Tuesday, July 1, 2014

How heavy is a glass of water?

Most people would agree the weight of a glass of water doesn't really matter ... what does matter is how long one has to hold a glass of water. 














If one has to hold a glass of water for 30 seconds, its weight would not be a problem; however, if one has to hold a glass of water for an hour, the arm would begin to ache. And finally, if one had to hold a glass of water all day long, that person would probably have to see a doctor the following day.

Since the weight of water in the glass - in the above three examples - remained the same it was actually the length of time one had to hold the glass of water that made the difference.

The same is true for difficult decisions we have to make at work. It's not the level of difficulty that causes us problems - it's the length of time we carry around the thought of ... waiting for the "right time" to make our difficult decisions.

Learn to "make all difficult decisions as soon as you can."  Don't carry around the burden of having to make a difficult decision any longer than you have to.  Make your difficult and tough decisions quickly. 

And don't forget - when you leave a board or council meeting or a public hearing that didn't go as expected, learn to leave your disappointments, dissatisfactions and frustrations at the town hall, village center, city hall, courthouse or school administration building.  You can always pick them up tomorrow when you return to the office.  There's no need to bring them home and burden your family with the weight of the problems you experience on your job.