I set out to do 4-5 Career Tips, and we have now reached the fifth one, after having gone through the following:
- Plan your day on your way in to work
- Complete one thing every day
- Learn (at least) one new thing every day
- Help yourself by helping others
Today, with the fifth career tip, I will conclude this series of articles, if nothing else to open up for other topics etc. On a side topic, I have noticed that I get blog post related comments…but not as much in the comments box (below), but instead via Twitter and Facebook, which is an interesting commenting shift that does make total sense, but which I hadn’t reflected on during the year whilst I wasn’t blogging here that much. I shouldn’t be surprised, as I often do exactly the same, as a consumer of content. That makes me think I should explore the possibilities of integrating Facebook/Twitter comments more and perhaps ditch the “old” comments box…? Anyways:
There is still one tip that is totally important to anyones career, and which all too often is forgotten about:
5. You get what you bring
Actually that is the sanitized version of what my (awesome) grand mother (RIP) used to say all the time, and which stayed with me, but her version of it went more along the lines of “We all get what we deserve” and it had a little bit more doomsday over it than I am suggesting. The consensus of it is still true though, and it was perhaps in pre-teen fear I decided to take it upon me in my own way. I guess the other way of seeing it would be like the more classical “You reap what you sow“, which obviously has the same sentiment. It is however lacking in hellquists-grandma-story-department, so here I am going with what grandma said. Image may be NSFW.
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Grandma’s wisdom
You see, if we twist what my grandma said a tiny bit, the logic behind it goes something like this:
If you react, and display, in anger, you will quite likely get anger back. If you are stroppy, you are quite likely to get stroppy replies. If we further the reasoning just a little bit: if you spend time back-stabbing people, don’t be surprised when you yourself are back-stabbed. In short, if you behave stupidly, expect stupidity back. That is the negative position in thinking about this. There is, luckily, a positive career-helping side to all of this too.
If you smile at someone they are more likely to smile at you. If you are friendly, people are quite likely to be friendly back. Ok, some won’t, but let them handle their own miserable lives, we are busy moving forward. If you are helpful, and you have helped a few people, they are quite likely to help you when you need it.
But wait! There is more!
My grandma actually had another, slightly more positive pro-verb too you see: “Good things come to good people“. As I liked to think of myself as Good People I liked the sound of that, and when I added up my grandmas pro-verb wisdom I tried to ensure I broke neither of these and that I lived up to both (of these, she did have a bunch more, but I shall leave explicit language out for now). However, the full tip of today therefore actually should be written something like this:
5. Reminder: You get what you bring – Good things come to good people
“This is not a tip, this is common sense, I already knew this!” you might say. Yep, true enough, I think almost everyone of us have been told these things at some point. The problem, obviously, is that we seem to forget. Well, not only that we forget, but we should concentrate on it, most of the time, until we do it without having to think too hard about doing it. Most of us don’t have to dig too deep in our memory pockets to conjure up the mental image/memory of the last time someone said something stupid to us, which we lashed out back at, or the other way around. If all of us had this as a daily reminder the world might, just might, be a different place.
I simply do believe that if you are, in general, a competent, friendly, helpful problem solver with a smile on your face, you will be more liked, and go further in your career than if you are a competent, unfriendly, un-helpful problem solver who is always grumpy. Try to imagine being in your colleagues/boss/clients shoes. Treat people like you would like to be treated. If you can’t say things in a way that is a) friendly and b) constructive you should seriously consider shutting up until you can. No, really.
Or, as someone much wiser than me put it:
“Be the change you want to see in the world” – M.Gandhi
So, this concludes this article series. There hasn’t really been any revelations, nor is it Rocket Science. Above all it should be do-able for you. I base that on the fact these tips have been do-able, even instrumental, in my career. It has also meant I have gained many incredible talented friends over the years, in my own personal people-network, which is an awesome support when I face something I am not sure how to solve. I can almost always ask a friend who knows from experience. Most of the things here is about mind set, and your view on your own position in the world. There are many things in the world you can’t control. Your attitude to things should be well under your control though.
Over and out. For now.