Chris Educator - Personal Marketing & Self Development: Ponder points

Ponder Points - Being Prepared

August 09, 2019

Being Prepared

Opportunities & Difficulties

Being an Entrepreneur and working for self can be such a blessing. But Let me tell you, It has its own difficulties. Life is always filled with possibilities ( Check this article I wrote on Choices), like Napolean Hill would say that it is our lack of self-confidence that holds us back, but I would say that it is also not being prepared.

So how does one be prepared, I would say self preparedness starts with a healthy self-evaluation.

Finding your Strengths

One of the basic things that we learn in Management is a SWOT analysis. It is a topic taught under the subject of Strategic Management ( Quite an interesting topic). So basically, starts out with understanding their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is quite a good starting point, Understanding yourself or your organization.

Spiritual Masters had their own version of it, but this happened for spiritual growth. They would evaluate their entire day and pray for people. The same can be applied or practiced, by taking a personal inventory of our entire day. Ultimately, Time is one of the greatest assets we have.

So then what next,

How to decide your Mission? The Guy Kawasaki Way

Set a mission... and how Guy Kawasaki would do it. Set a mantra.

Mantras are much more effective. Mantras summarise all that you want to do and achieve. It can be very effective as it would constantly remind us of our purpose.

Check this Youtube video, He shares with startups on the importance of having a mantra.

These techniques can also be used for our personal growth too.

Keeping a Plan B

What can be a Plan B? For an Entrepreneur, it can be another income source or leveraging a network. A Plan B can be also pursued as a hobby, It does not need to occupy all your time.

It can be some that you love doing and are passionate about. And yes it should pay you something. Being resourceful and taking small steps can be really helpful.

Deliberately Being Prepared in 3 Simple Steps

So let us summarise some ideas on Being Prepared

Understand yourself

Have a Mantra

What's your Plan B

Here is an interesting quote on Preparedness:

Power Quote by Louis Pasteur

Some Recommended Books: Books to keep you Prepared

Learn how to make your own plan B, I would recommend a wonderful book to help you kickstart a part-time gig or even a full-time career, it's The $100 Startup: Fire Your Boss, Do What You Love and Work Better To Live More by Chris Guillebeau and Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill. These books can really help you start, build and pursue your goals.

These links are Amazon Affiliate links, please do check the disclosure page.

So Be Prepared and Have a wonderful day! Please do Comment, Like and Share.

Conduct a Personal SWOT Analysis to Improve Your Career
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5543-personal-swot-analysis.html

How to Be Prepared for Anything
https://zenhabits.net/survival-kit/

On Being Prepared
https://www.matthewedgar.net/on-being-prepared/

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It is said that every Successful journey starts with a first step. The 'Not so successful' or the 'Unsuccessful' begins with that first step too. We tend to spend a lot of time on planning, reflecting before actually starting our journeys, projects etc. So this mantra may seem meaningless to some. 'Just start' or 'Just do it' may seem meaningless. But is it really without any effectiveness?

Let us begin by Listing some of the benefits and perceived difficulties of taking the first step.

Creating Dreams

I think the most obvious benefit in taking that first step is that it helps us actually put our plans or dreams into action. We get to it at last after a lot of delays and waiting by seeing things moving. It would be unreal to think that there would be an instant success, it is said that many of the most successful people have had a good share of failing before actually tasting success. So just a couple of inconveniences should not put one off.

Initial persistence does pay off. Let's say you are going on a diet plan, cheating a couple of times should not discourage you, of course, you have screwed up. But giving up the entire project would not make sense.

Finding Gaps

Now Let's say we have started our journey, we have taken that first step. After moving for a while one might see difficulties. This could be some unexpected turns and twists, some irritation. The focus I think must be on doing a bit of mental jujitsu. It is important to see that these are not just difficulties, but opportunities. They could be gaps in our planning or maybe we have not factored certain things before starting out

Five years back, I had decided to the gym and get healthy. I was too thin after dieting for about a year. I just could n't exercise. I failed a couple of times and then decided to get a trainer. Though initially, I thought it was unnecessary. A trainer really helped me get healthier and in good shape. I realized that expertise and good mentorship does matter. Finding this gap helped me greatly. Let's go to the next insight.

Being Aplomb

Another difficulty while starting out could be being overly positive or extremely negative. I think it is important to be realistic. Sometimes I think it is important to understand that the glass is not just half empty or half full, but also that there is a glass with water in it. Seeing opportunities is good, but not getting a grip on reality won't be helpful, it could even kill the whole project or assignment you are undertaking.

Failing to Plan

Failure to plan is planning to fail. Success or failure is not the only possible outcomes, Learning is one of the outcomes too. But not taking the first step is a sure failure. So i would like to end this post with a quote from Winston Churchill.

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”― Winston S. Churchill [*1]

Thank you for reading this post, I tried to share what I think helped me personally. In the next post, I will be exploring Strategies on Failing Effectively.

*Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels
*1 Source:www.goodreads.com