Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. — Oprah Winfrey
For the first time, when I read these words of Winfrey, I was awestruck. This was the time when I was in middle school. And, I was enjoying long vacations during Deepawali(the Indian Hindu festival of lights). I read this quote in the newspaper and, I stopped for a moment. I revived the things that I had to work on, that I had to improve. And, luckily, I found the one(my hand-writing) to which I was going to devout my next 7-days of vacation.
At the end of these 7 days of rigorous practice, I improved my Hand-writing and came out as a Warrior(I was feeling just like that).
And, till today, those very words of Oprah strike me whenever I spend time doing nothing.
This pandemic came as a masterstroke to all of us. How 21 days of lockdown converted into a months-long home isolation period, we didn’t know. In the beginning, it was a kind of take-some-break or take-some-rest period for most of us. At least for me, it was, as I was more than busy with lots of stuff before lockdown.
Then, came this un-invited guest, Corona, which transformed almost everything for us.
Again, I was in the situation of Lots-of-time — Less-work. But, it wasn’t for more than a week as I landed an internship, took a course, and made myself busy again.
And, after that, my learning+career graph just went up and is still growing.
Today, when I look back, I just thank this downtime that gave me life-long lessons for a growing career.
But, all that I noticed during this time is- Nothing comes easy but if we consistently work for our improvements, it pays, no matter how challenging the situation is, and how tough the market is.
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So, here are the important lessons that I learned during these 8 months that drastically changed my growth-curve –
1. Learn Without Fail
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
This is the first and most important aspect of being successful in career & life.
Even if you can’t take up a 6-month long course, start small, but start. Missing an opportunity to learn a new skill or brush up the one you have is the worst thing to do.
I started brushing up my content writing skills with the guest blogging, ghostwriting, and then took up 3 hours duration course on Udemy. Meanwhile, I was working as a Web Content Writer Intern. And, all of the time that I spent in learning, is doubtlessly paying me today.
So, when you feel like to just give a bigshot- learn something very different or anything that takes time, start small. Learn slowly. Take your time. But never-ever miss the moment to add-up something new to your knowledge.
2. Connect, Learn, And Grow
During my Web Content Writing internship, I was working under the SEO executive of the organization. And, from the first day, my manager started mentoring me. I still can’t thank him to help me understand the basics of SEO. And, that really paid off later during guest blogging. While guest blogging, I learned a lot about editing, proofreading from the senior content writer.
Apart from that, I got a chance to connect with many people (not exactly the Writers) who indirectly impacted my learning process.
So, the thing is whenever you get a chance to connect with people who are/are not from your area of interest, just talk to them to get their insights. It’s wondering effect appears in a long run.
3. Tryout New Things. Make Mistakes
I was at home, had lots of time and lots of possibilities to try out new things. Guess what? I tried making videos(educational ones), I tried my hands on graphics designing, I tried learning Bharatnatyam. Although I couldn’t spend too much time on all these things, I couldn’t even work on it for more than a week. But it all gave me a whole new experience.
Now, I exactly know how I cannot learn graphics designing, Bharatnatyam …. from the mistakes I did while trying these things out.
4. Consistency Is The Key!
You woke up one day and found everyone is at home. Nobody is going out. There is lots of free time.
“OMG! Now, what should I do?”, this is the first thought that might have had struck you, when you first heard of lockdown.
What I thought was the same thing. Suddenly, I had lots of time to read things, take up the course, or create a blog or do anything I want to.
But, what I did was to churn out myself and write more(even after my working time). And, any day, I couldn’t do much work, was a bad day. Because after losing that momentum, I had to again put energy to bring myself back to the pace. However, today, when I look at that time, I feel, it was worth it.
Consistency will take you higher and higher in your career & life. It is one of the key secrets to keep going.
5. Hunt The Opportunity
This one thing, that I learned during this pandemic, is, I believe, one of the best lessons for an exponentially growing career.
After completing my internship, I didn’t sit idle. I kept applying for suitable opportunities. I kept connecting with people. And, this was one of the best things that ever happened to me.
Whenever I applied for a content writing position, I had to submit the assignments as a part of the application. Most of the time topics were specific with keywords, word limits, and everything that needs for a particular writing type. And this thing proved so helpful to me that I created a portfolio of my best writing pieces, which again proved to be a gem for further opportunities.
So, the point here is each and every opportunity(big or small) brings with it a hidden, unseen, golden possibilities that always help you in your endeavors.
. . .
This is pretty much it. One more extra bonus of these valuable lessons- around 250$, I made. But, as it is said, money is just a byproduct of life-long lessons as what you have learned today, will surely gonna help you someday to deal with LIFE.
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This post was previously published on Change Becomes You.
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Photo credit: Srishti Singh