š§© What do fear, focus, and feedback have in common?
The 3 most underrated Fs of your success.
In your journey of climbing up the stairs of success, one of the biggest push you could have, especially as a young professional with still a long way to go, is competitive advantage.
Most people donāt recognize right away what their USP (Unique Selling Point) could be. These 3 qualitiesāfear, focus, and feedback, are often overlooked as advantages especially fear, as it is seen as a negative. Reclaim these 3 Fs and turn them into your starting point to boost your career.
Using fear as a compass
In the book āTribe of Mentorsā by Tim Ferriss, performance psychologist Jim Loehr states that one of the keys to high performance in any field is running toward things that make you scared or uncomfortable.
Stress exposure is the stimulus for all growth, and growth actually occurs during episodes of recovery. - Jim Loehr
Among million others who share the same goal of success, be one of the select few who seek discomfort instead of avoiding it. Confront what creates stress in your life, and learn to grow from it. Many people tend to get stuck in a rut because they no longer find their job to be challenging, which will stunt their growth. Stress is actually the key ingredient that stimulates growth,
Read more on how to use fear as your guidance in this 4-min Medium article.
Mastering focus the right way
If you work for a company, any company, especially during transitional phases like how the past year has been, chances are you are being subjected to more work than you thought you were capable of. Amidst all the instability, you are expected to stay on track. This could be tricky, especially when youāre working (physically) away from your team, making you prone to endless distractions. Sahil Bloom, a Business and Finance advisor and educator has found the 5 tactics to find your focus on hold on to that focus:
Eliminate Low-Value Decisions. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg only has one pair of outfit in his closet in the name of practicality.
Sprint Then Rest. Try to work in short blocks of 1-2 hours.
Noise Cancellation. Learn how and when to tune out and zone in.
Sleep Tight. Very underrated, as people donāt see sleeping as āproductiveā, but it is in fact quite the opposite.
Train Your Mind. Practice meditation, start with 5 minutes a day.
Learn more about each tactic on the Twitter thread posted by Bloom here.
Embracing feedback from in and out
We are probably used to the āhustle cultureā of just being go, go, go, and oftentimes we ignore the evaluative parts of our job without even meaning to. This is a friendly reminder to always take a step back and see which areas you can improve on by asking feedback from your colleagues AND from yourself too. Other than the common constructive feedback and self-feedback, there are 4 ways you can give and receive feedback. Each type can be tailored to the characteristics of a team.
Directive feedback means telling a team member what youād like them to do.
Contingency feedback is particularly useful if you struggle with having difficult conversations with your colleagues.
Attribution feedback shies away from specifics and talks about someone in terms of their innate attributes.
Impact feedback talks about behavior in terms of how it impacts other people.
Of course, different individuals will thrive better with different types of feedback. These feedback types also apply to not only when giving feedback to others, but also to yourself. Which one do you think you suit best?
Find out examples of each feedback type and more detailed explanation here.
With these 3 weapons in mind, we hope you will be able to achieve constant growth and separate yourself from the rest to always be on top of your game!
See you next time.