Four Sparkling Gems Becoming a Unicorn has Taught Me

Hello everyone! It is officially halfway through the first month of the year. I have a feeling that 2018 is going to be yet another busy year. How was your 2017? I know that mine was a bit turbulent. This year, I am committed to making the most of my year; I plan to make it as productive and insightful as possible. Hold me accountable, okay? With that being said, I promised myself that this year is going to be the year that I start learning again.

Starting a new job and career path is definitely helping me to achieve this goal. The past few years after graduating from university I have been relatively stagnant, but thanks to my role here at Social Media Unicorn, I am constantly applying myself and learning important lessons, both from a business perspective and general life lessons. Here are 4 things that I may have known, but only really realized in the past two months.

1. There Is a Learning Curve. Things have always come easily to me; I never had to work in school to understand concepts. This makes starting a new path that you have very little experience in difficult at times as an adult. I didn’t think I could “get it” the first two weeks, at all. I was genuinely worried. However, everyone kept telling me to stop stressing and understand that it’s going to take a moment for it to set in. I’m not accustomed to a learning curve – I know it exists, however, I never really experienced it to the full degree until recently. So with that being said, don’t be like me. Don’t stress out when you don’t understand something right away. Keep trying, eventually, chances are it will make sense.

2. Collaboration is Key. Enough said. When you get stuck, don’t let your ego get the best of you. Ask for help, trust in others, believe in the process. We can travel so much farther and accomplish exponentially more when we work as a team rather than struggling along by ourselves. (Read about my experience with this lesson… here!)

3. Mistakes Happen. I sort of pride myself on being a perfectionist. I either apply myself all the way or not at all. When I do apply myself and I make a mistake, I tend to take it a little hard. I came from a pretty intense household and you don’t make mistakes, so much to my surprise, when I made a mistake here… it wasn’t the end of the world, for once! The main key is owning up to your mistakes. In doing so, I was able to receive the criticism I needed to reevaluate and move forward; I was able to “let it go” at a much faster rate than I would normally for making mistakes. This ties back to my previous discussions about support systems. It is so crucial to surround yourself with people who want to build you up, and not tear you down.

4. Open Up More.  Sometimes it is difficult to open up to others because the feeling of rejection really does sting. Even in a work setting, opening up with your ideas can be scary because you worry that your ideas are going to be discarded. No one likes these feelings. However, if you don’t face your fears, you will never know what sort of collaboration can come from it. Opening up has allowed for me and my colleagues to bounce ideas off of one another and create some really interesting concepts!

I know these seem like simple concepts, but the more you really set your intentions on them and incorporate them into your day, you’ll be surprised at how differently your days flow! What are your thoughts? Do you struggle with any of these issues like me? Let’s connect in the comments! 💕