Out to get you

Sometimes it does feel like the whole world is out to get you.

Negative things pile up and you just don’t seem you can find the additional energy to fight back.

Then, don’t fight back.

Let it be, soon something positive will start showing up in your life. Even better, move the target, be the one to put good into the world, and immediately the negative streak will dissolve.

It’s never so bad that you can’t do some good.

Goodwill

Somebody complimenting someone else is not taking anything away from you.

There’s enough goodwill in the world for everyone, it’s not a finite resource.

Somebody complimenting someone else is additive and should not be bothering you.

A price too high

A big chunk of every job is managing expectations.

Of course, we want to say yes to everything. We want all the new customers and partners. We want to be perceived as competent, fast, and infallible. We want others to think that we do our work with ease even though our work is complex and uncertain. We want to project an aura of competence and confidence in any situation.

But if we do not manage expectations realistically, we will soon drown and take all those around us – colleagues, friends, family – with us.

The price is just too high.

Not imperative

It’s not imperative that you are involved in everything.

It’s not imperative that you understand everything.

It’s not imperative that you check everything.

It’s not imperative that you fix everything.

It’s not imperative that you control everything.

It’s not imperative that you point out the flaws and defects in everything.

It’s not imperative that you vet everything before it gets out.

Once you understand this, you will be surprised by how things still happen, with good results, without you being there to take credit.

It’s empowering.

It’s liberating.

Just because you are right

When you seek someone to blame, things to improve, new ways to get ahead, always start from yourself.

Not because you are not good enough, but because that’s easier to control. A new habit is possible. A change of mind is possible. An additional piece of knowledge is possible.

It’s much more complex when you start pointing fingers. You might be right and perhaps others are not doing their part, the environment is not ideal, the tools you were given are suboptimal.

Yet, things will not change just because you are right.

You can, instead.