Written by Kevin Li
Dude, where’s my cheese?
We all have our goals in life! Things we want to improve: personal health, time management or things we’d like to attain: a degree, or landing that promotion.
There are times when something doesn’t go our way. The outcome is less than ideal. It’s so easy to find fault or cause in external factors. It was that other person’s doing or my manager is lousy, or maybe I wasn’t really that interested anyway. It’s very much a harder task to introspectively challenge and question whether we could have tried a different approach and influenced the outcome, or more critically was it our own missteps which led to where we are today.
It’s amazing what one can learn by just defaulting to the high road and taking responsibility for one’s failures and asking oneself, what can I start doing differently today to influence the outcome? Is there something that I could improve to help achieve my goal? It opens up another dimension to one’s personal development.
I’ve found that one’s attitude and approach to adversity has significant affects on one’s happiness and success. In the book “Who Moved My Cheese?”, we observe the contrast between the ever-adapting Sniff & Scurry versus the complacent and frustrated Hum and Haw. Those that look for ways that they can change things versus those that see their situation as being ‘hard-done-by’ are far more pro-active and successful in all of life’s pursuits.
From a workplace perspective, no one likes an employee who frequently complains. Rather, those that identify issues and champion resolving them are far more constructive, great people to work with and just plain happier.
So, who moved your cheese? No one, but you can certainly help us find it, can’t you?
Kevin