Whether you took a class on it in college, or you’re just a big fan of the movie Billy Madison, you’ve probably heard the term “business ethics” before. Yet you may not realize that good business ethics can also help you with your personal growth. To understand how, you need to first gain a better understanding of business ethics.

Business or corporate ethics is a type of applied ethics which considers the many moral and ethical problems that can occur in the work environment, and helps workers handle those problems in the most morally sound way possible. It teaches people in the world of business to make decisions that help their company continue to be successful, but in a socially responsible manner.

This includes a wide range of issues, from fair trading practices, proper tax payment, and executive compensation, to human resource issues like workplace safety, discrimination, and employee harassment. It even involves marketing issues like truth in advertising and fair pricing. So what is the big takeaway from business ethics, and how can it apply to other areas of your life and help with personal growth?

What’s Really IMPORTANT?

Ultimately, the main point of business ethics is that, no matter how much money your company is raking in, you can’t consider your company to be legitimately successful unless you’re making that money in an ethical, honest manner. In other words, winning the game isn’t worth nearly as much if you cheated or hurt people on the way to your win.

What good are large profits if the public finds out you’ve been falsely advertising your products? How can you feel proud of your department’s great numbers if you watch your boss sexually harass your coworker and never speak up to HR? This is a concept that most definitely carries over into your everyday life. It’s just as important to hold yourself to a high moral code as it is to hold your company and coworkers to one.

This can be as simple as not cutting in line at the store, even if you’re in a hurry and see other people doing it. It can also be as complex as being honest with your significant other about a problem in your relationship, even if it means you might have a big argument over it.

The truth is that we can make our lives seemingly easier if we don’t speak up when something goes wrong, or if we sometimes cheat the system. Yet taking the easy, less-ethical route can take much of the joy out of accomplishing something. It can even replace that sense of joy or pride with guilt over the immoral manner in which said accomplishment was achieved.

Live More Ethically = Personal Growth

If you elect to live your life in a more ethical manner, you are taking a huge step toward furthering your personal growth. It won’t always be easy of course, and sometimes it can be difficult to tell what the truly ethical way to handle some situations is. After all, not every scenario we find ourselves in is a black and white situation.

However, making a commitment to yourself to always try your best to take the high road shows a degree of strength and a desire to better yourself. That can go a long way toward making you a better person, which is something to be proud of.

That means figuring out better ways to maximize your effectiveness on the job. You have to figure out your strengths and put them to use whenever and wherever possible. You need to get results in an efficient manner.

Stress Management

You also need to make sure that you practice stress management and keep and your mind clear, so you can think on your feet and stay sharp. This may seem like a tall order, but if you follow the tips set forth here, you’ll find you can increase your effectiveness before you know it.

Identify Strengths And Weaknesses

First and foremost, you need to identify your work-related strengths and weaknesses. These can be both big and small. Are you really good at coming up with new ideas to solve problems? Do you have a knack for making great visuals for presentations? Is there room for improvement when it comes to staying organized? Are you great with emails but tongue-tied on the phone?

Once you figure out what you’re good at, you can start brainstorming ways to utilize those skills wherever possible. You might be surprised to discover that there are other areas of your job that can benefit from your talents.

Likewise, if you understand your weaknesses, you can try to improve upon them. Seek out a coworker who is really good at something you need to improve in, and ask for their advice. Look to your boss or another trusted senior staffer as an example and mentor. If you flatter them by telling them you admire the way they do something, they’ll be happy to give you some tips.

Be More Productive

Once you’ve worked on your strengths and weaknesses, you need to figure out how to maximize your time and work more efficiently. Utilize email reminders and your calendar to keep you on track with meetings and deadlines. If your work load starts to get out of control, figure out what work can be delegated to reliable coworkers who have some extra time on their hands. Make sure to promise them that you’ll return the favor, and follow through with that promise.

Never underestimate the power of teamwork if a project is too big for you. Better to share part of the credit with another coworker on a successfully executed piece of work than to take full credit for a poorly done job because you got in over your head.

Another way to maximize your time is to figure out what parts of the day you are typically more productive. Do you do your best work first thing in the morning, or a couple of hours after lunch? Schedule your work to coincide with your particular power time, so that you work on the most intense, difficult projects during those hours when you’re at the top of your game.

Remember To Relax

Keeping yourself alert and on point is also important. Take brief breaks, in ten or fifteen minute chunks, every couple of hours. That will help your mind stay fresh and sharp, and keep your eyes from getting fatigued from staring at the computer screen for too long. Taking a walk around the block or to another part of the building will get your blood flowing and keep you energized. That will definitely help the quality of your work. It might even put you in a better mood, which your coworkers will certainly appreciate.

Combine a strong work ethic with smart, strategic planning and these tactics, and there just might be a promotion-related meeting with your boss in the not-so-distant future.

They focus every day on what they don’t have, on what they’re missing, and wonder why this foretold wealth doesn’t magically appear.

Don’t you have to live meagerly and save every penny so you can amass wealth?

Absolutely not! That’s the plan that KEEPS you broke.

It’s one thing to completely waste and not appreciate anything you have, but living out of fear and hording every single penny (again – out of FEAR) will actually repel any wealth that may be coming your way.

Some people have amassed fortunes in spite of themselves. Many actually wealthy people save every penny and live as though they were poor, even though they have millions of dollars stashed away in the bank and various couch cushions. At the end of the day, these people live a life of poverty every day, by way of their very own deliberate intent.

And then the financial planning gurus come on television and tell everyone how the need to always stash money away for a rainy day. Then regular people who WANT wealth and abundance in their lives follow these penny-pinching examples and wonder why they stay broke and miserable.

Are you coming from a place of lack and fear, or one of love and abundance?

People who are always saving everything away for a “rainy day” are statistically blessed with more rainy days than most anyone. Rainy days are, after all, where their focus is. And we all know that what you focus on grows.

This is not to say that you should spend every last penny you have. But rather, don’t focus your energy and conscious intention on “rainy days” and lack.

Surrounding yourself with poverty and lack at every turn does NOT condition your mind to be at ease with wealth and abundance. Quite the contrary, you’re enforcing a reality of poverty, and virtually guaranteeing that’s what you’ll be experiencing from then on.

Ultimately this means you are living each day out of fear. Not love, hope, excitement and enthusiasm – but fear. And that is the greatest deterrent for wealth and abundance.

The Trick to Money is Having Some – Stewart Wilde

Here’s a radical approach that has worked wonders for us, and should work for you as well – if you can only allow yourself to believe in the possibility.

In The Trick to Money is Having Some, Stewart Wilde recommends immersing yourself in the lifestyle you dream about: a life of wealth, abundance, and possibility.

He encourages you to think and live big – more into the nicest possible house you can afford, and stay at a 5 Star hotel whenever you possibly can.  If you can’t afford to stay at a very expensive 5 Star hotel, you can still go there for a coffee, a drink, or maybe even a modest meal.

The point isn’t to spend beyond your means, but rather to FEEL what it’s like to live surrounded by wealth and abundance. You must feel and experience the sensations, what it’s all about. And then, you will slowly come to expect for life to unravel in this manner. And the more you expect something to go a certain way, the more it will.

Another great book that helps to dispel  many of the myths around money and wealth is  Why You’re Dumb, Sick & Broke…And How to Get Smart, Healthy & Rich! by Randy Gage.

Ask yourself this question every day: where is your focus?

Are you focusing on the experience you wish to have, or the problems you wish would go away? Most people just focus on their problems and what they’re missing. Remember: whatever you focus on grows stronger. So if you focus all your energy on your “problems”, bills, and whatever else is making you unhappy, then guess what you’ll get… More of that.

What IS money anyway? Can you REALLY get excited about it?

Money itself is worthless paper, it means nothing. The real value to money is the promise of what you can do and achieve in exchange for it.

Logically, we know that money can solve a lot of the issues we’re facing. It can allow us to purchase whatever creature comforts we desire, and so on. But it’s hard to get excited about any of that. At the end of the day, what truly excites you is the dream, the thing that money will get for you. So, let’s go to the source.

How can you REALLY manifest money and abundance?

Our true power to manifest our desires into reality is based on feelings, emotions. The best and fastest way to attract something into your life is to focus on what you want, see it clearly in your mind, and experience the joy and feelings of ALREADY HAVING IT. Close your eyes and experience the joy of driving your brand new exotic sports car. FEEL the exhilaration, the excitement, the luxury and abundance. Every morning, set aside 10 minutes for a brief meditation where you close your eyes, sit perfectly still, and repeat this exercise.

So stop focusing on “having a lot of money”. Rather, train your focus on what you want to attract into your life… a beautiful home, a wonderful neighborhood, an exotic car, a great job, freedom to work from home for yourself, etc.

Some people really do put their lives on hold, waiting to live the life of their dreams.  True happiness eludes them.  And so, some people discover, too late, that life has passed them by.  You can live the life of your dreams – not next year or in five years - but Today!

The amazing part is, living your dreams today does not require wealth, connections, or a genius IQ.  It’s fun, it’s free and it’s right here, right now!

“The best way to live the life of your dreams is to start living the life of your dreams Today, in every little way that you possibly can.”
– Mike Dooley, Inspirational Quotes from Today Is That Day

Click here to view the embedded video.

Don’t Ruminate About The Past Or Dream Of The Perfect Future

Some people become mired in the past, thinking about regrets or missed opportunities.  They believe their dreams would have come true if only they had finished college or if only they had come from a wealthy family.  Others wait to really live their lives until they have achieved their goals.  They dream of how perfect life will be sometime in the future.  They believe they will be happy as soon as they buy that house, or as soon as they find Mr. Right.  Living in the past or idealizing the future only prevents you from living life in the present.  When you focus on the past or the future, you fail to enjoy the Now.  Forget the past and don’t worry about the future.  As Master Oogway once told Po, the panda, in Kung Fu Panda:

“Quit, don’t quit.  Noodles, don’t noodles. You are too concerned about what was and what will be.  There is a saying:  yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery,  but today is a gift.  That is why it is called the ‘present.’ “

Live Life In The Present

Enjoy life by living in the present.  Don’t wait to start enjoying your life  someday – Today is that Day!   Start living a part of your dreams now.  You can do this by doing little things everyday that make you feel as if you are already living your dream.  Enjoy a cup of coffee in that luxury hotel in which you’ve dreamed of staying.  Go to the dealership and sit in the Mercedes you want to buy.  Buy the outfit that makes you feel like a top executive.   Save money every day so that you can literally visualize your Financial Freedom.  When you start doing little things like this every day, you will feel as if you are presently living your dream.  You will begin to feel the abundance of living in the present.  You will feel the great feeling of gratitude for what you have now.   Living in the present will help you live the life of your dreams now.

Live Your Dreams Now

You don’t have to live your life thinking you would be happy “if only”  your dreams would come true.  When you visualize yourself living your dreams everyday and take every small step possible toward actualizing your dreams every single day, you will be living your dreams now.  You will enjoy the experience of staying in the luxury hotel.  You will feel as great as if you really owned that Mercedes.  You will feel as confident as a top executive.    You will watch your money grow and enjoy the feeling of Financial Freedom.  Living your dreams - now and everyday – is the best and quickest way to live the life of your dreams.  Give yourself the gift of the present by starting to live your dreams today.

What do you do everyday to live your dreams?  Let us know!

Most people will answer a question like that with any one of a number of negative thoughts or beliefs, and in most cases, those same negative thoughts or beliefs are the very reason why those people aren’t wealthy.

Yes, there are certain “real world” circumstances that human beings create in order to experience financial abundance, but as with all things, the process needs to start in our heads before any progress can be made out in the real world.

One of the Senior Thought Leaders at Personal Development Partners has a great eBook that discusses these types of concepts, and after reading the book just now, I wanted to share some of the highlights with you. The book is called 30 Days to Wealth, and it was written by the indomitable Shauna Arthurs of Follow Your Path.

Shauna’s book is basically a “point A to point B” trip that takes the reader on a 30-day journey of self discovery as well as real-world action that changes the reader’s understanding of their relationship with money, and ultimately with themselves.

Overall I was impressed with the book, and despite my own abundant mentality, I found several nuggets of information that helped me with my relationship with money, and several timely reminders as well. Things that really struck me included:

• The fact that the book is all about creating a certain way of “being” rather than a mindless “map to riches”. The book talks about and describes methods for becoming wealthy on the inside so that wealth manifests automatically on the outside.
• There were several very practical exercises that teach the reader how to invoke the feelings of wealth, even without actually having it. Learning to have those feelings, of course, then causes the creation of actual wealth out in the “real world”.
• One of the best lessons in the book involves how to deal with our desire for wealth by describing a selfish vs. a selfless situation. I found that to be some valuable insight, since so many people think that wanting money is a “bad” thing.
• There was also a unique time line exercise about making note of things that we regret in our lives for the purpose of releasing the self-limiting beliefs that we created as a result of those events.
• Another great exercise included a method for noticing the things that create negative reactions for us. This is powerful because as we figure out what creates negativity in our lives, we are instantly empowered to release our attachment to those beliefs or concepts, thus breaking their hold over us.
• One of my favorite features was an awesome list of pointed questions that help to identify a person’s true inner beliefs about wealth (or lack thereof), actual motivations behind wealth building efforts, and also whether or not certain actions are truly in alignment with stated desires for wealth and abundance.

Also, one “bonus” lesson outside of the stated 30-day regimen is the very act of focusing on wealth and abundance every single day for 30 days straight. That in and of itself is a valuable exercise that seems simple, but ask yourself how many times you have actually done it.

Overall, I was impressed with 30 Days to Wealth, and I saw it as a valuable tool for creating the “wealth mindset” which in turn creates actual wealth. Great job, Shauna!

If you would like to get your hands on a copy of 30 Days to Wealth, it is one of over a dozen free product downloads that are available to all Premium level or above members of the Personal Development Partners website, or you can purchase the eBook directly.