5 Things You Should Learn now for Success Later in Life
Life: it’s a collection of lessons and things we’ve learned along the way. Some we learn from failure, some from success, some because we have taken to heart what more experienced people have told us. Either way, the goal should be to avoid having to learn things the hard way. There are things that you can start coming to terms with now, even if the consequences of not knowing them seem too far off to pay much attention to. These things will set you up for success later in life. Below are 5 of them.
Life Changes Fast
A 5 minute sequence of events can change the course of your life forever. If you believe in the butterfly effect, every single thing you do, or don’t do, in a day could be altering the entire course of history. There is no way to avoid this unalterable fact, but recognizing that it is part of life. The best way to confront it is to simply go with the flow. Allow your plans to be elastic and adapt accordingly; that’s knowledge that will help you keep your head up during the best and the worst of times.
Experiences are More Important Than “Things”
Greed in life is rarely good. Lusting after material possessions and money for the sake of bragging rights is bad for the soul, and bad for humanity. Greedy for new experiences, however is a different story. Life is a succession and a collection of experiences, some of them good, some of them bad. Money, much of the time, is the facilitator of those experiences.
If someone gave you $1,000,000 and told you you had a year to spend it, the experiences it facilitated would be much more important in the long run, and for your personal growth, than the “things” you would be able to buy with it.
Negotiate your Worth
A big part of being successful (at least financially successful) is knowing how to negotiate your worth. Often times it boils down to communicating to people what you bring to the table, in an honest, upfront, assertive way, convincing them of the benefits, and, importantly, asking to be compensated accordingly.
If you don’t tell people what you think you are worth (backed up by evidence and a solid argument) you are never going to get paid that amount.
People respond to assertive, convincing arguments and rarely, if ever, go out of their way to hand you more money.
Learn to Listen
Listening, believe it or not, is not simply something you are able to innately do because you have two ears on your head. Learning to listen, to really engage with what something someone is saying to you, is something that most successful people know how to do. As you go through life, you will run into all kinds of people, including people that you don’t really want to listen to. The trick is to force yourself into the habit of taking in everything that someone is saying to you and critically reacting to it. If you make this a habit, people will want to talk to you, people will want to share with you, and people will want to hear what you have to say in return.
Autonomy is important
While it’s hard to define happiness, or arrive at some universally acceptable definition of it, freedom and autonomy certainly factor heavy. Human beings are explorers at heart, they want to interact with the world on their own terms, exert some agency on their destinies and do things that fulfill them. Maximizing your autonomy should guide many of the important decisions you make throughout life.
Which job will give me the most creative freedom? Which friends allow me to be myself to the fullest?
Learning the above truisms will set you up for success, but above all, increased happiness later in life. While even the most solid emotional and intellectual foundations can be rocked by the ups and downs of life, getting a head start on understanding the world and understanding what makes you happy is invaluable. Implement the above advice into your daily life and get the most out of your human experience, wherever life takes you. If you are finding that there just isn’t enough time in the day to pursue life outside of your education, take a look at the professional essay writing services that Homework Help Canada offers.
References:
Altucher, J. (2015). “Successful in Life.” Business Insider. Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-10-things-everyone-should-know-to-be-successful-in-life-2015-6
(2017). “Butterfly Effect.” Wikipedia. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect
