The Bushy Path

In 2016 Olympic games, Usain Bolt was participating in his third consecutive Olympic games. He had won a gold medal in the 100 meters race in the previous two Olympic games. Will he win for the third time? They got set for the 100 meters final. And the gun sounded. The 8 athletes raced. 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds,... Justin Gatlin has got this. It seemed Usain Bolt was going to lose out on gold this time. Oh wait. Like lightning, Bolt rocketed, caught up and got to the finish line. First. Another gold.

In the summer of 2008, during the Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps had gone through his usual routine before his swimming event. He had done his 25-meter sprint in the pool to raise his heartbeat. After that, he put on his headset for his songs playlist before a race. He was getting ready for the 200-meter butterfly race. Minutes later, the athletes were beside the pool, ready for the event. Moments later, the gun went off and each swimmer plunged into the swimming pool for the chance at winning the ultimate medal: Olympic gold.

You left for your workplace in the morning like a hero. With the hope of getting a lot of things done. But you came home tired and with the niggling thought that you could have done better than that. You’re not alone. Workplace productivity is one of the most important things in any workplace. Except you don’t love your work, you always want to increase the quality and quantity of work you can do daily. Whether you’re a very effective worker, or a mediocre one, there is always room for improvement. No man is perfect and therefore the need for constant improvement. The extent of what man can achieve is limitless.

You have been thinking about it. And it has been giving you migraine. You had high hopes for your career. But now you feel your career has gone stagnant. You have been told to sweat the big things, the important things, and ignore the small things. You have followed that to the letter but your career is still stuck in mediocrity. Are the small things unimportant? This advice seems to imply it. However, it is a really bad idea to follow. Because the small things are more important than you think.

No matter how bad a failure you are, you have achieved success in some things. No matter how successful you are, you have also failed in many pursuits. This is common to everybody but we usually differ in the number of failures and successes we have.

Every day, we take on risks. Some of these risks are so common that we no more see them as risks. Whenever you drive to your workplace, there is always a risk – no matter how low – of an auto accident. But how many people think of this risk? Very few. There are some other risks we often fear. We think about those risks constantly. In fact, these thoughts lead to full blown worry. Many times, your fear is probably misplaced because some risks are actually exaggerated but affect a very small percentage of people. There are some risks however, that are more dangerous but that we place little attention to.

After spending 20 years working at your job, you have a level of confidence that comes with solving many problems in your field and helping many people out. You believe you have seen it all. But wait a bit. What if that is just your perception rather than the reality. Experience is good in any job but if careless, it can lure you into a pit of overconfidence. And one way to be realistic is to admit that it is almost impossible for anybody to see it all no matter what they do. You may have even gotten a lot of praise from your co-workers or your employers but you must always be careful and vigilant. You must always know that experience in itself is not what solves problem.