You Won't Stay Relevant at Work Without These 3 Habits

I was recently called in to speak to a group of employees at an event to mark a company’s expansion into a new line of business. This company had been doing very well and had a loyal customer base. For my speech, I decided to motivate the employees with this fact — to ensure that each of the them knew and understood that they mattered in creating that greatness. I wanted them to continue to work as a team and understand that the company will continue to achieve success if everyone continued to make an impact.

After all, everyone craves for relevance. And relevance comes in different forms. It is about being connected and becoming significant to other people. At your place of work, when you receive some reward or recognition or growth opportunity, it shows that you are relevant. So, the question becomes, how can you become and stay relevant in your career? I have three quick tips to share with you today.

In my book “Winner's Ways,” I wrote about the need for everyone to focus on what they love. This is very crucial if you want to become an impact maker. You will do a mediocre job if you do not enjoy what you are doing — there is just no easy way around it. If you are currently not passionate about what you do, are there any aspects of it that you enjoy? For example, If you work in a hospital, you may not necessarily like the fact that you are on your feet for almost 8 hours every day. But do you enjoy nursing the sick people to healing? If you work in the customer service department of your company and you hate that you encounter some bad customers — do you enjoy working with those grateful customers that you help in solving their problems? If so, you need to focus more on the sweet and fun part of your job. What you focus on becomes your reality. There will never be a perfect job. Even Presidents do not like some aspects of their jobs. If you doubt me, ask Donald Trump if he liked to go to Congress for funding.

To make an impact on whatever you do, you need to stay passionate about it. When you think of people in sports, they have a strong passion and intense interest in the sport that they play. They can play games for hours then wake up the next day and want to do it again. That is the level of passion and interest we should all have for what we do. 

Many people are happy on Friday (TGIF), and less so on Monday (OGIM). You cannot make an impact if you are not connected and engaged in what you do every day. Highly successful people are passionate people. Passion breeds enthusiasm and if you are enthusiastic about something, you will have energy and exude confidence. People will generally want to associate with a high-energy and confident person; people will feel your passion without talking about it.  Focusing on the good and loving what you do will help you stay hungry. It's worth it to find creative ways to be passionate in your day-to-day work.

There is a common saying that what is worth doing is worth doing well. This is a compelling message for anyone who wants to achieve more in life and make an impact. Highly successful people use this concept of pursuing excellence to improve their skills and get better every day. To be an impact maker, you have to continuously find ways of getting better, sharpening your skills, taking on higher responsibilities, setting bigger goals and ensuring that you deliver top-class results. Pursuing excellence is an intentional determination not to settle for less but always to strive to provide only the best in whatever you do. 

If you want to become relevant and make an impact wherever you may find yourself, you have to enjoy what you do, stay hungry and passionate by learning more and finding creative ways to contribute, and seek to pursue excellence to make sure you get better and impact lives.

— Adebola Alabi

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