Success Rule Book

Motivation For Those Working Late

Sometimes you have to work late. This post is for those times.

But No-one Else is Still Working!

That says more about them than it does about you.

You're willing to go the extra mile, they're not. It's that simple.

You're willing to get things done to a better standard, and leave time to deal with unexpected problems. They're not.

You get more done than the slackers who leave on the dot of 5pm.

You have more tasks than others, because you're proactive. You're someone who looks for things you could do that would move your organization towards its goals. You're not a sheep who merely does the work you're told to do.

You understand that you are the person who best understands how and where you can add value.

Many of those whose empty desks now surround are missing their deadlines, missing their targets, failing their customers and failing to grasp countless opportunities to do a better job. You know that's true. So don't judge yourself by the hours they keep. You have higher standards.

But I'm Bored

Not everything in life is exciting. It's sometimes necessary to do things you should do, but don't fancy doing.

If you put off the work till tomorrow, it won't suddenly become more interesting. It won't suddenly disappear.

Stop whining about the task. Tackle it now, and you can get it finished. You'll then be able to move on to more interesting tasks tomorrow.

But I'm Tired!

Get yourself a caffeinated coffee, or Red Bull - now. Keep a supply of caffeine tablets in your desk.

But I Have Stuff To Do At Home!

If you REALLY wanted to do that stuff, you would have done it already.

Besides, that stuff's less important, less urgent, and less fulfilling than it seems to you right now.

It's easy to say 'if I weren't here, I'd be at home and I would get x, y and z done'. In truth, you probably wouldn't.

I Fancy A Break!

Then take one. A short one. Then get back to the work.

End Thought

You're here for a reason. To get that task done. It's been sitting on your to-do list far too long. Now is the time for you to take action.

Just imagine the outcome of your work, what you will have achieved, what you'll be free to move on to do next. Soon you'll have finished the tasks at hand, and tomorrow you'll have forgotten the hardship of this hour.

You can complete that task today. You should complete that task today.

Now do it. Get to work.

How to Succeed...

Fail.

Repeatedly.

Make 10,000 small failures a key goal. Not because you want to fail, but because to fail 10,000 times means you've tried 10,000 times, at least. With a willingness to learn from failure, those 10,000 times would have taught you something: How to fail reliably. By a process of elimination you would learn which actions and factors make failure less likely.

Many people see a lack of failure as a badge of pride. Many people are wrong!

A lack of failure is a badge of not having had the ambition to try, the willingness to work and the determination to overcome defeat in pursuit of excellence.

You may see Kobe Bryant or David Beckham on TV, scoring almost effortlessly from a distance. Yet what you don't see is the practice that went into building their abilities. Try to score. Fail. Try to score. Fail. Try again, fail. And so on, for hours. Practicing for years, failing often.

It's that repeated failure that forms the bedrock of their success.

How easily we forget how we learned to walk, talk, read and write. Our success did not come instantly. Instead we began each task as untalented failures, and failure after failure followed. Whilst you have long since forgotten those failures, their legacy is the very thing that ensures you can read this blog entry!

Worthy goals are so high and so difficult that we cannot help but fail repeatedly in our attempts to realize them. Each failure takes us closer to success, as long as we learn from our mistakes.
I wish you much success. So, I wish you much failure!

Beware of the Poisoners

There are many people who are unhappy in their work. Bored, understretched, undervalued, underpaid. Yet rather than take action to change their situation, they choose to do nothing, to stay in their job, and just whine.

They commit no time to improving their knowledge, skills and breadth of experience.

Although they feel unappreciated and undervalued, they do not seek employment from those that would value them more.

Many come in late and most leave as soon as the clock strikes 5pm. They never fail to remark that it's Friday ('Thank God') or Monday ('Oh God').

Throughout the day they whine loudly about their work load ("I've just got SO much to do. I'm SO busy. I don't know how I'll manage to do everything").

Yet strangely, they never stay late to make progress through their supposedly impossible and mountainous workload. But they'll waste an hour each day gossiping and bitching to whomever will listen.

They bad-mouth decent colleagues behind their backs. And they blame their own failures on their boss and the members of the management team, whom they regularly paint as being clueless, indecisive and self-serving.

Stay away from these people.

They are poisoners.

If you give them a chance, they will sap your willingness to take responsibility for your working life. They'll endanger your motivation. They'll encourage the view that work is pointless and futile, and that you should give up all hope of moving beyond mediocrity, into useful excellent, innovative and rewarding work.

The whiners are not bad people, but their attitudes infect the atmosphere at work, and risk harming all who are exposed to them. Be civil to the work-haters, but recognize the danger that their inaccurate and negative worldviews affecting your attitudes, and through them your actions and outcomes.

Be aware of the risk.

Beware of the poisoners.