The challenge is: How to unleash your best and do great things despite difficulties?

Love challenges; don’t let them discourage you. Before the best in you is unleashed and your contribution to the world appreciated, you have to earn self-respect.

We are our own most formidable competitors. We look outside for role models, meaning and purpose, but we are in a race against ourselves. The key is to remember that personal victories and internal battles always precede the visible outer ones.

People are self-centred

No one cares about you till you prove your views are just as much valid.

No one trusts you until you help them connect the dots and prove your value.

People are self-centred. We have our issues and dilemmas and assume we know better, even if our beliefs and knowledge sit on somewhat shaky assumptions and rely on subjective validations. 

Don’t confuse confidence with arrogance.

Don’t be arrogant. Don’t pretend to know everything because you don’t. Don’t attempt to have the last say on everything and all the time. You can’t always be right and the smartest in the room (unless you are the only one ?).

Please remember that the surest way (not necessarily the fastest) to the expertise/ trustworthiness is to know everything about “that something” you stand for.

Change starts within. Change yourself first.

Every change initiative starts within, and if it grows strong enough, it will move, inspire, motivate and influence; people and minds bound together. We must win and master the change before it can be released to influence others.

And trust me, it is always happening in a series of smaller but meaningful steps and actions.

One step in the right direction

Unlock the brain, and look for potential.

It is our perception that defines our results, and it is where our focus is that determines the results we are going to get in life. In most cases, we get what we expect.

And that is why:

I love my questions. I am curious, and I want to discover and know about everything. I am open-minded and don’t believe everything I hear or see. Having learned to maintain a neutral stand in my thinking, I am willing to consider both sides of the argument, and I don’t need to take sides. That is how I  maintain distance and independence.

The head decides the business game; in love, you play by heart.

Think before you come up with the best performance. Rehearse the whole play in your head and not your heart because sometimes critical thinking is all it takes to improve your odds. It is dangerous, however, when doubt becomes our default mode of operation. Trust your heart, but follow your head to maintain a proper balance.

Decide to do your best no matter what.

No one is coming to your rescue, and you will have to deal with your challenges yourself. So now, when your main competitor is known, you are in a beautiful place where you can finally do something about it.

Knowing who you are is paramount. But that knowledge alone is seldom enough because you must still strategically position yourself to your advantage and think of a bigger game with better results and outcomes in mind.

Know yourself, know your opponents. Look for potential to dominate.

You have shortcomings and strengths, and the main thing is to channel their impact: You must major on your mental muscles to the point where your weaknesses become irrelevant.

Don’t be ignorant of your shortcomings and challenges. Acknowledge your problem; work around it; position yourself in such a way as to minimise weaknesses. You do so by emphasising known, visible and hard-to-ignore strengths so that weaknesses become irrelevant and minor. Once you have addressed the challenge, move on, and move quickly.

Few people achieve greatness by focusing on their weaknesses:

It is our strengths that create new opportunities, innovation and prosperity.

Focus on what you do best, do more of it, do crazy things, be playful, and stay within your own “sweet spot”. You can continuously improve and expand, but you can’t trick and short-cut your way to success. And don’t try to be a generalist; you must be a specialist, an expert, and you must know your strengths and the impact they can potentially make and then do everything within your “sweet spot” to contribute and execute.