A Few Urgent Tips to Grow in Your Career

In a short story entitled The Mist, authored by Stephen King, David Drayton, the protagonist, runs away from his place because he is afraid that he will be killed by the giant insects that have invaded his home, thanks to a wrong experiment carried out by the US Army. At the end of the story, you will find David sitting with monsters surrounding him. He is alone and the fuel tank of his vehicle is empty. No one is there to help him at the gas station where he is sitting. But what saves him is a word that is spelled "H O P E." 

The purpose of narrating this story is to tell you that hope, persistence, and sincerity alone can help you grow in your career, despite all the difficult and seemingly impossible situations you face. You will find the following few tips useful as well. 

1. Learn to survive.

This is one of the most important steps because only if you survive in your organization, you can plan to grow. You should not only be savvy but smart as well for surviving and overcoming the difficulties that you encounter so that you can hold on. If you succeed in holding on, you can find and keep the hope and faith that is very much needed in such situations and take the steps required for achieving the growth you have been aiming at.

2. Vow to work harder than how you do now.

You may have heard the life stories of your parents. In fact, they may have told you the hardships they faced umpteen times and these stories may have got etched in your memory. But despite the hardships they faced, they continued to work hard. Never forget that hard work is the antidote for difficulties. You are waging a fight against those difficult situations. The only way to win in the fight is to sacrifice a lot. Remember the Armenian expert's words that go like this: “Work is Holy.”

3, Cut wasteful activities.

Your sole aim is to grow in your career. So, all the other activities that do not feed or strengthen this goal of yours are wasteful activities. This includes watching FOX News or CNN or even reading the New York Times or other newspapers. These activities will not help you grow in your career. On the contrary, they will distract you so much that you will not feel like putting forth your best efforts on your work. Instead of indulging in such wasteful activities, use your time to think of creative suggestions to help your company grow. 

Many a time, your boss or the company management may discard or laugh at your suggestions. But if you keep firing your suggestion-salvos, your value and amazing resourcefulness will soon be recognized.

4. Never lose sight of your vision.

Whatever may be the circumstances you face, you should never lose sight of your career goal. If you take your eyes off your goal, you cannot use your energy, resources, or optimism for achieving your aim. This may ultimately lead to quitting. 

So, now is the time to not let your hope and perseverance go limp. Now is the time to harden your stance and persist. And now is the time to compete with yourself. Good Luck!

Ideas, Appreciation, and Frustration

If you are working for an organization, you may often find yourself giving suggestions to the company. In fact, the management of every company may expect its employees to provide them with ideas. But there may be occasions when the company or your boss appears to ignore your ideas. This may lead to frustration. It is true such situations may be mind-dulling. So, you may even think that you should stop giving suggestions or ideas. Is this the right reaction? Is your frustration justified? What should you do if the management does not appear to consider your ideas? Let us find out.

Experience, Expertise, and Ideas.

You may have lots of experience under your belt. Similarly, you may be an expert in the field in which your company is operating. Therefore, you may justifiably assume that your ideas are good. But this is not only a naive assumption but over-simplification as well. Further, it is a fundamental misconception if you think that your ideas automatically qualify for the "brilliant" tag just because you have rich experience and you are an expert in the field. Remember that in the present-day context, dignity, appreciation, or laurels are not automatic rights anymore. You cannot get them by applying subtle or visible pressure also. 

Similarly, the management doesn't need to consider your ideas just because you have put in a lot of effort for conceptualizing them. The point is that your management or that of any company will take into account several other factors as well before choosing ideas for implementation. You may perhaps be not aware of some of those factors. Therefore, crying foul or blaming your management for not considering your ideas is not right. It is not right also to assume that the management doubts your capability.

If you get angry over the management because your ideas have not been considered or if you get caught in what is called the "appreciation trap," it shows that you fail to control your emotions or influence your mind, not to talk of influencing others. You don't need to be a university graduate to understand that no one can make you frustrated, angry, miserable, or unhappy unless you allow it. This again means that you should check whether you are responding rationally or reacting emotionally to situations. 

Responding and reacting to situations or circumstances are not the same. Mentally mighty folks control their emotions and behaviors. If you succeed in this step, it can be said that you are on the path of learning to respond rationally and applying your wisdom to the circumstances or situations you face. Otherwise and if you react, you allow yourself to be controlled by situations or circumstances. Of course, you will find that reacting to situations is easier and quicker. 

In the former, you can turn even a negative or a potentially negative situation into a positive one. This will benefit not only you but everyone involved as well. You will be a relaxed person because you are aware that you can handle any situation, however difficult it may be. This will significantly boost your self-confidence as well. Never forget the fact that you can derive self-respect or dignity only from your within and not from external sources. Looking for them from external sources is self-delusion of the ultimate form. 

Of course, in the initial stages, there may be lapses and slips in your efforts to control your emotions or behaviors but since you have started practicing rational responsiveness, you will be able to analyze your mistakes and make course-corrections.

So, the only way to develop responsiveness to difficult situations is to practice till you reach a reasonable level of capability in this skill. This will help in constantly bettering yourself whatever may be the situations you face at your workplace. This includes instances when your management does not consider your ideas or suggestions. At the same time, understand that developing rational responsiveness is not enough; you should consistently and willingly blend it with your efforts to hone your skills and improve your knowledge as well.