The Mindset Shift That Will Change Everything About Your Future

In one of my recent newsletters, we considered how life, for all of us, is an amazing journey…

We also considered how very few journeys will ever be entirely smooth, but full of ups and downs, twists and turns - often just like a game of Snakes and Ladders!

Most journeys are quite unpredictable, too: We may think we know where we are going to be in, say, five years' time, but by the time that happens, we will probably be in a completely different place and heading off in a totally new direction!

The world is changing fast! No one can predict with any degree of certainty what the (their) future will hold…

When I was starting out (many years ago 😐), it was entirely normal for a young person to ‘pick a profession’, study for it, and that was then likely to become their career for life. Or they might choose a company or an organisation to work for, and that was then likely to remain their ‘home’ for the whole of their career (or indeed a good part of it).

Today, everything has changed. According to many studies, we are now all likely to have several different career paths during our working lives.

Employers can no longer rely on their employees to hang around forever!

Intriguingly, in its 2016 report on The Future of Jobs, The World Economic Forum ambitiously predicted:

“65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist”.

These predictions (made nine years ago) now seem certain to come true.

While it may have been once appropriate to ask a ten-year-old, ‘So what do you want to be when you grow up, Jonny?’ Today, this seems like an almost naïve, if not absurd, question.

One might as well ask, ‘So tell me what the world’s going to look like in ten years’ time then, Jonny?’ But you will probably get shot for that 😊

The future is very uncertain; however, I don’t mean that necessarily in a negative way. Future opportunities are also likely to be plentiful. But to make the most of them, we first need to acquire a practical understanding of how to attract them and then how to make the most of them.

Whether we are a student, a young adult at the start of our career, or an adult already in the midst of our career, the fundamentals remain the same: If we want to excel and prosper in this dynamic new world, we need to prepare ourselves completely for whatever the future may hold.

So, what’s the best way for us to do this?

First, we have to remain curious, and we need to be agile. The future ‘belongs’ to those who can both keep up and continuously look for new ways to do things, to adapt, and even to reinvent themselves when required.

Above all, we need to learn what we can do today to become fully equipped for all possibilities. It’s about creating that ‘very best version of ourselves’.

There are many essential (fundamental) things we can all learn from now in order to achieve this.

Here are just a few of them:

✅ Visibility – learning how to stand out boldly above everyone else by making ourselves visible; ‘I am open for opportunities’, ‘these are my skills, and this is how I can contribute and make an impact’.

✅ Communication – learning the art of making people want to listen to us, or to give us space to express our views. It’s about being interesting, charismatic, and positive when we engage others. It’s about learning to listen too.

✅ Networking – We all need help from others in order to find our way in life and to become successful. So, who are we going to ask, or to leverage? Our network is certain to become one of our most valuable future assets.

✅ Confidence – understanding the importance of building it through regularly pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones. It’s about stretching ourselves, building experience and creating resilience.

✅ Fortune – understanding that success in life is always largely dependent on good fortune. We need to learn about all the things we can do to make our own luck.

✅ Failure – not being risk-averse while understanding the real importance of failure, and how much we can learn from it. Failure is invariably an opportunity for growth.

✅ Self-doubt – learning how to handle self-doubt when it arises and how to exploit it, while accepting that it is a part of being human and entirely normal.

✅ Agility – learning how to be responsive, adaptable and quick to embrace change. Developing an ‘anything can happen’ mindset that is pragmatic and creative.

✅ Efficiency – Learning about and using all the tools that are available to make us more productive, effective, and to be on top of our game.

Life will still be a journey, of course… and we can still enjoy (and we should) every step along the way. But the better we can prepare ourselves now – however uncertain the future may be – the more we will be able to make the most of whatever comes our way and the more resilient we will become, too.

In last week’s newsletter, I also talked about ‘Passion’ and how it is an essential ingredient for enjoying a successful career and a fulfilling life.

This is what Shriti Vadera, the internationally celebrated finance expert and one of the UK’s most successful female business executives, says about preparing ourselves for opportunities (as discussed above), and the role that Passion plays, too.