Time waits for no one
I woke up last Saturday morning pondering on the whirlwind week I had and wondered how quickly time went by: by the time this weekend is over I travelled about 7500 miles by air and road combined. I thought about the fact that it was already October and that the year was coming to a close, this is when the idea for today’s blog, “Time waits for no one”, came to mind.
For my friends who are in university, you may be thinking the same thing that came to my mind when I thought of this topic. The fact that as a student there are different courses and social activities grabbing for your attention and you always seem to be playing catch up. For others it is procrastination; putting off what you can do today, until tomorrow. The problem with that approach is that tomorrow, something else pops up with the same or higher priority, which is then added to the list. Before you realize, the list compounds and you are faced with multiple due dates and little or no time to get things done.
It is out of this today’s advice is borne:
Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do for today.
It is an important ideal that transcends all aspects of life, but particularly in school, there is a greater context that needs to be focused on.
Making proper use of your time is also extremely important when thinking about building a career. Allow me to explain. What you do today has a direct bearing on what you will achieve years from now. How many times have you said to yourself, “This year I will apply to university or graduate school”? Or, “I am going to get that certification that will make me more marketable employee”? Or, “I am going to look for a new job”. Maybe it has been applying for that manager role that you keep psyching yourself out of going after.
With goals that have a longer term, like those mentioned above, it does not seem that big of a deal to defer a task to the next week or month at that actual moment, however as time goes by you find yourself with a decreasing desire to take action. As a result you would have to make double the effort to do what would have been much easier had you done so earlier. I myself have been guilty of such offences. I recall when I was writing my book, HOW TO MAKE IT FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE CUBICLE, there were many stops and starts and with every restart it seemed harder than the time before. However, at one stage when I was not content with the progress that I had made, I challenged myself to finish. From that point onward, I became super focused and structured all my free time to get the job done. For those of you who have read the book can attest to the pride that I feel knowing that I am now an author.
As you read this blog today, think about goals that you have set years ago and that for some reason got de-prioritized because you deferred and deferred until you lost any desire to revive. Today is a good day to start a fresh and to make a concerted effort to finish. Do not be like the many, who due to their idleness ended up missing out on crucial opportunities to advance their personal and professional lives. Take up the challenge today, I guarantee it, you will be happy you did.
Until next time remember: As long as you have life, you should live it to your fullest potential.
In my book HOW TO MAKE IT FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE CUBICLE, I discussed the importance of dealing with the people you work with. I alluded to the fact that coming out of school many students have a gross misconception that in the professional world everyone is going to be friendly and care about the professional welfare and development of others as much as they themselves do. I went on further to state that a new professional can be very naive, because throughout their academic life no one may have taken the time to tell them that jealousy, envy, sabotage and workplace conflict exists. In all honestly nothing anyone ever told me came close to what I have experienced.
That said, it is safe to say that many if not all professionals at some point in time will encounter some sort of workplace conflict. Please understand that this is not an attempt to paint a gloomy picture of the corporate world, but it is not always the hug fest that it is purported to be on the job description. The fact is that dealing with other people can be a very difficult challenge and it does require considerable effort to manage.
How you deal with conflict when it does arise determines whether you win or lose. You are definitely a loser if you are the antagonist: you should never willingly set out to put someone under, because it is just not right. You a loser if you are naive and allow people to continually step on and over you without any pushback. There are common cases where some people just continually take abuse and never stand up for themselves until have reached their limit and end up blowing up and making a fool of themselves. So while they maybe justifiably upset, they leave a black mark on their record and bring on shame and embarrassment by having an emotional breakdown.
You are a winner when in the midst of conflict you seek for a resolution irrespective of what side of the indecent you are on. You are a winner when you stand up for yourself (without breaking any rules of the workplace course). For example if you are a victim of an incident that is too much for you to let go, make an official complaint. After doing so, try to make peace or seek arbitration with a senior colleague whom both of you respect. You may be wondering why make the official complaint? If the majority of conflicts that I have encountered were in isolation there would be no big deal and would be very easy to overcome. However, when incidents become habitual and begin repeating themselves, they may lead to anxiety, stress and could even lead to an emotional meltdown. Making an official complaint brings awareness to management and Human Resources and in the event that it recurs it is easy to prove whether there is a trend of negative behavior developing on your colleague's part with specific details and dates recorded.
Let's face it people are people. Your colleagues are fighting for the same promotions, raises and recognition that you are. You cannot assume that everyone will celebrate you if you get a promotion at their expense. Suffice it to say that, conflict is part of corporate life, deal with it correctly and you are sure to thrive in any environment.
Until next time remember, As long as you have life, you should live it to your fullest potential.