Life Improvement Tips For The Wise Few

For the past ten years, I have been getting meager improvements on my job and in my life. I just couldn’t figure out what was happening or why was everything turning against me. I had that great smile, was nice to almost everyone, said no most of the times, all the things they say to do in most motivational books. I was doing just that, but not wasn’t working.

Got a copy of “The 7 Habits of HIGHLY Effective People” by Stephen Covey, and honestly sat down to read this book. I just couldn’t figure out why I was failing so miserably in life. I gave myself the nick phrase; everything you touch turns to dust. Well, little did I know that I was programming my self to self destruction.

As I got better at reading books, I made myself a promise to change my ways and develop a more focused me, that would listen more and speak less, things started to change, and I could see my life started to move leaps and bounds ahead, but, before I jump there I would like to show you the power of self destruction.

How Do You Press Your Own Self Destruct Button?

For you to better grasp this concept, I will demonstrate exactly what I did, and what you should avoid. It started at the time when I got my big engineering position, and was working with this Telecommunication Company (St. Maarten Telephone Company - Telem). I was working for the MIS-department, where we had to make programs and adjust or create simple routines to make any repeated job as simple for the end users.

I was working with a colleague from Curacao, and the amazing part was that this so called partner, just couldn’t get any work done. I helped him with every task that he was given to do. Then one day, as I was filling the database with information, I came across our payroll sheets, well, low and behold this colleague was making double what I was making and couldn’t do anything, that really pissed me off.

I approached the boss, he was the most self centered man I have ever met, and told him this wasn’t fair, and why was he making double my salary while we had the same task description, and he just couldn’t perform. My boss, was also form Curacao, and he gave these guys salaries that made the workers from St. Maarten look like they were working for peanuts. He told me that they had to take care of these guys, and my reply was; So your telling me, that we St. Maarten people don’t like money.
As it turned out, I got really bitter and simply asked for a transfer, he gave me a little side job in another department. I prefer not too use to much technical terms, because that will take away the fun of the story. Next thing I noticed was that the department closed down.

Guess they realize my partners true potential, but low and behold, he got a better position. And continued to grow with this company.

So Why Was He Getting Promoted?

This colleague continued to grow and grow within the company, can’t say much about his skills, because as I write this, I just read one of his emails, and he still can’t even write a decent email. But, it was obvious that he was doing something right.

So, I honestly got much out of that book, and started to see, how I was self destructing, everyday, I got more bitter and bitter and was causing everything go wrong in my life. My mind filled with anger, and there wasn’t a moment that would pass that I didn’t have an evil deed go through my mind. I was pushing my self destruct button without knowing how, I was able to get so mad by just seeing these guys.

Nevertheless, I kept track of what was happening, and kept learning, and reading many books, spending much time online doing research. I researched whatever I was working on. Got better at my job, stopped ‘bitching” and spoke less.

No one was going to put me in a bad mood again, and I noticed how things started to change. Just didn’t realize I was pushing my “success” button. Started thinking about great things, and as I think them, they would come true. So what was making all this possible?

Highly Successful People Traits:

• Stop complaining, and thinking it’s all about you
• Seek first to understand, then to be understood
• Be proactive

Those are the traits I changed, and I understood, how to bring over things in a better way, that made them feel more secure. But, the truth be told, they have not learned anything about managing effective people within that company. It is a shame to see how the day to day operations are being done.

I have developed people skills beyond my wildest dreams, each and everyday I keep setting little goals, and have organized myself in such a proficient manner, that it makes me smile when I see how they manage, but, I don’t criticize or even get mad.

The first improvement that I had to learn was how to think positive, and see the good in every bad situation that I was placed in. My mind is now programmed to look for solutions and not blame the world for what I was doing wrong.