What do you do when your manager believes your work was below expectations?

What do you do,when despite your best efforts on each and every endeavor at work, at the year end, your manager tells you that your performance was below expectations ?

Entire years hard work.
All those extra nights spent over customer implementation..
All those days while you were away from home ...
All those Customer and PM Appreciation Letters suddenly don't matter..
All those CSAT (Customer Satisfaction ) Ratings don't matter ..
All those efforts put into collaboration and ingenuity suddenly don't matter...


What do you do, when suddenly out of the blue you are blamed for things that you were not responsible for ?
For the very same things when really the culprit(s) is enjoying a double promotion..

Why do I EVERY time have to pay such a HIGH price for being honest ?

What did I do wrong ?
No one tells me what i did wrong.
No one tells me what I did right
No one tells me why I got a CAP award and why I got a good raise and yet at the year end being told that i was below expectations?

What did I do wrong to deserve this ?
Maybe I don't butter my manager's ass.. Maybe he wants to sit pretty on issues and shove issues on some one else's shoulders...Maybe he wants to earn his hefty salary without doing a thing.. Maybe he likes to hear what he wants to hear...

What else..... I don't know......
Life suddenly sounds sour.
The reality is here. The honeymoon is long long over....The dream-run is over
Time to wake Up and Time to pick myself up and continue on the good work I aspire to do.

Time to show the world that I am not whom I am made to show.
Time to shake the frustration and Time to get on with it.
Time to dig deeper into my soul and find the THING...
The thing that I love .. and chase the dream...

You've got to find what you love

Today I was dead tired with home renovation chores, It has been taking its toll on me. Really physically and mentally. So I took off from studies and went stumbling.

I stumbled across this speech by Steve Jobs to Stanford University students on graduation day.

What I deduced from such a motivating speech
1) You've got to find what you love
This is so darn true. In All my professional Career so far I have been advocating and preaching this. So much so that I have let go countless opportunities to make loads of money over what I like. My philosophy has been, "If I can sleep well after days work, I should be happy with work" . I have been in situations in past and in present where work has been "not so good" and i couldn't sleep well despite getting paid ridiculously well. I guess despite several counter advices from my friends and family, i continue to follow my own yard stick of love for work

2) "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right."
Well I kinda don't follow this completely, But I do have my own morning ritual which aligns with this one.
I set myself some small goals for the day to achieve at work and in life. If I achieve them, I would have done enough for the day. Most times > 60% of the times , I fail. I have been falling even more of late.
And i have realized, I haven't set the bar too high, I have let myself down, by not sticking to the goal. I wandered off and failed. I need to get back to my good days when I was lean and hungry.. That takes me to the 3) point that Jobs mentioned

3) "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish"
Well I cant agree to this one any more. All my life I have believed that "money will come". I focussed on sharpening my skills on what I loved to do rather than chase money. Indeed it has paid well so far and I intend to persist with it.
I am (so called) foolish about it, but i know, I will have the last laugh.
I am hungry about it, I am passionate about work, and work drives my life as well.
A bad day at work spins me off at home, and a good day at work makes me happy.