Category Archives: Behavior

“A bad attitude is like…”

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“A bad attitude is like a flat tire. You can’t go anywhere until you change it.”

-Author Unknown

Photo from Flickr by Paul Chenoweth

Photo from Flickr by Paul Chenoweth

Take a minute to list the people in your personal and professional worlds that have a bad attitude. If you need a bit of help, consider their level of negativity, pessimism, sarcasm, skepticism, and general resignation.

Have you captured your list of half-empty, no possibility, “what’s the use” folks? Now see how much you enjoy their company, or working with them. Where, if possible, have you already headed for the hills or done what you can to avoid these people?

What are the chances selected individuals in your world might be placing you on their list?

EXERCISE:

Although changing other people’s flat tires is tremendously difficult, you do have a far better fighting chance of changing your own. Consider the resources at www.lifehack.org to take a few simple steps to begin.

A bonus is that your own efforts will tend to inflate other people’s tires in the process!

“The bias against introversion leads to…”

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“The bias against introversion leads to a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness.”

—Susan Horowitz Cain, American writer and lecturer

Image from christiehartman.com

Image from christiehartman.com

We’re all familiar with the phrase, “Out of Sight, Out of Mind.” To gain anyone’s attention these days, it is critical to be louder, bolder, and more outrageous than ever.

Look at those who have the attention of traditional media, and of course, social media. Looking into our organizations and institutions, we also see a good bit of bias toward extroverts rather than introverts. In some cases, introverts have been encouraged to “fake it till we make it.”

EXERCISE:

Consider exploring the book Quiet by Susan Horowitz Cain. I love the subtitle of this work, which is, “The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking,” to see what is being wasted.

Cain also has a TED talk you will find revealing if you have 15-20 minutes.

“We have a tendency to want…”

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“We have a tendency to want the other person to be a finished product while we give ourselves the grace to evolve.”

-T.D. Jakes, Apostle/Bishop of The Potter’s House

Image from responsiveuniverse.me

Image from responsiveuniverse.me

How guilty are you of having a double standard regarding the people in your personal and professional worlds?

How often do you hold people to some form of ideal to which few ever match up? How often do you use this same standard of excellence as a measure of your own efforts, behaviors, and achievements?

EXERCISE:

If you are in the smallest way guilty of this double standard, examine the costs it may have in key relationships. What adjustment can you make in your perception and point of view to accept and embrace that we are all “works in progress”?

The Seeds You Plant

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“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist and poet

image from Flickr by Andrew Shieh

image from Flickr by Andrew Shieh

Harvest time is only a small part of the growing season. My wife and I grew tomatoes last summer, and really enjoyed harvesting them at the end of August.

The process of growing them, though, was a bit more involved and time consuming than we expected. It included purchasing seeds, preparing the soil, watering, providing sunlight, adding plant food, watering, adding more plant food, more watering… you get the idea!

Exercise:

What seeds can you plant today? What care and attention will they need daily, so that you can have a successful harvest in the future?

Make sure you enjoy the process of gardening and not just the sweet fruits of life.

 

Do What you Can

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“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

Image from www.theodore-roosevelt.com

Image from www.theodore-roosevelt.com

Many of us are waiting for the perfect time, the perfect person, for all the stars to align before we take action, and before we will be happy. Even if this were to happen occasionally, it never seems to last. What then?

Roosevelt was both a visionary and a realist, charting the course to a better future while still taking into consideration the reality of our daily lives.

Exercise:

Look at the day ahead of you. What can you do with what you have and where you are?

You may surprise yourself.