Excelling in Your Career.

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the podcast Student of Life. I pray that you hear something that will add value, shape, develop, and cultivate your faith in order to be the person that God desires you to be, as well as the application to see it through. Enjoy. What's up everybody? So this is episode 12 of season 3 and we're going to call this one Excelling in Your Career. And the foundational text for this one is Luke 2:52 and it reads as And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. That is the only verse that we have on, I believe, within the Bible when basically Jesus went from his youth to adult to 30, before, you know, we go into like with a lot of stuff that we see in the gospels and things like that. Look at the key thing, the key observation. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. That verse, what that verse speaks to me, I believe I've, I've haven't really heard a lot of people use it, but from my perspective is that this— you have to be willing to develop throughout your career and life in general. That is how you excel in your career and just life in general. So if your career— your career might be entrepreneur. I understand it's not like the typical thing because when we hear the word career, we always just think in the context of working for somebody else. And personally, I don't see nothing wrong with that. Entrepreneurs need people to work for them. So that narrative sometimes is just what— like, yes, entrepreneur, like I said, I'm a huge advocate for it. I love entrepreneurship. I love leadership. I love it. I love it. Like it. Maybe I shouldn't say like it a lot. But however, I don't think we should make people feel bad if they don't have a desire to go out and be, you know, the entrepreneur or take on it. Because at the end of the day, if I own— let's say if it's just like huge companies with many of many people, 800+ thousand people, a thousand people to work up under me— I need these people to basically do their best, give it their all, because I can't do it myself. Like, if I was a heavy real estate developer, I need to contract and hire people. That's just the truth. So I don't think we should demonize people because they choose to have a career. That's all I'm saying. So what does it look like to get better in your career? In this episode right here, I'm just really sharing things that I've, you know, of course read and applied, but most importantly I've lived out. So Getting better in your career, I think one of the first things you have to understand is that the deeper you get into something, the more you will understand it. The deeper you get into something, the more you will understand it. So if you really take a strong interest to it and you are like, you see yourself willing to learn and consume everything about that field, it will start to make more and more sense to you if you stick with it. The more you know how to do it, the better you become at doing it. Like right now, my wife and I was just talking about the kids with the game. What you do the most is what you do the best. I don't know who quoted that, but that's what my wife and I were talking about last night. And in that, you know, it's just like our kids with their game and stuff like that. If they sit up and play the game 8 to 10 hours a day, but then only go out here and play basketball 10 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes a day, but they play on the team, they're going to be great at the video game but not so good at basketball. I don't care how much that raw talent or whatever is, they have to basically get deeper and deeper in it, pick up basketball IQ, you know. And this is just developed, it starts at the foundational stage, the fundamental stage. They have to, like, because only talent will take you so far. You have to cultivate that. So you have to put yourself in a high achievement environment that demands success. So in the terms, in the context of sports, is that if you're playing around just subpar talent, you know, that could be cool as you're developing, and you know, you can, you can still brush up on your skills and be working on things out there, but at the end of the day, you have to put yourself around people that's giving it just as much as you're giving it, because that's what's going to help truly sharpen it, sharpen that saw. You're not going to basically get— become better and better by being around dull, dull things. Iron sharpens iron. So if you take something that is extremely great and you put it in an environment where it can't sharpen it, then that iron is not good. It's like you're not going to have that iron sharpening iron relationship. You're just not. So it's just going to get dull, like, and dull, and like eventually, you know, just it's going to dull out. And so if that's— I think we have to apply that same logic from my perspective in the work environment, in our just whatever we go for in life. You have to keep yourself around people that's going to demand success, or I should say demand excellence, because we were also just talking about that, that with me I'm more so— I heard something along the lines of like excellence over success. Not that you— he was trying to pick one over the other, but he was saying learning how to demand excellence, which will drive success. And so you have to understand that that's only going to come from putting yourself in a high achievement environment or an environment that demands excellence. So that's from my perspective as a way of getting better in your career in terms of basically like just being a learning machine. Learning, always having a heart to learn. Because we live in a world now that, you know, and I was going to kind of save this for the end, but you want to stay relevant. You, you, you want to stay relevant, and the only way you can do that is by learning. Like, it used to be who you know over versus what you know, but now it's also starting to turn into like, yes, who you know, but how quickly can you know something? In other words, how quickly can you learn something? Because skills come and go. So even the people that you know, if their skills become obsolete, it's not even so much as who you know, it's like who knows this now, who knows how. So what you know can come back around on top, it just depends on how the world and stuff is moving. So how quickly can you learn something? Because like I say, skills come and go. What you know today can be obsolete tomorrow. Especially in the world of technology. So continuous improvement is very important, and that's what helps you stay on top of your career. Basically being a lifelong learner, self-educating forever, reading the books. What you can't do, trust me, someone else out there has done it. Think about, let's just say, if you trying to lead a business, start a business, How many entrepreneurial books out there? You have books written by Dave Ramsey, you have books written by Darren Hardy, you have books written by John C. Maxwell on leadership. You know, uh, I can't think of his name, but the guy to start the Side Hustle Podcast movement. You can just— you just have people out there that has done it. So you're just reading their material, it's just words on page until you start applying it. So, and that could— that just has to come through books. You have YouTube, podcasts, classes, mentorship programs, volunteer webinars, and so on and so on. So always remember, what you can't do, someone else has done it. And you might even find yourself finding the right book because, you know, like if I read a business book and a person is growing a technology company, it could be a great business book, but I might not have an interest for technology companies. But let's say if it's our writer— I mean, I read a book or look at a YouTube series of videos on a guy that's leading a small real estate business. Well, that book is going to hit more closer to home, and I might even find myself reading something that's very close to what I'm dealing with. So I have to keep that in the back of my mind. And it's just like I say, it's just continuous improvement. It's very, very important. You have to be dedicated to it. Because what you know, eventually, at the rate of technology is moving, not everything, but you might just have to adapt to things that might become obsolete, and you just have to go find new pathways and things like that to help drive that. And so we can read time and time, and one of my favorite two books to study that was written to individuals is 1 and 2 Timothy. But 2 Timothy 1:6 reads as, therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. Now for context, you know, Paul— I mean, Paul was writing to Timothy and he was basically teaching him that you are gifted, you have been called to do something, and it is your duty your duty to stir up that spiritual gift and not let it grow cold. That's all he— like, I'm not gonna say that's all he was saying, but that's one of the primary things he was saying. Stir it up, keep the fire going. So God has placed it in us, but we have responsibility too. So just like with ministry, you know, in the context of that, if I know I've been called to do whatever in ministry and God has gifted me to do it, I know it, then I— it's my responsibility to exercise that gift, not to glorify me, but to glorify God. I shouldn't deny the world a gift that God has placed into— in me, that he desired me to share with society in order to glorify him and draw people closer to him. He is working through me, and a lot of times he does that as we walk in our gifts. And so it is selfish to say no, I don't want to do it because of all of these reasons. People see me this way, people see me as being weird, I see myself as being weird, lame, whatever, uh, I, I look funny, I talk funny, whatever. You just allow the enemy to pick us apart and we don't do it. Or we don't do it simply because of distractions, you know. And that's one of the biggest things now because we're just doing everything Everything except for what God called us to do, and I'm hitting myself. So this— these are things that keep us from excelling the way God desires us to. So if you want to excel in your career and continue to get better, you have to dig deeper, you have to self-educate forever, and you have to basically be dedicated to continuous improvement. And having a necessary understanding that what you know today can be obsolete tomorrow. Stay on top of things. Always sharpen the saw and, and get around people in the context of iron sharpens iron. So I believe if you do those things, those core things, I truly believe that you will continue to develop and grow and find favor with God and man. Because your gift will start to make room for you, but your faithfulness to God will basically allow you to do what he's told you to do instead of making room for you and you being disobedient. And it's all inclusive, it goes for me too. So this is how I believe that you truly excel in your career. Hey, so I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this content today. If it has impacted you in any kind of way, I want to encourage you to share it on your social media feed with family and friends. And if you desire to connect with me on a more deeper level, go to www.timothyprattjr.org where you'll get more information on how to do that. With that being said, continue to have a blessed day. The Lord's will, I'll see you next time.