Imbibing Proper Manners at Work (1)
One crucial factor in working effectively is the attitude you bring to the place of work. You can hardly achieve the good results with a bad attitude. For this reason, I have decided to publish portions of my new book on work etiquette which presents a common sense guide to building passion – arguably the single most effective ingredient for work place efficiency. Excerpts,
The highest level of work activity is addiction.
There are five kinds of workers:
Workers with AVERSION - a state of no interest Workers with ATTENTION - a state of little interest Workers with ATTRACTION - a state of moderate interest Workers with AFFECTION - a state of high interest Workers with ADDICTION - a state of total interest
Passion or painful consistency moves us from one level of interest to another.
It is your level of interest that determines your level of insight.
And it is your level of insight that determines the quality and effectiveness of your work.
If you want to work at the highest potential getting the best results, operate at the highest level of interest - be addicted.
The greatest achievers who ever lived were addicted to their work.
MICHEAL PHELPS the greatest Olympian of all time with 23 gold medals was so addicted to swimming that for five years he was said to have never missed a day of practice including Sundays.
TIM COOK the CEO of Apple the world’s most valuable company is so addicted to his work, he adopts a principle of first in last out - that is the first to report to work and the last to leave.
ISSAC NEWTON was so addicted he worked 18 hours every day. He was so addicted to work he invented calculus while he was still a student at Cambridge University. So addicted to work he barely had time for social interactions.
STEVE JOBS was so addicted to making so many life changing innovations he worked round the clock. At a certain point in his life, he took his bath only once a week to make this quite convenient he ate only red apples so he would not develop body odour.
So then you may ask, how then can I be addicted? Simple! I can show you how even if you are at a point where you have little or no interest at all. Come with me as I show you how to go from aversion a state of no interest at all in work to addiction a state of absolute interest for work.
The key to building interest is to be consistent even when it is most painful or challenging. Not just to be consistent, but to be consistent when it is most painful or challenging. The difference between you and your next level of interest is pain.
If you have an aversion for a thing and you remain consistent even when it is most painful or challenging, your level of interest will increase. Notice I did not say if you are consistent. I said if you are consistent even when it is most painful or challenging. Pain is therefore your passport to the next level.
How do you become passionate or more passionate?
Let’s assume you are not passionate for a job or task and you want to become passionate or you have some form of passion or interest however you want to become more passionate. How then do you become more passionate? Well, I’ll give you the golden principle. It states thus.
Be consistent especially when it is most challenging and have a good attitude.
As you work at a job or task in consistency, if you have a good attitude, you would either find yourself naturally becoming more passionate or you would come to a point where the job or task is most painful, uninteresting, uneventful, challenging etc. The point at which you feel the most pain, lack of interest, discomfort is the point at which you are about to enter into a higher level of passion. In life, pain sometimes is a sign we are about to enter the next level of passion.
Like the golden rule states - it is not consistency alone that makes one passionate, it is consistency when it is most challenging combined with a good attitude that makes one more passionate.