When I talk of achieving with corporate professionals, writers, lawyers, doctors, researchers, teachers, managers, consultant or designers, all of them wish to achieve. But almost all of them have learnt the craft of achieving in their chosen knowledge work by randomly picking stories of others, by haphazard actions of doing this or that, by hearing interviews of role models, or sometimes, by having a good mentor. That is why we believe that work-achievement happens either by doing nice positive qualities like passion or goals, or becoming a perfect human being, or by having willpower.
But practically no one believes that this craft of work-achievement in career can be learnt by practice, or that the pains of achievement can be minimised by learning a framework of sustained achievement in career. Most of the brave corporate professionals follow the rules of the simplistic law of achievement such as work hard, concentrate, try hard and others. And if these rules do not help them, they feel that there is no better alternative.
But now there is a better alternative of succeeding in career than just taking a blind chance. There is a better understanding of achievement than just following other role models. There is a more guaranteed way of work-achievement than relying on homegrown homilies like promote yourself like a brand, connect in a network, or think of original ideas. There is better way of preparing for achievement, instead of falling and learning from mistakes. There is a better way of preventing failures, instead of doing damage control after failures.
Learn the New law of sustained achievement in career.
This law has six characteristics:
1. New law of sustained achievement requires one to find one's success formula, not duplicate the formula of others: Everyone produces unique results with their unique abilities. Every individual is a unique bundle of expectations, beliefs, goals, and paths. This unique combination always makes you see life differently than others. What is good for others is therefore never good for you and vice versa.
2. New law of sustained achievement is about facing the realities of life, not avoiding them: Realities of life have to be faced, not avoided, in order to remain human. For instance, hard work alone does not produce output, 'smart work' does it. Or achieving results does not guarantee 'monetary rewards' because rewards depend on the skill market. Or 'perceptions' are more important than 'objective facts' in evaluating work and people ! New law of achievement not only forces you to encounter these realities of life, but by helping you understand the why, they also help you to negotiate these realities without building false hopes.
3. In New law of Achievement, everything changes with context: There is no ONE guaranteed way of achievement, because there are many varieties in achievement. Varieties exist due to the kind of knowledge work. For instance, there are five main variations of knowledge work: Doing the knowledge work, Synthesising the Doing work ( which is Managers work), Teaching the knowledge work ( trainer), Advising on knowledge work ( work of consultant) and Creating new knowledge ( researcher). Out of these five main forms of knowledge work, thousands of combinations emerge, each creating its distinctive flavour, style and challenges.
4. New law of sustained achievement is about Archetypes, not stereotypes: Archetype is a structure that captures a universally common experience, but can be used to wrap itself in a unique, individual-specific expression. For instance, the archetype of 'team functioning' in a company ( which we discussed in the earlier blog) is a unique structure experienced by someone working in every company. But it can be applied to thousands of individual-specific experiences you experience in a company. This enables you to find effective solutions by using an archetype instead of just stereotyping the situation.
5. New law of Achievement is about thoroughness, not shortcuts: New law of Achievement cannot be applied as simply as first law. Every individual has to do lot of homework ( because he is producing unique results with his special abilities) so that he/she can apply the basic principles in his/her life. It cannot be applied by using short cuts like strive hard, or focus more, or prioritise. It can be applied only after understanding one's situation so that one knows which archetype and form can be used when.
6. Although New law of achievement is about mastering the art of achievement in work-life, it treats you as a one whole person: As one achieves in work life, one strives to reach even higher. But one cannot just achieve in work-life and use Mind poorly. Because, sooner or later, the poor outputs of Mind will start affecting the achievement in work-life. Only when one learns to remove the bottlenecks of Mind, one can reach the higher stages of work-life. In other words, New law of Achievement forces you to be holistic in life.
If you are a knowledge worker - corporate professional, writer, accountant, lawyer, doctor, researcher, teacher, manager, consultant and/or designer - you no more have to succeed blindly. As we have seen earlier, to achieve in sports and music, there is lot of help already available at least in playing the sports and music, if not in other work. By learning the New law of achievement, you can anticipate, prepare and equip yourself appropriately to also sustain achievement in Knowledge work.
Are you ready to learn the New Law of Sustained achievement in work life ?
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