Time-Tested Habits for Success
As Sam Levenson famously wrote in his poem, Time Tested Beauty Tips:
For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others…
Success, failure, or that all-too-familiar middle ground called mediocrity—where we quietly settle for what we get, often hinges on how we think and act. Just like beauty tips passed down through generations, there are time-tested habits that consistently distinguish high performers from the rest.
The behaviors we display each day shape not only our own performance but also the culture around us. And here’s the hard truth: mediocrity is contagious. When negative behaviors go unchecked, they silently reinforce the idea that “good enough” is good enough. In a vibrant, competitive workplace, that simply cannot be acceptable.
The Subtle Habits That Sabotage Success
Certain everyday habits quietly undermine both individual and organizational performance. Consider these “time-tested” pitfalls:
Displaying impatience with others
Being easily distracted
Prioritizing tasks over people
Becoming the culture instead of shaping it
Being disorganized
Being easily discouraged
Placing IQ over EQ
Each of these behaviors chip away at excellence. When tolerated, they become cultural norms. But just as timeless beauty practices endure, the habits that lead to lasting success can be cultivated deliberately.
Communication: The Foundation of Lasting Impact
Every one of us brings a unique set of life experiences to the workplace. When we use a word or express an idea, we attach a specific meaning to it. The listener, however, may interpret it differently.
That doesn’t mean someone failed to understand, it simply means understanding was not mutual. All communication occurs in the mind of the listener.
To truly listen is to communicate. And most workplace communication is influenced by two emotional factors: 1) How you feel about the other person’s ideas, and 2) What you believe the other person feels about your ideas
Healthy workplaces depend on three essential elements: communication, recognition, and trust. Without them, even the most focused professional can become distracted by interpersonal conflict. These principles are time-tested because they work across industries, cultures, and eras.
Collaboration: More Than Shared Tasks
Collaboration is often defined as sharing responsibilities and resources to achieve common goals. But quality matters more than quantity.
The shared reality of people who work together depends on:
The structure of their relationships
The culture within the organization
The degree of cooperation, communication, solidarity, and collaboration
We are, in many ways, the culture in the petri dish. By expressing authentic feelings about ourselves, others, or the situation we’re in, we open a deeper level of dialogue, exchanging relationship data that strengthens trust. Like the timeless beauty tips that nurture from within, authentic collaboration nourishes the organization from the inside out.
Emotional Intelligence: The Real Competitive Advantage
Excellence begins internally.
The foundation of emotional intelligence starts with self-awareness, the ability to recognize your thoughts, emotions, and reactions. From there comes self-regulation: managing behavior and motivating yourself after setbacks.
These skills enable:
Empathetic responses
Healthy relationships
Constructive conflict resolution
Team cohesion
Most work today is done in teams. Being a strong team member requires more than technical skill, it requires the ability to handle constructive discontent, motivate others, and tune in to how others feel. Like classic habits that endure for decades, emotional intelligence is a time-tested path to sustained success.
External Excellence vs. Internal Excellence
Many organizations pursue operational excellence through methodologies like Six Sigma, a data-driven framework designed to eliminate defects and improve processes.
External excellence matters. Standards matter. Measurable performance matters.
But true excellence combines external mastery with internal growth. Internal excellence comes from a higher level of consciousness, making decisions that serve not only personal gain, but also organizational health and societal good. Practices like meditation and mindfulness strengthen focus, self-regulation, and clarity. They cultivate compassion—another timeless habit for thriving teams.
Rethinking the Golden Rule
Compassion is more than empathy, it is a cornerstone of human connection and social cohesion, valued across philosophies and religions.
Many of us know the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.” But real compassion asks us to go further:
Do unto others as they would have done unto them.
This shift requires listening, understanding, and respecting differences. It moves us beyond projection and into true empathy, an enduring practice for healthy relationships.
Compassion: The Antidote to Mediocrity
Compassion in the workplace is not weakness—it is strength. It enables:
Durable relationships
Productive communication
Mutual respect
Shared dignity
Like timeless beauty tips that endure because they work, compassion produces results that last. When compassion is present, trust grows. When trust grows, collaboration improves. When collaboration improves, performance rises.
ADRx3 Final Thought
The choice is before us. Mediocrity is not an accident; it is reinforced through everyday behaviors.
Excellence, like the most enduring practice, is a choice. It requires:
Awareness of how we show up
Commitment to emotional intelligence
Intentional communication
A culture of compassion
We are not passive participants in workplace culture. We are creators of it.
The question is simple: Will we reinforce mediocrity or cultivate time-tested habits of excellence?