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Almost everyone who is unhappy with life is unhappy for the same reasons
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Expectations shape your reality
They can change your life, emotionally and physically.
You need to be extra careful about (and aware of) the expectations you harbor as the wrong ones make life unnecessarily dif...
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The (un)fairness of life
A surprising number of us subconsciously expect life to be fair, and we believe that any unfairness that we experience will somehow be balanced out, even if we don’t do anything about it.
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Opportunities don't just happen
One of the most important things a person can do is stick his or her neck out and seek opportunity.
Just because you deserve a raise, a promotion, or a company car, doesn’t mean ...
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Being liked by everyone
When you assume that people are going to like you, you take shortcuts; you start making requests and demands before you’ve laid the groundwork to really understand what the other person is thinking...
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Being "approved" by everyone
Most of us expect people to agree with us out of courtesy or because our ideas are so incredibly sound.
But something that’s obvious to you might not be so to someone with different expe...
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People can’t read your mind
... and what you’re trying to say is rarely what other people hear. You can’t expect people to understand you just because you’re talking—you have to be clear.
Communicati...
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Expecting to fail
If you expect to fail, you stand a higher chance of creating the very outcome you’re worried about.
If you fail, accept that sometimes you’ll fail and sometimes you’ll succeed, b...
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Happy for the wrong reasons
Too many of us expect a future event (“I’ll be happy when I get that promotion”) to make us happy, instead of looking more deeply into the real causes of our unhappiness.
If you don’...
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"Changing" someone
There’s only one person in this world you can truly change—yourself—and even that takes a tremendous amount of effort.
The only way that people change is through the desire and wherewi...
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Taking action = eventual success
Inaction is the biggest cause of our failures and our miseries. If we could consistently do the things we know we should do, we would be more successful, and our lives would be better. Yet w...
Explaining inaction
Some possible but weak reasons why action is hard:
- Talent. But the world is full of brilliant stars that flame out and mediocre minds that build empires.
- Preferences can explain our failure to try, but don't explain our inner struggles with inaction.
- Capacity for effort. If your capacity for doing things is lower, it does not explain chronic bursts of activity with inevitable crashes in your goals and projects.
- Motivation. Some people with the most reason have the hardest time taking action.
Confidence
- Your motivation to complete a task depends on the value of the reward and your expectation of success.
- Your expectation of success depends on your motivation.
If your projects tend to fail, your expectations are low, and motivation fades. If your projects tend to succeed, your expectations go up, and motivation stays strong.
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Disengaged Employees
Engagement at work is a sign of employee motivation and resulting productivity. Unfortunately, only about 13% of people globally are engaged at work, and disengaged employees cost the economy $5...
What Not To Do
- Do not make assumptions about a disengaged employee's performance. While statistically, such employees do underperform, there can be other reasons too.
- Do not force an employee to be someone they are not. Everyone cannot be happy and optimistic all the time.
- Do not get emotional, and stick to a transactional, formal, work-focused style. Do not expect to win their hearts or influence them by appealing to their emotions.
- Do not assign employees tasks beyond their area of expertise.
Approaching Disengaged Employees
- Use extrinsic motivating factors such as incentives and rewards to get productivity from a disengaged employee.
- Understand what drives them, connect with them, gaining their trust and respect without being emotional, and focus on what they value.
- Respect an employee's personal space and their need to distance their problems from their work.
Ultimately, it is what an employee delivers that matters most, and a manager has to focus on figuring out how to get the work done.
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False Beliefs About Self-Education
Despite having easy access to information, few people take full advantage of the opportunity we have for self-directed learning.
We still believe that in order to learn something, we need to be formally educated on it, when in fact we're able to educate ourselves.
Self-Education In The 21st Century
Self-education is the core skill for the 21st century.
Our ability to respond to changes in the landscape of work and technology will be dictated by how skilled self-educators we are, how well we can take full advantage of the information available to us to grow our skillset.