A critical mental shift for success in life is the transition from the desire to win and be recognized to the desire to improve. Once you focus on improving, you are on the path to success. If you are blessed enough, that will come with a win and your desire for recognition. However, purely seeking recognition often leads to temporary, fleeting wins that leave you shallow, empty, and wanting more. Recognition should be the reward that is achieved over a lifetime of diligent and consistent effort at improving. Unfortunately, recognition these days has become something different.
Recognition is now a badge. A token we receive for doing only what is required. We gain recognition for being nothing more than unique or different. We recognize people for just doing their jobs. Recognition has become a method for validation, a bonus system that takes the place of compensation. We have been trained to be this way. I saw this happening as I got older. I was born before video games, and as I got older, I saw the video games evolve. Over time, they began to create small reward systems and badges that players could use to celebrate their successful completion of what was expected. This has now extended to our work lives as well. Recognition is what we expect. Recognition is what we get for doing what we are supposed to do and in the sequence intended. We have been trained to crave recognition from our superiors, our owners, and our creators. We receive recognition now for just doing our jobs.
Corporations are now feeding into this paradigm. Adopting reward systems to give a small pat on the back for the lemming that followed the course properly. A badge of honor is given publicly to celebrate the fact that you did nothing more than your job. This has evolved into a meritocracy based on nothing more than existing and doing what is expected. We are now rewarded and given labels just because we exist, based on our own attributes that make us different from others. These recognitions seem to have nothing to do with our ability to improve ourselves.
Do not fall for this. Break free. You are caught by your masters, and they will do anything they can to keep you in line, doing what you are told and celebrating your uniqueness as long as you show up every day and do the job for as little remuneration as possible. They keep ringing the bell every time you find the cheese, and you get excited because of the praise. To find yourself back in the maze, repeating the same process again. You can get out of this rat race. However, there is only one way.
That is to improve. You must improve. Success does not come with a ribbon attached to it that you can drape around your neck. Success is not a pin, a pen, or a 10-year-anniversary fake gold watch. It certainly is not a plastic acrylic company logo for you to put on your bookcase. The secret is to stop seeking recognition and start seeking improvement. Stop signaling to your overlords that you want to be recognized, to be promoted, to be given a new title. They will give these trinkets out all the time in various different shapes and sizes. Anything to keep you just doing the job. Rather, start improving. Become efficient. Magnify your efforts by improving and getting better. This is something that no one can take away from you because it is yours. You earned it, by putting the work and time on improving.
Become better. Improve. Gain skills and grow. You will not only do your job but also start doing the work of many other people. The people who employ you will not be able to contain you any longer. They will instinctively know that the recognition badges are not going to work, and when you start indicating demands for tangible compensation, they will have to comply. You can also go elsewhere because you are now valuable. Improvement builds your value; recognition fills your junk drawer. If it makes you feel better, go to Amazon and buy a plastic reward trinket, have it engraved with your name, and ship it to yourself every few months. This is a whole lot cheaper than being a servant, working in an under-compensated role for the next 10 years.
As I finish this article, I am at my desk, and I am looking at my 20-year college pin (yes, that is what I got for teaching for 20 years) and my 10-year corporate logo (yes, I got a corporate logo made out of wood with my name on it for 10 years of work). I have an old business card pinned to the wall of my first company (yes, that is all I have left from that company). I am also looking at my 4-year degree, which cost me roughly 6,500 to buy. My graduate degree cost me slightly more to purchase. I have a folder in the filing cabinet of the various awards, designations, and certificates I have received over the last 5 decades. All of this amounts to nothing compared to what I have worked on to improve myself.
Improvement needs to be your goal. Constant improvement. Recognitions may come, and when they do, take 5 minutes and smile, but after the fanfare quickly dies, get back to the work of improving yourself. Stop looking for reasons why you should be recognized when you have not done anything. Work instead on improving yourself, and the recognition will eventually come. Do not worry; this constant desire to be recognized comes from indoctrination. You can resist. You can open your eyes and see the truth. Your destiny is in your hands and only comes with your individual effort to improve.
