Lerato Mabiletsa's interpretation of Ray Dalio's principles for a prosperous life.
Nothing says fresh start like entering a brand-new decade. It’s a phenomenal time to hit reset, wipe the slate clean and take massive steps towards attaining your life’s goals. When it comes to your career, it is always a great idea to leverage the knowledge and experience of those that have already hit the milestones you are targeting and have enjoyed the kind of success you are gunning for. Over the break, I read Principles: Life and Work, a book by Ray Dalio and have decided to summarise what I believe to be some of the best advice to give offer some tips on what I think will help you achieve immense success in 2020.
1 Be radically open-minded
Challenge your own thoughts and ideas and inspect if you are harvesting the best possible solution/s. Don’t let your attachment to your own opinions stand in the way of your interrogating alternative ideals, stress test your ideas, let others try and find holes in your reasoning, this will allow massive growth for you both personally and professionally.
2 Understand nature’s practical lessons
Maximise your evolution. Be bold and don’t be wary of going the distance. It is a fundamental law of nature that in order to gain strength, one has to push one’s limits, which can be painful. Embrace tough love.
3 Own your outcomes
You are responsible for your own successes and failures. Reflect on your journey thus far and inspect what you could have done differently to obtain better results. Leverage past experiences and failures in 2020, your greatest lessons come from those after all. Be flexible and willing to modify the relevant things to obtain better outcomes.
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4 Leverage other people’s strengths
To go to a higher level and do a lot of new things, you need to learn to leverage the ability of other people who are great in those areas. Find out and list the things you are not good at, and then get people who are good at those things to gain great leverage. The biggest mistake most people make is not to see themselves objectively, which leads them to bump into their weaknesses consistently.
Successful people are those who can go above themselves to see things objectively and manage those things to shape change. Asking for help from those who are strong in areas where you are weak is a great skill that you should develop. Because it is difficult to see oneself objectively, you need to rely on the input of others but be careful to choose the right trustworthy mentors that have your best interest at heart and are intellectually and emotionally mature.
5 Learn to make decisions effectively
Challenge your own thoughts and ideas and inspect if you are harvesting the best possible solution/s. Don’t let your attachment to your own opinions stand in the way of your interrogating alternative ideals, stress test your ideas, let others try and find holes in your reasoning, this will allow massive growth for you both personally and professionally.
There are a ton of other helpful tips that will help you navigate your way through this new period, it is always best to make a change in bite sizes to warrant attainability and sustainability.
