7 Creative Ways to Accelerate Your Career in 2024 and Do The Work You Love

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3:03You will.

3:09Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose. I'm your host Jay Shetty and I'm so grateful that you've come back for this solo episode it's that time of year where I like to get reflective and introspective because as it comes to the end of a year it's so important to use our time wisely to think back as to what we would edit for next year what we would improve what we would remove and how we're going to move forward. Now today's episode is all about creative ways to accelerate your career in 2024 and do the work you love. How many of you know that you could be doing better at work? How many of you know, raise your hands, nod your heads if you can, not if you're driving.

3:58How many of you know that there's more you can bring creatively, innovatively and productivity wise to your workplace. And how many of you know that you want to bring love, passion and enthusiasm because there's a promotion that you're after, there's a shift that you're after, there's a transition that you're wanting and maybe some of you are even wanting to quit your job and pursue your passion. If that's you, then this episode is for you. if you know a friend who's going through a tough time period right now at work trying to figure it out this is the episode for them now you might be wondering why the title has 2024 in it you're like jay it's 2023 i know it's november but why are we talking about 2024 i'll tell you why it's because 2024 begins now actually every day you will experience for the rest of your life from now on in your life begins now.

4:58It all begins right now. And what's really interesting is that we often wait for the date to come around to make a change, to make an effort to think about it, right? We wait till the 1st of January to think, well, what do I want to do this year? And by then it's too late. It's almost like you wake up in the morning and you think, well, what do I want to do today? All of a sudden, that is a wasted thought, right? You've wasted time because you haven't given yourself the opportunity to go straight into the groove with being active, being energized, being engaged. But now you're spending half the day trying to figure it out.

5:31It's the same as what we do for entertainment. We sit down to say, well, what should we watch tonight? And you spend an hour and a half looking for something to watch. Maybe you watch 10 minutes of it, you don't like it and you turn it off, right? How many times have you done that? We've all been there. And it's really interesting, isn't it? We wait till the moment in order to think about how important it is. Now, that doesn't matter. For some things, it works. And you may be thinking, well, Jay, how does that count as being present? Well, it does, because you're valuing the present so much because you realize the effect it has on the future.

6:04That is what makes you want to be present right now. Now, there are five weeks left till the end of the year, and those can be used to prepare for next year's wins. They can be used proactively. Be ready in your mindset. Now, by the way, at this time of year, I also take a break. I also look forward to resting and refueling and rejuvenating. And that's part of what's going to help me win for next year. So I'm not taking away celebrating, having a good time. I love to do all that. And I will be doing all of that as well. But I also want you, for the time you still do have at work, to think about this.

6:42The time that I am at work, I always use the end of year to plan for the year ahead. It gives me a head start next year when I get back after the holidays and it stops me from trying to play catch up with myself. How many times do you come back in January and you think you're already behind, right? You think you've already missed out on something. You already think there's too many opportunities. You already think that, oh, I should have been ahead. I could have done this. And then that perpetuates the thought of the year. That becomes the thought of the year, right? It becomes the focus of the year.

7:15I'm playing catch up. I should have done more last year. I should have done this. I could have done that. And it's so important to get ahead for yourself. This isn't about you ahead of your friends, your colleagues, the people that you work with. It's not about that. It's about you feeling in charge and control of your life. Now, this was inspired because I speak to so many organizations. Just this month, I've spoken to some of the biggest corporate companies in the country. And I've been traveling around speaking to them. And I'm sitting down with individuals that work inside these organizations.

7:49Some of them are even entrepreneurs outside the organizations. And I talk to people about stories of their experiences, why they stayed at a company for 30 years, why they left after three months, what made them switch career paths. And today, I want to share with you some of my biggest takeaways as well, because I think people often forget that I also worked in the corporate world as well. And during that time, I also wanted to accelerate my career. I wanted to accelerate my career creatively. I wanted to accelerate my career professionally. And I wanted to find ways of being better and standing out.

8:24How many of you right now feel like you're always fitting in? You're not standing out. You're being unnoticed, right no one's spotting your potential people are not seeing you for who you are and what you can bring and you're actually feeling like you just blend in right if you're feeling that way this is what you need to think about so let's dive into number one this is without a doubt I would say this is the most important skill in life right not just at work this is the most important creative skill in life. And it will sound like it isn't, but I want you to give it a moment. So the skill is hidden behind this lesson.

9:10And the lesson is understand your company's algorithm. Now, you may hear words like algorithm related to social media, related to the internet, related to the online world, right? When we talk about TikTok or Instagram, everyone's always talking about the algorithm. Now, if we really think about it for a second, all algorithm actually means, reading the dictionary definition, is a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer. Now, the part that I love about this is a process or set of rules to be followed, right, in order to have success, in order for something to work.

9:53And what's really fascinating is that your company also has an algorithm. And the skill, the number one skill that I believe we all need is pattern spotting, pattern recognition, pattern analysis, and then actions based on that pattern analysis. What I find in an organization is most of us are listening to what we're told to do to succeed and missing what we see is what makes people successful. Let me take that again. Most of us are listening to what we're told to do to help us succeed and missing what we see helps people succeed. I'll give you an example. When I was working in the corporate world, we were told that to be really good at our careers, we had to get good at Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.

10:45and that seemed like a fairly small goal it felt fairly reachable for most people and it probably wasn't challenging enough but then when I looked around at the people who were giving our presentations who were talking who were guiding us that wasn't their skill set their PowerPoint didn't look the best to me their Excel spreadsheet didn't look the best to me all of a sudden the pattern that they were saying and sharing and the pattern that they were living were two different things. And that's when I started to take notice and think, well, what has that person done at this company to succeed?

11:19What have they done? And by the way, our minds, generally wired for negativity, will come up with all sorts of reasons. Oh, they've been doing something dodgy. Oh, they've just been sucking up. Oh, they've just been putting in extra time. Our mind will come up with easy answers in order for us to not have to do the hard work. Our mind often tells us Everyone else got their easy So that we don't have to do the hard work Right? Our mind makes other people's sacrifices And shifts and challenges seem easy So that we can avoid hard work So I want you to take a real look at this I want you to really pay attention to this Right?

12:03Understand your company's algorithm Spot the pattern what is working for people what is shifting for people look at the pattern not the person we look at the person we think i don't like them i don't like their personality i don't i don't really i don't know how they ever made it there i don't get it don't look at the personality look at the pattern what is the pattern what i found in the companies that i've worked in is that it was about who you know for a lot of people it's about who you know now you may sit there and say well i don't want to know that person, well, then chances are that we won't do well at that company, right?

12:38Okay, who do I need to know? Another thing that I saw is that it was people who were able to go above and beyond. The people who were succeeding were not the people who were doing the bare minimum, were not the people who were shirking responsibility. It was people who were able to take responsibility in areas that matter, right? In areas that matter to the company. This is a big point. Pattern spotting is not just about spotting the pattern that makes sense to you. It's spotting the patterns that make sense to the company. So for example, when I joined this corporate company that I worked for, I noticed that the pattern was in line of growing the digital side of the business.

13:25That was the area of focus. That's what they wanted to build on. And if I started to notice that, it would have made no sense for me to not give my energy to that area, right? That is so important to not let go of that energy to build and develop that area. If the company is focusing on digital focus, right, is focusing on certain aspects of the business, it's so important that your energy and your skills get directed there as well so how do we study patterns effectively number one select your case study i.e people who get promoted and equally you could study why people don't get promoted right i literally did that i looked at people who are succeeding and i looked at people who were failing then i analyzed why it was again not focusing on personality traits, but focusing on the pattern of how they operate inside the organization.

14:22And third, this is really important, emulate, don't imitate. When we're imitating, when we try and be like someone, when we try and kind of trying to shadow someone's personality, it doesn't work. We have to emulate that energy. Now, you may always sit in there going, Jay, wow, this sounds like I'm playing games. It's not. It's pattern spotting. Everything in the world, whether it's investing, whether it's real estate, whether it's a healthy relationship, life is all about pattern spotting. What does it mean when you're looking at how someone builds good habits? It's pattern spotting. When you're analyzing someone's discipline, what are you looking at?

14:58It's pattern spotting. Look at the patterns inside your organization. Some of these patterns become easier to track through technology, right? You can see how many emails someone sends. You can an email. You can see the meetings and the way people navigate them. This is number one. This episode of On Purpose is brought to you by Chase Sapphire Reserve. I believe that travel is one of the greatest gifts that we've ever been given. And Chase Sapphire Reserve has been my gateway to the world's most captivating destinations. Every time I travel, I find a part of myself I didn't know was missing. I remember being in this small town, completely unplugged, and for the first time in a while, I felt still.

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17:53It could be communication through technology. Identifying your company's growth technology is probably one of the biggest investments you can make. Right now, people who are able to use chat GPT effectively are massively effective in our company. It's a useful skill to have. And when I see someone diving into that, when I see someone engaged with that, it's exciting for me because I'm thinking to myself, okay, this is a person that's understanding this platform and this app. And I now know that we have someone on the team who's thinking about that. This applies to social media too. If someone's able to focus deeply on a platform and understand how it works.

18:33That's really useful. This is what I was. I remember when I joined the corporate company I worked at, they were working on social media as a big part of their digital strategy. So inside the digital growth area, there were many different things. There was crypto, there was VR, and there was social media. Now, here's the personalization part. Crypto wasn't exciting to me at the time. By the way, this was 10 years ago before crypto was relevant. Now, you may say, Jay, you're an idiot. If crypto was exciting to you, it would have been very lucrative. Sure, but I didn't enjoy it. It's so important that I'm spotting the growth area in my company that I love.

19:10Why? Because I'll excel at it. Why? Because I'll perform better at it if I'm aware of it, right? So let me focus first on that. Second of all, now that I've focused on that area, that's why I chose social media. For me, studying and learning about social media was so much fun. It was so exciting. It was so interesting. It was so enthralling, genuinely. Like I was like a little kid every day trying to learn about this new thing that I knew nothing about, right? Knew nothing about. And so I want you to think about it. What do you know nothing about, but that is a growth area in your company. Most of us have never read a book after we finished college.

19:48Most of us have never tried to learn about a new platform since we finished college? What can we do in order to change that? How many of us are going to allow ourselves to focus on a growth area inside our organization that could make all the difference, right? Okay, number three. It's important to know this, that if you're accelerating your career and if you like that word accelerate, you will disrupt the status quo. And I just, I'm going to say this because I have to. As long as you're not doing anything illegal or dodgy or whatever it may be, it's okay to rustle some feathers. You will. I remember that there were senior people in my organization who were getting weirded out by why this young person was trying to make a change, trying to do things differently, coming up with creative ideas, pitching them, and he was upsetting them.

20:40And by the way, that was very weird for me. It's amazing to me how some new person like me could intimidate someone who'd been at the company for much longer than me. And it's really uncomfortable to go through that. but I want you to know that it's part of the path, right? Learning to be respectful, learning to let your ideas talk for themselves and be disruptive and innovative is the key. Disruption and innovation is not an act of ego, right? Disruption, creativity, innovation is not an act of ego. It's not about being better than someone. It's not about showing you are better than someone. It's not about making someone else look bad.

21:19It's about presenting your ideas in such a way that they are unstoppable, that someone can't ignore them. That's what we're after. That's the goal of what we're trying to do and what we're looking to do. And I think it's so important that we remember that because it can so easily and very quickly become an ego battle where it's now us against the person. Notice how everything becomes personal, right? We make it about us against the person instead of making about the pattern, instead of making about the technology, instead of making it about the creativity. Step number four. Let me ask you this.

22:01If I told you I was going to invest in 100 hours of training for you, coaching, how would you decide how to spend that 100 hours on things you're good at, things you're average at, or things that you are bad at? How would you decide to spend that 100 hours if you had the ratio of figuring it out? So for most people, a lot of people will go 33, 33, 33. Just make it balanced. It makes sense. Some people will say, well, 10, 10, 80. I'll spend most on what I'm bad at. Some people will say, okay, well, I will spend the most on what I'm average at. So let me invest in the middle part. Some people say, let me invest in what I'm good at.

22:51Now, there's no right or wrong answer, but when they studied the healthiest, wealthiest, and wisest people on the planet, they found that their breakdown was 80-10-10 or 100-0-0. The healthiest, wealthiest, and wisest people in the world went all in on their strengths and didn't focus as much on their weaknesses. So if they were already great at something, they invested in it because then they would become world-class in it. If you are a phenomenal creative, if you're phenomenal with the technology, if you're a phenomenal strategist, go all in, read every book, go on every course, go on every program, you will become unstoppable.

23:32Now, here's the caveat. When it comes to your hard skills, focus on your strengths When it comes to your soft skills, focus on your weaknesses If you're weak in empathy, in compassion, in communication, you must work on it But when it comes to your hard skills, strategy, Excel, PowerPoint, leadership Make sure that you focus on your strengths and go all in on them Become unstoppable, become phenomenal at those hard skills Focus on your strengths. See, there's this beautiful quote by Albert Einstein where he said that everyone's a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it's stupid.

24:15And so many of us are fishes trying to climb a tree. So many of us are birds trying to swim. So many of us are giraffes trying to be lions. So many of us are lions trying to be zebra. And the list goes on, right? but our zone of genius our zone of flow our zone of connection with ourselves and being aligned with ourselves where we become unstoppable should not be ignored there's this incredible conversation that i talk about often between steve wozniak and steve jobs and steve wozniak goes up to steve jobs and he says what do you even do he says what do you even do you're not a coder, you're not an artist, you're not a marketer, what do you even do?

24:59And Steve Jobs says, musicians play their instruments, I play the orchestra. Now we'll take the ego out of that for a second, but what that means is that his ability was not to play the cello, the bass, or the violin, his ability was to bring it all together. What is your ability? Play to that, work to that, show that off at work. And this is a big part of it, demonstrate it. A lot of us want to defend our strengths, but we don't demonstrate it. We want to be rewarded for a strength we haven't shown yet, but we're not demonstrating it. This was one of the biggest mistakes I made in the workplace where I was hoping someone would spot my talents rather than me being able to demonstrate them.

25:43Find creative ways, creative outlets, take on an extracurricular at work, Take on a group project at work, display it, show it. People win when they do things to help their workplace win, right? Do the thing that actually helps your workplace win, not just that feels comfortable and makes you feel busy, right? A lot of people on our teams in the past in companies used to organize things that were easy for them, but the company didn't really value it. Again, I'm sharing this if you want to win in any area, even if you're an entrepreneur. If you're an entrepreneur, you have to do this. You have to focus on your strengths.

26:19So many entrepreneurs that I know are forcing themselves to be influencers or so many influencers are now forcing themselves to be CEOs. And both of those are taking away from the world your gift. Now, fifth, it's so important to creatively network. Now, what is creative networking? A lot of people think networking is going to events and handing out your card. It isn't. Creatively networking is making sure that you reach out to everyone you want to learn from in your organization. Now, you may send 100 emails. I remember I used to email a managing director every week, maybe even two to three. And maybe out of the 50 managing directors, I emailed maybe only two or three actually met me.