LEARN
Something Worth SharingNot What People Do - It’s What I Do The words ‘but that’s not what people do’, have been around me at many points in my life. I was the first person in the family to go to University, I was the ONLY girl on my degree course of 120 people, I was the only female family member to join our family business, I insisted on directors being trained in their duties, I did the first acquisition for our 100 year old business, I was the one that closed our family business, I built a new business and sold it… Last week I was working with my wonderful young mentee, when I had to stop her in her tracks. She said the words: ‘it’s not what people do’. I instantly pulled her up on this and explained that what others do is not important, it’s what she wanted to do that mattered. I feel that now, more than ever, the pressure to compare and be overly concerned by what others ‘say’ they are doing is huge. When I heard BBC sports presenter Gabby Logan speak recently she quoted Theodore Roosevelt: “Comparison is the thief of joy”
My learning (re-learning) this week is that it isn’t just comparison, but what we believe is expected (or not expected) of us, either by society or people closer to us. Even more importantly, it is important to be conscious of what we expect of ourselves - and be willing to challenge and question this. No one else lives our life, travels our journey or faces our challenges - so why would we allow anyone else to dictate, either implicitly or explicitly, what we do and don’t do?
|
