Are you complaining too much about your job? Wondering what your dream job is? It might be a better idea to stop complaining before it is too late. Would you like to lose this job?
I recently read this in one of the blogs that I follow (which unfortunately I can’t remember, apologies).
Great work is not recognized by managers, exceptional work is. Great work is expected from you anyway.
This is so true. I have heard many people complain that they got no recognition for the work they did. In some cases they said they got no recognition for the great work they did.
So how can we do exceptional work that will be noticed and recognized? Well, to start with stop focusing on getting recognition and start focusing on doing an exceptional job. So many of us spend hours worrying about not being recognized for our great work. I suggest we start worrying about doing an exceptional job. Recognition WILL follow. Exceptional work never goes unnoticed and consistent exceptional work is ALWAYS recognized. True, there may be projects where you felt you did an exceptional job but didn’t get recognized for it. However if you spend time worrying about it, you will take your focus off the next project and end up doing, well, a great job but not an exceptional job. So stay focused and don’t let small disappointments come in your way of doing an exceptional job all the time.
Coming to Chennai has introduced me to many new things. I started using Twitter! I have also had the chance to meet up with budding and experienced entrepreneurs. As part of the Chennai Open Coffee Club I experienced un-conferences. I tried one in office and it didn’t quite go off very well, but then that’s another post.
The charm of being an entrepreneur is huge and draws a lot of people to it. I spoke to many people and listened attentively to many a discussion to understand various business models. I came across some very exiting ideas. But I got stuck at one question. Will it make money? Nothing excited me enough (read: nothing made enough money). Unfortunately I was looking at them through colored glasses of my cushioned existence of a reasonable income being deposited in my bank each month.
What I did realize is that at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what your business plan is. It is all about the giant leap of faith, jumping off the cliff and making it happen. All it needs is lots of execution excellence and some luck.
Continuing with the thread I started in my previous post Do you trust corporate blogs, and picking up from posts on Trust by Ken Allen and Tony Karrer, I came across Chris Brogan’s post Advertising and Trust. Chris wrote in response to Jeremiah Owyang raising questions about Chris’s sponsored post for Kmart. Chris does a great job at analysing and responding. In this process I discovered many posts that talk about trust and integrity of bloggers. Two posts that caught my eye were Lucretia M. Pruitt: What is Your Time Worth? What’s Worth Your Time? and Barbara Gibson: What is your integrity worth? I don’t follow blogs of Jeremiah, Lucretia or Barbara, but I had no reason not to trust them. They have an opinion that they are sharing.
When I come across blog posts that talk about other products, I take them as opinions of those bloggers. I am a gullible guy J. However I will not necessarily take business decisions (or even personal buying decisions) based only on one or two blog posts, and I don’t think that means I don’t trust blogs. It is definitely helpful when bloggers disclose posts to be sponsored posts. I follow RWW and they talk about their sponsors all the time. They also talk about other products and I trust them to provide a balanced view in their product reviews.
An interesting thing to note in the Forrester report is that people trust emails from people they know but don’t trust as much the social networking profiles from people they know. Hmmm…
60 people were killed and 150 injured in a series of terrorist blasts in Jaipur, Rajasthan in India. I don't know what anyone is trying to prove with these attacks.
War does not decide who is RIGHT, it decides who is LEFT.
I light a candle for all those who lost their lives and were injured.
If you feel these attacks are pointless, please light a candle on your blog/site.
Using Dave Ferguson’s three clicks out method I discovered I found ten strategies for transforming negativity and unpredictability into opportunities for growth, progress, and achievement that comes from Dan Sullivan's Strategic Coach.
As I read through the ten strategies I wondered why these were only for the scary times like the recession. These are strategies that we should use even in the good times. I found these useful and similar to some of the things I base my life on.
1. Forget about yourself, focus on others. Focus on helping others transform their negatives into positives. The more you contribute in this fashion, the less you will need to worry about your own situation. You will become a source of confidence for everyone else.
2. Forget about your commodity, focus on your relationships. In uncertain times, people become frightened about the viability of their “commodities” — the things they sell and the jobs they hold. A more strategic response here is to disregard your own commodity and focus on deepening the power and possibility of all your relationships — with family, friends, team members, suppliers, clients, customers, and prospects. Every time you strengthen a relationship, the viability of your commodity will increase.
3. Forget about the sale, focus on creating value. Most people don’t like being sold at the best of times... what people want at all times is value creation — that is, solutions that help them eliminate their dangers, capture their opportunities, and reinforce their strengths. When you focus on providing these three solutions, the sales will naturally follow.
4. Forget about your losses, focus on your opportunities. Things you had and may have taken for granted sometimes disappear. Some people never get over this. They keep trying to replay their old games. A better strategy is to start an entirely new game — using new ideas, new energies, new tools, and new resources. As the world changes, opportunities suddenly become available to achieve far more than you ever did in the past.
5. Forget about your difficulties, focus on your progress. Because of some changes, things may not be as easy as they once were. New difficulties can either defeat you or reveal new strengths. Your body’s muscles always get stronger from working against resistance. The same is true for the “muscles” in your mind, your spirit, and your character. Treat this whole period of challenge as a time when you can make your greatest progress as a human being.
6. Forget about the “future,” focus on today. The “future” is an abstraction. It doesn’t exist except as an idea. The only future that has any reality is the one that you continually create for yourself through each day’s contributions, achievements, and results. Focus on what you can do over the course of each 24 hours, and you’ll be the only expert on the future you’ll ever need.
7. Forget about who you were, focus on who you can be. Many people define themselves by external circumstances. When these abruptly or unexpectedly change, they don’t know who they are, so they keep trying to be who they used to be. From now on, take your cues from the inside — from your dreams, ideals, values, and operating principles. These need never change, regardless of the circumstances. Take advantage of external confusion to become self-directed, self-managed, and self-motivated.
8. Forget about events, focus on your responses. When things are going well, many people think they are actually in control of events. That’s why they feel so defeated and depressed when things turn bad. They think they’ve lost some fundamental ability. The most consistently successful people in the world know they can’t control events — but continually work toward greater control over their creative responses to events. Any period when things are uncertain is an excellent time to focus all of your attention and energies on being creatively responsive to all of the unpredictable events that lie ahead.
9. Forget about what’s missing, focus on what’s available. When things change for the worse, many desirable resources are inevitably missing — including information, knowledge, tools, systems, personnel, and capabilities. These deficiencies can paralyze many people, who believe they can’t make decisions and take action. A strategic response is to take advantage of every resource that is immediately available in order to achieve as many small results and make as much daily progress as possible. Work with every resource and opportunity at hand, and your confidence will continually grow.
10. Forget about your complaints, focus on your gratitude. When times get tough, everyone has to make a fundamental decision: to complain or to be grateful. In an environment where negative sentiment is rampant, the consequences of this decision are much greater. Complaining only attracts negative thoughts and people. Gratitude, on the other hand, creates the opportunity for the best thinking, actions, and results to emerge. Focus on everything that you are grateful for, communicate this, and open yourself each day to the best possible consequences.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my personal opinions. Content published here is not read or approved in advance by my employers and does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of my employers.
