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I’ve received a bunch of requests for more career building tips and have come up with a pretty good little list of absolute essentials. This isn’t a comprehensive, end-all-be-all magical recipe for success. There isn’t one. Nothing’s going to beat good, old fashioned, hard work by any stretch. Think of this as a guide with 10 things you should include into your life to more effectively elevate your career and improve your success as a creative professional.

1. Sharpen Your Craft
Keeping up with your craft is extremely important. Learn new techniques, play with new programs, experiment with new and different mediums, and push yourself to expand your services. Devote an hour a day exclusively to developing your craft. And no, working on a project does not count. This time should only be used for development and should not be tied to the restrictions inherent in a work project.

2. Be Confident
A huge part of being successful as a creative professional is purely due to character. It’s easier to trust someone who has a positive, radiant, energetic, and self-assured personality. Your skills and business ethic will only take you so far. It’s your personality that’s going to take you the rest of the way.

3. Learn to Handle Praise
A lot of creative people have problems with compliments. For some reason, they tend to feel self-concious and uncomfortable when a good word comes our way. Take them for what they are, appreciate them and never, ever apologize for your work. The last thing you should do is say something like, “thanks, but it’s not that great,” or, “nah, it sucks, I could do better.” Ditch the self-loathing and always respond with something more positive like, “I’m glad you like it, thanks!”

4. Learn to Handle Criticism
Criticism should never be taken personally. Always learn from it and use it as a tool with which you can grow into bigger and better things. In my previous essay, I cover this topic in a bit more detail.

5. Constantly Deliver
Always deliver on every single thing you promise. It will do wonders for your reputation, and will make others respect you for it. Not living up to your promises has a similar, yet opposite effect. Play it smart, be trustworthy, and never over-promise what you can’t see through to the end.

6. Communicate Clearly
As creative people, we’re in the business of communication. Whether we tell a story with words, photography, design, animation, advertising, marketing, comics, tattoos, or any other form of art- clear communication of our ideas is at the center of it all. Keep your message deliberate, efficient, lean, clear, and effective at all levels of your process, service, business, and product.

7. Manage Your Time
Nailing down a strict schedule is key to getting things done. Try and keep your daily, unchanging chores (like answering emails, promoting your business, skill exploration, and maintenance) at around the same times every day. Allow large enough blocks of time to each of your variable tasks to fully take advantage of your ‘groove,’ and maintain a calendar.

8. Research
Know your market. Read the trades, look at portfolios, track trends in style, and keep abreast of who’s doing what. Keep an ear to the ground for new and relevant software, tools, services, and toys. Read a few blogs. Listen to podcasts. Subscribe to newsletters. The more you know about what’s going on and how you can leverage that, the more dangerous you become to your competitors.

9. Keep in Contact
Good client relations should always be a top priority. If you haven’t heard from a client recently, consider calling them, just to have a short chat about what’s going on in their world. Also, maybe send some cool personalized postcards (with your brand and company info, of course) to some choice clients. The more you’re on their mind, the more work they’ll consider sending you.

10. Evolve Your Career
Always push your career into new areas. I started out as a print designer, but have done a lot of web, illustration, animation, motion graphics, and other related-but-different things for different people. If those jumps seem too large for you, try something more focused. Maybe you’ve done nothing but brochure and stationary design, but have some clients that may benefit from direct mail marketing pieces. Learn how to do new things and see what sticks. Chances are if you’re selling, someone will buy.