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Success Advice

How to Create Space for the Next Chapter

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You may have heard the saying before – it’s essential to create space for change to happen. This could be to attract different professional opportunities, draw the right partner into your life, welcome in new levels of health and fitness or to realize financial abundance. Our lives are filled with a set amount of time – literally each day. This means every minute we choose to invest in a specific activity or with a specific person is a moment we are spending from the days’ 24–hour time bank. 

At the beginning of this year, I made a vow to myself. I committed to getting rid of certain tangible things, relationships and time investments that I felt were holding me back from forward progress. I found myself at the start of 2020 craving real change. But, being a creature of self-study, I knew that in order to see the changes I wanted realized, I needed to create space for them to happen. This would mean inevitably that I was going to have to dance with vulnerability. 

Removing the things I needed meant eliminating many habits – habits that were familiar and provided a sense of comfort. In fact, studies have shown that removing habits is one reason why change is so difficult for so many people. It requires you to tango with vulnerability and the fear of the unknown. This paralyzes many people to remain in situations that stifle their forward progress because the familiar feels safe.

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” – Dale Carnegie

I was recently helping a friend move, which is a challenging undertaking in normal circumstances, and is especially difficult when you are downsizing. Cutting your living space in half means you have to make hard choices on what you are wanting to keep and what must be removed. In the process, you also have to look through all of the dark corners of your house where you store things you want to deal with later. Perhaps it is under your stairwell, in the attic, or your entire garage. It is baffling how much stuff we can accumulate. 

One of the people helping on the move looked around and exclaimed, “I love your new place. I wish I could move however, there’s no way I could, as I have too much stuff.” In this literal example, the individual had made a choice to stay in their home that did not bring them joy, in an area they did not love living, so they could hold onto things they no longer used or needed, but were a part of the fabric of their history. This shows how powerful mental and emotional ties can be in preventing us from taking positive steps forward.

We talk ourselves out of doing things for a never ending gamut of reasons – because we have a job, because we don’t have a job, we aren’t smart enough, we don’t have the time, and so on. This mental clutter takes up a lot of space and if we want to expand and embrace the opportunities available to us, we need to make room. We need to throw away the thoughts that are no longer serving us, clear the noise and be open to new experiences. 

While I won’t pretend that creating space for the next chapter – either personally or professionally – is easy, I have found a formula for identifying what no longer serves you, which can be helpful in taking the next step.

1. Assess People

Are the individuals you are surrounding yourself with helping you grow? Challenging you to level up? Holding you accountable to your core values? If the answer is no, define what a great circle of peers, mentors and friends would look like that would feed your soul.

“You become like the five people you spend the most time with. Choose carefully.” – Jim Rohn

2. Assess Situations

Do you find your current personal or professional situation one that inspires you? Motivates you? Allows you room to grow and thrive? Or do you feel stuck? If this is the case, define what a personal or professional situation would look like whether at the office or home that would allow you to channel ingenuity, creativity and opportunity.

3. Assess Time Investments

The things you are choosing to invest your time in – what is the return on investment? Do you feel energized after? Happier? More educated? Do you feel a positive return from your time investment? Or do you feel depleted? Depressed? If this is the case, define what good time investments would be that would uplift you. Consider things you have never done before to broaden your circle

In a world full of dynamic change, there is no time like the present to complete a self-analysis. Setting yourself up for growth means being bold enough to face your reflection and hold yourself accountable. For me, I have found this process of creating space liberating and one that I will regularly revisit in order to keep evolving. I can’t imagine what I would be compromising if I did not create space for the next chapter – it’s worth fleeting feelings of vulnerability – as they pave the way for a better you. 

How do you create the life you’d like to live? Share your thoughts with us below!

Ken Kladouris is an esteemed wealth advisor and published author who believes you should be living your life, by design. Charting his own course in the wealth management industry, Ken has earned the respect of his peers and the trust of his clientele. Developing his signature tailor-made approach, Ken has been able to successfully assist countless clients in charting their course to financial abundance. This has allowed the men and women Ken is proud to serve the ability to infuse more life into their years here and now – not just in retirement. Ken’s book, “Get There!”, was developed as a tool that helps individuals discover the clarity they need to design their financial future. Learn more by visiting Ken’s website or connecting with him on LinkedIn.

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Success Advice

How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements

Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.

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altering business approach
Image Credit: Midjourney

Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.

There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.

Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.

Embed the strength of AI and ML.

AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.  

Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.

ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses. 

In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.

Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities

Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased. 

Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information. 

Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place. 

In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.

Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development

You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.

You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.

Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.

Developing key skills to achieve goals

Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.

Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.

Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.

Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.

Development/Coding Knowledge

Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.

Hacking proof framework

There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.

Communication Abilities/Soft Skills

Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:

Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.

Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.

Agile Implementations

It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.

  • Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds. 
  • Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
  • Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
  • Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them. 
  • Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.

  • Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
  • Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
  • Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.

Conclusion

There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.

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Success Advice

Understanding the Power of Yes and No: How to Create Boundaries For Success

These words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds

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Creating legal boundaries
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The two smallest yet most powerful words in life, “Yes” and “No,” have a big impact on our growth on both personal and professional levels. In addition to affecting the choices we make every day, these words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds. (more…)

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Motivation

From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone

By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality

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How to be motivated
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Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)

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Success Advice

10 Micro Financial Habits for More Wealth and Peace of Mind

The World Economic Forum still reports that half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy

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micro financial habits
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You’ve heard about developing financial habits, but what about micro-financial habits? Micro habits are the tiny things you can do every day with minimal effort that, together, transform your future. (more…)

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