People who form their opinions of themselves based of how others are doing fall into a dangerous trap; do not base your own happiness on how others are faring. Compare yourself to your own past performance rather than that of others to measure your growth and happiness. The process of comparing oneself to others is addictive, and you must free yourself from such unhealthy contrasts in order to find true happiness.
Karma, or the universal idea that you reap what you so, governs your career and your life; the karma that you create in the world determine most of the events in your life. Understanding and accepting this universal law empowers you to take control of your life, because you directly control what happens to you. The amount and type of energy that you put into your life will always return to you in kind.
Different results will not come from doing the same thing over and over again; to succeed, you must be innovative. Free your mind of unnecessary, extraneous thoughts and remain singularly focused on your job search. Your own instinct will guide you far better than a surplus of outside advice.
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Use your past, rather than some unattainable ideal, as the yardstick for measuring progress in your life and career. The most successful people are also often the most unhappy, because they measure themselves against impossible ideals, which causes a constant sense of inferiority. There will always be someone better than you, and there are ideals all around you against which it would be unrealistic and stupid to measure yourself. Instead, compare yourself only to the person you were before; measure yourself against your own progress, and forget about others.
While everyone’s respective wishes motivate them, their fulfillment seldom brings anyone happiness. Don’t perpetually chase after the next goal, but instead learn to love what you do; when you reach this state you will have chosen to be happy, you will improve yourself, and you will eventually become a happier and more accomplished person.
Like everyone else, your employer wants to believe that he or she is a good person who stands for something positive in the world. Therefore, work to ascribe positive motives to your employer when in interviews, and think of in terms of how their work serves a higher purpose. Speaking about your and your employer’s work in these terms will put you on a higher plane than others, and will associate both of you with good and noble qualities.
Do not keep any secrets in your career; people who keep parts of their lives secret usually are not being the people that they want to be; you will never find happiness unless you are the person that you want to be. Avoid jobs and professions that require you to keep a lot of secrets and hide your true identity. When you live a lie, you are the only person who ultimately gets hurt.
Rules are the most important aspect of any business or profession. You must understand the unique rules in any situation in which you are a part if you are ever going to succeed. People instinctively understand the rules for certain professions, but there are others whose rules are opaque. You will achieve your greatest success by placing yourself in a situation where the rules are intuitive to you; doing so will make everything easier, because at that point you will merely be following your own nature.
You need not only to fit in, but to be seen as fitting in with your coworkers. Harmonizing with your work environment is one of the most important things you can do for your career, and failing to do so can cause you serious problems. Achieving such harmony, however, will ultimately bring you closer to your career goals, and is among the primary things that society demands of its participants.
In this article Harrison explains how long-term enjoyment of life requires that we delay gratification until a later time. The most successful people in the world show the ability to delay gratification. Failure is the result of not delaying gratification. Not facing problems is something related to our ability to delay gratification. One of the most important things we can do is to confront a problem early. Ignoring problems is a simple expression of the unwillingness to delay gratification. Our problems will not disappear. The problems that we need to confront are a barrier to our future growth. It is in your best interest to delay gratification. The people who delay gratification are found to experience the most success in their careers and lives.
In this article Harrison explains how you can ensure success in your career by externalizing your opponents. Your job is like a game; if you work hard, play by the rules of the company and are seen as part of the team you will be viewed as a valuable player for the company. The most significant part of any game is the presence of an opponent. Don’t look for an opponent among your co-workers. Never speak negatively of your team members. Instead, concentrate on the external opponents. External opponents bring you and the team closer as you work towards a common goal. In order for you and your company to succeed it is important to have an external opponent. Harrison advises people to consistently work hard and not participate in the politics. This is a sure way to score big in your career.
Your greatest successes will come from some of the smallest actions in terms of meeting people. You will cause a “stacking effect” the more you meet and connect with people; conversely, people cannot connect with you when you are withdrawn and nothing will happen. You must do everything in your power to connect with as many people as possible.
A powerful sense of self will make all the difference in your life. You must understand that your sense of yourself and your capabilities come from inside of you, not from the external forces that have brought you to your current place in life. What you feel internally might be completely different from what the world is telling you, and you must learn to focus on the former rather than the latter.
Adopting a positive attitude will always bring you closer to success, as nobody wants to be associated with a losing side. Everyone wants to associate with and hire winners, and avoids losers. Nothing is more important than maintaining a positive attitude, as many employers hire people based primarily on attitude; with the right attitude, everything else will fall into place. You must look like you are on the winning team, even if times are tough; nobody wants to hire a loser.
Everyone tries to maintain a certain emotional state, and learning to control your own emotions will have a profound impact on your career. While everyone allows their emotional states to be influenced by outside events, there is no advantage in basing your own emotions on things that you cannot control. Allow yourself to discover happiness and fulfillment naturally, rather than making your emotions dependant on external circumstances. Your outlook will have a tremendous impact on your psychological health, as well as that of those around you.
In order to reach your full potential, you must avoid depression, obesity and unhealthy foods, boredom, and uninteresting people. Your daily activities should seek to improve in each of these categories; as you do, you will find yourself better equipped to face life’s challenges. Maintain various interests in addition to your work, and try to connect with interesting people to establish a healthy self-esteem.
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