Why not today?
How taking initiative can eliminate corporate drag
I was reminded of a valuable lesson recently. It is:
Don’t wait for other people to take action. Do it yourself.
When companies get bloated, or projects get tight, it’s easy to start looking at one another, wondering who is going to take control. When the work is not in your “swim lane”, it’s easy to point the finger at someone else. When you feel frustrated about why something isn’t happening, it feels good to complain.
But the fact is - you have power too. You can effectuate change, no matter how little control you think you have. This concept reminds me a lot of the Mel Robbin’s “Let them” theory, which in a synopsis is:
When you “Let Them” do whatever it is that they want to do, it creates more control and emotional peace for you and leads to better relationships with the people in your life.
(Them = people, companies etc)
Obviously, we all have our own tricky circumstances and not everyone has the power to fully control a work situation. BUT, everyone has something they can control or take action on that does not require other people to go first. Ask yourself this when you find that you’re waiting on someone else:
“what can I do right now to move this along?”
Some other though provoking questions include:
do you really need that person to kick off an email thread before you start work?
are you truly forced to refrain from taking action?
could you, at the very least, help other people move along?
That’s it for this week! But before I go, this article is a lovely perspective on what it means to really take action.
Links I loved this week:
we all need some energy clearing rituals
I don’t know why, but I really want to make this chocolate banana cake
this profile on figure skater Amber Glenn is mesmerizing
100 ways to live better (originally discovered via James Clear)