Last week I popped into Gelson’s to
pick-up a loaf of bread. Walking by the
bakery section, I spotted a bag of dinner rolls and also grabbed those. The check-out clerk rang up the bread and
rolls and then asked me, “For here or to go?”
Huh? Confused, I said, “To go –
don’t think I can eat all this bread in one sitting!” He smilingly assured me, “The register
prompted me to ask – I wouldn’t have on my own.
I’m not that crazy!” Really? Given that he “obeyed” the register when
prompted to check if I was going to stay and eat a loaf of bread and six dinner
rolls does make me wonder if he isn’t a teensy bit crazy!
Next day, I met with a group of
managers at Pine Hill Industries (name changed) who were frustrated with
inter-departmental communication. At one
point, a manager who’s been with the company twenty years, smiled and said,
“Hey, it’s the ‘Pine Hill Way’ and there’s nothing we can do.” Really?
You can’t develop effective methods?
Once again I’m reminded of
Thoreau’s observation: “There is nothing so rare as an act of your own.”
Last Labor Day, my friend Sue threw
a party for folks she hadn’t seen in a while.
With drinks flowing, Ella, one of the guests, mentioned she recently did
something she’d wanted to do for a long time and hadn’t allowed herself to do –
she started playing guitar again. And
she loved it!
Soon, each of us was confessing to
what we had wanted to do for a long time and had simply not gotten around to
it. That’s when we challenged each other
– to commit to doing something we’ve put off doing for way too long.
I dubbed this the “Go Big! Go Bold! Challenge” – and you didn’t have to
have a bucket of cold water dumped on you!
A study at the Wharton School of
Business found that people are more likely to pursue a goal after a major
holiday (for reasons too abstruse to explain here). Based on Sue’s party, I think Wharton is
right, so why not use this Labor Day to create your own “Go Big! Go Bold!”
Challenge?
Get together with friends, family
and/or colleagues and confess – what have you wanted to do for way too long and
have been putting off? In your own life,
in your relationship with your “tootsie-wootsie” or even with your team, or
department?
Define your own life. For as long as you leave your life in the
hands of other people (or cash registers or company mottos), you'll never truly
live your own life.
Have a dinner roll and dare
yourself: Go Big! Go Bold!
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