If I have to admit to anything is that I was wrong with many of my teenage and young adult beliefs. I was wrong because I was fed with the wrong data and even as I write this I have to admit and accept that I may still be wrong. However, this is my newly built model which I at least have been embracing over the past two years.
As kids, teenagers we thought that we would finish school, go to university, get a job and that’s it. My father didn’t have the chance to attend university. He started at the bottom of the ladder working as a technician and went on to build his own factory manufacturing washing machines and other white household goods. He would wake up at 4 am, read for a short while, and get ready for work.
That was his life and before I started work I assumed that’s how my life would be. However, since I finished university I have worked in more than 5 different industries, some short-lived and some turned to be a meaningful part of my journey. A few weeks ago as I was talking to a young entrepreneur he said to me “Waoh, how do you know all this? I want to be like you. Can you teach me?”
When he said that, two things came to my mind immediately.
- A speech by Salma Zighem, a motivational coach and speaker, in which she talks about how each one of us is on our own unique journey and timeline.
- A blog by Ian Gibbs, an expert in learning techniques, about how to improve your learning abilities and techniques.
(I admit there was a third thing that came to my mind; King Louie, the monkey from the Jungle book that sang ‘I wanna be like you’).
The reason for the above two items crossing my mind was that A) This entrepreneur was almost missing the point that getting to a particular stage is mearly a stop on your journey. It is not a destination that you arrive at. Over the past month I have watched our group of Professional Public Speakers challenge each other, help each other and push themselves out of their comfort zone. It is not as if now that they are professional speakers they just get speaking jobs and paid large sums. They or better said we, have to work hard at it everyday. This includes reading, writing, learning new things, attending biweekly meetings.
I must not digress and I need to answer the question I was posed for which I promised I would answer in a blog. I have answered the first part. We are all on our own unique journeys and we share some stops on this journey. Almost no two journeys are alike and in order to fuel and feed this journey I leave with three tips from
Top three tips I have learnt from speakers and executives coaches in our group.
Number 1. Stepping out of your comfort zone is easy. In this short blog Kyoko Takeyama explains how we can use simple methods to prove to ourselves that stepping out of your comfort zone is easy and how we can use this learnt technique to repeat and reapply to more situations.
Kyoko Takeyama: The Benefits of using your left hand before presenting
Number 2. If you want to succeed you need to replace bad habits with good habits. Yet so many of us start and fail to keep up. All those new years resolutions and promises we make ourselves simply fade away into the abyss in little less than a few weeks. In this blog Peter Mackenzie, keynote speaker and executive coach, explains why this happens and how to avoid falling in this trap.
Peter Mackenzie: 5 Mistakes that cause new habits to die
Number 3. All the above is not possible if you don’t continue to learn new things everyday. Question is how can you best achieve this in your busy work schedule and the answer is by creating yourself a learning strategy. No other person explains it better than Ian Gibbs.
Ian Gibbs, Create yourself a personal learning strategy
I hope that with these three tips anyone can start their journey towards being them. In my keynote speech “Passion and Vision: Ingredients of a successful startup”, I tell entrepreneurs about entrepreneurship, the importance of enjoying the journey and how they achieve even their wildest dreams if they can focus on their passion and have a clear vision of their objective. Contact me if you need a motivation speech for your startup weekend or incubators batch?