How to Win the Game of Work When You’re Stuck in a Rut
It’s all in how you see it.
You’re ambitious. You want to do well, whether it’s in corporate life or in your own business.
But something’s holding you back.
You seem to be doing all the right things, but you’re not getting the promotions you want or seeing customer numbers rise enough.
Most of us would instinctively look at what we’re doing. How can I get my boss to appreciate me — or how can I market my business more effectively?
But you’re probably looking in the wrong place.
Your problem could be that you’re operating entirely from perceptual position no.1.
Let me explain.
What is a ‘perceptual position’?
The term ‘perceptual position’ refers to how we see ourselves and the world around us. There are three perceptual positions.
Position no.1 means that you see your work and the world through your own eyes. This is our default position.
When we use position no.1, we feel things much more intensely. We are self-oriented, noticing how other people affect us and how we feel as a result. It’s as if we are working within our own special cocoon, seeing the world exclusively from our own perspective. This position limits our ability to see how the world actually is.
Position no.2 means that you are able to mentally leave your body and see yourself and others through another person’s eyes.
When we do this, we distance ourselves from the up close and personal nature of position no.1. As a result, our emotions calm down and we are able to view our situation more dispassionately. Position no.2 enables us to notice aspects of our behaviour and our work that we cannot see when we look through our own eyes. We now see ourselves more realistically.
Position no.3 means that we rise above the room and look down at all the players as a whole.
In this position, we are most distanced from the action, and we can better see what the dynamics are. From this position, we are able to make better decisions about how we should approach our work.
What’s the point of all this?
The benefit to us is that we are able to move, in our mind, from a personal to a strategic point of view.
And it is only by taking a strategic point of view that we are able to plan and implement an effective path toward success.
When we are locked in our cocoon in position no.1, we take things personally, often adopting a victim role. We don’t understand why we are not doing as well as we think we ought to because we are unable to see the whole picture realistically. We become frustrated and resentful in a corporate setting, or hopeless and disillusioned in our own business.
But when we get into the habit of switching back and forth between perceptual positions 1,2 & 3, we gain clarity of vision which keeps us from becoming demotivated.
Now we don’t take things so personally. Now we can become strategists.
We can stand back from our day-to-day troubles and see why we are not performing as well as we thought we were. We can then see what needs to be done to turn things around.
This process then sets us on a totally new path forward. We make decisions about what actions to take to overcome our hurdles and play the game more effectively.
No longer are we lost. Instead, we know which direction we should head in and how we should work in order to get there.
We lose the confusion and despair that has so far beset us.
Now, with a strategic mindset, we have the dispassionate frame of mind that enables us to deal with people with greater strength, and work without emotional heaviness.
Finally, we can see our career or business goal clearly, and feel the power we need to make it happen.
All it takes is an expansion of our thinking.
All it takes is accepting that it’s what goes on inside of us that is actually the driver of our success.
