The workforce tells us that we should fight hard to make our way to the top of the career ladder. No matter what is required, we should aim for the highest position and the largest salary possibly attainable.
There's just one problem with that methodology -- or philosophy, if you will. It causes us to become insensitive to the people around us. We begin looking down on those whose scramble to the top isn't as quick or as successful as ours. We stop trying to help newcomers learn the ropes, telling ourselves, "Well, no one helped me!" If we are honest with ourselves, we can remember times when someone did help us.
Interestingly, as we get older, we come to realize that competition in the workforce really isn't about ranks and salaries. It's about how we did our jobs. Did we do our very best or just enough to get by? Did we lend a helping hand or a word of encouragement, or did we hang onto that "Well, no one helped me!" approach?
Stop and take a few minutes to make a list of your accomplishments. Then, pick out the ones where your competition was not against your coworkers, but against yourself. Did you do better today than you did yesterday? Did you turn out a better product this year than you did last year? Did you return to work a few minutes late after lending a helping hand?
Remember: No one ever won a race by looking back to see how the competition was doing. As the old saw goes, be nice to the people you pass on the way up; they are the people you'll meet on your way back down.
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