Team Motivation!

Today, while driving to work, I saw this couple on the island holding hands, walking together with a trash bag and they would stop, pick up a piece of paper, a cup, or other piece of trash someone dropped and throw it in the trash bag. It really is little things like this that make the world go 'round in my opinion. There is no special monetary compensation for this action. No point system exists where $5 bonuses are given out for every fifteen pieces of trash that someone picks up. There is also no special monitoring system in place which watches for people who don’t do it and then issues penalty points. Yet, people are motivated to do it anyway. I think that's awesome! Some questions arose regarding this on my drive, the primary one being "What drives them to take time out of their day to do something like that?" I came up with something that many people lack, that being MOTIVATION. Individuals lacking in motivation not only detriment themselves but they also effect those around them who are stuck "picking up the trash" so-to-speak. So it's time to get the ball runnin', get crack-a-lackin', and motivate those you care about whom are in a collapsing sink-hole and those who work for, or with you who are basically doing nothing but making yours, and fellow employees jobs, harder.

So we as a society need to encourage folks to get off their lazy "tookis-lingus" (shout out to Brian Buege!) and become a well-oiled team machine. This is not only regarding picking up roadside rubbish, but things we, as individuals need to come together on. Issues such as alternative energy - we definitely need to unite to find a source of usable energy to replace fuel sources without the undesired consequences, if you don't agree with that, I think you're crazy.) and recycling (more available recycling facilities would be nice and one way to obtain those is to join forces but it takes effort, god forbid.), volunteering at pet shelter - those dogs need a good walkin', or just becoming a more successful and motivated person in general. Who likes failures?

We need to start clearly articulating what needs to be accomplished and why (getting people to accomplish things is not that they are unmotivated, it is that they are uninformed), involve people in finding the solutions (people are more motivated to succeed at something if they personally choose to attempt it), link folks personal goals with the general goals and move the negative people off the team because who wants to be around a bummer cloud?

"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow-men; and along those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects." - Herman Melville

The willingness is up to you.

Friendship isn't about being there when it's convenient. It's about being there when it's not.

I'm bored and going through old magazines and journals in my desk drawer and just came across this article I found about 3 years ago in PLoS Medicine and it blew me away. It compared "low social connectedness to having the same health impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, to being an alcoholic and more harmful than not exercising and twice as harmful as obesity." Wow. Well, hell.

I'm not a big fan of telling people how many friends they need. We're all different, but I would be happy with somewhere between 5-10 meaningful friendships. The other report in this article says that "half of us have less than 2 people we'd call real friends." Um, yep. I'd say that's about right. I'd say there seems to be some discrepancy between my experience and my ideal...

Note that there is a difference between how many people you're friendly with versus how many people you call a friend. A freaking huge difference. It's common to assume we have lots of friends, but when we examine it we realize we simply know a lot of friendly people through work, school and whatnot. An easy test for me is to ask myself "How many people would I feel comfortable asking for a ride to the airport?" or "Who is in my life that I could get in touch with last-minute to see if they were available to hang out without it feeling weird?" Easy things-I'm not even talking about pet or house-sitting here.

So I started to ponder why this is, as I have many times before. And thought of two things that consistently detriment friendships of my own and those around me. Those two things are 1.) lack of dependability and 2.) lack of communication. BOOM. Betta believe it!

As far as dependability goes, I have many friends who frequently commit to plans, then never show. Some never explain…never bring it up…and never apologize. Although this example is somewhat trivial, it still makes a point. Obviously, there are times when things come up that prevent individuals from following through on what they promise, but if a friend perpetually drops the ball, I take it as a message. When a friend says they are going to do something or be somewhere, you should be able to count on them. And, in reciprocation, they you.

Secondly, communication. Which, for those of you who know me well, you know communication holds exceptionally true to my heart and is vital in every relationship I enter. That being said, if you and your friend (or partner, too) are in a disagreement or argument, or just fighting in general, it's often not as horrible as you think. It is not enjoyable whatsoever and it certainly does not feel good, but fighting/arguing is a form of communication. While you are fighting you are still trying to communicate. What's remarkably worse is when people give up on fighting, stop trying to communicate at all, shut down and go numb. How is there ever going to be any depth in any friendship if you give up every time? Part of what is so fulfilling about friendship is having a falling out and being able to talk about it and put the pieces back together so that this time they are mended even tighter than they were before. If this were the case every time, disagreements with a friend would be a quick and enlightening speed-bump with an even smoother road ahead. So, there. Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it.
 

Here We GO!

I am a thinker by nature and have willingly decided to share with the rest of you who just might be interested in my thoughts, observations and random rants.  So, welcome and congrats!


People often ask me how I come up with things to talk about and I find the question strange, because my problem is the opposite. I have too much to talk about. Why? Because there’s a whole fast revolution rolling through, and right now – today – is our time to make it all work for us. If we’re going to show people how to use social media to drive meaningful conversations instead of being yet another marketing tool, we have to run out and educate at a break-neck pace, so we can bring more and more thought leaders into alignment with folks who could use our help.


So, HERE WE GO!