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by Jayaram V
Choosing the right job and doing what you love.
Do you like your job? Do you think that it adequately reflects your
inner needs? Does it add to your self-esteem? Does it help you realize your inner potential?
Do you like to stay in your work place or would love to leave it as often as possible?
Are you bored with the insipid routine, the inert environment and the dull challenges that your job offers to you?
Do you think it is in tune with your personality, your inner nature, your likes and dislikes, and your goals and aspirations ?
Think carefully.
Every one does not get a job of his choice. In life some times we do not get what we want. Some times life reminds us of the fact that we are mere mortals, that we cannot always guarantee success in our endeavors, and that we have to learn to cope and live with the problems of uncertainty and failure. This should never lead to despair, but to a more dynamic approach and attitude on our part to deal with it effectively.
If for some reason or the other you have not got a job of your choice, there is no need to despair. Adopt yourself to the environment and your job. Learn to appreciate its positive aspects. Perhaps it may not be a job of your dreams, but it may still give you enough scope for job-satisfaction and sense of achievement.
To be able to learn to like what you do is the secret most of the successful people are familiar with. It is the next best alternative you can follow when your job does not suit your temperament or was contrary to your expectations.
This is not an exercise in self-deception, but an attempt to adopt yourself to your environment. It is an exercise in dealing with your own prejudices and preferences. It is way of looking at the world and yourself with clarity of thought and clear objectivity.
This approach may not solve all your problems. It may not give you full satisfaction. But it is the second best option. It will keep you in good spirits and help you to get along with your circumstances.
So do your work with utmost diligence, a sense of detachment and a sense of responsibility, looking at the same time at every possible opportunity to achieve the position you wanted to attain in your life.
Remember the golden principle: it is not the outside world which determines your happiness or unhappiness but your internal reaction and attitude towards it. Control your responses and control your life, your happiness and your relationships.
If your are not happy with your job, do not blame others. Others cannot influence your life unless you give them the authority and opportunity to do so. Others cannot control your affairs unless you give them the permission to do so.
Accept the primary responsibility for your life and your circumstances without blaming your country, your school, the education system, the organization, your parents , teachers, or some other external agency.
When you make yourself completely responsible for all the events in your life, you start taking initiative, become proactive and will be able to find in yourself all the necessary solutions to your perplexing problems.
Keep learning continuously.
The world is changing at a such a pace that if you do not learn continuously, you will lose your competitive edge.
To remain in the saddle and perform successfully, you have to keep learning continuously. You have to keep your skills and knowledge in tune with the ever changing and ever growing demands of your job.
If you want to keep pace with the ever growing challenges and demands of your job, You have to keep polishing your skills and knowledge continuously. You have to be in tune with the times in which you live and with the people you interact with.
Remember, acquiring, developing and maintaining job skills is a continuous and never ending process. So keep on learning continuously.
Develop basic skills.
Analyze and ascertain what physical, mental, social and technical skills your job requires and practice them.
Know your weak and strong points and work out a suitable strategy to acquire them or improve them. Know what skills are required for your future assignments and develop them.
Do not be afraid of adapting yourself to change. Change is the substratum of modern life. Without change there is no progress. The only way you can handle change is by continuous learning.
Modern technology may some times bring in new problems and challenges. But do not be afraid of handling new gadgets and new processes. They are meant to facilitate your work not act as impediments.
Acquire job knowledge. There is no limit to the knowledge one can acquire about ones own job.
Decide what you want to be and what you would like to be in your profession.
Would you like to be rated as an expert in your field or a person of mediocre abilities ?
Decide now what you want to be.
If you want to become a specialist in your job, you must acquire comprehensive and specialized knowledge about your job.
Remember, job knowledge and qualifications give legitimacy to your experience and expertise and make you stand out as a real professional in your field. Develop your communication skills.
In today's world without communication skills, you cannot go far.
As a member of a team as well as a leader of a team you need to communicate well.
If you want to get along with your colleagues and superiors you need good communication skills.
If you want to convey your ideas or convince others you need communication skills.
In this age of communication and information, success is elusive without proper communication skills.
Your communication skills can sometimes even compensate your deficiencies and defects in other areas of your profession and help you present yourself adequately.
Communication skills and success thus go hand in hand. It is difficult to imagine one without the other.
Good communication skills involve both conveying and receiving information. It includes speaking and writing as well as listening and observing. A good communicator is a good listener and observe. He can communicate at the non-verbal level also quite effectively.
Therefore aim to become an expert in communication . Review the level of your communication skills and see how you can develop them further.
Work out a program of action to develop and improve your communication skills.
Be proactive.
A proactive person acts before others react. He acts before others prompt him to act.
He takes initiative and accepts responsibility.
He is generally in charge of his life and does not blame others for his difficulties and misfortunes.
He is sensitive to his environment and acts before a problem overwhelms him. He therefore rarely suffers from crisis
He is organized and looks ahead into the future to anticipate and forestall.
A pro active person is the most sought after person in every organization. He is the rare species whom superiors , seniors, colleagues and customers all like alike.
So become proactive. Take charge of your life and your career. Take initiative and do not wait for others reaction for you to act.
Do more than expected.
Do always more than what is expected of you.
Take extra interest, put in extra effort or add some value to what you have done which was not generally expected of you. Then see what happens.
You are surely going to reap rich rewards in your career for the extra efforts made by you. You will earn the appreciation of many and stand a better chance to succeed in your career than many who do not generally bother to go the extra mile.
If you do not get immediate attention or recognition, do not despair. Wait for it.
Be sure that some where some one will recognize it.
Some where some one will appreciate it.
And some day you will see the positive rewards of your past efforts pouring into your life.
Give always more than what is expected of you.
Make the extra effort that adds to your career the luster of excellence and perfection and distinguishes you as a person of extraordinary merit.
Remember most often the difference between an average performance and an outstanding performance is this extra effort only.
As you put in more in your work, you earn the right to receive more.
Life rewards you to the extent you are willing to make sacrifices and contribute to its richness.
The world is but a reflection of how you deal with it and with what attitude.
By doing more than what is expected of you are setting in motion the universal law of compensation. You will receive what you give. You reap the benefits of your own efforts.
You plant the seeds of greater happiness and greater success.
You open the doors to newer possibilities and greater rewards.
Surely this is the best and the easiest way to invite abundance into your life. Remember your success is always in proportion to the efforts made by you. Look for long term benefits.
In life there may not be immediate rewards for the good that you do. But what ever good actions you undertake to do, do not go in vain. Whether they come now or later, there are always rewards for whatever good that emanates from you.
Sometimes they may not be even apparent. But they do come, some times quite unexpectedly, in some guise or the other, along with other benefits or rewards.
One can always be wise and practical enough to take advantage of short term benefits. In fact most people do, going for the immediate and ignoring the long term rewards.
But if a choice is to be made, it is better to sacrifice the immediate for the sake of long term rewards. Long term benefits are qualitatively more satisfying and more enduring. They also impact our lives in many ways quite substantially and unexpectedly also.
Some times additional hours of work may have to be done in your office with no extra pay and no immediate reward.
Do it even if you feel that you are being exploited. Even if there are no immediate and apparent rewards.
By all means avoid feeling resentful or helpless.
Believe in the law of compensation and do not complain.
Do the job sincerely as if you are using an opportunity to work for your future success.
You may not get any immediate reward. You may not even see a long term reward.
But remember some one some where would be watching your performance. (Unless of course you are working in a decadent environment.)
Some one some where would be appreciating your efforts.
And may be in the long run it will bring you a much coveted promotion or a much sought after raise in the salary or some substantial reward or recognition.
Remember in this world all positive and constructive efforts create positive and constructive reactions.
This is as inviolable as the laws of physics, but requires complete faith and belief for it to be effective.
Know your expectations
Many of us lead ordinary lives because we have such poor expectation of ourselves !
Our expectations are limited by our fears and our own feelings of inadequacy.
If you want to be successful in your life, you should know first of all what you want to do with yourself, with your mental , physical and material resources.
You should know what you are capable of and what you can accomplish.
You should know your limitations and weaknesses. Where you can get hurt and where you can plod on relentlessly no matter what happens.
And you should also know what others expect from you.
By estimating what others are expecting from you, such as your seniors, your colleagues, your subordinates, your family and your customers, you can formulate a specific action plan to satisfy some of their expectations whose fulfillment is essential for the survival of your relationships with them and for your very survival in the organization.
Those that you cannot satisfy, you can always clarify them to others with reasons, with facts or with tact.
This will greatly help you to strengthen your relationships with one and all and also position yourself suitably in your organization. Attend to your family needs.
Your life is not a part of your job. But your job is.
Your success is shared by your family more than any one else. None would be happier to see you succeed than your immediate family.
But if success and preoccupation with the demands of your job wean you away from them none would be unhappier about it than them.
Because you are so much obsessed with success you have no right to ignore the needs and aspirations of your family members.
Any success that you achieve has to improve their lives qualitatively and quantitatively.
Other wise success would be a mere self-centered activity, without any meaning to any one except to yourself. Perhaps in the end it may not also mean anything to you. So why go to the extremes in the performance of your job?
To know where to stop and to what extent one can really go in ones profession is the art of moderation and the part of the holistic vision of life.
The purpose of doing a job is not to extinguish ones energies in its pursuit but to lead a complete life in which there is a place for everything and every thing remains in its place.
The wisdom to know that your life is not a part of your job but your job is, should become the guiding principle of your successful career.
Develop your own career plan.
Resolve where you would like to be after a few years.
Anticipate how you would like your life and profession to take shape finally.
What are your priorities and values in your life?
Exactly at what stage in your life would you like to shift gears?
Where would you like to invest your monies?
Where would you like to settle down?
How much money do you think you would require for your peaceful retirement?
One need not be very accurate in answering these questions or predicting ones future.
But they help you to have a vision of your future.
Answering them will help you to take on your future with confidence and zest. If you look ahead and plan your future in advance, you remain prepared for all eventualities. In that preparation lies your future security, especially when you need it most.
It helps you to organize your resources and activities around your future goals.
Be organized and systematic
Not only in your day to day work but in every thing you do you must organize your available resources.
It helps you save a lot of time and energy, besides giving you scope for improving your performance.
Organize your desk, papers and records meticulously.
Throw away or gift away the things you would not require or that have out lived their use.
Keep your list of priorities and things to do on daily and weekly basis and keep referring to them occasionally.
Organize your information. Keep notes, telephone lists, address lists and so on. Create a good filing system. Maintain back ups in case of emergencies.
Keep a schedule of meetings and appointments.
As far as possible clear the day's work on the same day so that you are free from accumulation of pending work and your mind is ready to face the next day's challenges. .
Virtue is still relevant and important.
Virtue is still an important asset and an essential ingredient in the successful life of a present day professional.
The world might have changed greatly, and with it many things, but the old values of integrity and honesty still count in the present day world also.
Without morality, success offers little comfort. While the end is important, the means are also still very relevant.
He who ignores them does so at his own peril. Shortcuts and dishonest means bring in the end only misery.
The principles of honesty, fairness, integrity and trustworthiness are the foundations on which the really successful people should build their careers even today.
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