Imagine yourself sitting in front of a panel of interviewers – nervous, shaken. It’s your first big interview after all. And suddenly, one of the interviewers asks you “Tell us about yourself.”
As you hear the words, your whole life goes into the flashback, and you realize you have not done anything worth mentioning. Scary, isn’t it?
Well, thousands of fresh graduates stumble upon this same question during their job interviews. The reason is very simple. Most people don’t think about arranging life accomplishments until they reach their 30s.
Just take a moment and question yourself, “What have I achieved so far?” If the answer is not satisfying, then you need to buckle up and take proper actions. Life is too short to live with regrets.
There are people who have accomplished great feats at an age when most of us are learning how to ride a bike. This only justifies that it is never too early for having accomplishments in life.
If you are in college and you are about to begin your professional career, this may be the right time to set some goals in your life. That will allow you to map your path for the future accomplishments.
You can do several things to ensure significant accomplishments in your life:
1. Push your limits
You need to improve your skills, knowledge and abilities with time to succeed. However, one win does not make you a champion. You need to keep succeeding at various levels to lead a fulfilling life, and for that, you need to challenge yourself at every turn.
If you are not pushing your limits, you will never be able to understand your true potential. And besides, if you don’t improve your skills and knowledge, your accomplishments will be of limited numbers. Always aim to do better than yesterday.
2. Take risks
There’s one thing in common among all the successful people in this world. They all are risk takers. As they say “No one has ever achieved anything great by playing safe” and neither will you. If you are too comfortable at doing what you do, maybe it is time to try something that’s out of your comfort zone.
If you get too comfortable with the things you do, you stop learning things. It not only keeps you from growing as an individual but also stops you from achieving something big in life. Make it a habit from the college days to try something that seems challenging to you.
3. Be an improviser
Understand this. Life after college is going to difficult. You will face situations that you cannot even think of. Most people give up in a tricky situation because they can’t figure out how to deal with some like that. Even well-made plans can go wrong. In situations like that, improvisation is your best bet.
How many times did you receive unexpected questions in the exam halls? The answer is too many times. Similarly, life also throws challenging situations at you completely out of the blue. What counts is how you deal with it. If you are eyeing for achieving big, quitting is not an option. So sharpen your improvisation skills from now.
4. Create your own identity
If you plan to grow under the shadows of your superiors for your entire career, you can forget about the accomplishing anything big in life. In order to succeed and get the recognition for it, you need to stand out from the crowd.
The world remembers the trendsetters, not their imitators. And to achieve something great, you need to create your own identity. Yes, teamwork is important for success. But when it boils down to individual performance, your unique way of doing things can take you closer to the accomplishments you crave for.
5. Appreciate every accomplishment
We all are accomplishing something every day. Some accomplishments are huge and significant, while some are pretty small compared to other. Whatever you accomplish, it is important to appreciate each of them. Start today.
It can be something significant like securing A+ in a test or as simple as making someone laugh. They inspire you to become a better person, a better performer. If you don’t appreciate what you are achieving in life, the accomplishments lose their purpose. This is even worse than achieving nothing.
6. Believe in yourself
Whether it is in college or in professional life, if you don’t have confidence in your own abilities, it will be way harder for you to achieve something significant. If you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect others to believe in what you do? The first step towards success is developing self-confidence.
A self-confident person can achieve a lot of things in life. Since he is not afraid to try something new, his chances of succeeding are any day better than an average person. You can also develop self-confidence and make positive efforts towards having a life full of accomplishments.
As mentioned earlier, there’s no particular age limit for accomplishing something big in life. So start putting efforts towards your goal from an early age. Determining your goal for life can be a bit challenging. That is why you need to try something new almost every day. Unless you try something, you won’t be able to identify where your true potential lies.
And lastly, you need to put in a lot of efforts to if you want to accomplish your goals in life. There is no shortcut to success. Like everyone else, you need toil hard to achieve great things. The aforementioned suggestions can surely boost your chances, but they cannot offer immediate results. You need to keep trying. Perseverance is the key.
About the author: Robert Smith is a guest lecturer at a reputed university in Adelaide. He has completed his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Adelaide. Recently, he has joined homework helper as a subject matter expert for the students.