What makes an individual smart? Is it the profusion of facts that one can memorize? Is it the exceptional IQ? Maybe, it is the ability to be able to take important decisions at crucial moments, or the wisdom to know how to make the best out of bad situations. Perhaps, it is the potential to deliberate as many aspects as possible before deciding on the future route of action. It is probably a combination of all these attributes. While doing everything you are told to do, seems difficult to follow, I have collected 10 DO-NOTs to keep in mind if you want to be successful in life.
1. Do not rely heavily on others.
There is nothing wrong with having family members, friends or co-workers whom you can trust and rely on. Everyone should have someone they can count on; however, heavily relying on someone depicts you as powerless. As a smart person, you should never indulge in such a practice.
2. Do not act irresponsibly.
We all have some certain responsibilities, and they are not always levied by someone else. Putting them off without any reason is simply welcoming a more stressful future. Almost everyone experiences how being irresponsible tends to cause repercussions, but smart individuals simply practice what they learn from such situations.
3. Do not feel defeated just because you need to re-evaluate your convictions.
Sometimes, our convictions are challenged, sometimes they prevail and sometimes they are trumped. Smart individuals constantly challenge their convictions and they do not discard them. They mould them and they allow them to grow with new experiences. You are not defeated if you gained something valuable.
4. Do not allow your past to hold you back.
The past cannot be erased, and it cannot come back to haunt us, it simply cannot leave. We need to learn how to cope with it, and not permit it to impede with our future achievements.
5. Do not rely on good luck to solve your problems.
Hoping for the best is what motivates us, while preparing for the worst prevents us from falling apart. But, simply hoping for the things to work out on their own is no different from being lazy. Luck should not take credit for your success and relying on it too will only strangle your ambition.
6. Do not hesitate to learn from your mistakes.
Mistakes are inevitable. Mistakes are there to remind us of our imperfections and force us to diminish the impact they have on our lives. Learning from your mistakes means finding what is worth retrieving from your unfortunate experiences, realizing what went wrong and finding a way to avoid them in the future.
7. Do not give up on your ideas just because other people do not agree with you.
There is a difference between someone giving your idea a chance and not liking it in the end and someone not giving your idea a chance at all. If someone wants to discard your efforts based on a notion or intuition, do not let them. Fight for your chance, or try finding someone else who will give you a chance and appreciate your idea.
8. Do not waste the capabilities of your gadgets.
Almost anything you want to know has a recorded or written tutorial or explanation online, meaning as long as you are connected to the internet, you will have the means to solve complex problems. Using your gadgets to their full extent can prove to be rather worthwhile in a variety of scenarios. All you is to know how to utilize these browsers efficiently.
9. Do not allow your pride to get in your way.
It is not rare that once you become accomplished, you tend to automatically reprimand opinions around you. Not only that, you might reject a good proposal simply because you are not the one who thought of it. Having pride is completely acceptable, but being consumed by it is quite bothersome.
10. Do not put all the eggs in one basket.
Never invest yourself fully for the sake of perceiving a single idea. Always have backup plans, replacements, alternatives etc. This doesn’t mean that you should back off or be discouraged when things don’t go as planned, but that that matter should be taken into consideration later on.
Therefore this New Year, just follow these Mantras and be SMARTER!!
