This Is How You Can Hone Your Skills To Perfection
I tell myself countless times that I never want to find myself in a situation where someone comes to me for help on a particular issue about their brand, and I don’t have a good solution for them.
As someone who is focused on helping other people grow, it’s sinful to turn people away because you don’t have a solution to their problem. If worst comes to worst, simply refer them to someone else but still keep in touch.
What better way to gain street cred and establish thought leadership if not by solving people’s problems and gathering social proofs.
How then can you get to that point where you gain tons of social proof from being an expert at what you do?
- Take your time to identify what makes your brand so special: What is your unique position? What makes your brand so valuable? What do your clients value most about what you do? Who are your most profitable clients? 20% of the 80%? If you can provide correct answers to these questions, you’ll understand what you need to work on to improve.
2. Practice the 2x3x Mindset: The 2x3x Mindset by Robin Sharma is one of the most accurate explanations of honing your skills. It says that
“To double your income and impact in life, triple your investment in 2 primary areas; your personal mastery and your professional capability”
So work tirelessly on these 2 areas of your life. To be the go-to person in your place of work, you have to work hard at it. Develop yourself, build your portfolios, improve your credibility as well.
3. Practice the 20x20x20 formula: The 20x20x20 formula is pretty easy, it’s all in Robin Sharma’s book ‘5 am Club’. The way you start your day powerfully shapes how productively you live it. Reserve the first 60 minutes for personal preparation. Spend your first 20 minutes in intense exercise. Have a work out routine and make sure you don’t deviate from it. Working out actually releases a neurotransmitter (or adrenaline) called Dopamine-known as the happy hormone.
Next, bring out your journal and review your weekly, monthly and yearly goals. Plan out your day and think about what you want to achieve. This is my favourite time to meditate. This small activity simply deepens your focus throughout the day.
Finally, for the last 20 minutes, read a book, read a few chapters or even a single page. Read biographies, read a Bible, read blog posts or articles. You can also listen to podcasts of your favourite podcasters.
4. Spend 4 hours of the day practising a new skill or mastering your old skill: If you want to succeed in any field, you need to practice. You need to be committed to the practice, practice and more practice. Practice makes one perfect.
Take online courses, download ebooks and read blog posts. I always tell my students that everything I know today is 70% self-taught. I have only sat down in a physical class twice. Even after paying a huge amount of money, I still didn’t receive knowledge the way I really wanted. So I went back home to enrol in the University of YouTube and Google.
Today, I boast confidently about my skills and I don’t hesitate to tell people how I’m self-taught.
5. Never stop learning: The last but not least here is to continue to learn, learn as your life depends on it. Be an eternal student. Highly successful people understand the value of learning. Check any genuinely rich people today, you’ll see a mountain of books in their homes or offices.
You can never rise above your level of knowledge and understanding. If you own a business, your business cannot grow more than your level of knowledge. That’s why big CEOs read books. I particularly know a CEO who reads weekly. He said he reads a book per week without fail, no matter what he is doing.
The best way to improve your thought leadership is to give value, and you can only give value if you hone your skills.
