Content Article by Nan S. Russell

Work is like that, too. We often bring too much baggage. It may not look like baggage, but it weighs us down just the same. It's disguised as past relationships with bosses previous work experiences mind-talk about whether we can or can't do something how we've been treated in work (and life), or how we think we have. And usually there's at least one duffle bag stuffed with our expectations.

I've found in twenty years of management most people bring suitcases full of self-doubt, old patterning from old relationships and self-fulfilling prophesies to work every day, and it stifles them. Most people let past work experiences dictate their future ones. So if they've worked in three different jobs or companies, those three job experiences are packed into the suitcases they're lugging. Some people end up lugging dozens and dozens of them.

A little while later another man stopped and approached the woman. Again she was asked what the townspeople were like and again she asked the traveler what his experience had been where he lived before. "Oh, the people were great. Everyone was helpful and supportive – a real community." "You'll find people the same way here," she said.

People who are winning at working are like that second traveler. They know in work (and life) you tend to get what you expect. And if they're encumbered with emotional baggage and poor expectations, they get poor results. Instead, they follow advice like Deepak Chopra's, "Always expect the best and you'll see that the outcome is spontaneously contained in the expectation."

People who are winning at working are one suitcase people. Like a seasoned world traveler, they've learned what essentials to pack. They bring to work only those skills and experiences that will positively impact their work and future. They leave the rest of their baggage behind. Want to be winning at working? Travel light.

(c) 2005 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved.