Keep going and focus on your goals
Imagine how Australian Jarmila Gajdosova must have felt every January for the last 9 years when she turned up to Melbourne and never won a match at the Grand Slam tennis major, the Australian Open?
Despite playing well in other countries and other tournaments, this was one goal Gajdosova, currently 62 in the world rankings, just couldn’t crack. And in 9 years she never progressed past the first round.
Disappointed? Frustrated? Annoyed? (To say the least I would suspect!)
All feelings that many of us have when we try. Our best. And aren’t successful at achieving our goals or realizing our dreams.
As Gajdosova told News.com.au “the more the losses came the more I wanted to win” and that her coach, Chris Johnstone told her to “play the way you have, fight, work hard and put a smile on your face”. She did. And this year, her “10th Anniversary” at the Australian Open, she nailed it and won her first round match in two sets (6-3, 6-4). (Well done Jarmila!)
It must have been tough coming back to play year after year. But she did.
And that’s the way to reach your goals – don’t give up!
There are many examples of success being achieved after multiple attempts (and failures) – Thomas Edison took 1,000 attempts to invent the light bulb, Steven King’s first novel was rejected by publishers 30 times, Jay-Z couldn’t get a record company to sign him up. I could go on.
It’s not just tennis players, inventors, best-selling authors and hip-hop artists that need to keep going in the face of disappointments.
It’s relevant if you miss out on a promotion, role or course you apply for. It’s relevant if you don’t achieve your sales or business targets. It’s relevant if you don’t get to work on a particular project or with a certain team or whatever goal you have set for your career.
It’s relevant to all of us who have a dream, or a goal we want to achieve and run into some disappointments along the way.
There may be a number of things we need to do differently. But the first is don’t give up!
The Career Tip To Go: Keep going and focus on your goals.
My mother was right (let’s keep that between us!) when she used to quote the old proverb to me “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.”
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Karen Adamedes is an experienced executive, author and career-tipster. In her most recent book ‘Professional in Pajamas: 101 Tips for Working from Home’ Karen shares many of the insights she has gained during a decade of working from home, where she has negotiated multi-million dollar deals, led national teams and delivered major projects. She does admit to sometimes working in her pajamas.
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