Tweet

Making a Fresh Start

Written by: Nan Russell

Article Overview: "How could that be?" I muttered silently as I reread the message. This was not a person I wanted to encounter as I returned from a holiday vacation filled with family, friends, and fun. And yet, there he was on my calendar. My first meeting of the New Year was scheduled with my nemesis.

Making a Fresh Start

"How could that be?" I muttered silently as I reread the message. This was not a person I wanted to encounter as I returned from a holiday vacation filled with family, friends, and fun. And yet, there he was on my calendar. My first meeting of the New Year was scheduled with my nemesis.

I wish I could tell you it was a good meeting, but it wasn't. I got exactly the difficult, irritating, frustrating event I expected. Now years later, that meeting snapshot easily pops to mind as I remember the negative relationship dance played out in my office that day.

Yet it was that occurrence that ignited change. Like Janus, the Roman god of doorways, beginnings and endings, whose name inspired the first month of the year, I saw in two directions. I could either drag that past into the future by continuing the detrimental escalation of this important work relationship, or I could leave it behind and make a psychological fresh start. I chose the latter.

What changed that day was my vision of the doorway I wanted to go through. I realized that every time I dealt with that difficult manager, he brought out my less than positive side. In effect, I had relinquished to him the power to control my reactions. But with one simple thought I took it back.

I decided that every time I saw him in the hallway, or at a meeting, or had to deal with him, I would directly look at him and mentally say, "I wish you well." At first I forced the thought, but in time it flowed easily. It turns out I did wish him well. How could I not if I offered the best of who I was?

Wishing him well slowly altered my response to him. It refashioned how I showed up, and transformed a negative, difficult work relationship into a professionally neutral one.

You see, it's easy to see the things we don't like in other people, easy to identify their irritating habits, their performance deficiencies, and their problems. It's easy to remember when we've been wronged, replay memories of their roadblocks, escalate their email tirades, or relive their failed promises. It's easy to put all the blame and onus for change on them.

But people who are winning at working train themselves to look again at difficult work relationships. They seek to glean positive traits in those who frustrate them. They extend a mental thank you for the mirror these people hold up, realizing that often their most professional and personal growth is spurred by those who push their hot buttons. And they accept that the only person whose behavior they can control is their own.

While people who are winning at working may develop goals, commitments, and reflective inspiration at the start of a New Year, they don't limit their timing of fresh starts to one day. They recognize the choice they have to start anew with old problems, difficult relationships, limiting beliefs, or narrow thinking doesn't happen once a year, nor does setting goals or dreaming dreams or assessing progress.

People who are winning at working know that any day of the year they can make a fresh start; any day of the year they can change their thinking and their results; any day of the year, they can begin to create a different work future. And they do.

(c) 2008 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved.

Related Articles
  Home Business Expert: How To Advertise Innovative & Fresh Ideas
  When Should I Consider Filing for Bankruptcy?
  How Fresh Content May Catapult Your Website Ranking At The Top!
  Methods To Use To Easily Achieve Higher Search Engine Ranking
  Lesson #3: Create a Fresh Focus For Your Company

Article Tags: beginnings and endings, deficiencies, doorway, escalation, family friends, first meeting, fresh start, hallway, holiday vacation, janus, month of the year, negative relationship, nemesis, occurrence, replay, roadblocks, roman god of doorways, simple thought, snapshot, work relationship



Related Forum Posts
Re: Hello, I'm brand new - Hi Fresh! Welcome to this forum - you will find some very helpful and friendly people here. Ros
Making Money in 2011 - Hello forum members! As we draw closer to the new year I thought it would be appropriate to change the title of our forum category "Making Money in 2010" to "Making Money in 2011" - I'm looking forward to some interesting discussions and wish everyone a prosperous New Year!
Re: About: product production! - Dear Fresh Goods, You post always sound optimistic. That is good. Do you have a working prototype of your invention?
Re: About: product production! - Dear Fresh Goods, A patent is not always the best thing to do. Keep in mind less than 2% of all patents pay their own legal expenses. The formula for Coca Cola was never patented. If it was that secret formula would have been public knowledge 100 years ago! A patent has value if you are licensing your invention. Without a patent you have nothing to sell. In this age of out sourcing, computer modeling, and CNC machines, manufacturing unique products in low volume is easier than it has ever been. It may be best to contract out the manufacturing of the components you can't buy.
Re: Should you hire ambitious workers or employees with no goals - According to Guy Kawasaki, he says "you should only hire and keep people that you'd hustle over to and engage in a conversation...Life is too short to work with people you don't naturally like-especially in a young, small organization" ("The Art of the Start" pg 112). I think the reverse is also true and I wouldn't want to work for anyone I didn't like or want to talk to if I saw him/her outside of the office. In addition, Kawasaki also says "Steve Jobs has a saying that A players hire A players; B players hire C players; and C players hire D players...This trickle-down effect causes bozo explosions in companies. If there is one thing a CEO must do, it's hire a management team that is better than he is" ("The Art of the Start" pg 101). Kawasaki's quote is definitely in favor of hiring the ambitious worker, but do most CEO's even have the humility to admit that someone is better than them?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

RULE YOUR BUSINESS LIKE A SHINE STAR

How to Write Your Articles for Better SEO

What is an Adaptive Organization

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.