This line has resonated with me.
If you’re unhappy with something, you change it. But what if you can’t change it? Then what? To save your sanity, you change the way you think about it.
I’ve worked with hundreds of different personalities through the years. Some easy, some challenging. But that’s what makes an effective leader. Learning to adapt and work with each personality, what drives them, motivates them, how they tick…because after all, the beauty of the world is it’s diversity.
Personally, same things, right? There are things that will drive you nuts that are out of your control. You can continue to be affected or address it. Some things, however, just can’t be changed, or won’t be…and then you have to change yourself into a different approach.
I work with two very different personalities. In fairness, the three of us are all very different in our skill set and approach to things. We are all very good at our jobs, completing tasks, mapping out plans, completing documents and so on. On the outside, we look like a well oiled machine. Internally, we drive each other nearly mad at times. Why? Because we all have a different and unique approach to things. None of them wrong, either.
Many, many years ago, I was showing someone my house and she said to me, “You make your bed wrong.” What?! I asked her to explain and she said because my pillow cases face inwards as opposed to out. I responded that I put my open ends inside so that the finished edge was at the outside of the bed; a cleaner look. Now, because I do it differently, does that mean I’m wrong? Not at all.
Just because something doesn’t get done the same way you’d complete it, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. If it takes someone ten steps with something you can do in five, certainly try to teach your ways, but sometimes that’s just how we work. Some of us make three lefts to go right. Who cares as long as we arrive at the same place?
You are in control of more than you realize. It’s just how you handle it that may be different.
Gym Girl Dana 