Sifting Out Personal Life From Professional Life

In life, we each play many different roles. One could be a father, a son, a mentor, a student, a boss, a lover, an artist, a joker. The complex dynamics of these roles is what gives each of us our uniqueness and our value to others.

In our professional lives however, it's often prudent not to allow our personal roles and emotions to carelessly slip through. Taking your emotional baggage into the workplace is inappropriate for all the reasons you may imagine. Many organizations or companies today may tout themselves as being a "big family", yet how many of them truly tolerate workers who bring their personal frustrations or opinions into the work sphere?

So how do you sift the personal out from your workplace?

It requires distinction and discrimination. If you are having communication challenges at work, look at how you view your manager, boss or employee. Does he/she take on a role as a parent, mate or partner? Are your frustrations related to what is and is not working in your life manifested on the job? Learn to put down your troubles at the door. Focus on your contribution in your workplace to yourself, your peers and the community. This is your opportunity to commit to what you are best at doing and get paid for it based on your strengths and merits.

Examine your principles. Principles are how you live your life, about what is important to you. Choose principles that help make you what you truly are. Your personal and professional values can be the same.

As a manager or business owner, you have to know what your principles are; what the company values are, as well as the values of the people you manage. The basic rules of respect and acceptance apply. The Golden Rule is: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", not: "Do it to them before they do it to you".

People who take emotional baggage into the workplace can be temperamental, grasping and neglectful. Even more frustrating is that they throw all their pent-up, misplaced emotions on the job without consideration for others. Employees and co-workers react to this, work efforts and results go by the wayside, and profit, productivity and efficiency go down.

Leave your unexpressed feelings at bay. Have a breather if you become frustrated. Know that you are at work to achieve results.

Heal yourself first, determine your values, and then you will be a better employee, manager or business owner.