Clutching career success

Is your career success deluding you? Have you been holding your horses for long hoping that you will no more be a dark horse in your career? Are you hopeful of your career vision proving true?

As far as career success is concerned, you invariably stand to gain if you continue endeavouring hard trying to attain it. Sitting idle and passing time hoping that will success will strike you some day or the other will serve no purpose.

How do people attain success? What are those qualities that facilitate success? Nearly all successful men and women possess extraordinary ambition and motivation. They are unusually assertive and in no doubt about themselves. And of course, they invariably have the ability to make lots and lots of money.

Rather than trying to be like successful people, we have a tendency to presuppose that they have influence exerted by people who matter. We sometimes also imagine that Lady Luck simply smiles on them by chance. The important point missed out by us is that they grappled with odds to reach wherever they reached. It is only their success that is noticed by us and we aspire to be where they are and that too immediately.

Career success kisses the feet of all those who seek it sincerely and put themselves out to achieve it. The procedure is simple and not plagued with any obscurity. What you need to do is to go along some simple actions; if you digress from them, rest assured that your wait will be longer. You can clutch career success by sticking to the following tenets:

·   Be assured that you will taste success:

Self-assurance is an extremely vital factor, though it is disregarded frequently. You need to deem that the likelihood of success coming your way is indeed very high. It is a known fact that a high degree of steadfastness with regard to objectives is the prime causative factor for career success. So the critical question is how can you boost these dispositions? The best way to do so is by an honestly reducing to writing your conception and impression of a perfect, rather ultimate career and life. You should be able to generate a portrait that can be glared at without any difficulty.

What is the image that you have created? Does it stir you up? Does it motivate you? Remember that trust and credence are attributes that are not externally impelled but are intrinsic to all individuals; and hence you will be required to excavate and bring them to light quite frequently.  

·   Get to the bottom of the truth:

The moment you gain self-assuredness, you need to support it with actuality and reality. You will need to discern definite actions that you are required to undertake to make certain that the portrait you created is infused with authenticity.

An illustration will make the matter easy to understand. Suppose you like to shift your focus to another realm altogether. Under such circumstances, what are your information requirements? Do you need to undergo an orientation programme? Will such an orientation schedule be cost-effective and more importantly, does your budget allow such an expenditure? If you mobilize your resources and invest them in your new efforts, what are the chances that your money will multiply? Or, is it that you do not bother about material assets but desire to lead a better life by all standards? Answers to all such questions will need to be pragmatically found and it will be only then that you will be fully geared up to do something.

·   Devote yourself to success:

Successful people always believe in their ambitions and aspirations. They are steadfast as far as their objectives are concerned. Assertions made by them are bold and unambiguous. Their devotion manifests their resoluteness. You need to be equally tenacious.

It is a fact that no man likes to pledge or enter into something that is binding. Therefore, it is essential that you shun all apprehensions and be responsive to all opportunities that come your way; there is no way that something superior will drift away from you. The only thing that will drift away from you will be bewilderment and uncertainty. And that will serve to impel you to work with greater enthusiasm.

·   Plan a line of action:

Your devotion now established, you need to figure out the modus operandi for attaining success. Since you have already got to the bottom of the truth and gathered lot of information in the process, guidance should come automatically to you. Whatever line of action you formulate, it should be split into smaller plans intended to be put into action in phases.

Besides the above, you also need to accord precedence to various issues and acquiesce to only those aspects that are likely to place you nearer to the success that you seek. It is futile wasting time on frivolous matters. There will be situations when your focus will get blurred, but since you have your line of action in black and white, you can make use of it to get back on rails.  

·   No looking back:

The likelihood of occasional lethargy creeping in or you losing out on the prospects of success cannot be discounted. There is nothing unusual in such feelings surfacing. The road to success cannot be expected to be absolutely smooth; there will be potholes making your ride a bumpy one. But if you stop, success will delude you all the more. You have to be up and going.

You will have reservations and qualms, but what is important is to keep acting all along. Let your actions be small and eventually they will add up to larger ones. After all, it is the small drops of water that make the mighty ocean and the small grains of sand that make the pleasant land.  

 

Being happy at Work

Lovely, Monday again! Alas, Monday again! One of these exclamations is invariably made as Sunday gives way to a new week. Going by the clock, we spend over ten hours a day at the workplace. Hence these remarks manifest our happiness or unhappiness during those ten hours.

What is it that makes a person feel happy at work? How can an unhappy employee be set apart from a happy one? Is the matter related to good management policies or is it all about good working relationships? Or is the issue a personal perception?

Workplace happiness implies taking pleasure in and deriving pleasure from every activity indulged in there. And pleasure implies contentment and delight. What is it that makes up happiness at workplace? And how can one be in high spirits there? An attempt has been made to find the answers in the succeeding paragraphs.

Statistics indicate that there is a twenty per cent lot that feels perennially miserable at workplace. Encouragingly, there is the eighty per cent majority that is not unhappy. Astonishingly though, pay packets or work passion have very little contribution towards attaining workplace happiness.

But how does one do all this? Here are some ways:

·  The first step forward

It should be taken out with an optimistic and affirmative frame of mind. Remember that contentment is a mental condition; in fact it manifests a person’s approach to life as a whole and mindset with all possible ramifications. Quite a few employees, including otherwise happy ones do not even appreciate that workplace happiness is entirely contingent on individual levels of inspiration and optimism with regard to one’s job or work. This is an undeniable fact.

The primary means to achieve happiness at work is by discarding issues that usher in unhappiness and discontent. An increased concentration on agreeable and pleasant facets does work wonders. A continual focus on disapproving and downbeat features may apparently be effortless and undemanding. But coming together with cheery issues is the thorniest aspect that generally plagues workplaces and the environment of happiness therein.

The fact is that happiness is a point of view and way of behaving. The effort that goes in to make one happy or unhappy is just the same.

·   Self-confrontation

  There is nothing better than being in control of one’s own progress. To be able to do that, one should contest and face up to oneself instead of placing reliance on external assistance and impetus. When people leave a job to take up another elsewhere, the major factor responsible for such an act is plain ennui. Therefore, isn’t it worthwhile to constantly identify fresh issues to be contested and endeavoured?

It should be noted that in order to be happy, one’s objectives and career roadmap should be in conformity with the overall personality. The feelings of weightiness and excellence that are experienced when one hold the reins are indeed intense; and the intensity increases when a work is accomplished.

No road will be devoid of bumps and should impediments be encountered, falling back on the line manager is recommended. However, to hope that one can succeed with someone else at the steering wheel is an exercise in pointlessness. It is remaining in high spirits all along that matters most.

·   Have good company 

It helps and pays. The assurance of happiness is guaranteed when there is someone to talk to and interact with, more so if they are workplace colleagues.

One should talk to as many people as possible, strike acquaintances and build long-lasting relationships. Interactions will facilitate new perceptions and prospects – both will in turn facilitate maintenance of the desired focus and zeal towards work. 

The fact is that a realization that there is somebody who can be banked upon and its reciprocity make the time spent at a workplace an exciting and exuberating experience. But, one has to guard against tittle-tattle and scandal-mongering. Disgruntled people should be avoided because they tend to breed negativity. 

·   Finish all assignments:

There is nothing that is impossible. So, all assignments should be finished, howsoever difficult they may appear or unpleasant they may seem. It when the going gets tough that the tough get going. At the end of the day, the feeling of triumph will be immense and that on its own will serve to impel one to move forward.

While at assignments, it is important to be on the lookout for newer techniques and modern methods so that the knowledge base is widened. According priority to tasks and then completing them is the mantra of success and happiness.

·   A breather is essential:

Star gazing will not take anybody anywhere. If there is no work, it is no point pretending to be busy. A break, and a short one at that, can turn out to be very stimulating and uplifting. A minor exercise intended to reduce anxiety undertaken periodically can be extremely helpful in staying happy at work. One should also avail leave benefits to rejuvenate and for rest and recoup.

          It is an amiable environment with affable and accommodating contemporaries and seniors alike that are responsible for bringing about the much needed cheerfulness, delight and exhilaration at any workplace. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to remain motivated and promote own work and workplace happiness.