Have You Joined The Crowd Who Have Grey Life Syndrome?

People with Grey Life Syndrome have a life that is not good, not bad--simply bearable! They have decided to settle for okay and give up the struggle for excellence. Occasionally they may feel happiness, self-esteem, joy and love, but the feeling is very brief, then it is back to okayness.

Their belief is that it is not necessary to be happy with the job; it can be okay or irritating if it feeds us. Television will get them through the weekend. They do not believe life can get better, they strive to make it tolerable.

Are you playing small instead of dreaming big? Are you aiming to get by instead of experiencing adventure? Are you operating on autopilot where life is safe and predictable instead of using your creative thinking abilities? Have you settled on safety to avoid being threatened or challenged?

If we are not starving in the street, we can sometimes get complacent with our circumstances. If you are moderately comfortable with your current state, you might not be motivated enough to really dig in and attempt something bold, daring and challenging. Creativity is simply the process of looking at the same thing as everyone else and seeing something new.

In order to feel alive, a man must feel that he is growing, that he is continuously becoming more useful. The alternative--working day after day and year after year at routine tasks merely to keep his physical husk alive--is a form of occupational vegetating that dulls both the mind and the spirit.

Take a risk! Taking risks helps to keep you youthful, as well as preventing your life from becoming a yawn-inducing routine. Forget perfect--just do it. No one is perfect. There will always be ups and downs, but the ups should outweigh the downs…and the progress is steady, not 'perfect.' However, the results are lasting.

The Grey Life Syndrome people who will not strive after better things cut themselves off from all the glorious and wonderful possibilities of attainment. One word of caution: This does not mean lazily being a mediocre employee while you wait for the lucky opportunity to appear. The Universe will not give you your next assignment until you are overqualified for this one.

Each person has his own way to success and his own kind of success. Your path to greater progress will not be exactly the same as that used by anyone else, even if the principles for achieving success are the same.

Live life to the fullest. Do everything you can to live a great life, not just a ‘get by’ life. Help others…be a hero, be kinder, love with all your heart and live life like you mean it.

The secret to success or failure, happiness or unhappiness, is that we become what we think about most. Your nature as a human is to grow, develop and unfold into your greatest good. That is where true prosperity lives.

How To Benefit Using Company Politics

At one time or another, we have been warned to stay out of office politics—it can be the ruin of a promising career! It is an old warning with a lot of tradition to support it.

Company politics has seen its evil days, but the day when close-knit groups resented each other in general and all ambitious newcomers in particular is drawing to a close. Most people are recognizing that such intramural skirmishing for prestige and influence did the groups no good while greatly impairing the productivity of the company.

“Company” in this context is a generic term that applies to any working situation. It does not matter whether it is private industry, government agency, educational institution or some other kind of organized work situation.

When people get along together, production rises; when they do not, it falls. Politics—good or bad—is inescapable. If people are not talking about their work at the drinking fountain, during a coffee break, or at lunch, they just do not care, and that is bad.

Company politics is here to stay. To close your ears to it is not to remove yourself from politics but from the company. How else are you going to know what is going on? And if you do not know what is going on in the company, how are you to know where you are going?

If you follow three simple rules, playing good company politics will be easy, informative and rewarding.

1. Say something interesting or constructive about your work.
2. Say something good about your boss, supervisor, or company policy--with sincerity.
3. Keep on doing a good job.

If you cannot do those three things after a month or two on the job, if your work is so dull and the company so uninteresting, you are in the wrong job. Start looking for a different one now!

Private life and work are both parts of you as a whole human being. They cannot be completely separate incarnations. You are probably spending your most productive hours in each day at work—five days a week! Friendships do count in the business world.

Bad politics is based on greed, selfishness, power-seeking, and often prejudice. More often than not, the leaders are insisting that some outside influence is the cause of all their problems. They are unwilling to admit that their own actions might be at fault.

I once worked in an office where the goal seemed to be finding something nasty to say about the boss. It was almost a “can you top this” kind of daily conversational game.

The two most vocal individuals had worked for the longest time in the department. They must have been getting some kind of emotional payback from their actions in order to justify working for such an individual. Possibly: “You have the title but I am better than you in every way!”

Actually company politics is not the name for it, for the company will suffer irreparable damage in the long run. It is personal or factional, or clique politics, played for the advancement of the few, and let the company go hang, as it frequently does. Yet it cannot be ignored.

If bad office politics is to be counteracted intelligently, it must be recognized for what it is, from the lowest man subjected to its pressures to the president of the firm. If one is in no position to combat it, then one must know what it is all about for his own protection.

Personal success is not to be found where partisanship and bias have more influence than merit. Always remember that recognizing the talents and achievements of your staff and co-workers is a valuable asset. If you fail to give credit where and when it is deserved, there should be no complaints when the same thing is done to you.

Hard work and attention to detail does not automatically bring a promotion. Your skill working with others is an essential ingredient. It is almost tragic to overlook the constructive side of office politics. If you do not know what is going on around you, no one is going to know you are around.

Welcome T otal Freedom Into Your Life

Our ordinary life experiences bear little resemblance to those of our father, and much less to those of our grandfather. Yet most of our traditional roles have been passed down through so many generations that they are in a rut.

There is a serious danger in following the “established” roads to success. Many of them are as out-moded as the directions for following the Oregon Trail. Many of them lead to goals that no longer exist, or are over-crowded. There are many kinds of successes to be reached, but are they the roads for you, leading to where you want to go?

Our culture is still telling us to go to school so that we can get a job and make money. Teachers, parents, friends and government tell us that after 40 years (or so) of hard work, we will have a secure retirement. The evidence shows us that work does not necessarily equal wealth. People work long hours and have little to show for it.

The usual career training systems allow no time for learning the skills for personal and financial freedom. Why do only a few people seem to get wealthy and financially free, and why is it that the knowledge they seem to have appears to be so elusive?

Our education system is still following procedures created in the 1800s. The masses are not taught how to create wealth but how to work for others. We graduate as a doctor, lawyer, chemist, chef or any other career you care to mention.

That expensive education provides training about a job but the graduate is left without a clue on wealth-building or how to have a healthy, happy life. Too often wealth is equated with collecting “things” – expensive automobiles, a mansion with a second vacation home, jewelry, designer clothing, and whatever else is the latest fad.

One author asked the question – what would you do if your annual income suddenly becomes your monthly income? Or, what would you do if you had a million dollars? We all have visions about a dream life! However, the records on most lottery winners paint quite a different picture. Within five or ten years most are in worse condition financially than they were before the win.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Before you go off to some fantasy land, take time to consider what you want out of life. What is important to you, regardless of what tradition, your boss, or your friends might say? Your guiding influence should come from within.

Keep asking yourself “why” until you really know what gives you the feelings of joy and accomplishment. Take some time to decide what health, wealth and happiness mean to you.

Only you can know your achievements, and in getting to know them you will meet, possibly for the first time, that most interesting and increasingly successful stranger who is yourself. You will continue to grow and change as your world expands.