10 Character Traits That Will Help You Thrive
Back in the day, Michael Michalko wrote “Creative Thinkering. Putting Your Imagination to Work”. In it, he emphasized 10 rules for one to achieve his goals. Let’s list them:
- Conviction
- Work
- Self-development
- Faith
- Social environment’s impact
- World perception
- Negative opinions
- Intuition
- Bravery
I totally disagree. These are character traits that, developed over time, can and will save all of us from making mistakes and wasting time.
According to ideonomy, the science of ideas, there are 638 character traits, broken down into three categories: positive, neutral and negative. The available list is very informative, but it doesn’t answer the most important question — Why do people act like they do and why do only some of them succeed in the end? We won’t be talking about all 10 traits, but let’s talk about some.
The Art of Not Giving a Damn
OK, the example above is a little extreme. In fact, this kind of mentality is totally wrong. In a modern work environment, where cooperation is the key to make any kind of success and impact, cooperation is the only thing that will save you from widespread chaos, project delay and much more. Investment in projects is one thing, wasting time is another.
Imagine that it’s Friday and you have another meeting. Everything in that meeting can be summarized in a few sentences and sent in a mail. The manager decided to gather the entire team and tell them about updates on projects. It doesn’t matter that the information directly related to you took maybe 10% of your precious time. We only have 40 hours in a week, why waste so much time on something that doesn’t matter in the long run?
Next thing — quarterly evaluation. Is it going to improve your performance? Is the feedback necessary or is it a company’s tradition and evaluation plans are made above our heads? Plus — if nothing’s wrong with performance, why waste 1 hour to make small talk about how good things are going? The key to success is in sometimes not giving a damn. That’s why I chose to not make myself involved in some company activities and thanks to that I have more time to actually do some work. This is the art of conviction.
If you have a gut feeling that something can be done better (sometimes by not doing it at all), than go for it. Intuition is for visionaries.
The Art of Giving a Lot of Damn
What can turn a good company into great one? Giving a damn. Modern marketing is all about conversation, connection, help and content. It’s about emotions, but more importantly it’s about solving problems. And not in a it-will-look-good-in-prospects kinda way. Genuine care for the product or a service extend far beyond marketing. In fact, it should be a base for every company in a market; no matter how small and seemingly insignificant (a local bakery) or big and hard to manage (multi-national company with multiple branches across the globe).
The character trait that describes successful people can sometimes be as simple as caring. How can I help my customer today? Is my content exciting, funny and practical enough? Does my explanation as a Customer Success Specialist help someone with their problem? Does my expertise as Head of Product push features and solutions allowing the product to become even better and more feasible?
Conviction is for people who know some things can be done better and they’re not afraid to act.
The Art of Disconnecting
The impact of social environment is crucial. Popular psychology lets us believe that fate is in our hands and the only thing that separates us from success is ourselves. It’s true, but it’s not that simple. Closer to the truth would be that 33% of our lives depend only on our behavior, 33% rests on the shoulders of fate and 33% is just pure luck. The other 1% lies with the actions of people like Gordon Gekko, the main character from the “Wall Street” movies. He and Dilbert have something in common, actually. The key is not knowing when to quit — the key is to know how to turn a situation around, so that “impossible” transforms into “done”.
When everyone keeps telling you that something can’t be done, it’s probably not true. The question is, will you let this mindset dominate your performance, mentality, daily work? Some things can always be done easier, quicker, to a higher standard. Why not search for the opportunity instead of settling for less?
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. — Steve Jobs
The Art of Being a Yes Man
Negative opinions are like flies buzzing in your ear. They can’t hurt you, but they sure as hell annoy you to the point where you just leave the room with windows wide open to get rid of them. In this metaphor, being a Yes Man does not mean agreeing to everything. It’s more about positive attitude and working on solutions rather than problems. People who are successful do not accept little annoyances like criticism and persistent interruptions of a daily, positive routine.
The Art of Seeing Clearly
With all the frustrations of our daily life, it’s easy to sometimes see things in a bad light. Whatever you think about the world, you’re probably right. If you think people are out to get you — that meetings are unreasonably long on purpose — that all is lost, it’s probably true. For you.
But if you think about changing something for your customers, improving their experience, helping them with a problem, the dark cloud will disappear. Marketers who thrive don’t have problems with world perception; they see things clearly and make decisions that truly impact the world around them. They build, they create, they assess. They constantly find ways to improve, no matter if it’s a tool or a competency. They discover new methods to do the same amount of work faster, with ease and with spectacular results. One tool you can try is Landingi — a landing page builder that can help you create campaigns quickly and easily.
The rest is up to you. Who has the time to waste?
