If only I were one of those people who cleans the house when she gets angry
My dear friend SilverBlue said something on Facebook last night that I not only retweeted, but I want to repeat here for future reference.
It was that if others would spend more time improving their own performance than telling others how they can improve theirs, so much more would get done.
Made me think of the Ghandi quote that you must be the change you want to see in the world. Good point.
Don’t get me wrong — if you can help people to achieve their goals (or the company’s goals because isn’t that what makes the world go ’round? Who gives a shit about your goals?), it’s your job to help them.
Otherwise, it’s like hiring someone as an editor, then getting mad when they spend 75% of their time focused on improving the editorial and educating the writers so they turn in better copy in the first place. And then getting madder that your list of unrelated goals that the person was never equipped to handle, and that you don’t INTEND to equip the person to handle, doesn’t get achieved according to your vision or on your time schedule.
Not that THAT has ever happened to me. Oh, no. 😉
And I *never* wondered about others’ contributions unless they reported to me. But now that I think about it, WTF *did* other people contribute other than a demonic presence that feasts on souls?
Ahem.
Same thing happens to me at home. I’ve been doing fine with the houseguest, despite being together 24/7 for the past three months. But yesterday I just wanted to kill myself. Because it’s another case of someone being so focused on what I’m doing (or what I’m NOT doing, or not doing RIGHT) to help them that I thought, hey, maybe if you focus on your shit and I focus on mine, I won’t be in a bad mood all the time. How about that?
Yeah, keep dreaming. That’s like waiting for people to pull their head out of their butts and get their priorities straight in the office. Never dreamed I’d get canned for improving editorial and mentoring staff. But hey, now I spend my days immersed in writing, so life has gone on just peachily.
Anyway, I figure God stepped in when it came to saving my career. He’s welcome anytime He wants to contribute to the home situation. Meanwhile, I’m just using everything I’ve ever experienced and channeling it into a book series.
The funny thing about my book series is that a ton of stuff I wrote as early as 1988 has come true, like I predicted the future or destiny really does manifest itself. So last night in my notes, I killed off a whole bunch of asshole characters at fairly young (like 40-ish) ages. Is it too optimistic to keep an eye on the obituaries just for fun? 😉