Every day I commit career suicide in the eyes of many. Some would say I take a metaphorical dump on my own face each morning.

Why do I say that?

I say that because every day I do things that in the past would have been career suicide.

The things I do each day that people think are career suicide, which I believe are crucial for success in your career, are these:

Stir emotion.

Most people live their career in auto-pilot. They chase money and then wonder why they feel like sh*t later on. Auto-pilot forces you to forget about emotion and evoking it in others. Auto-pilot sucks the emotion out of us and causes us to wear a mask.

I choose to stir emotion in people because that’s what has taken me to new heights. When people feel emotion because of your actions they react in crazy ways.

An example from my own career is sharing emotional messages on LinkedIn. I share my deepest, darkest secrets, failures and emotional battles so others can benefit.

I continually get reactions that cause people to go crazy. This is why a lot of what I’ve said has gone viral many times over. The aim is not to be a social media star though; the aim is to stir emotion.

Emotion creates motion.

Emotion brings people closer to you which has incredible benefits in a business world that has lost a lot of human interaction.

Saying what you think.

I regularly tell people each day with politeness that “I’m not interested,” or “They’ve let me down,” or “I won’t be buying.”

Delivering these harsh messages is considered career suicide.

“What if someone gets upset?”

“What if they tell my boss?”

“What if I’m wrong?”

These are the questions that spin out of control in our minds when we say what you think. When you say what you think with politeness, you allow people to understand what you’re thinking.

This gives them an opportunity to change paths or move on to the next opportunity saving everyone time. Saying what you think is not career suicide; it moves business forward and it’s honest.

Choosing creativity.

We’ve all been enslaved for an hour by a PowerPoint presentation that has zero creativity. Creativity is career suicide in a lot of people’s minds because it’s expressing who you are.

Creativity is giving a non-typical answer to a problem.

Creativity is bringing your outside passion into the workplace.

Creativity is telling a personal story to change how people think.

Creativity is beautiful.

So many of your colleagues use no creativity in their work life and then they wonder why they lack passion.

Bringing up old failures.

We’re all selling every day whether we’re in sales or not – that’s the cliché we’ve all heard of, right?

When people sell you a product or service they rarely you tell you about its failures. If you knew those, then maybe you wouldn’t buy what they have to sell.

That thinking right there is flawed.

Talking about the failures looks like career suicide until you embrace the concept that most of us are wrong more often than we’d like to think.

We’re probably wrong more times than we’re right.

Talking about your failures in any context brings us in closer because we all share these same dirty little secrets. In fact, most of our failures look the same.

I talk about my failures all the time especially when people ask me about the big moments of success I’ve had. Someone asked me about the viral LinkedIn article I wrote recently and I told them about the one that was posted around the same time that pissed everybody off.

I wanted them to see what success really was and give them a backstage pass to the show that everybody pretends is not being performed every day.

Most of my blogging has been a failure except a few small parts. That is, until one day, it’s no longer a failure. Until I hit the tipping point.

Even once I reach the tipping point I’ll still continue to fail and so will you.

“Failure is not career suicide and you should talk about it more if you want to stop lying to yourself and everyone else. We’re all selling (I agree) so let’s start selling the truth”

Have a grand vision.

“That Tim guy talks a big game, doesn’t he? What a joke.”

That is the recurring thought that runs in people’s heads when I announce my grand plans and vision for almost anything I’m working on. Grand visions can make people think you are full of sh*t and have lost touch with reality.

This idea is nothing more than a limiting belief.

“Unless you start thinking big things in your mind you’ll never get close to anything of that nature. You’ll keep playing it small in the sandpit of a ‘realistic reality’ instead of a somewhat unreasonable vision for what you could be doing”

Grand visions are not about overselling what can be achieved; they’re about pushing boundaries and shooting for Mars and maybe landing on the moon instead which is still pretty freaking cool!

The practice of having grand visions is rarely practiced by many in the business world, so it’s a great way to stand out, be remembered and do something audaciously delicious.

Real Career suicide is having mediocre visions and not being the best you can be which may not even be imaginable yet.

Mention your health challenges.

I’ve had my fair share. From a near miss with cancer, to mercury poisoning, to stress levels that nearly crippled my career – I’ve seen it all and I’ve shared all of them.

I’ve noticed that my colleagues think talking about your health challenges is a sign of weakness because no one wants to work, partner or employ a human being who could be sick or dying.

The truth is the other way around: unless you talk about your health challenges, you’ll never have come face to face with your mortality which means you’ll take your time on this Earth for granted. That’s what will f*ck you up your career not some BS perception of weakness.

Knowing your mortality is strength in every aspect of your life and career.

“Weakness is followed by enormous strength”

It’s easier to be different than better.

Committing career suicide as described by others, like I have, will make you different. You can try and compete with the perfect specimens who only show the highlight reel of their career or you can do what so many are not prepared to do and play a different game.

Combining vulnerability, authenticity, honesty and humility looks like career suicide until you understand that it’s what differentiates the Martin Luther Kings from the Bob Kings who you’ve never heard of or respected or been inspired by.

Why should you choose career suicide?

You should choose career suicide because it’s nothing more than a false perception.

Career suicide is now what it takes to have career success. The two go hand in hand. Choose career suicide so you can distance yourself from all the fakery that has left people scratching their heads and wondering why they were born in the first place.

Choose passion and purpose instead of hiding behind a mask that makes you angry with yourself in the long-term.

Career suicide is about choosing to be human.

Join me in committing career suicide.

I’m going to pledge right now to keep committing these horrible acts of career suicide. It’s what I believe will move the business world forward.

I want you to join hands with me (let’s not do the Kumbaya thing) and commit to career suicide. What you’re really signing up to is a career that you never thought was possible.

My career has gone down that road and I’m never giving it up.

I want you to feel the same joy I feel when I commit career suicide.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net