Saturday, September 6, 2014

Quote-A-Day: Day 250

We must for those we can have an impact on, not for those who we cannot.

Last night, a few minutes before I went to bed, I spent some time catching up on Voxes.  I enjoy using Voxer quite a bit, but am still struggling with how I can engage in the active listening necessary to truly stay involved in the conversation.  The fast-forward button can be helpful, but at times it can feel like you're using fast-forward just to catch up, and that seems to discount the power of true conversation.  But, that's a topic for another post.

As I was catching up on a number of Voxes, one of our group members shared a deeply heartfelt Vox, that shared both personal and professional struggles, as well as important victories.  In short, my colleague was dealing with the age-old struggle of how to remember that we can't please everyone, and how to make sure we don't take personal attacks personally, and instead, focus on those who need us most.

This has always been a tough area for me.  I find that I desperately want to please everyone, and get frustrated when I can't.  I then spend time trying to multiply my effort to please these folks, often at the expense of those who can benefit from my time the most.

And that's not okay.

My colleague's story, and her epiphany, reminded me that it is never about the people we can't reach (because we'll never be able to reach them, no matter what we do, or how hard we work).

Instead, it is always about those who we can reach, and those for whom we can have the most impact.
 No longer should the squeaky wheel get the grease.  Instead, we should remove the wheel (or remove ourselves from the situation), and replace it with one that is happy to be a part of the vehicle.

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