Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Thank the Failure Away

Today was a little rough at work. Try this -- for the next three full working days, write a list of ideas that you think would make the company better. Survey your co-workers and get their buy-in to develop the document into its final form that everyone is excited about. Spend at least a few of those hours carefully choosing the wording and checking the style. Hand it to your boss, and watch him toss it into the trash and replace it with a list of his own ideas for making the company better, most of which are little change from what's in place today, then ask you to implement them. That's not exactly what happened, but the gist (and the amount of hours invested) was about the same. Influence is not my strong suit, and it's naturally frustrating to fail.

How often does anger swell up inside of you? Maybe often enough that it becomes important to develop a means to relieve it... after all, the physically damaging effects of anger are well documented. What is the aspirin?

One that I like is to "thank it away." From the most basic blessings like ample food, to the cheerfulness of co-workers, friends and family at every turn, there is so much to be thankful for as a way of distracting us from anger... I simply have to train myself such that thankfulness becomes an instinctive response to anger. Simple does not mean easy, but in this case it is ultimately worthwhile. Literally, it lengthens life and makes it happier, why wait for even a day?

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