1.1
THE GOOD AND THE BAD 8
What are your best qualities?
What are your worst qualities?
What are you good at?
What are you not good at?
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Favourite 3 companies
Favourite city
Favourite country
Favourite recipe
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EXERCISE Study 3 great businessmen and write down what you think makes them great. What 3 questions do you want to ask them?
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2
3
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1.5
BE COLOUR FUL To give you a great idea of what kind of person you are and what makes you tick, you can assign yourself a colour. This assessment is very general because, of course, you are never just one colour exclusively and entirely. But this exercise can surely deepen your understanding of your main character traits, as well as those of others.
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Read through these colours carefully and then mark the colour that you think defines you best. Rank them from 1 to 4, from most like you to least like you.
YELLOW You are always the helper You are calm and often introverted You can’t stand confrontations and people who are very loud
If somebody says, ‘We are going to play a game’, your typical answer will be, ‘Ok, I will bring the snacks!’
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1.6
WHAT DO YOU THINK A low or high self-image is something we all have. We think we know ourselves best, but sometimes others can give you a fresh insight in how you are perceived by them. 48
Ask the 5 most important people in your life the following questions and compare them with your own answers.
1. What do you think are my best qualities?
2. What do you think are my worst qualities?
3. What do you think I’m good at?
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‘Don’t seek praise, seek criticism.’ Paul Arden
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E S I C EXER
Help 5 people. 53
1.7
GET OUT OF THAT BOX AND DREAM! Who you are is not only what you are good at (and not so good at) or what your characteristics are, it is also what you want in life and what your dreams are.
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1. What are you grateful for? The first assignment in this chapter is to write down everything you are grateful for. This can be up to 100 things, or even a 1000!
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This exer cise if y only ou t work h i nk c outs s ompl ide e t t e h ly e bo and x. D limi oubt tati ons have say no here ! 55
EXERCIS
E
Think of things you are grateful for every day.
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‘The mind is everything. What you think, you become.’ Buddha
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2
WHAT DO YOU WANT? 70
Chapter 1 was all about you and your personal things. It was designed to take you through necessary steps to get to know yourself better and to open your mind to positive thoughts. This second chapter will guide you towards your ideal professional life through a series of exercises. First we will discover if you already have any thoughts about your ideal job and then we will sort out if this is what you would actually like!
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2.3
MAKE A PLAN A business plan contains all the aspects of a business. When you write one it will most likely give you a good idea of what aspect of a business you like best. A business plan can be written for all sorts of reasons and it can be as elaborate as you want, but for this exercise, just keep it short and simple.
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Chapter 1
WHAT? Think of a product or service. (It can be an idea you have. Maybe it can be about the change you want to see in the world. Or perhaps just borrow an existing product or service.)
What is the product or service? What does it look like? How does it work? Draw technical sketches if you need them.
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E S I C EXER
make
ROADMAPS
to success
When you plan a trip you have to know where you are going, at what time the bus leaves, how long the journey will take, etc. The same thing can be done for your life. After all, we are all taking a trip.
This roadmap will be a monthly one, but you can make it for any timeframe you want.
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Write down this month’s goals.
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What steps do you need to take to achieve these goals?
Make a weekly plan in which you put the steps in a timeline. Give every step a deadline.
Reward yourself for achieving your goal!
MONTH X week 1
week 2
week 3
week 4
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
SUN
GOALS
STEPS
NOTES
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E S I C R EXE What social media sites are you on? What kind of friends do you have? What kind of interests do you have? Do you post a lot and what do you post? Do you like a lot and what do you like? 110
It is time to find your ideal job! Here is a list with 100 jobs in all kinds of areas. Of course there are a gazillion more jobs out there, but these jobs can give you a guideline about which sector or what kind of job to look for.
Accountant
Artist
Carpenter
Actor
Athlete
Advertiser
Automotive engineer
Chemical technologist
Analyst
Baker
Animal keeper
Banker
Archaeologist
Barber
Architect
Bartender
Army officer
Bookkeeping
Art director
Car mechanic
Chief executive Childcare worker Circus acrobat Coach Composer Computer engineer hardware 111
2 1 2 3 4 5
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Now narrow it down to 5 jobs you would like best.
Talk to people who you think have fun in their jobs (any job) and ask them what makes them happy.
STEP
1
STEP
2
STEP
3
Remember the 10 jobs you wrote down in chapter 2.2? Interview people who have that job.
Now go out and find people with the jobs you wrote down. Ask them: What do you like best about your job? What do you not like about your job?
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Tip 2
It is not about you! People always want two things: They want to be heard and they want to belong. Self-help books and self-help courses on how to write the perfect curriculum vitae or get a job always strive to teach you to become the best version of yourself you can. What they almost always forget to mention is that any type of business is nothing more than a people business. It doesn’t matter what kind of job you want, you will always have to deal with people. So make it your business to understand people. What motivates them? What do they value? What is important to them? The same principle is true for businesses and their owners. Business owners start their business by wanting to sell their product or service (they want to be heard) and they want their place in the market (they want to belong). So don’t make it all about you and what you can do, but rather make them see what you can do for them.
self about your k l a t t ’ n Do , only ask for a week r about othe s n o i t s e u q on ay attenti p d n a e l p peo to them.
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If you really want t learn o much m o r e people about read t he boo How to k, Win Fr i ends a Influe nd nce Pe ople, Dale C by arnegi e.
MAKE A
E S I C R EXE
DRAWING of your ideal home in 10 years.
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‘Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.’ Thomas A. Edison
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Tip 6
Practice makes perfect Or maybe it’s better said, ‘Perfect practice makes perfect’. You can practice something over and over again, but going about it the wrong way makes the practice not so perfect. So practice on jobs you don’t want and make an honest assessment of everything you did wrong and why you didn’t get the job. And then try again until you feel confident enough to try on a job you do want.
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