Colleague Talk - Is It all about our MINDSET? 11th Feb 2008

It was a very interesting week for my colleagues n I in office, we made headways and came up with new ways of strengthening our controls to cut on losses in our organization.
It’s true that there is and will always be room for improvement, but the improvement is like a puzzle you have to unravel. I believe there is room for improvement even at your workplace. All you need to do is pay little more attention to your work process, and think how to improve each step or seal the existing loops holes. It also pays to put yourself in your opponents shoes, you get tips to counter his moves.

Action Point: Is it all about our mindset?
It’s interesting how much we can achieve if we push back our boundaries…. Read on…

It is difficult to swim in shallow water. It is impossible to learn to swim by attending classroom lectures. Learning to swim is all about pushing back the boundaries of your experience, being submerged, getting our head wet. It is also about eliminating some fairly deep-rooted fears and proving to yourself that most things are possible. The limits on achievement are mostly the limits that we artificially construct in our minds in order to protect ourselves.

We should not allow ourselves to paddle in shallow water every day. It is pleasant for a while but it will ultimately become boring. Meanwhile the competition has leant to swim in the deep sea and has reached the other side of the bay. Also many people are happy to paddle through life and achieve little other than a degree of comfort – which can lead to complacency

Dropping ourselves in the deep end from time to time means that we are more likely to survive than if we remained protected in the shallow end. We will have a deeper experience of a wider range of issues and will be more able to cope with the pressures of intensifying competition. The deep-end experience provides many more valuable lessons than the shallow end.

Inevitably there is a high degree of risk in this deep-end experience. To learn effectively people must take risks and gain from pushing back boundaries. When risk is minimized the experience and learning are minimal – and consequently motivation erodes as people become entrenched in their attitudes and set in their ways. In contrast, dropping ourselves in the deep end can prove highly motivational, as it send a clear signal that we believe in ourselves and trust our abilities and strengths.

Effectively it is pushing ourselves to our limits – so that we can exceed them and become much more effective as a result.

Question: Is it all about our mindset?

Quote:

"if money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability"

Henry Ford, Founder of the Ford Motor Company

Have an energetic week