"Self-improvement and work" by Pavel Verbnyak

Self-improvement and work

Perfection will come through practice.

It cannot come by merely reading instructions.

Napoleon Hill

Peter Daniels’ Story

Peter Daniels is one of the best professionals in the field of setting goals and their implementation, development of personal qualities and business skills of leaders. He achieved incredible success in business, became a multimillionaire and he is an example of effective use of his own principles.

Daniels' childhood, who was born in 1932, was not easy. The family was poor and disadvantaged, so Peter had to endure hardship and diseases. The boy did not succeed at school.

At first, his work experience was not positive as well. At the age of 26 he became a bricklayer and lived on a small salary. He wanted a better life for himself, but he knew that university degree will not give him a knowledge of the basic principles of self-fulfillment and business skills. Then the young man decided to engage in self-improvement.

Peter Daniels began with a study of the biographies of people who have achieved success in life. He was looking for the causes and principles that helped them to succeed. He spent all his spare time reading useful books, he spent all money he had to buy them. He paid a lot of attention to replenishment of his vocabulary, reading the dictionary for this.

People like Peter Daniels do not give up under any circumstances. They become stronger and get an incentive to move forward. He made a number of attempts to start a business, but he failed every time. Having failed, he got up and started from scratch again and again. Through trial and error, he achieved the purpose, made his dream come true and built a successful and profitable business in real estate.

Daniels currently heads the large real estate company in Australia. Moreover, he is currently a member of the International Board of Directors in many prestigious companies worldwide.

All 30 years, which Daniels dedicated to business, he pays most attention not just to making money, but also to understanding of the system of doing business. He constantly makes experiments and implements advances in his practice. He does not hide the existing knowledge from other people and willingly shares them releasing books, providing training and business programs for those, who wish to do business and improve themselves.

How long does it take to become a professional?

Professional and personal development occurs throughout life.

The main reason why many people cannot make a career is that they do not realize, how much time they need to spend in order to achieve excellence in any field. Extensive research in this area shows, that it takes about five to seven years of hard work to get to the top of professionalism, continuing lifelong learning.

That means five to seven years of focused, determined and hard working on your own in order to achieve better results in key areas that are responsible for your personal development. Short paths do not exist.

Some people think that five to seven years spent on achieving excellence in their field is too long. It is really a lot. But it is worth holding in mind, that years will pass anyway. It is better not to waste them.

Most people regret that "they have not started early enough. "But the time - five to seven years - will pass. The natural question is "what your career will look like in five to seven years?" You can spend these years searching for short-cuts to achieve desired things. Think about it, probably, it is better to start doing something that cannot bear fruit at once?

Personal development through hard work

The good news is that, if you set a goal in your career, make a plan and work on it every day for five to seven years, starting from now, you will be among the top 10% of professionals in this field. Through personal development you will become one of the highest paid and most respected people in your sphere. Through hard work you will achieve great results and get a decent reward.

Remember this. As Brian Tracy says - a man, whom I respect immensely and whose ideas influenced me greatly: "No one is smarter than you and no one is better than you." If someone is more successful than you, it just means, that this person started improving himself (herself) earlier. And no matter what results someone has got, you can reach the same. There are no limits except those ones you set for yourself.

The fact that others are able to stand out starting career in any sphere with no experience or skills is a proof, that you can become a winner trough hard work. Your challenge is to suppress doubts, start to act, improve yourself all the time.

Make a decision today to form a habit of personal improvement and focus all energy on how to get into the top 10% of professionals in your sphere. And once you start doing this, the future will be wild open to you. Nobody will be able to stop you.

Growth orientation

Another crucial habit is to reflect and act; successful people also develop it in themselves. This is the road you should travel in order to form an important skill to be an optimist, a commitment to continuous progress and excellence.

Focusing on growth helps to develop the habit of continuous learning, professional and personal improvement. Just as you do morning exercises to stay healthy and fit, you need to train your mind every day to become better and better in your chosen field.

Important conditions for professional growth and successful career:

• lifelong learning;
• personal development;
• hard work.

Learn not only from success but also from failure

Winds of circumstances, disappointment, despair and misfortune blow on each person. But why in the end people are swimming in different places? They all are swimming in the same direction!

The essential difference is in the way of thinking. There is a parable about this.

A gnat and a fly met each other one day. And the gnat asked:

- I wonder are there any flowers around here?

The fly answered:

- I have no idea as for the flowers. There is a lot of garbage and filth in every ditch!

And the fly started listing all the surrounding dumps, which the gnat must see. The gnat flew away to find the "fabulous" dumps. On the way it met a bee.

- Have you seen a ditch over here? – the gnat asked her.

- Ditches? Dumps? No, I haven’t seen – the bee said. - There are so many fragrant flowers!

And the bee started telling in detail, where violets blossom and where beautiful lilies grow...

Despite we are taking the best efforts, each of us has such moments when everything goes wrong. The rich and the poor have similar problems that can lead to financial collapse and despair.

What should we do, when this happens? When the wind changes its direction, we need to change as well, or the difficulties and troubles will ruin our lives. The views and personal philosophy should be flexible, it is very important.

An objective opinion of revered person can help you to evaluate, what have happened and to make the right decision. Listen to the voice of someone, who is able to see the forest for the trees.

Study the success and misfortunes of others. Conversations with those, who have failed, can be very helpful. You see, what they did wrong and can learn a lesson. Past failures motivate us to change our behavior. Therefore, we avoid repeating mistakes.

Explore the lives of people, who succeed. It is necessary to constantly find individuals that we admire and respect, whose behavior we can model. It is much better to consciously choose the positive examples, the experience that you can pursue, than to let bad patterns influence together with our conscious choice.

Failure is the key to success

There is a very interesting story about the empire Ferrero, the world famous company with a turnover of over 10 billion dollars, which produces the popular candies Ferrero Rocher, Raffaello and Kinder Surprise – the well-known chocolate eggs with funny toys inside.

Everything began soon after the end of World War II in a small provincial Italian town. Michele Ferrero decided to set up a business selling homemade sweets. He bought cocoa, milk powder, butter and sugar. He spent all money the family had for this. The family was actively preparing for the forthcoming holiday in their town. They made a lot of sweets, which they expected to sell at a profit. The day before the holiday the unexpected happened. It was a very hot day and all the cooked candies melted. All they had in warehouse was a shapeless sweet mass. It was a real disaster! Ferrero turned gray, when he saw what had happened.

But he did not despair and did not leave his business. All day before the festival the family sliced ??bread and spread the unusual sweet paste on it. The original sandwiches were sold very quickly and brought quite a lot of money. This is the story, how the famous nutty chocolate spread Nutella was created. A family business has grown into the huge company Ferrero, which is famous for its excellent paste for many decades.

Do not neglect

Neglect is the main reason, why people do not have, what they want. If you do not care about some important things in your life, this leads to poor results. If you do not think about money, time, health, you can lose a lot. Do not neglect to care about important things. Learn to manage your life.

Flexibility is the key quality of brilliant experts. They never get stuck in a particular case or action. They allow for the possibility, that they may be wrong, as well they keep in mind alternative ways of achieving goals.

Success or failure is determined not by what you have, but by how you use what have. Your ability to react and adapt to life circumstances is the true measure of who you are and what you will get.

Your most valuable assets are the ability to learn, the ability to timely apply knowledge and skills to get the results, the ability to control your life and yourself. Personal development is a springboard that allows to jump high and to achieve excellence. The continuous and non-stop development removes all restrictions for your achievements.

Step out of the comfort zone

Get out of your comfort zone. You can grow in business and in any other sphere, but only if you are not afraid of feeling awkward, not knowledgeable and skilled enough, and if you are ready to try something new. This requires courage. On the other hand, you need nothing to go with the flow. But nothing will change in this case.

Only if you are ready to overcome obstacles that seem to exceed your capabilities, you will be able to climb higher and higher - up to infinity.

The more you desire to have a cloudless existence, the less of it you have. But the more actively you are looking for growth opportunities, the more likely that you will reach the security that you would like to have.

The most important resource is time. To use it more effectively you need to increase your competence and knowledge in key areas, which will help to achieve the desired result.

Decide for yourself that the way you do everything is excellent. No one will succeed working with mediocre results. And, of course, successful people understand that they will not reach the top alone. They are always looking for opportunities to help others, while losers are wondering, what they can get from this or that person.

This quality makes you able not just to build a personal career or to achieve success in business, but also to grow as a real leader.

Practice

Formulate an accurate picture of your professional and career goals:

• identify them for 5 years. They must be clear (what position and what skills are required), realistic, and consistent with basic plans for life;
• identify and write down your strengths and weaknesses as a professional;
• plan your own professional development: determine what knowledge and skills you lack and initiate your training at the appropriate programs.

"Scan" the world during the day, become a good listener. Try to be in the company of those people, who you respect and admire. Search for the individuals, who are successful and stimulate, enchant and inspire you.

One of the main reasons of failure is that people are trying to overcome hardships of the day, while they need to get out of this situation. Be careful. Watch. Often the most extraordinary opportunities are hidden among things, which seem unimportant.