Foresight and Karma

From bad bosses to belittled employees, workplace bullies to irate customers, I'm truly surprised that we get as much work done as we do. But, that's all on the negative side of things and not all workplaces are so chock full of negativity. What we have to do is look at our situations from another perspective; one from which we can see things from the outside, as others would see them. Using a combination of what others might see and some rational thinking on our part, we might be able to solve many work-related problems, which are far too common in my opinion.

Forget about work for a moment. Let's look at how people act on a daily basis. Emotionally, we are made up of instinct and influence; a combined influence. We have instincts, which are activated by nerves and fluids, and we have influences, which are tips and tricks we pick up along the way. I know, I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said before, but I want to offer a fresh proletarian perspective from an armchair by a fireplace in a hidden netherworld where the keys to get in are often obscured by absurdity. That's about as clear as a definition of the human condition, isn't it? But that's who we are - complex life forms with simple problems.

Philosophical problems aside, on a daily basis, I witness countless acts of selfishness and looking back, I have sometimes acted that way myself. But, because I am so into recognizing acts of selfishness, I try to avoid those acts and that is not an easy task. Rather than blame people for acting selfishly, I need only look at how I have acted in the past and how I wish to act in the future. It took great effort to constantly remind myself that there was no reason to act that way. To correct my selfishness, I began to do one good deed a day, just to spread good karma. I would hold open a door, pick up a piece of trash or take a deep breath when some driver ahead of me hesitated at an advanced green signal. So what if I missed the light? If one minute matters that much to me to get into the grocery store parking lot, then I am not managing my time properly in the first place. On a daily basis, I have to remind myself that I don't want a stressful life. Those daily reminders are the hard part.

The educational part of this, for me, is that I must constantly recognize what is a good act and what is bad. The person who shovels chunks of ice into a freshly plowed roadway is committing a bad act. The person who stops to help someone in need is doing a good act. I could go on, but the line of thought is so obvious and may even be tedious for some to read. The term 'ad naseum' comes to mind. My point is - we can obviously recognize positive acts versus negative acts but we can also forget about them when we get to work, amongst the multi-tasking and endless deadlines, etc. It is this forgetfulness that can ruin our workdays.

With that in mind, I offer the following suggestion: remember to look ahead at how your actions may affect others or, simply put, remember to have some foresight.

We are probably never going to completely change every work experience into a positive one because there are always going to be those who are too cool and savvy to be like the rest and those who get off on having power trips, but that doesn't mean we have to pay attention to them.

All of this comes full circle when we remember to give others the benefit of the doubt, not judge them too quickly and accept that some folks won't likely change. So, as a parting thought, I offer this: just because someone has their blinker on doesn't mean they're changing lanes. Life is short, but don't let that ruin your day.

Please visit www.thinkworknotjob.com for more information on me.

Cheers and happy 2008!!
Buck Moore