These all may sound cliché, but if you’re tired of feeling stagnant and crave progression in life, here are 7 magical and simple ways to create better opportunities for yourself:
1. Be proactive. Opportunity doesn’t usually just come knocking on your door when you’re sitting on your butt doing nothing. The more you actively pursue opportunities to better yourself, such as attending training courses at work, attending networking events, and pursuing leadership positions, you need to drive the bus! You're in charge of your career and don't take no for an answer... meaning if someone says no to what you want, find another way to grab it if you have the drive and perseverance to do so!
2. Be willing to step out of your comfort zone and seek endeavors that are beyond what you think you are capable of, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. Try something new and take risks... even though everyone else and their entire friend circle of successful people would say. If you think you want to be the president of a club at school or the CEO of your own company, don't sell yourself short with self-doubt or think you'll suck because you've never done it before. Of course you're not going to be perfect the first or second or even third try, but trying just means you're growing and learning from mistakes!
3. Feel comfortable asking “how can I help” to show initiative and interest. Similar to being proactive, this moreso involves finding a task, objective, or role that you have a strong desire to fulfill that someone else is doing and ask how you can help. This is especially beneficial if you're in search for further experience in an area that you want to learn about and don't know as much as you'd like to yet, as well as at a job. Who knows, maybe you can fall in love with something you never could imagine all because you offered to help someone! Also, asking to help someone is always a benefit to you (if they say yes) because it's always a learning opportunity, meaning more invaluable knowledge for you to pocket away and another category of experience for you to add to your arsenal of awesomeness!
4. Be excited to learn from challenges that you accept… with or without reluctance. Yay learning and yay challenges! Challenges foster learning and learning fosters bettering yourself, so why not, right? So what if you fall or even fail. Get back up! You can do it!
5. Embrace and be empowered by change. Change may be scary at first, but change also means new experiences, overcoming obstacles, and self growth and awareness. For example, magically turning from college student to adult was one of the most daunting life changes I've ever made and is probably #1 on my list, but changes like these are 500% inevitable. If you resist change, you will make yourself miserable. It's not easy and will never be easy, but if you want to better yourself, taking a risk or leap of faith in life means you're going to just have to accept change!
6. NETWORK!!!! I can thank the Association of Information Technology Professionals for advocating this handy tip. Networking doesn't just mean dressing up in a suit to hand resumes out to potential employers, but it means trying to get your name and your word out to as many people as you can. Networking also doesn't have to be just for "professional endeavors", but can also take place when immersed in a large group while trying to meet people in a more social/laid back setting. Just think of it this way, the more people who know you and the more people you've handed your business cards to (vistaprint sells nice ones), as well as any cards you receive (or contact info that you exchange), the more people that can possibly meet to help you find where you belong or even give you a recommendation to help you land your next big gig or job!
7. Stay positive and never give up when the going gets tough... If the timing isn’t right for something, don't worry about it too much. If you're young like me, realize that even though life is short, you have plenty of time to make awesomeness happen. When people tell you that everything happens for a reason, it's absolutely true! Rejection also happens... a lot more than you think. The chances of you getting accepted to everything you apply for are slim to none (unless you're super duper lucky). Don't let rejection bring you down or make you quit. The stories you hear of people triumphing after being homeless, getting tons of sorry letters, getting cut from the team several times, etc. are absolutely true! Rejection means to either keep working towards what you want or that there's a better opportunity that's waiting for you and you'll find it in due time! Giving up just means you're never going to see accomplishment... and trust me, the gratification from the "yes" answer you've been craving is worth the wait!
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