At our workplace or in personal life, we all see people with different kind of approach towards work and life. Some people are very active in what they do. They take initiatives, be proactive and keep a track of all important things in life. For them every step they put forward is very important. In addition to that, they make sure to make enough noise to raise their point.
On the other hand, we see people who would just like to go along the flow. They are in neutral position to lot of things. People don’t take action on things easily. Furthermore, they are just self-content. They are happy with what they have and how they are. After all accepting change is difficult for them. They are aloof from what is going on around them. They are in their own world.
Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash
Now let’s try to understand from a sport perspective. You pick any team sport like cricket, football, basketball, or any other sport. It demands active participation from all the players. If you are on the ground, you must play. You can’t stand in corner and choose not to play. You must follow the rules of the game. The game demands you to play with rules of the game, else you will lose. The same goes with life. You are in this world, born as human being. You are part of the society. Society has its own rules. Those rules you may like or may not like. If you want to be successful in game of life, you have to play.
You may like the rules. You may not like the rules, however you must play. It is not possible to stand aloof even though you don’t want to play. In your workplace, moreover things are driven by a system. If you don’t like the system, try to change it, make it better. There is no excuse for playing. If you are part of some team, some project, indeed you must work actively. Furthermore, you need to align yourself with team’s goal.
Be proactive there and try to add value and contribute. If you limit yourself to the assigned work, or to just your work, certainly you will be not able to grow personally and professionally. It is important to work and contribute. unquestionably it is more important when it becomes the question of survival. Some day you may be replaced by someone, in case if you are not contributing and not proactive. Corporate culture is like that only. There is always someone who can replace you. It’s easy if you are inactive.
Just doing your work is not enough. Furthermore be an active team player and contribute, make your presence visible, take initiatives and keep doing something different to be relevant. Obviously you can not survive in long run with ‘going along the flow’ attitude. You must play and need to play with your full potential to succeed.