Stepping Up to the Plate

A former colleague told me that she’ll go to bat for an idea three times, and if, by that point, she can’t get her higher-ups to see things her way, she lets it go. At least, she explained, she knows she’s said her peace, and then she can focus on supporting whatever the bosses decided to do. While one doesn’t necessarily need a formula like hers to approach situations where ideas differ, I really like some things about it: I believe in pushing back – that pushing back (respectfully and firmly) shows you care. If you go along with ideas you don’t believe in, your conscience may bother you. I also don’t like to always be the naysayer or the obstacle. Sometimes I have to support positions that aren’t my own – in the workplace or with my loved ones. I like the idea of knowing when you’ve pushed enough and the decision is out of your hands. I particularly like that when my colleague reached that point, she moved forward without resentment or regret.

What do you think of this approach? How do you make your opinions known? And how do you remain positive when you’re executing someone else’s?

All the best,

~ Sophie

What Was I Waiting For?

“You may delay, but time will not.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

I put off writing this post. Why? Because it had been so long since I’d written one that I felt intimidated. Surely if I posted something it would need to be fantastic in order to justify breaking such a long silence. And while ideas for posts have crossed my mind in the past several months, nothing seemed stellar enough; too much time had passed – and continued to pass – as I thought about whether or not to do it. Maybe writing one post would obligate me to write more, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to post more regularly.

Maybe you see what I’m getting at – that we can find a lot of reasons to keep ourselves from doing things we want to do:  That we may set our expectations too high, that we might be overly worried about the future implications of what we want to do now, or that we’ve just delayed too long already.  

So, what are you putting off? And how valid are your reasons for doing so? I'd love to know what you decide you can do. 

All the best,

~ Sophie