Jumpstart Your Career: Become the Best Employee You Can Be

Becoming the Best You Is More Important Than Becoming the Best

Consider Olympic athletes for a moment; the Winter Olympics attracts about 2,500 athletes while the Summer Games have almost 10,000 competitors. Yet very few will ever have medals of any color placed around their necks. Why do they work so hard for years just to compete?

They understand, as should you, that the journey is always more important than the destination. Constantly striving to be the best that they can be, they disregard the best of others. Achieving a personal best is the only true goal. The same focus should be adopted by employees, regardless of title or authority level.

Although everyone is not destined to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, all can dedicate themselves to becoming the best they can be. Becoming the best you is the only variable you can control. You cannot influence Bill Gates of Microsoft or Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway, or even the CEO of your company, but you can influence how you perform, behave and do your job.

Other bests you may encounter are mere footnotes to your personal history. The main event is your behavior and your personal dedication to excellence. Becoming the best you can be is stimulating, challenging, exciting and fun.

Becoming the Best You Is Adrenaline for Your Career

What are your career aspirations? Personal goals? Lifestyle objectives? Family plans? Current job potential? Education targets? These are all important considerations for you to focus on.

Sometimes your career goals will influence others. This is not to suggest that your career objectives should supersede and eliminate the other equally important goals for your lifestyle and happiness.

If you have a full-time job and hope to have a successful career, you must give heavy weight to work decisions. If you sleep about eight hours per day, you’re left with sixteen awake hours; half of that time (or more) will be spent at your workplace. You can choose to put in your time or be the best employee you can be. Only you will enjoy (or be unhappy with) the results.

Regardless of your global career goals, becoming the best employee you can be will supply a jolt of adrenaline to your career. There is more than one reason for the benefits generated by your focus on being the best.

• You will elevate your day-to-day performance at the workplace. Your single-minded focus on becoming the best you can be will always result in higher achievement. It matters not the level of your authority or responsibility, your drive to be the best you will elevate your success ratio, regardless of the size of the universe over which you rule.
• You will strengthen your self-esteem. Low self-esteem has generated volumes of expert opinion in the past twenty years, much of it over-emphasized. Yet self-esteem and confidence are important to success in all areas of your life. Focusing on becoming the best, regardless of the results, increases your self-esteem. The benefits high-level self-confidence can deliver are endless.
• You will maximize your opportunities for advancement at your company. Whether your employer has many or few opportunities for your personal career progression, dedicating yourself to becoming the best will absolutely maximize the available opportunities for your march up the corporate ladder. Unless your beloved father is the majority stockholder or CEO of your company, you should maximize your standing, perception and value to your employer. In so doing, you eliminate most worries about the number or variety of promotion opportunities at your company. Your performance mandates consideration for all appropriate promotions.
• Like Olympic, amateur and professional athletes, you will attack your perceived boundaries and often exceed them. There is little more thrilling than exceeding your (or other’s) perceived limitations to your ability. Dedicating yourself to becoming the best you may surprise everyone as you visibly exceed any perceived or formerly real limitations of your ability.
• You will experience newfound excitement and interest in your current job. Interest and enjoyment in your job can eliminate many roadblocks to superior achievement. Just as people feel excitement for sports, religion, hobbies or other personal interests, focusing on becoming the best member of your team, department or workplace generates similar excitement for your job every day. This excitement always translates to higher performance.

Striving for a personal best every day at the workplace will be recognized by peers and managers alike. Most importantly, you will see it, love it and enjoy the many benefits of it. People are often amazed at their ability to achieve far beyond their assumed limits and the goals they can reach with a relatively simple change of mindset.