13 Tips on How to be a Star Performer (Part 1)

God created all of us to be star performers in our different and specific spheres of calling; He did not create anybody to be an also-run. He created us for impact and significance. He is excellence-driven and He wants us to function same way – that was why He created us like Him (according to His likeness). Jesus also confirmed that God is delighted when we bear fruits, and that is one way we prove our discipleship.

Performing wherever you are should be a given; particularly for Christians who have the Holy Spirit who guides, motivates, and helps them.They ought to achieve more than those who do not have such aid. The Holy Spirit is there to help us and infuse us with all we need to be star performers; be it as a wife, mother, child, husband, member of a corporate setting, and in every calling.

An anomaly common among Christians is to carry spirituality on their head in the workplace at the expense of official responsibilities. Except for those who work in a church, nobody gets employed or paid for his or her level of spirituality. In a corporate setting, the length of your prayer time, the number of scriptures you can quote do not impact on your salary. Outside the workplace even, as a husband, the number of scriptures you know does not translate into being an effective husband to your wife or father to your children. Life is in compartments and we are meant to thrive in each of these compartments.

Now let’s consider the 13 all-important steps that will elevate you to the status of a star performer.

1. Know Yourself

Know yourself. Know your strengths, limits, talents, gifts, deficiencies. Know where you will thrive and flourish; know where you will struggle and not be able to cope. All of us are not supposed to work everywhere; so, once you understand yourself, it helps you make decisions as to what you should orshould not do. You have to know your strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you are working in a bank and your job description does not match your strengths, you will be struggling and will not find joy in what you are doing. The kind of satisfaction that comes from doing what you are naturally cut out for will elude you.

Even though research has revealed that the Nigerian workforce work mainly for the pay and not out of interest, you still owe yourself the duty of making a choice as to where you want to work, such that going to work will not be something you dread every day.

Understanding yourself will also guide you in the choice of whom to marry. If you know the kind of person you are, even if someone is the gentlest of women, you will not go for her if she does not match your personality profile. She may even be the most brilliant woman around, if she will not complement you, then you will not go for her, the same applies to women.

Knowing yourself saves you a lot of hassles; it saves you a lot of money as well. Even in the area of business, it’s not all businesses that are suitable for you. It you want to go into any business, it should be in your areas of endowment, not one that is alien to you. It is not everything that promises money that gives money. Knowing yourself helps you to be a star performer. Knowing yourself gives you some level of confidence.

Problems, Solutions and Problem-Solvers

Problems and challenges abound in the world of the living. And we dare not deceive ourselves by hoping that they will all end someday. The day that one ceases to have issues to contend with is the day he bids the world goodbye. To lend credence to this fact, the Bible records in the book of Job 5:7 that man is born to trouble as indubitably as the sparks fly in no other direction but upward.

So having established the fact that problems and challenges abound in the world in different forms and sizes, how can they be solved as they arise? Where does one run to for solution when confronted with challenges?

There are a number of recourses available for men to explore in solving the various challenges of life, such as one’s learning, past experience in handling a similar situation, parents, friends and loved ones, a consultant/counselor, etc. While any or all of these measures can prove to be very helpful, however, the most effective solutions are those given by God, and the best answers to all our questions are found in the presence of God.

I derived this insight from the Holy Bible, the book of Judges Chapter 21. The Israelites were faced with a major problem; preventing the extinction of one of the 12 tribes that formed the pillars of their nation, the tribe of Benjamin.

They had themselves launched a reprisal war on the Benjamites (read Judges Chapters 19 & 20 for details) and killed hundreds of thousands of them in the war, as well as every living thing that were found on their land. Only 600 men of the Benjamites who fled from the battlefront and went to hide in the rock remained, every other person had been killed; old and young, men and women.

And since the Israelites had vowed before God not to give their daughters as wives to the Benjamites, then the tribe faced the risk of total extinction, as there were only 600 survivors left in the whole tribe, and they were all men!

This made the Israelites went to the house of God to seek counsel on what should be done. And there they found the answer to their question. Without speaking through a prophet, God gave them a circumstantial direction on what to do to get wives for the men of Benjamin without having to break their vow.

While the whole congregation of Israel was in the presence of God mourning, weeping, and offering sacrifices, the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead were not represented. Therefore, in making good their word, the Israelites sent warriors to the city and killed all the children, the men and every married woman in that land. They spared only the virgins whom they brought to the camp and then gave as wives to the men of Benjamin.

Another insight I derived from this new development is that it is those who do not spend time in the presence of God that will be made to pay the price or be used as pawn to execute the solutions that those who spend time in the presence of God come up with. The people of Jabesh Gilead who were found wanting in God’s presence were the ones who forfeited their lives so that their virgins could be given to the Benjamites as wives.

This underscores the need for every one of us to cultivate the habit of spending time in God’s presence, so that we do not become perpetual tools (for the accomplishment of the purpose) of those of who do.

How can you Discover your Potential?

¡By self-examination and reflection

¡By self-expression or applying yourself in various activities

¡By being adventurous, learning from trials and errors

¡Through informal interactions with families, friends, colleagues etc

¡Through divine revelation

¡By chance and unpremeditated happenings

¡During a coaching or mentoring session

How can you Discover your Potential?

¡By self-examination and reflection

¡By self-expression or applying yourself in various activities

¡By being adventurous, learning from trials and errors

¡Through informal interactions with families, friends, colleagues etc

¡Through divine revelation

¡By chance and unpremeditated happenings

¡During a coaching or mentoring session

Quotes on Potentials

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence. - Eddie Robinson

                                       

The potential for greatness lives within each of us. The key to achieving greatness is found when we discover and then develop our dream. - John Maxwell

Adventure isn't hanging on a rope off the side of a mountain. Adventure is an attitude that we must apply to the day to day obstacles of life - facing new challenges, seizing new opportunities, testing our resources against the unknown and in the process, discovering our own unique potential. - John Amatt

No one fulfills his purpose, develops his potential, or consistently help others without goals. Your goals determine your priorities – and your priorities determine whether you’ll reach your goals. - John Maxwell

Nothing is more effective when it comes to reaching potential than commitment to personal growth. - John Maxwell

Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential. Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British prime minister during WWII

I’d rather reach 90 percent of my potential with plenty of mistakes than reach only 10 percent with a perfect score. - John Maxwell

To keep moving to a higher level and reach your potential, you… have to be willing to… trade security for significance. - John Maxwell

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. - Ellen Goodman

Means & Avenues of Expressing One’s Potentials

Means of Expressing One’s Potentials

Potentials are expressed through the following:

• Actions
• WorkOutputs
• Interactions
• Service

Avenues for Expressing One’s Potentials

• The family
• The workplace
• The society
• Business ventures
• The church, associations or other voluntary societies

10 Simple Ways To Know You Are In The Job You Are Naturally Cut Out For (Part 2)

Ok, now to the titbits: how do you identify the job you are naturally cut out for or ascertain the one you are doing now is it?

1.    You will enjoy doing what you do, and it won’t be a drag or drudgery to you.

2.    Time will not be “of essence”, and you will not be watching it, since you can start whenever you like and end whenever you like. I agree that this one may be a hard pill for the apostles of structure to swallow. But, check it out in the lives of those who are all fired up about their job.

3.    You flow seamlessly into the work, with minimal or no friction anytime, any day, and in most places. You also hands off your work with a teeny feeling of reluctance, but a soothing sense of accomplishing something.

4.    You are doing something by which people generally hail you or associate you whenever they see you or thoughts of you pop up on their mind.

5.    Money is not a major consideration for doing what you are doing. Although it is a necessity of life and a viable motivation factor, your primary drive is derived from your sheer involvement in and satisfaction with what you are doing.

6.    You want to learn all you can about the vocation, or certain aspects of it where you feel you can still be better.

7.    You want to make everyone who comes into contact with you an artisan in the vocation. You want to teach them, help them, guide them, and/or instruct them on how to do it. And you will be willing to do all these, even at no fee.

8.    You want to passionately defend, justify, or clarify certain notions about the vocation, or its operational aspects, that you feel is wrongly bandied or misconstrued by people.

9.    You are agitated when you see people who are similarly engaged doing the same work the way it ought not be done, either by underperforming, under-delivering, or not conforming to certain norms and standards pertaining to it.

10. You eagerly look forward to getting up from bed every day you have to work to get on the task or an assignment you have in hand. And you won’t mind sleeping late engaged in what you are doing. In the event you are busy doing something else, you are not so excited and you can’t wait to be done with it to get back to your love vocation.

Like I mentioned, this list is neither authoritative nor exhaustive. You may be presently engaged in the job you are naturally cut out for and not find yourself in any of the above bits. We will like to learn your own slant to this.

Cheers!