Live in Appreciation as opposed to Expectation

The other day, I was having a conversation with a fresh graduate who had reached out to me to see how I could arrange his resume in the best possible manner to stand out from the crowd of job applicants. His credentials were among the finest and he had notable achievements on his resume. Everything was going well until he made one statement that sparked me to want to teach him and now all of you, something valuable to know.

Just because you have a certain degree from a reputable institution, or even if you have accomplished great things in your private and professional life, this doesn’t allow you to expect even greater things to happen to you. You should be the one taking the necessary steps forward as a result of the appreciation for such things. Thus, the conversation that I had with this individual inspired me to show you why living in appreciation of what you have is far better and rewarding than a life of mere expectation.

You know what you have, as well as what you have been through

This is the starting point for everything that you do and plan on doing. Instead of simply living off of the image associated to either the school and/or university as well as a certain company where you work(ed), take a moment to realise that you were one in a million to have had the privilege of being associated to such establishments.

On a more personal level, should you have traversed tragedies or hardship throughout your life; and if you managed to bounce back stronger than ever, such experiences will only pave the way forward. By taking a step back from everything to realise everything that you have, I hope that you realise that such experiences may never be taken away from you. Thus, you will know what you have, the value that you have to offer and more importantly; what you are capable of achieving.

You know where to go

Now that you know who you are as a person as well as the value that you may add to the people around you, this is where you know where to focus your attention. Should you envisage on sharing such knowledge with others to become a dedicated specialist, or if there is a company out there looking for someone like you; only you will know what is the best approach to take. If you fail to plan for your future; someone else will do so and guess what? Unfortunately most of the time his/her interests will always come first thus brushing your value to the side.

Even if an opportunity does not work out, find another one. If your approach does not work, all that you need to do is to change it. If both the opportunity and approach do not work once again, change it repeatedly until you have a winning result. All successful businesses and businessmen/women relentlessly alter their approaches until they become as successful as they desire to be. I always hear stories from people saying that they tried a million approaches when they cannot even name five different attempts. Don’t allow this to happen to you; you know who you are as well as what you bring to the table. Let it be known, show who you are and what you are capable of solving and true fulfilment will always find you.

Once you are there, keep going

The biggest tragedy that I see and hear from successful people around me is that they sit back once they have achieved all that they wanted to achieve. If you have read previous pieces that I wrote about the true definition of success, these people in fact are not categorised as being successful in its purest form. Success is not a result but a behaviour. As soon as you have exploited the opportunity presented to you and reaped the reward, find something else. Keep going, keep adding conquests to your life story so that others find inspiration when they hear of you, or are in your simple presence. Never should you choose to settle because by doing this, here you can really appreciate all of your knowledge and expertise that once started out as a mere credential. Now you have something to show for it, and you should keep going.

I know many people who spotted valuable opportunities for specific businesses. They benefitted from such opportunities as well as the conditions that were in their favour. Once they reached the peak of the common business S-Curve, they chose to sit back and live off the success that such an initiative brought them. Guess what happened? Suddenly there was a drop in demand for their service, in addition to a small financial downturn resulting in them losing all of their money. I always tell this to people wishing to reach the next level, but in life you always need to spread your wings as far as possible so that you are constantly flying. Never settle and never give up. As I previously mentioned, if one way doesn’t work and if the second also doesn’t prove to be successful, keep changing and trying. If you appreciate all that you have and know, this should always set the benchmark for what you do next.