What lessons have you learned recently?
To be perfectly honest, I never was one to intentionally reflect on my day and review any lessons I learned. Recently, I changed my journaling procedures. I review my day and look for potential lessons I learned, no matter how small or insignificant. Later, I read the lessons or insights I wrote down. I was surprised to find some good learning points. As always, I felt the need to share a few of them with all of you. My hope is that something will trigger a thought or two and help my readers in some way.
Trust the process. It is common to get discouraged from time to time when things don’t happen as fast as we wish, or the results are not what we expected. Keeping our focus on the things we do and the goals we set is the only way to ensure success. It would be easy to give up or scratch whatever initiative you are working on but that is not how we achieve our goals. It is said, that by struggling we grow and develop into our best selves. We must never give into doubt and self-defeat. Staying on course, we allow things to develop for us at the pace needed. Never give up too quickly and trust the process!
Ensure your interactions are positive and don’t cause misunderstandings. In any role we hold there is confrontation or a difference of opinions. We express or views passionately, and at times cause misunderstandings. It is important to share opinions and hear others’ views. As we share our interpretations, we must go about it positively and respectfully. At times our passionate views of a situation can come across as an attack on the others’ ideas. Be sure to avoid this but when we inadvertently make people feel attacked, we should revisit and ensure we did not cause a misunderstanding. Be sure to share your views with others and leave room to hear out other views as well.
It is important to point out when something successful occur for you. Something I fail to do often is taking a moment and see what I accomplished. We must acknowledge when we win and when we improved situations for others. We must ask ourselves whether the lives around us have improved because of our leadership. Others could have done what you have achieved, but they didn’t. You made something happen or at least helped make something happen for your people. Celebrate your role in the major and minor milestone of your organization. Because of you, good things have occurred. It is important to celebrate your successes, no matter how big or small they are. By doing this you compound the positivity and confidence in your heart and mind. Success breeds more success.
These are only a few of the lessons I internalized these past few weeks. They are small and maybe insignificant for others but have given me some positive insights to live by. So, what about you? You have any valuable interactions this last week? You have some thoughts about how you missed the mark or learned from a mistake? The best way to gain learning each day is journaling about some valuable tidbit in your day. We shouldn’t regurgitate everything that occurred in a day but rather be more strategic by isolating something you gained each day. The lessons we learn each day could be overwhelming in numbers. Find the ones that bring value to your life and the lives of those you care for.
Are you journaling or capturing learning each day?
How are you meeting goals, and are you giving that process the time it needs to develop?
Are you ensuring that you are not creating misunderstanding with people?
What successes have you achieved, and did you celebrate your role in the process?
There are lessons all around us. Sometimes we are too busy to see them, or we are choosing not to see them. Help yourself by seeing what makes you grow, write it down and review them often. You will be amazed at what you are able to learn in everyday interactions. Thanks for checking out this week’s post and please leave a comment below sharing what you learned about yourself recently.
Steven C. Bucks-Leading Conversations
