concept of self-actualization; you can never be all that you can be because there will always be new challenges ahead.  Setting and achieving ever increasingly difficult goals is the best way to live a fulfilling life and to create the career success you deserve.  Keep learning, keep growing, keep achieving, keep moving, and you will succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

That’s the career advice I found in Dr. Martin Luther King’s suggestion to keep moving.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I appreciate you taking the time to read what I’ve written.  I hope my thoughts help you in your career success journey.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.