Four Personal Traits You Can Develop As a Skill
Technical skills are important these days, but personality traits like perseverance, courage, and patience can be just as important in your career (and the rest of your life). You can develop each of these personality traits as well as technical skills to improve yourself. Here’s how.
Tenacity
Few people achieve worthy goals the first time. Persistence allows you to try again (and again) after failure. This is useful in any profession that requires problem solving. President Calvin Coolidge explains why persistence is so prized :
Nothing in the world can replace persistence. There will be no talent; there is nothing more common than talented losers. There will be no genius; a hopeless genius is almost a proverb. There will be no education; the world is full of educated outcasts. Only persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan “to press” has decided and will always solve the problems of mankind.
If you want to be more assertive, don’t look too far into the future. On days when you feel like giving up, focus on the present moment and how you can make even the slightest progress (or fix failure) by the end of the day.
Once you are comfortable with the thought of planning, establish preliminary goals and plans. Measure your progress to stay motivated. Make it harder to quit smoking .
When you’re learning new things, the “I suck” barrier can be intimidating. Even though it may seem like you will never get it right at this point, remember that you will most likely get it over with time. Whether you notice it or not, everyone else has similar doubts when faced with learning obstacles.
Bravery
Courage is the ability to act in the face of fear. You can break the momentum of fear and take action, or let fear win another day. Courage doesn’t have to be impulsive. After all, it’s likely that fear exists for some reason (eg, “I don’t want to piss off my boss because I don’t want to be fired …”), and courage depends on whether you think that the action is worth it (eg, “… but this is my idea, I believe in it, so I will present it and take responsibility”).
Breather author and co-founder Julien Smith’s e-book ” Flinch” has several exercises to help you develop courage. For example, Smith suggests taking a cold shower (which has many health benefits , by the way). The key is to take a step, knowing that it will be cold and you will suffer for a minute or two. (I admit: I had to warm up the shower after 20-30 seconds. This gradual transition was amazing .)
You don’t have to jump into a cold shower to get the courage. You pick up courage when you break out of your comfort zone .
Patience
In today’s impulsive, fast-paced, chaotic world, you can change the world for the better by showing calm, composure, and composure. Patience helps develop this rational thinking. For example, if you’re in the business of customer service or hospitality, or just working with a difficult team member, patience will set you apart from the rest of your coworkers and make others happy.
The next time you feel anger approaching, don’t give in to it. Try to remember, expressing this will not make you feel better . Even when you are complaining about something, you may express yourself slowly and confidently or explode and lose your temper. Both will probably accomplish the same thing, but everyone will probably be less upset if you hold back your temper.
Likewise, the next time you feel an urge arising – like craving for an unhealthy snack or a shortcut that might hurt your work – don’t act right away . If you’re shopping, do n’t fall for impulse buying (sales and discounts can make things harder). Practice postponing meeting your needs in order to make smarter, more thoughtful decisions.
You can also develop a patience for work by asking as many solitary problems as possible and trying different types of meditation.
By developing patience in the long term, you can also be distracted in the short term to appear more patient. Also, when you are waiting and expecting something, remember that the more likely you will enjoy it the longer you wait.
Sociability
People may not remember what you did, but they will remember how you made them feel. Tact, timing and etiquette are all in the realm of sociability. People enjoy working with people they like. Being sociable makes your job easier and can make other people’s work more enjoyable, which is an advantage for any team. As the author of The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Green, puts it bluntly : “To develop your intellectual abilities at the expense of the social is to slow down your own progress towards mastery”.
You can develop sociability in the real world – in coffee meetings, at trade conferences, in the workplace, meeting new acquaintances, and so on. You can also learn etiquette through resources like Emily Post’s books and through experts on the Internet. (For example, do you know how to gracefully refuse an appointment ?)
If you’re socially anxious or dysfunctional, author Ramit Sethi suggests techniques such as preparing to start a conversation when you first overcome social anxiety and ease the conversation. Don’t give your brain enough time to piss you off .
Sociability requires regular practice and pruning. Sometimes you may feel like you are out of the game. It `s naturally. Pay attention to when you are in head-down mode at work and you may need to warm up your sociability before an important event.
These personal qualities seem easy to implement, but the road will not be easy. It will take constant discipline and perseverance (which is probably a good place to start if you had to pick one or the other). If you don’t know where to start, pick the one you are weakest at and develop it with the appropriate suggested exercises.