#12: 13 cliche advice that will change your career.

Heyyy,

In this week's newsletter, I want to share with you the top 13 cliche advice that changed the way I saw my 9-5 corporate career, and these lessons truly impacted my finances, health, lifestyle and more.

Ready? Let's dive in!

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???Cliche Advice #1:?You'll be judged by everything and anything you do at the workplace. That's your professional reputation.

Constructive feedback, or criticism, depending on how you see it - will always happen especially if you are new to a job, team, department or company.

If you want to level up and play a bigger "game", you should expect and be prepared for people to disagree with you, misunderstand you, and judge you.

It comes with climbing up the corporate career ladder.

???Cliche Advice #2:?Winners and losers have the same goals. But what differentiates them is taking action in the right direction.

In James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, he says that every Olympian wants to win a gold medal and every candidate wants to get the job.

If successful and unsuccessful people share the same goals, then the goal cannot be what differentiates the winners from the losers.

It’s the action they take that makes the difference.

???Cliche Advice #3:?A good attitude can go a long way. Smart people get fired too.

Your education and paper qualifications can get you through the door... the rest is up to you.

The corporate world is not like school or university where only your grades matter. What your boss cares about is your ability to deliver quality work AND get along with your team whilst achieving your performance goals.

Not understanding THIS can get you fired even if you have an IQ of 200.

???Cliche Advice #4:?High salary, hard job. Easy job, low salary.

We live with the snowball outcome of the decisions that we make in our careers.

If you decide to accept a job with a high salary, it often means you'll need to meet high expectations which you may not have the mindset and skillset to handle yet.

If you choose to go for a lower-paying job, it might be easier now but how would you feel when you are stuck and underpaid?

The choice is yours.

???Cliche Advice #5:?Your career is only as solid as the strong foundations it is built upon.

Many people only want the shortcuts to career success and want to avoid the unsexy hard work, time, effort and energy it takes to develop core corporate skills that will help you go further, faster, in your career.

Until you learn how to work hard and understand the ins and outs of your role, working smart will cause more roadblocks as you'll have to keep coming back to fix something that was broken along the way.

This creates crazy frustrations.

???Cliche Advice #6:?Strategic, consistent and quality execution beats sexy ideas any day.

Throw a coin and you'll hit 10 people with 10 brilliant ideas.

It's surprisingly easy to come up with ideas, but the difference that makes the difference is your ability to implement these ideas to get results as it was intended. This takes a lot of skill - no, pitching is not one of them.

Doing it is better than talking about doing it.

???Cliche Advice #7:?A new job is not always the answer.

If you are always facing the exact same challenges with people, productivity and madness at each corporate job, the job is not the problem.

Even if you change careers, this challenge will continue to pop up.

It's a skills thing.

???Cliche Advice #8:?Big bosses were once junior associates. Don't envy them, learn how to climb up the career ladder.

Big bosses are not special, and frankly, they are not much different from you.

What they did was learn what it takes to rise up the corporate ladder - mindset, skillset and reputation, and be dedicated to their career goals.

You can do it too!

???Cliche Advice #9:?Don't compare your step 1 to someone else's stop 99.

Focus on your own journey - as long as you're progressing, you'll be okay.

What's not okay is doing nothing about your current career situation and expecting some kind of magic opportunity to fall onto your lap.

And yes, procrastination falls into this category.

???Cliche Advice #10:?Only take advice from people who have/had the career success you envision for yourself.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion - and trust me, many are quick to offer advice even if they may be unqualified or inexperienced to do so.

Here's how to tell apart fiction from the truth - ask yourself:

"Does this person have the success that I want for my corporate career?"

???Cliche Advice #11:?If you don't set your career GPS, where do you think you'll end up?

There are 2 big problems I noticed with 9-5 working professionals:

Active job seekers: Approaching their job search backwards - randomly applying for jobs without first getting clear what they want. This is a killer mistake that will mess up your resume, interviews and salary negotiations.

Working professionals: Assuming that it's their boss's responsibility to plan their careers, and ending up disappointed when promotions, increments, bonuses etc don't meet their expectations come year-end.

Take charge of your career!

???Cliche Advice #12:?There is no perfect job - only the right one for now.

It’s old school thinking that you need to stick to what you’ve studied and get stuck in a job that you don’t enjoy.?Worse still, you're looking for the perfect job before you take the leap.

Careers evolve, and even the "perfect job" can disappear with time.

Choose growth.

???Cliche Advice #13:?It's never too late to improve your career!

If you think that your current job is?the?end...?you're wrong.

If you think that your current age is?the?end...?you're also wrong.

If you think that your current salary is?the?end...?you're totally wrong.

Hope is not a strategy. If you want it, you can always make it happen!

Since we are getting personal...

I highly recommend you watch?my latest YouTube video?that I posted today, where I share the decisions I made along my 10+ years corporate career journey - how one decision stacks upon the next decision - helping me to rise up to leadership positions in my 20's.

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Anyways...

This week’s newsletter followed a different format, but I hope you enjoyed reading the top 13 cliche advice that has changed my career.

Well, I am sure I can come up with EVEN more - but these were the few that popped up.

Have a great week!

Always cheering for you,

Mei Phing — your corporate leader turned career coach???

?? Love this newsletter? Join my?"Career Confessions" Newsletter?I send to my email community for inspiration.?Click here to?subscribe for free!

???Want to gain more clarity, confidence and opportunities?in your career? Then, you might enjoy my free masterclass! Watch today:?www.GrowYourCorporateCareer.com

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