What sets you apart? Have you carved a niche for yourself that makes you stand out among your equals? What is your personal distinguishing brand? What sort of people do you attract? Do you have exceptional abilities that merit the attention of serious-minded people? What do you have to offer that people will be willing to pay a high price to obtain?
High-flyers or achievers are goal-oriented people who use smart and agile working methods to attain exceptionally outstanding achievements in record time. In every department of life, we find a few who perform remarkably and ride very high above all others. The unique qualities that set them apart are not hidden secrets. You can also elevate your status if you are willing to make the necessary sacrifices. Smart living is for smart people. Lying within the deepest domain of each person’s being are vast reserves of untapped potential. There are habits that help to draw from what is within each of us. By intentionally intensifying your resolve to unlearn bad habits and replace them with behaviours that enhance your drive for greater accomplishments, you can turn your life around in a very significant way.
Here are five distinguishing qualities you must cultivate to become a high-flyer in your field of giftedness or work:
- Cultivate A Problem-Solving Mentality The quality of one’s life is a reflection of the outworking of their thoughts. It is impossible to live above the quality of your thought life. Everything emanates from the thought realm for this reason, the quality of information we feed on is of utmost importance. High-flyers view problems differently from others; while they recognise opportunities in problems, others see limitations. For this reason, high-flyers approach problems with a positive attitude, increasing their ability to solve them. You are worth the solution you provide for problems. You cannot sit at the table of great achievers with a mediocre and pessimistic mindset that avoids challenges. When confronted with the same challenges, high-flyers will spend their energy on searching for a solution when others will waste their time and effort on complaining and looking for who to blame.
- Do What You Are Passionate About
Passion is a force that burns within a person and creates intense desire that consumes one’s whole being and compels radical action towards a cause. When you are passionate about something, you sleep with the thoughts of it on your mind and wake up fired up to work it out.
High-flyers excel because of the passionate commitment behind their pursuits. It is more likely to generate optimal results when you are involved in a venture you are passionate about. If you are engaged in an enterprise that you dislike, you will certainly see it as a burden instead of a hobby. Carve a niche for yourself and focus on constantly improving your skills and sharpening your competence. What are you passionate about? Are you willing to pay a high price to reconstruct your life onto the lane of that which you find exciting? Whatever you do without passion will not amount to much. Take note of that and advise yourself.
- Avoid The Charm of Vain Things High-flyers think in terms of assets and liabilities. They make relevant inquisitions before subscribing to any quest in life. They dedicate their time and effort to causes that contribute value to their lives and avoid pursuits that offer meaningless and shortlived satisfaction.
Luxury is a secondary consideration for high-flyers. They laserfocus on creating systems that pool viable resources and plough in high-yielding dividends. Before you spend your money on anything, ask yourself whether that thing has a potential of bringing in more returns or whether it will take away from you. For example, although driving a car is very convenient, if the use of your car, does not eventually bring you higher returns than all the cost components put together, it is a liability, not an asset. Buying expensive clothes and shoes must be made only from business surpluses.
If you have a strong appetite for instant gratification and wanton living, the seed of greatness is not in you. You may have involuntarily made a binding covenant with poverty and lowliving which can only be reversed through mental deliverance. When you understand the real value of things, your attitude to life will change completely. You will focus on developing yourself to deliver quality results.
- Make Your Contacts Count Your association has a strong influence on your acceleration in life. The company you keep will determine the things that will accompany you. You have to be nice to everyone but everybody is not supposed to be your friend. Moreover, you are your own boss so you must make a choice of those to come into your inner circle. High-flyers like to keep company with people who
will challenge them to aspire to greater heights. They are very selective and strategic in their choice of friends. What meaningful value are the people you spend time with adding to your life? How many times do your discussions focus on creating value and improving your lives? It is time to do some house cleaning. Friends who are forward-looking and industrious will certainly compel you to make giant strides in life. The fact is that, the moment you raise the level of your reasoning and taste, certain friends will automatically take leave of you and you will attract your new kind.
It is important to find and maintain a sacred relationship with people who rank high in a sphere where you are dreaming of getting to. You must also find people at your level who think like you to share ideas with. There are others who may be below your level, who admire some good qualities in you. When you find such people keep them close and be an inspiration to them. As you try to help them to learn from your good example, they also become a source of encouragement for you to keep aspiring for greater heights.
- Develop A Habit of Daily Learning What new thing have you learned today? Have you read a new book in the past month? There are so many people who stop learning when they go out of school. They miss the main purpose of formal education and all the fees they paid waste away. The purpose of formal education is to help one cultivate a habit of daily learning. If all the years you spent in school did not lead to this result, all you will have in the long run is a certificate without updated knowledge to make you relevant. You cannot outperform your level of ignorance. It is only consistency in learning that will make you keep pace with the speed of change in the world. The speed of your mind is a consequence of how often you upgrade your knowledge base. You cannot make any meaningful contribution among high-flyers if what you have to say is from an outdated textbook. Learn and earn high-flying results. Learn from the past, stay current, and constantly act in the present moment with the future in mind. High achievers are habitual readers. They read not less than fifty (50) books a year. How can you relate with people in this category and not feel lost if you are not constantly upgrading?
Resolve to be a high-flyer and great achiever by disciplining yourself to cultivate habits that promote the qualities discussed above.
Stay safe!
By: Rev. Dr. Solomon Nortey
