Thursday, April 7, 2011

Fighting the darkness of indifference

Without passion life becomes indifferent. Sometimes we have to fight off the darkness to maintain our hold on light. Today was one of those days. Today I had to reach inside and find a glimmer of hope to hold onto.

The song that comes to mind when I think of indifference is Eleanor Rigby, by the Beatles. Eleanor clearly is missing passion in her life, which I believe is the norm for our society. We give in to the darkness instead of allowing the light to take over.

I must experience passion in some form at least once a day. Today's passion was fleeting, but at least it was there. I realized that I have been less than my normal optimistic self these past few days. I found myself barking for no apparent reason. Today I stopped and took a look at what I was doing. I saw who I was affecting and realized I needed to rekindle the flame. 

I set out on a quest to find something to get lost in. A worthwhile project, or even one that would just devour my time. Of all places, I found it at work. Earlier this week I decided to develop a training program for my staff. My goal is to engage, empower and develop a culture of innovation.

I am basing the training on self assessment using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator in conjunction with using the theories and practices developed by Stephen Covey in his book: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. 


It was quite exciting to see the energy created the team as I led them through a series of self assessments as well as a group exercise. The synergy released in the group was exactly what I hoped for. 


This was my first attempt to develop this type of training and I must confess that I was exhilarated after the session. 



I even decided to be brave and sent out a satisfaction survey to my staff to determine effectiveness of the training. I love using Survey Monkey. I had the results within a few hours of sending the link and was able to adjust my next training segments in response to feedback received. I have committed to developing and conducting a 10 week series of 1 hour training sessions. I think I may have found another outlet for passion: teaching.

Next week we embark upon the first habit: being proactive. 

Stay tuned!

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