Over the many years of being in the workforce I have learnt a great deal from my peers, my bosses and my direct reports. My personal learnings that form the essence of my life are a result of my learnings from work force and through personal experiences but still related to work-life.
I have learnt what ought to do, what not to do and more importantly what ought to do to be successful. By success I mean meeting your goals and your own objectives- what better way to measure your own success than weighing it against your own expectations. The essence of life lies in ones own hands and not in the hands of others.
Here are a few things I think are important for any person for a long term success:
1) Optimism and Learn From Failures: You fail, you fall! Such is life- get over it. What is important is to learn from the fall. Have you learnt from the failure? Do you know what not to do or what to do even better? Answer to these will get you far.
Of course you can self pity or seek pity. ALAS! that won't get you far. Sooner or later you are bound to sink yourself in "self created sorrow".
Rise above the failure, rise above self pity and more importantly rise up higher than where you were before.
The way to get around the negativity that surrounds you when down is to force yourself to think positively. Think of great days you've had and plan for how you can get to days that are better than those. You have to envision your good future. See it as if it is happening, feel it and then you will achieve it. A man without vision of his future is as good and non existent.
2) Treat Others Well: Stop being mean just because things are not going as you planned. Find a mirror and take that grudge on self! Spare others of you misery. When you impose your bad moods on to others, you are doing nothing but demeaning your self, letting your self down, because deep inside you probably know that they are better. At least that is what you convey by being mean to others.
Have you ever said "forget him/her, he/she is just grumpy or unhappy", "who cares what they think" , "they are just unhappy because ...."- well all this essentially means that you do not care for the person mistreating and you. You do not have any high regard for them. Well then the same would apply to you, wouldn't it?
Don't forget "Karma is a Bitch". What goes around comes around.
3) Stop Finding Excuses: Think hard of what the root of your problem is. Stop blaming others. For you to be happy or rise above your low state you need to know what got you there. Once you know what got you there, figure out how you can avoid getting back there again --- there you go, that is your solution.
If you have identified the solution you are a better person that a second ago. That is the essence of life.
