Category: Learning

Sometimes I Just Forget To Look

You don’t get to choose much of what happens to you, but you do get to choose your own attitude, and how you respond.

Burnt Crumpets

Tuesday morning started in a less than ideal fashion. I got up early to attend a breakfast meeting in London and thought I’d make some fruit smoothie to share at the meeting. I was in a rush, long story short, I completely ruined our smoothie maker (more haste less speed). Next I burned the breakfast crumpets (pay attention 007) before checking online to find out that trains into London were delayed and cancelled because of local electrical supply problems. I was frustrated (putting it politely).

Once I knew the London thing wasn’t going to happen I offered to take Keira to the train station for her journey to school (heading away from London). The delays there were just as bad, so I gave Keira a lift to school.

On the way to school we talked, sang and laughed, and agreed that the silver lining of these minor morning misfortunes, was some excellent time together. The smile Keira gave me as we parted stayed with me all day, a day which turned out to be great fun and very productive.

You choose your own attitude, and I often forget to look in the right place before choosing.

Thanks Keira.

Wednesday evening after dinner we each opened a fortune cookie – they were leftover from a recent trip to the Chinatown district in Manchester.

Carole’s read: Each failure takes you closer to success
Keira’s read: You have an important new business development shaping up
Mine read: Bless others with kindness and you shall be blessed.

Later that night, just before I went to bed I received an email from The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) rejecting my proposal to speak at their 2015 conference in Las Vegas:

Dear Doug:

Thank you for submitting a presentation proposal for the SHRM® Annual Conference & Exposition being held June 28 – July 1, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Each proposal was given careful and deliberate consideration. We strive to offer a balanced program of educational sessions at the conference and select the proposals that best fit the overall programming framework of the conference. Please understand that we receive many proposals with several on the same topic. Exceptional proposals are turned away each year for the simple reason that we have limited speaking slots. Your proposal for The Art of Collaboration was not selected this year. However, your interest in offering your skills, background and knowledge is greatly appreciated.

Once again, thank you for your submission.
Sincerely,

Letty Kluttz, SPHR, MBA
Director, Conference Programming and Development

Truthfully – although I was a little disappointed to get the Dear John – on reflection I was more frustrated about the crumpets than I was about getting this note. Maybe Tuesday morning’s breakfast hunger was stronger than the hunger to speak at SHRM National? I don’t know – but I do know that this Thursday morning brings another day full of failure and success, business development and blessing. Today I’m looking in the right place – I hope you are too. Have a great day.

My Week Sucks – Who Am I Kidding?

Bad things in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are.

Monday, what a drag. You know how sometimes nothing goes wrong enough to make a fuss but somehow everything sucks just bad enough to leave you hollow by the day’s end? Yeah – that.

Monday evening – read Laurie Ruettimann’s blog post – felt better, more purposeful again.

Tuesday, quick out of the blocks. I always get excited when orders for Stop Doing Dumb Things come in, and I’m due a delivery from the printer with new stock too. While I wait for the DHL van to show I kick down my to do list.

Tick, tick, tick – I’m on the case, take that Tuesday! Delivery arrives – world turns upside down.

IMG_2789The top row is how the cards are supposed to look, the bottom row is what has arrived from the printers. Ouch! I reminded myself – ‘keep calm, there’s a solution in here somewhere’, and rang the printer. It turns out that three orders, including this restock, are all wrong. And to rub salt into the wound – some are going direct to clients, and the correct card template has been overwritten. The problem only affects a few cards in each deck but long story short, I am going to have to rebuild the complete set again from scratch.

IMG_2798

Time to take my medicine and get on with it. I start on Tuesday afternoon and finish on…

Wednesday. After several hours of retyping, setting and colouring I’m done. Proof it – approve it – get on with it. Wednesday afternoon is all about prepping my management accounts and playing catch up, and so too is…

Thursday. I’m getting on with stuff, and yet drifting a bit, suffering some kind of sorry for myself post panic hangover. Then I check an email that arrived during all the hoohah from Joan, who I met two months ago in Illinois. It said:

‘You definitely made an impact in my world and the story you shared about your father’s pocket watch is still with me. I’ve started to follow your blog & professional posts as I so enjoy your writing. Wishing you a great day. Thanks again for all you do & share to help everyone else be better & do good things!’

Two things. 1 – Thanks Joan, what a lovely note. 2 – I think my week sucks – who am I kidding? Something went wrong, it got fixed, nobody died. I got a whole bunch of stuff done and best of all, Joan appreciates me. What’s not to like, dumbass! (Note: I’m talking to me right there, not you).

For the most part I have an optimistic outlook, and yet this week is a great reminder for me: negative stuff is a fact of life, it creeps in – and boy does it grow quickly when you let it. I think Meatloaf said it best when he sang: Bad things in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are. Or something.

I’m off to read Laurie’s post again, then I’m going to take Friday off and make a long weekend of it. May your week also close out in spectacular fashion.

Patience – In Under 11 Seconds

Approximate writing time: four hours. Approximate reading time: less than two minutes.

I spotted someone expressing frustration at having to wait around yesterday, and this got me thinking…

Everyone’s in a hurry, right? Whatever it is, you need it now, if not sooner. I know the feeling. Hate to wait, hate to wait, hate to wait.

I managed to find the time to watch and enjoy the women’s Commonwealth Games 100 metres sprint final on TV a couple of nights ago. The race was won by Blessing Okagbare in a new Commonwealth record of just 10.85 seconds. Blink and you miss it.

In her post race interview, Okagbare was asked how this Commonwealth experience compared to the London 2012 Olympics, when she blew everyone away in the heats, then faded to 8th place in the final. What had she done differently this time? I was not expecting her one word answer.

Patience.

Patience was the thing she had learned and applied, in order to progress from 8th place in the 2012 final, to 1st place in the 2014 race. Somehow, over 10.85 seconds, Okagbare found the patience to win.

The problem that’s facing you right now, what’s stopping you from progressing it?

Can you identify it?
Can you do anything about it?
Is the rush you are in, stopping you from seeing your goal?

I know you’re in a hurry, you get frustrated when things don’t happen quick enough. Me too. And if, over just 10.85 seconds, Blessing Okagbare can find the patience to win, then surely you and I can find the patience to stop and think about how we make our work better, somewhere in the day?