Some of you may or may not know that outside of social media, I actually have a full-time job that I enjoy a great deal even though there’s little to nothing in common with what I’m doing on here. My reflections this week and also the beginning of our new fiscal year that I wanted to share with you centered around what life taught me to become better at my job as a yield analyst and vice versa.
Yield, in simple terms, can be understood as optimizing returns. Regardless of professions, I believe that we should all be yield analysts of our own lives to make the best out of it. So how can we “yield” our lives?
First, we need to understand our product: who we are. There’s a saying that “trash in, trash out”, which means, in this case, we can only understand ourselves when we are honest with ourselves; otherwise, what we 'think' we know about ourselves is all either made up or meaningless.
I view our set of values as our product offerings, our presence as our UI, and our navigation through life as our UX. Yield is optimizing our lives based on what we have while researching and developing ourselves so that we can increase our value and constantly upgrade our products.
Yield requires strategic methodologies. We all have only 24 hours in a day, so we need to identify the top 20% that bring the highest returns to our lives and prioritize them. Daily routines are our opportunities to build a system that works for us and helps us maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of our actions in the long run.
Yield is not looking at other people’s products and changing ourselves accordingly, but seeking inspiration from others and incorporating them into our lives where they make sense. Simultaneously, by testing out what works / what doesn’t, we will be able to improve our product and pivot our strategy to adapt without compromising our core values.
Yield also requires lots of creative and out-of-the-box thinking. Improving original thinking starts with expanding our horizons and educating ourselves on matters that are beyond our immediate concerns. Even if doing so may appear to have nothing to do with optimizing, we will reap the benefits of it while cultivating our unique perspective — have the courage to go outside the usual limits to bring success home.
There will be many obstacles that get in our way, but it’s ok and only natural. The effectiveness of our yield is not determined by one or two days of performance because life is a continuous cycle of learning and practicing. Our life chart will have countless highs and lows, but the key is to keep it trending upwards.
Eyes on the target, but pulse on the progress. All the little improvements we make every day will add up and help us reach our target. It’s also important to note that no one can optimize themselves with complete autonomy. Yield requires extensive collaborations and interpersonal communications, so don’t hesitate to ask for help and seek support from others when in need.
Happy yielding! ;)