Five skills for Generation Y to be successful in the future- Part II

Key takeaways:

be time smart, use your brain power and boost your performance;
let a mentor/coach guide you through your career and life journey; small investment but huge return.

4. Be smart and efficient at time management: we all have the same 24 hours a day, so literally you cannot manage your time! If one wants to perform better, then the most important job to do is to sleep well. After that, use your time wisely and efficiently. Your brain only works efficiently for less than four hours per day in total, so use that golden four hours to boost your productivity. Then the other four hours at work is there to deal with other things that you must do at work such as emails and whatever pops up on your mobile phone.

5. Get a mentor or a coach: no one can coach himself or herself to achieve top performance and this is evident to all fields, especially sports, academics and business. If you don’t have a coach teaching you how to do brilliant presentations, then get one! Through out my career so far in the past 19 years, as high as 80% of presentations I’ve seen were not well delivered! These included those presentations by some ‘big-shot’ professors (and don’t be surprised!). If you don’t have a mentor teaching you how to efficiently use your time and develop good daily routines, then get one. If you can’t even manage your personal life, then I wonder what you can manage at work.

Time is money! A ‘half-penny’ watch from the Royal Australian Mint.

What I have seen after 19 years in a world top 50 university is that those people who did the above well tend to perform well above their peers. Others are still stuck in a job and spend time on social media, trying to ‘look good’ to the rest of the world. Meanwhile, they also wonder why they are not on top of the world because they are ‘brilliant’?

Face the reality: you are not!

So, why is it easy for some Gen. Y to be successful in the future? It’s not hard to see. If you want to change your life, start from point #5, Get a Mentor or a Coach. Small investment from your pocket but a huge return to your life! Investing in yourself is and always will be the best investment you can do in your life.

Dr. C. Richard Wu @ ReeaConsulting.com