How To Put Yourself First & Fulfill Your Professional Potential In Business

In the wake of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, people’s individual emotional health and wellbeing levels have faced more challenges than ever before.

As a result, it is more important than ever to ensure you are satisfied and comfortable with your proverbial position in life and even more crucial, that you feel invested in committing to whatever you choose to do. Professionally, it is necessary to ensure that you strive to put yourself first within the normal social and human ethical parameters. As the old adage proves time and time again, it is impossible to look after and encourage anyone else if you are not cared for and feeling positive. 

With that being said, continue reading to discover how best to put yourself first and fulfill your business potential in 2022 and beyond. 

Ascend The Professional Career Ladder

One of the most important things to bear in mind is that a healthy work/life balance is absolutely crucial, and it simply does not do to spend all your time either at work or thinking and worrying about it. 

However, if you feel you are not currently fulfilling your potential within your current job role, ascending the proverbial ladder and aiming for promotion within your current field is certainly one tried and tested way of adding more value to the work you are doing. There are, of course, other associated benefits with a more senior role within a company, namely salary raises, more respect, and more influence within your chosen industry. 

Careers In Business

Perhaps you are currently working as an intern, a receptionist, or a junior department head at a company that you respect and value and are interested in learning more about not just the specific business you work at but the world of business in general. 

It is undeniable that one of the best ways to guarantee a more successful application to ascend the hierarchy, not to mention the likelihood of you not only becoming competent at the role but excelling at it, is to invest in higher education. 

Business intelligence and business analytics are at the forefront of driving a business forward, increasing profits, and allowing the company to grow and expand, so the successful acquisition of an online business analytics masters would be of incredible and far-reaching benefit. 

There is a myriad of advantages to the pursuit of a postgraduate master’s degree, and furthermore, if you choose to complete your studies online, you are still fully able to work your degree around your current job role and associated responsibilities. 

Such benefits of further education at the postgraduate level include, but are categorically in no way limited to: 

• The connections you can make through networking
• Practical work placements
• Meeting lifelong friends through your degree
• Significantly improving your employability level
• Boost a change in career direction or new career entirely
• Career progression
• Enhanced salary range
• Becoming an expert in your chosen field
• The option to travel with your degree
• The access to unique and innovative resources and technology

Starting A New Job

Up there with the most anxiety-inducing activities of them all, leaving your current job to move to a brand-new job in another place can be incredibly stressful. 

Remember that, despite the feelings of foreboding and worry you initially feel at changing your career direction, it is probable that quickly and succinctly, upon starting your new job, you will wonder why you didn’t make the professional leap earlier. 

Communication channels are the most effective way of alleviating any worry, and be sure to regularly check in with both your new colleagues and new bosses whenever you require clarification. 

Starting Your Own Small Business

One proverbial silver lining in the vast dark cloud created by the pandemic is that many people across the length and breadth of the United States and beyond have adapted and molded to the changes in their job role or overall financial status and have launched their own small business. 

With the internet and modern technology at the forefront of innovation and development, starting your own small business has never been easier, and there are a wide plethora of ways to ensure you have the best possible chances of success. 

When you considere starting your own business, it is important to first ascertain your primary motivations for doing so; remember that as much as you may despise the monotony of a more regular nine to five job in an office, for example, the responsibility of the business entirely leaves you as soon as you finish work. With your own business, it becomes more of a vocational and constant presence in both your professional and personal life.

If you are interested, however, in launching your very own business, these chronological tips and techniques will help you on your way:

1. Consider the following questions and answer them honestly:

• What are your specific skillsets?
• What industries are you most well versed in?
• Are you thinking of providing a service or a product?
• What are the primary motivations for starting a business?
• How much have you in the way of capital for the start-up?
• Are you wanting a part-time or a full-time business?

2. Conduct a SWOT Analysis of yourself and your situation by identifying your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

3. Refine your business idea and validate its worth within the industry in which it sits. Start by writing down your proposal by following the LEAN plan strategy, which succinctly states exactly what it is you want to do and the reasons for doing it. 

4. Conduct intensive market research within the specific industry your small business will reside in. Use news sites, industry magazines, books by prominent successful people within your industry, utilize google searches and other search engines, research key people within the field, and speak to people who both work in your target industry and are the key demographic for your product or service.

5. Evaluate your target audience by establishing their current buying trends, finding out the price range for the products or services they buy, and how they discover existing companies within your industry. 

6. Write your formal business plan with the help of either someone you know who has experience or else contacting a small business advisor. 

7. It is then time to officially register your business and to make it legal in the eyes of the government.

8. Source ways to fund your business from the wide variety of lending and investment options, which include friends and family, credit cards, angle investment, commercial bank loans, and small business administration loans. 

Fixing Problems In The Workplace

Hundreds and thousands of people working across a wide variety of different platforms and industries enjoy their role yet still feel somewhat dissatisfied with one or more fundamental elements. 

Sometimes, the roles and responsibilities that their main job role are comprised of become monotonous over time or moreover, some people find that over the years of working for the same company, they sporadically helped out another employee or department with a task and it has now become more of an expected duty. It would also be pertinent to mention that, for some people, problems they are experiencing inside their workplace are caused by friction and discord between them and another colleague. 

Obviously, through the devastation and turmoil created by the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, now may not be the ideal time to ask for a raise in salary or even extra hours at your place of employment.

Whatever is at the heart of your problems at work, one thing is for sure; you will never be happy there unless you do one of two things; either leave and find another job that presents new opportunities and challenges, else stick it out and be proactive in changing the issue. 

There are a wide plethora of practical solutions to fixing problems within the workplace, which include but are categorically in no way limited to:

• Being open and honest with your manager or department head and finding the fine line between letting them know how you feel without coming across as if you are complaining about something you should be just accepting
• Contact the human resources department of your company, the benefit of this being that HR will treat your concerns or complaints with privacy (unless it threatens the needs of the business)
• If you are having difficulties with another colleague, it is important to always be polite and courteous whenever you are dealing with them; stooping to their proverbial level will get you nowhere
• Consider perhaps, arranging an informal meeting with the colleague you are having problems with and appeal to their better nature. More open and honest communication is at the heart of solving workplace conflicts and could even result in a mutually beneficial and new understanding of where each other are coming from
• If you are feeling dissatisfied because of the monotonous nature of the work and the feeling of not being challenged, then the best solution to this is to speak to your department head or manager about any additional training you could embark upon to further your prospects within the company. 

Never Feel Guilty For Putting Yourself First

One of the most recurring reasons that people from all walks of life give as to why they never deliberately schedule time out of their busy day to look after both their physical and emotional wellbeing is that they feel guilty for doing so. 

Guilt is one of the most evasive and toxic feelings one can be afflicted with. Persistent and excessive guilt can begin to hamper even the most basic required activities such as eating, sleeping, and dressing. Taking care of yourself, be that physically, emotionally, or professionally at work, is never and should never be seen as selfish and, if you are not mentally strong enough to look after your own affairs, you will simply be unable to help and care for another. 

One opinion seems to be quite highly regarded to be correct, that the media is to blame for both women and men feeling guilty when they put their own needs before someone or everyone else’s. With the magazine, television, and movie commercials saturated with words such as ‘indulge in’ and ‘splurge on’ relating to the most simple and basic of daily activities such as eating a chocolate bar or buying a new pair of shoes, this subtext promotes the incorrect notion that doing something for yourself is a bad thing. 

Take Just 15 Minutes

The good news is that even though you should not feel the slightest bit of worry or guilt when choosing to put yourself first, if you still do occasionally harbor such feelings, putting yourself first doesn’t actually take very long. 

To become more in touch with your inner peace and tranquil thinking, take just fifteen minutes out of your day to reconnect with both who you are and where you are headed. Once you begin to engage in such life-affirming activities, you will undoubtedly crave and therefore arrange more and more time that you devote to yourself and your own needs, wants, and desires. Additionally, avoid making excuses for why you haven’t made that time for yourself on a particular day and instead channel that energy into changes. 

As with most other things in modern life, procrastinating about making a large life decision, such as changing jobs, applying for a position of seniority at work, moving home, or adopting an animal from the local shelter, the time is all taken up worth talking and thinking about the action. 

Instead, try to be more proactive, put your money where your mouth is, and actually take action to change whatever it is in your life currently that you simply don’t feel is right for you. Practicalities and obligations can alter, however, the most important thing is to make the change; once you have implemented such a change, everything else will fall into place and be a lot easier to do. 

Originally posted 2022-01-16 17:36:36.