Millennials… The 4 Principles to Propel you Forward!
In a society now where Millennials are primarily labeled as lazy, spoiled, disrespectful, and ungrateful, how easy would it be to stand out to a company if you had a strong work ethic, and you were respectful, appreciative, and grateful? How hard is it to accomplish this seemingly major feat? I can tell you from an Owners perspective, that those are the qualities we look for in candidates, especially the Millennial generation. When you have what Generation X and Baby Boomers call common sense, it can take you surprisingly far in life. There’s no need to make it any more complex than it needs to be.
If you’re feeling stuck in your career or having a hard time getting one going, often times it can come down to simply following a few core principles that can change the course of your life literally in a matter of days. We tend to over complicate situations, and stress when no stress is warranted. Living by these principles have helped me and others get through challenging times both personally and professionally. Sometimes we have to strip things down to the basics and keep it simple, simplicity can be quietly brilliant.
Here are 4 principles that will help you either land your next job, get your life out of a rut or elevate your career if you’re feeling stagnate;
#1. Be Grateful
Wake up and be grateful for what you have in your life, not what’s missing. And I mean as soon as you wake up, make this the first thing you do. Say 3 things you’re grateful for out loud and truly feel being grateful for having the right people in your life, the food on your table, clothes on your back, roof over your head, the quality strengths that you have, etc. Do this for 30 days, commit to it, and you’ll start seeing positive results. When you come from a state of gratitude every day, you portray that positive energy onto everyone you surround yourself with. Plus, you’ll find the little things won’t bother you anymore because your gratitude won’t allow them to. This closes the door on negativity!
#2. Be Appreciative
Once you’ve learned how to be appreciative for what you have in your life rather than what’s missing, you’ll have found fulfillment. And fulfillment is what will propel your life forward. As Tony Robbins says “Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure.” Stop expecting things handed to you. It’s hard, I know. We’re growing up in a society where we have all the information we could ask for at our fingertips and find the answer in a split second. The vast majority of you still only use it to check our friends status update or to read the most recent he said she said bullshit. Be a part of the small percentage and use it to follow influencers in your business, inspirational leaders, motivational quotes, etc., whatever drives positivity into your life rather than negativity. If this means taking a break from social media or unfollowing anyone who has a negative impact on your day, then do it! Start taking advantage of the information you have at your fingertips and use it the right way, we live in the most opportunistic era in humanity so appreciate the opportunity you have and the world you live in, it’s a great one!
#3. Have a Strong Work Ethic
It begins with taking action and being proactive. You will never reach your full potential without applying yourself daily and that sucks. Being content sucks. Winners aren’t content. Take an hour every day and apply it to reading and writing. You don’t have time? You’re too busy? Stray from social media or television for an hour. Take action for an hour every day and make the time to invest in yourself, it’s that important. If a millennial has a strong work ethic, unfortunately sometimes that’s all it takes for them to stand out to a company. Working hard doesn’t necessarily mean working long hours. The majority of people likely only work 5 hours out of an 8 hour day. But if you choose to apply yourself for the full 8 hours, you will notice your career slowly starting to take off. Think “productive” rather than “busy”.
#4. Respect
When you have self-respect, it becomes easier to respect others. We all know we can’t demand or expect respect, it has to be earned and it starts from within. The little things matter with respect, especially when it comes to having a conversation with someone. Have eye contact, genuinely listen to whom you’re conversing with, ask them quality questions about their situation or story rather than turning the conversation onto you, have a firm handshake, genuine smile, treat everyone the way you would want to be treated, and refrain from talking about someone behind their back because who you’re talking to about that person knows that you’re talking about them to someone else. Go congratulate your rival and best friend on an accomplishment they recently had. The Law of Attraction really does work. Respect yourself so you can, in turn, respect others and you’ll soon become respected by not only your peers but by your superiors as well.
Once you invest in incorporating these 4 core fundamentals into your life, you’ll find they’ll pay immediate dividends.
Get after it!
