Let’s talk about how to become more powerful and effective so that you feel satisfied at the end of each day. This all starts with smart habits.
When we increase our personal effectiveness, the following can happen:
- We improve our performance at work and, perhaps, start climbing the career ladder
- We start to attract and accumulate wealth – others wake up to our talents, and soon start compensating us for our expertise and assistance
- We become more organised in our home life – which means making time to save time
- We get better at planning. People who plan well set and achieve goals with expedience and ease
- We master the art of preparedness. When you’re prepared, you’re stocked with all of the necessary information, equipment, people and tools needed to proceed and succeed
- We grow in confidence – it just feels good to be on top of your game!
- We give ourselves the gift of our time back. Highly effective people spend more of their precious hours doing what they want to do because they’ve figured out shortcuts for completing what they ‘should’ do
When you up your level of personal effectiveness, you advance your unique skills, talents and confidence which helps you take better control of your daily life. It’s about going with your own flow. You actively set goals, easily make decisions, and choose relationships, activities and pastimes that support who you are as a person and what values you hold.
How can you tell if you’re a highly effective person? Here’s a list of typical traits:
Determined. Highly effective people lock in on a goal and ride it through to completion. They’re not easily distracted or likely to veer off the chosen path. They don’t let setbacks deter them and they’re able to block out negative influences that are likely to throw other people off course.
Self-confident. Personally effective people trust in their own ability to function and make decisions. They know their own actions, and the consequences of those actions. Self-confidence shows in their manner of speaking, how they dress, their appearance and their physical condition. Other people sense this about them, and it helps them flow naturally into a leadership role.
Ability to manage stress. Stress impacts all of us, but some are better at managing it than others. Highly effective people have learned to reduce the causes of stress before they come up. They know how to mitigate stressful circumstances. And they also know how to offload stress in healthy ways, which actually primes them for handling more stress in the future.
Problem solving ability. Problems crop up all the time and sometimes small problems snowball into bigger ones. These can range from lacking resources, to unintended consequences, to not having the right people at the right time, to communication challenges. The more quickly and efficiently we’re able to solve problems, the more effective we tend to be.
Optimistic. Highly effective people focus on the positive. They approach life with a can-do attitude, and they’re typically able to find value, even in a difficult situation. The general belief that things are good now and will continue to improve is what fuels them with purpose and determination.
Persistent. A highly effective person won’t dwell too long in the negative. Instead of being consumed by whatever went wrong or didn’t work out as they’d hoped, they leap over obstacles and move through failure, straight on to the next exciting possibility.
Skilled at planning. Effective people plan their which allows you to proceed surely and steadily. When we plan, we achieve more with less struggle. We can even build rest and relaxation into our plan, to refuel for the next big thing.
Manage their time. Personal effectiveness is truly about mastering control of your own time. Once you’re good at this, you’re on your way to setting and achieving goals at an accelerated pace.
Self-motivated. Effective people are good at being their own boss. They don’t require the influence of other people to feel motivated or driven toward a purpose. The best way to hone in on a goal is to determine what motivates you. Channel that motivation to push you past your comfort zone and on to the next achievement.
Creative. Effective people think outside the box. They’re naturally curious, mentally flexible, and can adapt with ease – which includes modifying their plan as needed. Highly effective people also know that there’s more than one way to get something done or solve a problem.
What’s important is that effective people don’t just know what to do, they also know their why. They put aside distractions and focus on short and long-term goals and are quick to eliminate challenges and roadblocks that stand in their way.