“Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” Vince Lombardi
Welcome. Another Monday and another challenge. Now if you already haven't done so, I suggest you pick up the book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. It's an amazing book. I have both the book and audio file and I recommend both. This book will go much deeper into habits and the principles that govern them.
Today we're going to talk a little about working with others. Too many times people neglect using two heads or teaming up with someone to accomplish something much larger. This happens largely due to, of course, fear. When we're not confident in ourselves, ego trips tend to happen more often than not. People begin to think "he's not doing his part" or "he thinks he's slick, I see what's happening" and get side tracked and caught up in all sorts of nonsense. Of course, sometimes there are legit reasons to break off a partnership. This can happen effectively by simply agreeing to disagree and move on. Human are social creatures. As humans, we tend to create together, for each other. This can be broken down from the UN cooperating to a simple husband and wife or business partners. Einstein didn't come up with everything himself and neither did Thomas Edison with his "inventions". Before Einstein there was Issac Newton and others who Einstein took ideas from and expanded them, as did Edison. People don't just "invent" stuff suddenly out of thin air, they get the idea from somewhere, it's just the tread of time. The reason people work together is because like the saying goes, two heads are really better than one and the more, the better.
Don't get all excited yet. While it is great to work together or with a group, you have to know how. Being social, being able to function within a group and being able to perform and work together with others requires confidence. This means being able to let small meaningless things go, asking questions instead of judging someone, being open minded, and showing the next person the same respect you have for yourself. These things sound very easy especially when reading them, but next time you're out with your friends or you're having a conversation about something, stop and think about how you're going about it. Are you just waiting for your turn to speak or are you genuinely listening to what they have to say? Do you want them to only listen to you or are you interested in listening to them? See, already there's a lot to think about. I won't go into anymore details on that, but I will say one thing......Try to pay attention to your feelings when interacting with others because we all live in subjective worlds and hold that as reality and anytime something goes against that, we quickly dismiss it and get emotional.
Of course like any habit, it's difficult to form and rid yourself of your own, self absorbed habit that comes from insecurity, which most of us have anyway. I mean look at the society we live in? It's easy to become insecure and feel like we're lacking. When that happens, people become detached from society and think others are out to get them so they fall victim to wasteful habits and end up in a defensive slump. Of course the best way to get out of this slump is to take initiative and put ourselves in uncomfortable situations to gain experience and confidence from.
This Week's Challenge: Call an old buddy or meet someone new and hang out with them in an unfamiliar place and try to meet at least two new people.
Have fun out there and please comment with questions and experiences!
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