dirty secrets
Being New and Different, and Representing “Change”
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Loading...Several years ago, I was driving down the freeway around Birch Run, Michigan, and pulled off the freeway to get some gas. Across from the gas station there was a small diner named Tony’s that had a line that must have been half a block long. I could...
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Job Market
In your job search you must question assumptions, find new ways of doing things, and consistently find new ways to search. You will be better off the more you seek out and adopt new job search techniques; your career is too important for you to be stuck in traditional ways of thinking. You must open your mind, and ensure that you are doing everything within your power to view your job search in a way that grants you more opportunities, not fewer.
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When people are aware of others’ expectations, they usually perform in accordance with them. Outside expectations can lead to either your success or your destruction; surrounding yourself with low expectations can, in turn, lead you to under-perform and further distance you from your career goals. When you surround yourself with people with high expectations, however, you will rise to levels you may not have thought previously possible.
Sympathy destroys morale, and those who can walk away from sympathy often have better careers and make better use of their skills. Good organization is the most effective means of upholding high morale and productivity. Well-organized groups and companies are much harder for people to undermine, and their strength is directly linked to their organization.
Advance your career by concentrating your efforts, and seeking work and people with whom you feel you could grow and establish roots. Devote your time and effort to pursuits that complement your strengths, and where you can add the most possible value. One of the most important actions you can take in your job search is to concentrate your assets where they can add the greatest value, and do not distract yourself with incompatible work and people.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of encouragement. If you look at most successful people, somewhere in their background there is someone cheering for them and believing in what they can accomplish. When people take the time to encourage and believe in us, they are giving us one of the greatest gifts we can receive. When we believe in people and what they are capable of accomplishing, it can change their lives. Consequently, these people rise to a higher level of achievement than what they might have experienced without our involvement. We become a voice in the background, whispering words of encouragement into their ears. Make others better off in the world by virtue of having met you, and having related to you. Your goal should be to make the world a better place, and it all starts with making sure you encourage others.
You must hone your ability to block out external stimuli and focus solely on the work you provide for your employer, not what you can take from the company. High focus leads to high productivity, which in turn leads to high value. Attaining such a high degree of focus will make you much in demand in the business world and in society at large. Productivity should be measures either by you, or by your employer, and the most successful companies are usually those who prioritize keeping track of their employees’ productivity.
Many people have a single weakness that they have failed to address, which holds them back in their careers and leads to job hopping. Job hopping indicates that something is wrong with a person’s attitudes and outlook rather than with their employers. Identify and fix the things that are holding you back rather than leaving your position when you should not, and much more success and happiness will come to you.
If you are unemployed, or need a new job, there are many strategies you can use to get a new position. However, nothing is more important or can be more drastically effective than having a strong mentor on your side. Anything I could tell you about interviewing, cover letters, resumes, or tracking down jobs would pale in comparison to what a good mentor can do for you. Having a good mentor is hugely important.
Many people instinctively recoil when faced with things outside of their control; recognizing and combating this instinct will transform you from a loser into a leader. Focus on one area of your life at a time; by gaining control over the most problematic areas of your life, you will empower yourself to further control other areas. Whatever aspect of your life with which you choose to begin, the important thing is that you do so; inaction will get you nowhere.
If you are good at one thing, then you need to make sure you develop a diversity of skills in case demand for your primary skill goes away. You need to shape yourself and your career to withstand all kinds of economic and other climates. Like the Greek Parthenon, you must have a strong foundation and project strength, supporting yourself with multiple pillars.
You must maintain a state of constant motion; when you stop moving and being productive, bad things happen to you. Things die when they stop moving, which is why you should never give up under any circumstances. When people stop moving, they make all further progress difficult. Avoid gaps in your employment, as you will be seen as out of touch and less employable; instead, you need to stay continually moving and never slow down.
Being proactive in your job search begins with ensuring that you are actually seeing all of the available job openings. Leave no stone unturned, and apply to every possible job even if it seems like a remote possibility. Targeted mailing is another method of proactive job seeking, and can be one of the most effective means of obtaining your career goals.
In business, innovation comes from the freedom to operate; stagnation and failure result when a government attempts to legislate business. Limiting peoples’ ability to make a certain amount of money undermines business in an incredible way. Similarly, you need to associate with businesses and groups where freedom of movement will allow both you ant the company to expand. When you have more constraints placed on your movement, you face greater problems and eventually the loss of your job.
Do not be affected by stress; instead, adopt a coping mechanism to either divert or dissipate stressful energy. The threat of stress and the desire to avoid it prevents many people from reaching their full potential in many areas of their lives. Rather than succumb to stress or the fear of stress, position yourself for success by doing the things that others are unwilling to do.
People succeed by taking risks in their job search, potentially exposing themselves to pain and rejection. Despite the need for a job, most people would rather avoid risk instead of facing the pain of an in-person rejection. You must realize that risk and pain are inherent in a successful job search, will make you stronger, and ultimately lead you to a better life.
Plan to be happy rather than sad, and plan for greatness rather than simply attempting once and giving up in the face of failure. Plan to overcome negative trends or precedents in your life. Plan for the best possible outcome, and ignore the negative voices of others in favor of positive, inspirational messages.
Understanding the environment in which you thrive, be it structured or free-spirited, can greatly influence your success or failure in work and life. Determine whether you are a structured or free-spirited person, and seek out similar people and situations. Like people, companies and organizations are also either structured or free-spirited; success comes from understanding which type of environment suits you.
Punishment and how you react to it are important determinants of your success. Never put yourself in a position where you cannot be forgiven and move on. Guilt leads to self-punishment, which is insidious and damaging; determine whether you are punishing yourself for something in the past, or if you are allowing others to unjustly punish you for long-ago transgressions. Such punishment can undermine your life and success.
Obvious solutions always get overlooked. Simple problems get overanalyzed, and the simple solution gets ignored. Look out for the solutions that are right in front of you, and do not create mountains out of molehills for nonsensical reasons.
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.
Come to terms with how you feel and be open about it, and you will be much less likely to be affected by your dark side. Acknowledge your deepest and most profound feelings in order to improve your career and life. Your career will never reach its full potential unless you gain control of the personal matters that are negatively affecting your life. Allow your unconscious to be conscious and face what you are avoiding deep down to achieve your potential.
In order for you to be effective in your position and successfully obtain new ones, you must express gratitude, and appreciate both what you have achieved and what you are becoming. Believe in positive things. Your career has great potential and so do you, and only by realizing this can you perceive the world around you as supporting your belief system.
Crisis is among the most challenging things that anyone can face, and many people cannot cope and fail in the face of it. To survive in the midst of a crisis, look to the future. Doing so will make you feel more confident about your current situation. Crises can force you to reexamine your life, and make you seek out potential opportunities. The future can always be better than the present or past, and focusing on the future can be incredibly positive and guide you out of what may have been a rut.
If you are not functioning at your highest level in your job search, then you are immobilized; you must get out to look for the circumstances that you want, and create them if you cannot find them. You need to make your job search your all-consuming priority, and proactively do everything in your power to keep moving toward your goals.
You are in your most productive state when you are “awakened” and driven towards your goal. Once you experience this kind of awakening and tap into your inner drive, all aspects of your life can profoundly change; people with such drive attain incredible levels of achievement in virtually every discipline. The most successful people throughout history tap into this higher form of energy to achieve their goals, and you can too.
Russell Conwell’s fantastic Acres of Diamonds speech argues that the means for success do not require extensive searching, but are all around us. Opportunity is everywhere if you know where to look. Many times we miss opportunities that are right in front of us because we are looking in the wrong places.
