When you finish your office work at around 6 in the evening, you come home and go to bed around 12 midnight. The question is how do you spend your time after work?
Do you watch TV?
The activities you do between 6 am and 12 midnight, they are extremely important and usually their importance is far beyond your imagination.
Many people believe that your career is determined by the 8 hours of office work and the efforts and energy you put at work. They also believe that their future and career growth are dependent on their bosses and the organization they work at.
However, the reality is absolutely different. To progress in life, you are literally on your own.
After work hours as the night wears on, when my kids slept, I began learning new things to increase my knowledge. This took some time but immediately, I began to realize the returns of my investment in time to learn new things.
“Cultivation”, it’s forever dependent by yourself.
If you find yourself stuck in life and not moving forward and growing, do not blame and held your boss or company responsibly. The truth is, it is you not your company or boss who has failed to groom himself so therefore stuck at a single point and not moving forward.
Also See: Jack Ma, Alibaba founder, and his amazing inspirational story
1. Your activity at night matters the most.
My major in college was marketing, but I expect to become a designer. I practiced day and night, picking up some freelance work to improve my designing skills. It required a lot of effort and certainly took a long time to get there.
Fast forward, I get promoted and immediately I realize, I no longer need to be involved in the design work. To progress further, I had to go back to my basic education, yes — marketing, and I did that.
Had I spent time learning new skills in my office hours, I would have never become a creative director in my company or progress in my career.
Honestly speaking, almost all the successful people I know, walked the same path. Here’s another story, I have a friend who has a degree in History but he was always interested in sales. To pursue a dream life, he does telemarketing and after work hours, he learns how to code and makes good money with his side gig. Soon, he was promoted to the position of vice president in a start company and that meant, great jobs with a lot of facilities.
My friend worked hard and today he is a CTO of that company.
My other friend has a degree in political science but he was always interested in entrepreneurship. He gained a lot of new knowledge on how to initiate a successful startup. Down the road, not only he founded a company but also sold it and made good money.
Now he has reaped the rewards of his hard work.
If you look at the success of people, what they do between 6 pm and 12 AM is what determines their future.
You could spend this particular time watching TV, engaging in social media, or perhaps YouTube.
I know, we all need a work-life balance and that’s important.
If you are not married, you need your social time, work out hours, meet friends and family, watch movies but you can still choose.
You can choose between how to spend your time constructively or simply waste it. Watching 20 hours of NetFlix series in a week or spending numerous hours on social media is a wastage of time. A time that can well be utilized constructively to learn new skills and acquire new knowledge.
Remember Steve Jobs and his connecting the dots theory?. Spending time in the right way for the right thing may not make sense today but in the future, when you take a look at your past and connect the dots, everything will begin to make sense.
2. Read more, anything will do!
Readers are leaders.
If you want to get something in life, reading is key as it brings knowledge. When you read, it opens your mind to new possibilities in life and also prepares you for tough challenges in your personal and professional life.
3. Do some projects
Side Gig, a part-time project or a freelance job can bring you money, and of course, as a volunteer for some community work, you get acknowledged for your services and get fame.
When you coordinate with people for work, you learn new things, new skills. You learn how to do team management and allocate effort and resources in an efficient manner. You learn, how things work.
4. Build your connections
If you want to grow your career, start building connections. Networking helps in accelerating your career path.
A strong network of relationships can enable you:
- Gain information and knowledge from experts
- Help the company get more business
- More income-generating opportunities
Another handy tip is networking online, Linked In precisely. Take a look at other people’s career developments on LinkedIn. Connect with them.
Why?
The reason is simple, who knows you might have just connected with your future employer, boss, or colleague. Connections are powerful assets in personal and professional life and they help you excel further.
5. The CHANGE of your LIFE starts TONIGHT
So my friend, starting today, understand that your evening determines your future.
From 6 PM to 12 midnight, you are free to do anything but if you choose wisely, you can choose to lay down the foundation of your growth.
A growth that I guarantee, after a year, your career and life will change forever.