For important conclusions and decisions, it is necessary to exclude emotions

Introduce yourself in a few words..

I am Eli Dimova and for over 25 years I have been helping my clients as a consultant to develop their potential and business skills to achieve their goals.

How would you describe your career in a few words?

For me, it was very important for my education to be pragmatic, i.e. to reflect the reality in business, so after graduating in Sofia, I went to upgrade in England. After that, consecutively, upgrading.

What was the most important choice that shaped your path In?

My education at the beginning, and then the choice of companies I worked for before making the decision to create my own company.

What would you like to know at the beginning of your career, but no one told you?

I never asked myself this question at the beginning, but for the first time I asked it a few years after my company was already established – namely whether I would have started due to the difficult beginning. But the answer seemed to come by itself – I wouldn’t want to know anything in advance regardless of what the path would be.

How can a person understand which profession is suitable for them?

Some people understand it more easily than others as they are more goal-oriented. By trying out different activities, one can also reach a choice. But whatever one engages in, it must meet their personal criteria for professional and emotional realization and satisfaction.

Which skills according to Inyou will be key in the next 10 years?

First of all, we need to realize what the right attitudes are and cultivate or modify them if necessary, as even if we have the necessary skills with a sabotaging attitude, the result we are looking for may not be achieved. High levels of self-awareness and self-management, integrity, emotional resilience, proactivity, persistence, cultural awareness, social adaptability, critical thinking and problem-solving, adaptive communication, collaboration skills, and teamwork.

How to build a network of useful contacts without appearing interested?

By giving the necessary attention in a sincere way to every person you meet along your way and listening actively. If you are interested beyond that, just state it in an appropriate way.

What is the biggest mistake you have made in your career, and what did you learn from it?

I don’t think there is one “biggest” mistake, but I have made smaller mistakes and I consider it a mistake not to fully demand what was agreed, to compromise longer than necessary.

How to recognize a toxic work environment and when is it time to leave?

By the way you feel while communicating with your colleagues and after you leave work at the end of the day. Signs of a toxic environment are unfair and immature leadership behaviors, ineffective communication, lack of trust, lack of boundaries or overly flexible ones, lack of integrity and tolerating that, and other factors. A toxic environment affects emotional and mental health and leads to anxiety and stress, and can also lead to more serious health consequences such as depression and physical pain if one stays longer in such an environment. Each person has their own threshold of tolerance and they themselves assess when the discrepancy between their values, upbringing, ethics, morals, and beliefs and the environment should be interrupted.

What would you do differently if you could start over?

I wouldn’t change anything.

How to maintain motivation in moments of stagnation?

Motivation also drops, it cannot be maintained, but it can be restored and regenerated by allowing ourselves to experience the “stagnation”, not putting pressure on ourselves, connecting with our inner feelings and returning to ourselves to understand what the reason is. One of the most difficult skills for a person is to separate emotions from analysis, so I recommend training strategic patience to reach the right conclusions before proceeding. In the meantime, one can engage in pleasant and mentally beneficial activities such as regular walks in nature, favorite sports, or manual activities.

How to achieve a balance between professional and personal life?

Balance is not constant; every day we make decisions that bring us closer to or further away from it. The ability to establish personal priorities is crucial along with other skills such as assessment and preventive thinking and actions, positive thinking and emotional hygiene, setting boundaries, time management, purposeful communication, daily care for mental health, physical activity, and proper nutrition.

The feeling of this balance is highly individual. Combining career and ambitions with health care, leisure time, family, and spiritual development is very important for a person's sense of success, as well as for their influence on the people they interact with.

When is it time to change our career, not just the job?

We are increasingly observing diversification of the career path compared to the past. For me, this is logical and often a necessity that can have various reasons. The feeling of stagnation, exhaustion, the need for a restart, the need for new development, upgrading, curiosity can be some of the reasons for a change or diversification in the career path.

If you had to give just one piece of advice to people seeking success, what would it be?

The greatest success for me is when along your life path you manage to remain true to yourself through integrity and respect for the different, and achieve that inner harmony that gives you the privilege of feeling whole and one with the universe.

What is Inyour definition of a “successful career”?

When you work on what brings you satisfaction and receive returns in material and spiritual aspects that correspond to your perception of justice.