Life
We all desire to be successful in life. Who would not want to go behind the scenes to find out how to successfully navigate life?
However, being successful is easier said than done as there are so many challenges in every aspect of our lives.
Challenges of Life
At the family level, we face challenges of sibling rivalry and handling the generational gap between us and our parents. We also experience the challenges of parenting.
In our relationships, we face misunderstandings with our friends such as dealing with toxic friends. We also handle the highs and lows of falling in love, unrequited love and infidelity from lovers, among others.
At the workplace, we face fierce competition from colleagues. Some colleagues may engage in sinister plots to orchestrate our downfall, as it is a dog eat dog world. In their quest to climb the corporate ladder, some people stop at nothing, even if it involves questionable tactics. Survival of the fittest, they self-righteously claim.
In our finances, we face the challenge of making ends meet with our scarce, limited resources.
Generally, we face the challenges of enduring the pressures of life.
Ways to Successfully Navigate Life
So given the challenges above, how do we successfully navigate life in a bid to be more productive?
- Know your purpose in life.
- Live by a firm set of moral principles.
- Effectively prioritise your needs and wants.
- Practise good time management.
- Have emotional intelligence.
Purpose in Life
When we know our purpose in life we are not swayed by the various challenges that we face. We rather focus on achieving our purpose.
For instance, if you are a born teacher, you keep on teaching despite the fact that some students may be very difficult to teach. You do not move on to another career path, just because that is more convenient.
This is because teaching fills your soul with a sense of accomplishment and makes you feel that you are doing what you were placed on earth to do. You therefore become very productive in that area as you are naturally endowed for it.
Principles
When we live by a firm set of moral principles, we do not choose the easy way out of complex situations. For instance, we would not cheat in an examination in order to score high marks. Neither would we steal money or embezzle funds because life is tough and we have to make ends meet.
We rather ensure that our life is structured by our principles of integrity, hard work, reliability, respect, etc.
These moral principles guide our choices in life. We have a clear conscience when we practise these principles. We therefore become more motivated and we increase our productivity.
Prioritisation of Needs and Wants
We need to first of all know the difference between our needs and wants and then prioritise them accordingly. When we effectively distinguish between our needs and wants, we then know how to manage our limited financial resources.
We therefore spend on our needs, which are necessary and essential. We do so rather than spend on our wants, which are superfluous, and our mainly to satisfy our ego.
As such, we are not drawn into unnecessary debt which can put undue pressure on us in our lives. We rather practise good financial management. This leads to productivity in the financial aspect of our lives. When we are financially stable, we have the peace of mind to be productive in other areas of our lives.
Time Management
Good time management is key to being productive in life. Since time is a limited resource, we should know how to use it effectively. We can do this by prioritising our activities and knowing what we should delegate.
As said by Lee Iacocca, “If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got!”
We can therefore personally attend to crucial activities which are best handled by us and delegate other less important activities to others to handle. When we are able to efficiently supervise those delegated activities, this saves time and results in effective time management. This, in turn, leads to productivity.
Emotional Intelligence
We may define emotional intelligence as the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage and handle emotions. We require emotional intelligence in every aspect of our lives.
For instance, in parenting, we should manage our anger and not be too harsh on our children when they do the wrong thing. This is because when we are to harsh on them, they are likely to rebel.
In matters of the heart, if we are not emotionally resilient, a heartbreak can result in us ending up at a psychiatric hospital.
We also require emotional intelligence at the workplace. It helps us to handle pressures of work such as meeting impending deadlines and dealing with difficult colleagues and demanding superiors. With emotional resilience, we do not succumb to stress and break down or give up. Rather, we plod on and give our all.
We also effectively manage our emotions and keep things professional at the workplace rather than getting involved in quarrels and fights. Emotional resilience also prevents us from engaging in unnecessary competition and rivalry.
At the end of the day, despite having the requisite knowledge in our field or technical skill in our vocation, emotional intelligence will determine how productive we are and how far we can go.
My painting below, which is acrylic on canvas, seeks to depict life with its twists and turns, its highs and lows and its gains and losses. Sometimes, a path we take may end in a cul-de-sac and we need to re-navigate. We can also experience an unexpected loss which can challenge the very core of our existence.
We should however remember that, like night and day, there is always a rebirth and hope for the future.
Source: Heimarts
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