Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep159: 22 lessons I've learned this year.

Episode Date: December 30, 2022

✅ Get FREE GUIDE, newsletter, join career program 👉 http://www.meiphing.com ✅ Corporate Survivor™ is the ultimate career course for 9-to-5 working professionals, just like *you*, who want to enhance corporate world mindset, skillset and strategy so you can NAVIGATE + GROW your career with clarity, confidence & opportunities... 🚀 ⚡ 📌 ABOUT THIS PODCAST: Welcome to Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing — ex-Corporate Leader turned Career Coach & Founder of The Corporate Survivor™. On this podcast, Mei Phing shares her corporate world insights, experiences and wisdom so you can grow your 9-5 career with clarity, confidence and opportunities. ✅ WEBSITE ⮕ https://www.meiphing.com ✅ FREE GUIDE ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co/freeguide ✅ NEWSLETTER ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co/mondays ✅ CAREER COURSE ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co ⚡

Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. Hey, hey, hey, and welcome back to the Corporate Survivor Podcast. This is Mei Ping. Today's episode is going to be a very special one because it is going to be the last one

for this year, 2022. This year has been a very challenging year for me and maybe for you as well. And for this particular episode, I will really want to talk about the 22 lessons that I've learned in the year 2022. These are lessons that I've personally experienced as well as reminders from my community, my clients, my students that I think are really great life lessons as well that I want to put in my back pocket to supercharge my next year ahead. So, you know, Brace Yourself is going to be a slightly longer episode than you might be used to.

But, you know, if you have been a loyal listener of the Corporate Survivor podcast, whether it's on Spotify, Apple podcast, Google podcast, or you're actually watching this episode live on YouTube, then you would know that, you know, this year has been, I released like tons and tons of episodes. There are those that are related to the corporate world, you know, particularly a live series that I did back in May for 30 days in a row. So there are multiples of like different, different episodes that if you have not subscribed to the podcast yet, make sure that you do. I'm sure that you will learn tons of nuggets of wisdom, just like the thousands of professionals who tune in every single week. So as I said,

this episode is going to be the 22 lessons that I've learned this year. And I hope that you will learn a lot from the lessons that I've also learned. These also serve as reminders for you. And if there are any particular lessons that resonate with you, you feel that you really relate with, then drop me a message on LinkedIn or Instagram and let me know. Starting with the first lesson that I've learned this year, your mental health is more important than money. We all know money is important and that is true. However, if it's messing with your peace of mind, maybe that money is not really worth it. And why I say that is because for this year, I have been approached by a lot of people for collaborations, this and that and so forth.

But my personal experience is that the moment I feel like even after multiple discussions and requesting clarity, if I feel like the other person, whether it's a collaborator or someone who's actually approaching me is still you know unclear and you know going back and forth and like constantly changing and all those things that to a point that I feel kind of uncomfortable and I feel like I've been overthinking about it or rather it's on my mind all the time then that's when I make that decision that okay right it's maybe great money on the table maybe for you it's like you know it's great salary or whatever but if you have truly done everything

and you feel like you know this is not what I want to put up with I think it's actually okay to choose your mental health because if you have peace of mind if you are joyful if you have peace of mind, if you are joyful, if you are comfortable, if you are optimistic, then I truly believe that the money will come later. So that's definitely the first lesson that I've learned this year. On to lesson number two, which is if you are saving time, you are also saving money. This is unfortunately a concept that we tend to forget a lot. And I wouldn't say that it's like I don't know that time is more important than money I think everyone can say that they know okay you know I know time's more important than money but I think the problem is that we tend to forget

and try to want to fix something what happened to me this year was I think I spent a lot of time trying to figure out different platforms and like different social media because obviously you know I create content as a career coach to share my knowledge to share my experience so forth and I'm active across different social media platforms I mean not all that I'm that great in but it's a process and I guess a lot of time spent to learn but I think something that I forgot and it's something that kind of like popped up a lot later in the year was the amount of time that I've spent trying to figure out all these things. It's just a lot of money, I guess, like opportunity cost that's foregone. That's foregone. So sometimes if

someone can actually help you out by pointing you in the right direction, letting you know the mistakes that you are making and really what's the next few steps ahead for you to avoid the potholes and so forth then that's actually a lot of time saved and equals a lot of money saved and i actually think that um i wish i would have actually got some i guess consultation on my own which i eventually did but i think i did not do it as early as possible. I think that would have really saved me a lot of time instead of tinkering around and probably bring in more opportunities on my end. So I think that's something

that I definitely want to do better next year, which is really taking note of like, how can I truly save time? And if I go to an expert who can help me save time and help me figure out something faster, then I'm going to do that because time saved equals money saved. And that leads us perfectly to lesson number three, which is effectiveness is more important

than efficiency. Doing the right thing is more important than doing the things fast. If you're doing something really fast, but you are basically driving a car, for example, in the wrong direction, then that's just a lot of wasted time, effort, money, mental sanity, all of that is really a waste of time. So really remembering that how to get the best results and being effective in getting that result, I think is really a useful reminder. And I also personally found myself this year, you know, rushing to do something fast, but at the end of the day sometimes forgetting as to like why am I doing this in the first place like what what is that

big goal you know I think it's quite common I don't you know even in students who join my program the corporate survivor whether they are 20 years old 30 years old 40 years old 50 years old I think that you know regardless of which career level that you're at is natural i think it's quite normal to sometimes forget that effectiveness in getting results hitting kpis is really more important than doing something repeatedly and like doing it fast but really not achieving anything so this was actually a conversation that i had with one of my new students in our one-on-one career strategy call and by the way if you enroll then you will get that free career call with me. But anyway, back to that conversation I was having with one of my new students

in the Corporate Survivor, where she was telling me that she feels like she has very poor time management skills and therefore, you know, she's unable to be efficient, right? So she's putting in a lot of effort. She's, you know, working a very long hours and like

all the time but it's not getting better right but the end of the conversation is that she realized right through you know conversations that we had she realized that she has no clarity on what exactly she needs to do she has an idea but an idea is not good enough so what i told her is that she needs to redo module one of the corporate survivor where we actually go through aligning roles and responsibilities and identify your exact KPIs and manager's expectation to really make sure that you are focused on effectiveness. Now on to lesson number four, choose your pain. These three words, choose your pain, might sound a bit counterintuitive, but I think it's really important to recognize that there will always be some struggles.

There will always be some challenges. There will always be some problems because, you know, it's your career journey, right? It's like not everything is going to be perfect. Nor I think you should think that things should be perfect. So, you know, choosing your pain and like being clear on like what your career goal is and like going all out on it, I think really allows you to really focus on this is my decision, right? I decided to commit and like give it a full 100% shot in this role

and I'm going to make sure that the next 6 months, 12 months, I'm going to give it 100%. So yes, there may be some be some you know growth pains and like you know some learning curve and so forth but choose your pain because if you wanna like you know zoom over life perfectly i don't think that really exists and this is also something that i noticed in myself like probably during the middle of the year i was more like well i don't want to do this because it's too painful i don't want to do this because it's too painful. I don't want to do that because, you know, I don't know how to do this, A, B, C, D, E. But I think at the end of the day, it's like you're just lying to yourself because at the end of the day, like I said, you know, challenges will always be there. Struggles will always be there.

But choose your pain. Choose your goal. Choose your goal. Choose your achievement. Choose what success means to you. And then, yeah, choose your pain pain which then goes without saying in lesson number five that success requires some kind of sacrifices so for those people who come to me and say that hey mayping you know i want everything to be perfect and i think that you know i don't want to work as hard as other people i don't want to do this i don't want to do that i don't want to do every single thing but i want to be successful but i want to make a lot of money. I want a high position. I want to work in a great company. I want to get a great package, A, B, C, D, E. Guys, it doesn't exist. And like I said earlier, right, success requires some kind of sacrifices, but if you're choosing the right pain, you're choosing the right goal, and you feel

committed to it, and you are dedicated and really giving it your full 100%, then success is on its way, right? Don't think, you know, the day that you plant the seed is not the day that the tree will grow. You may have heard of this cliche before, but I think sometimes we tend to forget about it. So just remember that the effort that you're putting in right now, that will materialize. Only if you're consistent, only if you're willing to sacrifice, maybe a little bit of playtime, maybe the extra bit of time to improve your knowledge, maybe the extra bit of time to sign up for a program, go through the lessons, extra bit of time to attend a mentoring call, to attend a group workshop, right?

All these are little sacrifices and I don't mean sacrifice in a bad way, but you can also sacrifice for your goals. You can also sacrifice to provide a better life for your family. You can also sacrifice to fulfill your potential. But I think that decision is up to you. And whatever the version of success means to you, then are you willing to give that little bit of sacrifice to achieve a better life? On to lesson number six. And that is, if you are learning new perspectives,

that opens up possibilities. You now can see possibilities and things that you did not know you could actually do before. This formula of perspectives equals possibilities was actually something that came about my conversation with one of my new core students to the Corporate Survivor. And for this particular student, it was very funny. He actually dropped me a message on LinkedIn

asking me more details about the program, the career course. And eventually he signed up, which I'm super grateful for. A week after he signed up, like after seven days, he dropped me a message again. And he said that, hey, Meiping i have um been going through module one and i am very thankful because there are so many lessons in that that so many different perspectives that i didn't even know that it's there so now i feel like more committed i feel more fulfilled and the most important things that i now see possibilities on all these actions that i can

take and i no longer feel as trapped and i really want to thank you so there was a message that truly made my day and I think you know that gave me the inspiration for the perspectives equals possibilities and I think that sometimes right you know a lot of people don't really see this part and I think as a career coach nowadays I hear that a lot like for example sometimes when people come to me and say hey maybe why should i um why should i work with a career coach you know all these things i can find online or whatever whatever or i can fix it myself i'm like okay great right you can find all the action steps maybe but what you may be lacking is perspectives because if you're actually working with a coach that has proper corporate world experiences career successes who has climbed the career ladder

what you are actually getting is perspectives because you know at that career level that you are at right now you may not see problems you may not foresee challenges and you may not really know how to you know for the long term find a solution that doesn't create more problems in the future. So that's really the perspective that you are gaining from working directly with a career coach or joining a career program that's designed for a corporate professional like you. And that's really what my clients get, what my students get in the Corporate Survivor, which is my career training and mentoring program. Now, moving on to point seven, which is kind of related to what I was saying earlier, and that is, I cannot help people who do not want to be helped. Now, we all may have this misconception that, oh, if you see someone who

is struggling, we should always help them. Well, I think that's 99% true, but I think through my experiences of talking to people in my community, talking to people online and just hearing like a lot of comments across my different social medias, I think that reaches a point that, you know, you come to the realization that like, okay, for me, I may want to help everybody. I may think that, you know, I can help certain people, particularly struggling corporate professionals, because that's what I do. But recognizing the fact that not everybody actually wants help. And I give a very clear example. Now, there are a lot of people who have been following me for a very long time. And maybe that's you. Maybe you have been following me

or, you know, listening or watching to the podcast for months and even for years. But the real question is that why have you still, you know, chosen to get stuck where you are? Why are you still struggling? Why have you not reached out? Why have you not joined a webinar? Why have you not joined a course or a program? So that's really the question that, you know, I started thinking this year. Because at the beginning of the year, there's this one thing that bugged me for a long time.

I'll be like, why all these people are, you know, you're struggling at work, struggling at work you don't have to you feel low confidence which you don't have to feel that way but what's actually stopping them from like actually reaching out for help and actually you know investing in their own you know personal development and investing in their own career i'm like why why why why why but then i realized why that's because some people you know if they're not ready to be helped then you know I can't help them and I shouldn't feel bad about it but I do think that you know I hope that with the free resources you can find it helpful and it does help you move bits and pieces forward but just recognize that you know if you have been struggling for more than three to six months that that's actually an indicator that like you need to get like real help you need to join a very specific

program that will help you resolve your problems if it's in the corporate world that's something that i do in my program or you need to go and speak to an expert so that you can have that breakthrough and find that next step that works for you i hope that you know you you find that courage to get out of that bucket of always observing, always watching free content, always, you know, hoping for some magic to happen, but actually not, you know,

taking the tangible steps to move towards your own success. And I think that's something that's really important. So the next time I hear from you or I see you, I hope that, you know, I'm hearing some stories from you

telling me how you have decided to move out of your fears like get rid of your fears and take that one step at a time towards career development and i hope that you no longer stay stuck where you are and that brings us perfectly to lesson number eight and that's protect your inner peace now as i said you know i may want to help every single person, but I cannot do that unless that person truly wants to be helped. And if I continue to put myself out there, I will eventually burn out and my mental health, mental peace, inner peace, everything is going to be gone. So, you know, it's a realization for me. And like I said, right, I do still have people who sometimes

come to me asking for paid advice for free, or they really want me to give, to tell them exactly what I teach my students who invested in themselves in their program, which really cannot be the case. So I took that decision to say, hey, you know, there are multiple options and, you know, the things that you get for free, you know, that's kind of like how it is. But for my students who invest in a program, proper professionals who invest to learn the three-step framework with me and get mentoring, then that's really what they're going to get. So I think, you know, having that differentiation

of like knowing that, you know, I'm providing a lot of value in my free content, whether it's my newsletter, my podcast, my blog, and a lot of people actually come to me telling me that that's like a lot more value than some other people teach in their courses but what I'm saying is that knowing that I have free resources that can help you out and also have a paid program for my students and clients who are willing to invest in themselves I think that realization actually helped me give me more inner

peace of saying no because it's okay to say no. And, you know, you may feel bad about saying no. And this, you know, in your context could be, you know, somebody asking you to, you know, some colleague is asking you to do their work for them and you feel really bad and stuff like that. But knowing that, you know, you've done your best, that's like kind of not your job. And, you know, you can offer help in a limited basis or you know you don't necessarily have to do like someone else's work if that makes sense so anyway anyway why all this thing is important that will lead us to lesson number nine is that setting boundaries is basically choosing yourself so if you don't choose yourself and you burn out trying to help people who may want to take advantage of you, you burn out trying to like give, give, give, give, give, give everything,

but you don't really think about yourself or you don't really take care of yourself or, you know, you give, give, give, give, give. And eventually you are the person who turns out being unfair. Now, imagine if I'm giving the exact same thing to people who ask me for free stuff versus people who choose to invest in their own career development, invest in my program, then, you know, I think, I don't think that's good boundaries. And I also think that's maybe potentially unfair. So I think, you know, while we want to be good and be nice and be fair to everyone, but I think sometimes a good question is to ask, you know, whether are you being fair to yourself right is this the right thing to do right because sometimes you know you don't really have to win everything but like you know choosing boundaries

and like setting it the right way will give you that peace of mind and will remind you that you have value and you matter too now moving on moving on to lesson number 10, and this is really one of my biggest struggles this year, is how consistency is so underrated. Consistency is something so important, but I think a lot of people are unable to do it, and, you know, me included. And I think that's really one of the biggest challenge in people out there who want a better life,

a better career, or better business. Because, you know, it's actually quite easy to start something, but it's not easy to be consistent. So, you know, that's also a struggle. As I said, I did also experience this year. This year, I started a lot of new stuff. Like, I started a newsletter, right? I tried to revamp the podcast.

I bought a bunch of new equipment. I tried to work on YouTube. I tried to, like, work on my writing. So, so, so, so many things that at the end of the day, what I notice is that sometimes, you know, I skip some podcast episodes, which I'm not happy about. I skip some posting times. I skip certain blog posts, which I'm not happy about.

So a real lesson for me, you know, next year, and it's really something I seriously want to work on is staying consistent, right? If I say I'm going to do something, then I seriously want to work on is staying consistent right if I say I'm going to do something that I'm going to do it because I'm going to hold myself accountable and I really want to be responsible because I feel like every time I skip something or end up not doing something that the next time I have to do it it's very painful like for example and I want to be honest here for today's podcast episode it took me a very long time to record this episode the reason is because i have not recorded an episode for more than four weeks so the the fact that i have to set up the microphone and i do all the settings

feels very foreign and it feels it feels like just you know something that i haven't done in a long time and just like think about the last time you know you try to do something that you haven't done in a long time like that's not a good feeling and that's exactly how i feel right now um so therefore consistency is definitely something i want to work on next year and you know consistent across all my social media platforms meaning that if i say a podcast is once a week it's freaking coming out once a week and if a newsletter is like every day or like every other day, then it's definitely going to happen. And I'm going to make an effort to make it happen.

So I hope that, you know, you also take this consistency lesson as well. So if you want to do something, you want to improve on the skill, like make it happen. And I've also been telling all my core students as well that commit the time to go through the lesson. So you sign up for the Corporate Survival Program, perfect. But are you watching the lessons? Are you learning the strategies?

Are you learning the method? And are you attending the monthly group mentoring call? Because that's all those things that will keep your career development progressing and keeping you consistent and reminding you and keeping you responsible and accountable to get the results that you wanted which is why you sign up for the program why you sign up for the course because you want results right and that's really something you know like I said reminded for myself reminded for my students and if you are you know watching or listening to this episode right now I hope that you really think about the things that you want to make more consistent in your life and truly make it happen because it will really make a really big difference in your career in the future. And that brings us to lesson number 11.

And it's something I talk about a lot, which is staying stuck is a choice. You are not a tree, so move. And one thing that really irks me, okay, I don't want to be like too judgmental or anything, but something that really irks me personally, because, you know, I'm an action taker, like not every day, obviously, consistency problems, hashtag, but, you know, generally I'm an action taker. So what really annoys me and really keeps me like so frustrated

is hearing people who just, you know, accept that they are stuck. They say things like, oh, you know, too bad. I don't think anything can change. Oh, I've tried. Oh, you know, accept that they are stuck. They say things like, oh, you know, too bad. I don't think anything can change. Oh, I've tried. Oh, you know, it's really bad. Oh, I don't know. Blah, blah, blah. It's someone's problem.

A, B, C, D, E, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now, I don't like to listen to any of those things and neither should you. Because once you accept that version of yourself who always gives excuses, who always, you know, play the victim and always wants to be stuck, you know, play the victim and always wants to be stuck, you will never get out of it. So, and like, I don't think that's a good mindset to have.

I don't think that's a good personality to have. And I also don't think it's a very good behavior to have. So if you are someone who has been struggling at your work for months, you are struggling to adapt to your new job your new career new company new industry and you have not done anything about it for months besides finding excuses procrastinating complaining that i hope that i want to remind you that you are not a tree so please move even if it's one step take that one step that one step could be hey mayping i need help any suggestions any podcast episodes hey mayping i need help. Any suggestions, any podcast episodes? Hey, Mayping, I need help.

How can your program help? Hey, Mayping, how can I join the group mentoring program? Hey, Mayping, what can I learn from the program? Hi, Mayping, how do I enroll? Example, next step is the point, right? You are not a tree, so please move. Because if you are stuck in this mindset of like complaining and excuses, then like it doesn't matter if it's like this year,

next year, next, next year, next, next year, next, next year. You will always find yourself in this situation because it's a mindset problem. It's a behavior problem. So I don't want you to be this person because honestly, I've never met a successful person who complains all the time. So stop being a complainer and move because you are not a tree. Moving on to lesson number 12. Don't spend time with people who only come to you when they need something. No thank you, goodbye. So this is personally something I experienced a lot this year. As I said, this year I've been a little bit more out there. I've been spending more time on multiple different social media platforms with my content, sharing my knowledge, corporate world and so forth so with that you know i receive a lot

of emails and like contact from people for collaborations and so forth but one thing that you know i make it a rule in the people that i work with and so forth is okay if we have you know made an agreement on how certain things are going to work then i expect like both parties to actually adhere to it, right? Versus, you know, someone who only comes to me when they need something from me and then when I ask something from them, then they just disappear.

So of course, a lot of these things can be resolved with communication. But I think what I'm saying is that, you know, noticing a pattern, I think it's really important. And obviously that's something that we kind of go through a lot in my program as well.

How do you learn about different people's personality and kind of identify patterns but the main point is that people who come to you who only when they need something like those are not your friends okay those are not exactly people that you may want to build a long-term relationship with because guess what they don't care about you and therefore you don't really need to feel too bad to um yeah maybe ignore them a little bit so that's just you know my perspective based on the stuff that i've seen and you know i will also say that you know i've also broken up some collaboration partnerships with certain people this year because you know like i said right when they wanted something oh maybe can you do abcde for me like immediately but you know when it's the other way around then like

it's just mia which i think is not cool and i don't really want to associate people like that and maybe that's something that you feel as well maybe there's something happening in your workplace and you know how do you kind of set boundaries if you can ignore perfect but otherwise how can you communicate and like stay away as much as possible I think that's going to do a lot for your mental health and inner peace. Next is lesson number 13, and that is jealousy does not bring you anywhere. Now, remember what I was telling you about people who are finding excuses, procrastinating, but at the same time, spending a lot of time stalking people on LinkedIn, stalking people on social media, looking at people's successes,

and then complaining to their friends about it. Now, that's all signs of jealousy. I think it's okay to kind of look around and see what your peers are doing. I think that's fine. I mean, I look around sometimes, but you know, the fact that you start to feel jealous of different people's successes and, you know, start maybe bringing them down or starting to say things like, you know, they don't deserve it or like, oh, how can this person be a manager? He's too young. Or how can this person be a director? I don't think he's good enough. Like, I think the moment you start saying stuff like that, it's a sign of jealousy. And I think, I don't think jealousy is a good, a good mindset or rather a feeling or perception to have on other people. And sometimes I guess, you know, we may

not necessarily feel that we are jealous, but behavior does tell. guess, you know, we may not necessarily feel that we are jealous, but behavior does tell. And, you know, at the end of the day, I don't think jealousy will bring you anywhere because what's happening is that your focus is always on that person. Your focus is on that person and not on yourself. And how can you actually improve your career?

It's by focusing on yourself. So your focus and target is on the wrong person okay so if you are someone who's feeling a little bit jealous of some people out there and i don't need to say who because when you're listening or watching to this episode right now i'm sure a single person has popped up in your mind so that's that person that you are jealous of, then just forget about them. Focus on you. Forget about them. Focus on you. What can you do? And this perfectly brings us to lesson number 14, and that is action is more important than ambition. Action trumps ambition. Because I have met thousands of people out there who tell me that, oh yeah, I want to become this person, that person by next year. I want to get promoted. I want to make more money. I want to get recognized. I want

to move to a new company. I want a new job, A, B, C, D, E. 99% of them have not done anything about it except complain, right? Or, you know, they talk about it on social media like it's a big thing, but they have not done anything about it. So it is the action takers with a little bit of faith and learning the right strategy from the right person with a little bit of faith are the people who are actually making progress and i think that's also one thing that i tell students in my course a lot and in a way is a reason also why i'm giving six months of free group mentoring for any corporate professional who join my program the corporate survivor and the reason is because you may not feel easily motivated, okay?

Taking action is very annoying. I know that, right? Taking action is really annoying. But if you have the support of other people, if you're knowing that other people in similar situations like you, right? Corporate professional

working in a 9-5 job, right? They have bosses, they have roles and responsibilities, they have, you know, they're in a company, right? They're working in a 9-5 job, right? They have bosses, they have roles and responsibilities, they have, you know, they're in a company, right? They're working in an organization. They are also taking action. They are also looking at the course,

the lessons, taking action. They are also facing struggles, but more importantly, they are learning how to take action to overcome the struggles. And I think that, you know, by participating in group mentoring programs, I think it kind of gives you

an extra bit of spark to actually want to take action because like i said you know i understand right action you know taking action is like not it's like the not fun part right the fun part is like you know scrolling on social media that's fun like the fun part is like reading content that's fun okay but doing it's not fun i know that so that's why i'm saying that if you want to be that one%, or maybe not 1%, maybe being that 5% of people who are action takers and one step every day

and attending and committing to group mentoring calls every single month, you will go further than like 95% of the people out there. I have never met a single person who is lazy, but has been super,

super duper successful. I've never met a person like that so stop you know tying that image of success for you know if you don't take action then you're not going to make more money you're not going to get promoted like that's not gonna happen so action over ambition and if there's one thing you take away in today's podcast so far then i hope that it's going to be that good now moving on to the next lesson and that's lesson number 15 which is the first step to self-improvement is recognizing that you don't know everything now have you met a person who thinks that they know everything

how annoying is that person and do you truly think that that person is growing and improving every single year i don't think so the reason is because if you already know everything, then how are you still going to grow? Because you already know everything, right? You're already the smartest person in the room and you will never grow if you feel that you're the smartest person in the room. And definitely this is something that I notice a lot

because as you all know, my main program that I'm running right now is the Corporate Survivor Career Course, which covers the three-step framework on how to grow a career confidence and survive in the corporate world that's the main program however I do ad hoc one-on-one career consultations as well so these are 60-minute power hour sessions and one thing I did notice as a trend in some of the new clients who come to me is all about they already know everything but i'm talking to a coach to get a new perspective it's quite strange right do you see the irony in this situation

is you know as i always say you know if you choose to go to a mentor you go to an expert go to a coach then make sure that you the mindset is really important yes you may have an idea of like what's going on but it's really about getting a second opinion, isn't it? Which is why, you know, if you go to a doctor, then you, if you really know everything, then why would you go to a doctor, right? So it's the same as like, if you go to an expert, like I said, right, then make sure that you're also open to listen to the other perspectives that are being offered and really, really think about whether, okay, is this really your situation? And really, what can you do with that perspective and advice because that's how

you grow and that's how you continue to improve so if you are currently you know in your career right now whether you're working three years five years or ten years and you feel like you already know everything then my question to you is that what are you going to do in the next um i don't know like 20 30 years i don't want you to be a bitter corporate professional because that's not what life is but what i'm what i am saying is that you know career development is a step-by-step thing right self-development personal development is a step-by-step thing actually brings you a lot of joy it brings you a lot of um learnings a lot of insights and i think a lot of fulfillment as well knowing that you are growing

as a person year on year right or maybe it's month on month month of month year on year i think that's something actually quite fulfilling but i think that you know i have met some people for sure i mean there are not many of them i've actually worked with but i've definitely met a lot of people online that think that they know every single thing. And the fascination I've always had is like, okay, if you really know every single thing, then why are you asking all these questions? Because you already know everything, right? So as I said, it's not a good mindset to have. It's not a growth mindset. I would say that that's an egoistical mindset. And I hope that you kind of like don't take that on board because it will truly destroy your career and now moving on to lesson number 16 is success will flow in once you start believing in yourself

now imposter syndrome is something that plagues a lot of corporate professionals no matter how how smart you are how good you are you're a top performer and so forth right i have seen these people that you think are the top of their field, like the people that you admire in your office or in your company, they have imposter syndrome too. So in fact, this year, I actually ran an imposter syndrome workshop for accountants and you would not believe the number of people who feel imposter syndrome, even though they have the right certification, they have the right qualification, but, you know, feelings of self-belief

and self-confidence is a very important, it's very important for you to believe that you can do a job well done, right? If you don't believe in that, it doesn't matter, like, how skilled you are, it's not going to help, right? But I will say that I think a lot of people actually don't know how to improve that confidence, and I'll give you a very quick tip here, is taking action, learning and implementing the skill so you improve on it. So by taking action, getting better, you will naturally build that confidence. And that's why even in my program, The Corporate Survivor, when I say grow your career confidence, a lot of the things I teach are also helping you to find clarity, helping you to align

expectations, helping you to improve your skill set, how to talk to people and all these things because all these are the core foundation that will help you develop inner confidence. Confidence is not about like shouting you know rah rah rah and like giving yourself motivational pep talk like that maybe works for an hour or so but it does not work in the long run so what truly works in the long run and how to truly develop self-belief and self-confidence is to take action and start improving your skills the more you you see you can do it yourself with limited help with without victim mentality is where you truly develop that inner self-confidence that nobody can take away

from you as i always say right i don't believe in like this magic hacks but if you truly develop that inner self-confidence that nobody can take away from you. As I always say, right, I don't believe in like this magic hacks, but if you truly follow the method that I teach, the step-by-step, you will develop that inner confidence that nobody can take away from you. Doesn't matter if it's this job, next job, next industry, no one can take away from you.

You will become more, you'll be a more enriched and valuable corporate professional. That's why in lesson number 17 i say negative self-talk is your biggest self-sabotage because um sometimes you know it's not that other people are sabotaging you as much it's not other people gossiping about you to be honest but it's what is what you are saying to yourself like what's in between like your two ears is usually the biggest problem so really ask yourself right what kind of like negative self-talk that you are saying to yourself, like what's in between like your two ears is usually the biggest problem. So really ask yourself, what kind of like negative self-talk

that you are telling yourself that you're not good enough and yeah, we need to get rid of them through action, through perspective and so forth. And this is also a struggle that I struggle with this year, which is after doing ABCDE, doing every single thing,

wanting to like win in every single thing, but losing momentum is when usually the negative self-talk comes in so take some time off reset go and get a different perspective go and talk to a mentor go and talk to a coach and usually you're able to at least like reset because don't let yourself fall down to that downward black hole spiral it's gonna take a long time to get out of it. Now, a lot of people ask me, like, Mei Ping, you know, is it better to, like, course correct or is it better to, like, reset? And I say that it really depends

because, you know, if you're trying to reset everything after, like, going down the black hole, then I'm going to tell you that it's a more difficult journey. But if you are progressing and you start seeing that, you know, you are deviating, something's kind of not going right, and then getting help then, getting support, getting advice, is usually a much better way because you're like not like retracking, like, you know, restarting the whole thing, but you're just like,

okay, let's just take a mini pause and like, I'm a bit lost. I don't know what the heck I'm doing right now. And let me go and get some proper advice so that I can like course correct a bit and then just move on it's kind of thinking about like if you were to drive a car course correcting is kind of like okay i drove to a certain point right i'm a bit lost let me take out a map versus restarting as in like okay you go all the way in the wrong direction doing the wrong thing and then now your car has a puncture right your tires have punctured now you're resetting and then you're like trying to fix every single thing and isn't that a little bit more painful so that's why you know negative

self-talk from time to time i don't think we can control it but i think what's more important is kind of recognizing where you are and also getting help at the right time because that will help a lot and that brings us to point number 18. And I think this is an opposite of negative self-talk and it's all about having a big ego. A big ego is very detrimental to your career. It's very similar to what we talked about earlier, which is knowing everything.

Now, a big ego is basically someone who cannot take a different opinion and always think that they are right and always want things to be done their way and maybe think that they are way smarter than their department head or way smarter than the big boss or the CEO because, you know, why can't all these people listen to me? Now, if you have this sort of mentality, I'm going to tell you that if you happen to be very junior in your career, you are going to face

a lot of career pain in the future. But if you're a little bit more senior in your career and you're looking for career change, having that kind of mindset actually is not good for you and it will actually stop you from good opportunities out there. So if you feel that you already know everything and you know you're not willing to learn something new, now I'm not saying restart, but I'm saying that if you're not willing to learn something new, if you're not willing to reset the parts that are off or you're not ready to work on your soft skill weaknesses your people skill weaknesses right all these are detrimental stuff detrimental stuff it just means that you know what got you here is not going to get you there right your big the fact that you got here or rather at this at this point that created the big ego is actually not going to allow you to get

to the next level and this is actually something i see in a lot of people who are probably stuck at the managerial level and they're asking me oh maybe how do i get to director and when i analyze their situation and offer some suggestions what i hear is that oh no you know i don't want to restart like i can't i don't want to be in a role where i'm not a team leader i don't want to be in a role where i can't i can't manage 10 people i'm like okay like that's that's ego speaking okay that's not that's not career opportunities a role where I'm not a team leader. I don't want to be in a role where I can't manage 10 people. I'm like, okay, like that's ego speaking, okay? That's not career opportunities mindset. That's like, okay, I have a freaking big ego and I can't accept everything else because I'm that good. So I think, you know, that's a dangerous situation to be in because you are not thinking about your

career in the long term and that may be actually affect your career in the future. So really think about this lesson. And this brings us perfectly to lesson number 19 and that is not everyone is a right fit for you you may want to get along with everyone but some people they are just not for you so what i mean by that is sometimes right we may again want to try to help someone we may want to work with someone we may think that this company is the best fit but sometimes it may be the case that it's just not the right fit regardless of everything that you have tried so one personal example that i could think of is as i said you know i'm very active on social media and very often some of the dms i receive on linkedin and instagram are from people who are actually very interested to join my program they're very

interested to work with me and usually questions that are asked relating to the program, I will answer and give some perspectives on how the program can help. But I sometimes get LinkedIn or Instagram DMs from people who want me to overhaul and completely change my program to fit his or her requirements. All the career successes I've had so far is using the three-step framework that I teach in The Corporate Survivoror and even the career opportunities that I've attracted are through the 30-day job search which is lifetime access in the program. So that stuff is not

changing because why should I change the success formula, right? The method works because I've made it work and I've taught hundreds of clients to make it work as well. So that method stays, So that's what you're going to get when you join the program. If you're someone who is kind of like looking for something a little bit different, but you don't know what it is, then yeah, maybe one-on-one career consultation, like a one-time consultation may be helpful for you to get a bit of perspective. But you know, for me to like continue to change my program, I don't think that's going to happen. And that brings us perfectly to lesson number 20. And that is burnout happens when you cannot say no. So by trying to help everyone, eventually you're not helping anyone in the long run. And this is really a lesson that, like I said, I have to learn myself this year because for

a very long time, I've always been like back and forth and like, you know, think about it, overthink, extra think, A, B, C, D, E. When, you know know someone's asking me for a certain kind of help and i learned to say no no no it's not no it's not a bad word saying no is not a bad word but people make it out to be because sometimes maybe people are trying to guilt trip you and you do not deserve that i think that's why you know self-love is a bit of a theme this year for me is because over time I realized that you know we are all getting older my parents are getting older you know I'm also getting older people around me are getting

older and at the end of the day you know you really want to focus and spend some more time with your family spend some more time with your loved ones and you know not let you know work overwhelm you too much and you know sometimes for some of the some of the new students who join my program I tell them that hey you know not everybody is looking for career growth and if career growth is not for you that's fine you know you can also still choose your family and it will still help you by working more efficiently working more effectively hitting your kpis better so that you can actually go home and spend quality time with your family so if you're someone who is struggling and working late all the time stressed out all the time oting all those things i don't think that's a really good environment for you to even want to think or care with your family care

about your family because like you know mentally you're kind of like not there as well so that's why i'm saying that like okay growth growth can mean different things to different people. Growth can also mean that like, hey, you know, I want more work-life balance and I want to grow my efficiency and effectiveness so that I can go back, spend time with my family. And I can only do that if I am able to feel calm and deliver the work that's required of me within working hours. And that could be a very very very solid career goal too and that's perfectly fine and wrapping up the 22 lessons that i learned in 2022 and it's all about you are your own superhero if you don't care about your career don't expect that others will the first step the

first action always comes from you these are definitely 22 lessons that i will take to heart this year as well as apply as I plan to supercharge my own career next year and I hope that you can take these lessons to supercharge your career in the next 365 days. So let me know in the comments or drop me a message on LinkedIn or Instagram and let me know which of all these 22 career lessons you relate with the most, you resonated with, and which are the ones that you are going to truly take action in the next year. So I look forward to hearing from you and if you are a new student who has enrolled in the program or an existing student in the

Corporate Survival Career course, I will see you in our group mentoring sessions next month. So I've already released the dates for next year's group mentoring sessions and those are usually on Saturdays. So if you're already enrolled in the program, make sure that you check your emails. I've already sent you guys the emails, bookmark it. And if you're interested in the program, you can always visit www.thecorporatesurvivor.co and I look forward to seeing you in the program

and helping you to supercharge your career. Till then, you have done amazing this year and next year will be even better. So till then, see done amazing this year and next year will be even better so till then see ya bye