Category Archives: Personal Development
Lack of Planning on Your Part Does Not Constitute an Emergency on My Part
Hi guys and girls. I’m back from my unintentional two week hiatus. Sometimes real life responsibilities get in the way of other things we had planned to do (like writing articles). That was the case for me recently as I’ve been dealing with mid-terms for my MBA and a wedding that happened at the speed of light. Things are good though and I’ve been jotting down notes for this article all week. I think this may be a two part article if I can find a logical place to split it up. I guess we won’t find out until we get there. Anyway, welcome back!
I was talking to a co-worker about a situation I had observed at work and he reminded me of a cute sign that we’ve both seen in various cubicles – “Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.” We both got a chuckle from it, but it got me thinking about the behaviors that people exhibit. We’ve all been there before haven’t we? Someone is in a panic over something that didn’t get done and they have the audacity to try to blame you for their lack of success because you didn’t jump in at the last second and save the day. I think this behavior is a result of the fact that everyone is the hero in their own eyes. I’ve written about it in the past. For a person to live a happy and fulfilling life it is important for them to see themselves as the good guy. For people with low self-awareness the only way to accomplish this is to siphon blame for their failures off onto nearby individuals. Read the rest of this entry
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My Name Is Earl (Mea Culpa)
I never watched My Name Is Earl, but I think I have a handle on the concept. It’s the story of a man who regrets the things that he did in his past because of the long term consequences of those actions. So he’s going from person to person that he’s hurt in various ways to apologize. I bet we all have people that we’d like to apologize to or things that we’d like to apologize for. One of the things that keeps us from doing it is the embarrassment and shame that we feel for how we acted. After writing this blog for over a year I have a confession to make. I have no shame left. It’s actually quite liberating to lose your fear of condemnation. I highly recommend it. With that in mind, I’d like to share my Earl list.
I need to start with a carte blanche apology to just about everyone who has ever known me. This is especially applicable to parents, teachers, family and friends throughout my life. I’m sorry for being such a smart ass. It seems to stem from insecurity. Sometimes I did it to make myself look smart and make you feel dumb so that you could see how smart I must be. I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s the truth of it. I’m sorry. Other times I would do it to get attention and try to be funny. This was a pain for the people around me, especially if they weren’t in the mood or it was an inappropriate time or place. In fact, my efforts to get a laugh probably hurt more people than all of the other things I’ve done combined. I’m sorry. Read the rest of this entry
Occupy Yourself
I have a feeling that today’s article will be one of my more controversial articles. Believe it or not I’ve been trying to avoid the controversy. Remember that my goal for this blog is to help people to grow, develop and improve their lives. While opinionated and controversial articles tend to spike the readership they don’t help me reach that goal. Who wants to learn from somebody who’s judging them unmercifully? I know that I don’t, and I imagine that the people I’d like to help don’t want to either.
That’s why this article has been such a struggle to write. I have a problem with the things that I’ve seen in footage from the Occupy Movement on television. At the same time, I don’t think that I disagree with the intent of the Occupy Movement itself. It’s a group of people who are trying to stand up and remind the lawmakers that their laws are supposed to benefit the 99% rather than those privileged few who live their life in the clouds. Do I want our rich business leaders to wake up and start making decisions that are good for everyone rather than decisions that are completely focused on their bottom line? Of course I do. That’s an important and valid message. Read the rest of this entry
Iron Sharpens Iron
I’ve been observing human behavior since before I can remember. I think I might have been a pretty good anthropologist in some alternate reality. I’ve always been caught up in trying to figure out why people make the choices that they make and do the things that they do.
One thing in our behavior that stands out is that most of us really want to be better than we are. We look at ourselves in the mirror and think that we would like to be thinner or we would like to be more successful or that we would like to have more friends. The awesome thing about this is that it speaks of the power of the human spirit. We were made with an instinct and a spirit to be conquerors.
Unfortunately, many of us never take the steps necessary to make those changes that we would feel good about. We reach for the willpower to do it and pull back nothing but excuses and reasons that we should quit or procrastinate. When this happens we fail to reach our goals. Worse than that, we feel guilty and we beat ourselves up for screwing up again.
Our go to response when we feel guilt and shame is to hide it. We keep it to ourselves and pretend that we have everything together. But we don’t. We don’t have it all together. In fact, we have problems that we don’t even know about yet. Each of us does things or thinks things or acts in certain ways that create problems for us. It’s crazy. Most of the time we’re completely unaware of the trouble that we’re creating for ourselves. We’re actually making our own lives harder!
There is good news though. Iron sharpens Iron Read the rest of this entry
