Cultivating Relationships

This week I had a great time as I finished reading “A Field Guide for the Hero’s Journey”.  I love short stories and poems and that is what this book is filled with separated into 9 different topics.  The one that stuck out the most to me was #4 – What Companions do you want with you on your Journey?

I’ve had a general philosophy that has served me well when it comes to friends over the last 30 years or so and that is that people are placed in our path at certain points in our lives to help in ways that no one else could in that moment, but it doesn’t mean those same people will be who you need at the next point in your life.

While I still stand by that philosophy, I’ve also found myself lately growing more desirous of deeper relationships.  I feel blessed to have my wife and my kids and I am working very hard to make sure that I cultivate those relationships, because those are going to be with me for eternity.  Outside of my family though, I want some relationships that are meaningful and long lasting as well.  Through my study this week I have found that what I really need to work on is my humility.  I need to find those people that have skills opposite mine that we can both help each other out and then I need to actually put some effort into it.  Invite them over, talk to them and listen to what they have to say.

Some may laugh at this and say “duh” but for someone as introverted as I am, these are challenging steps that will require faith and prayer on my part.

Love what we do

I had a small battle internally over what to blog about this week.  There were a few different topics but what I wanted to write about was just a small piece of what was said.  It had to do with a video I watched of Marissa Mayer of Google.  She was talking about her people being given 20% of their time to work on “Personal Projects”.  These were things not given to them to work on, but the ability to use their own creativity to drive their work.  It turns out 50% of items actually developed came from that 20% of time.

What this shows me is that we have to be invested in what we’re doing in order to be successful.  When we’re happy, challenged, and trusted we can rise to amazing heights.  I see this play out in my own life on a weekly basis with schoolwork.

I’d much rather spend my Saturday teaching my children important lessons.  Some of them are not always fun, but they are still better than doing my homework, even if I enjoy the lessons I learn by my classes.  I also see it in how I gravitate toward my business classes because they engage me in a way the other classes don’t for me.

This is not new information, but when we love what we do we will do it better.  When we appropriately challenge ourselves while doing what we love we will grow.  When we do this over an extended period of time, we become successful.  My hope and goal is to spend more time doing what I love and being successful.

Efficient or Not?

I have a question for my readers this week; which is a better trait, being a self-starter or being a great communicator?  I hope that I’ve picked the right words to describe my dilemma I’ll explain below.

This week I read a story, “A Message to Garcia” by Elbert Hubbard.  This story is about a man who is called upon to deliver a message.  He doesn’t ask any questions, he simply takes the message and sets about finding Garcia to deliver the message.

The article then spends the next 10 pages talking about how we just need to act, not question the why and how most corporations wish they had more self-starters.

Maybe I’ve been in the corporate world for too long, but this seems highly inefficient.  When a leader or customer asks you to do something it’s important to use good communication skills to find out if that person has any helpful information or maybe some action has already been done.  Is it efficient to reinvent the wheel that’s already been built?

Back to our story; the man that took the message could have asked, where have you already looked for Garcia or where was Garcia last seen?  Imagine that Garcia might have been found in hours instead of days.  What if this was a critical or time sensitive message and the Messenger, trying to instead be the hero, took precious time, just because they wouldn’t ask the right questions.

I get that we can’t always have all the information before we act.  We may also discover problems and should in that case be self-starters to get things done.  All too often though, there is a path before us and it would behoove us to ask prudent questions and communicate what is desired and what we can do.  This is the way of the modern world, and I for one, feel it’s a good change from Garcia’s Messenger.