I love hearing from old friends and one showed up in my
inbox recently. Roy Whitlock replied to a blog post I wrote about roadblocks
and blindspots where I stated “Perfectionism or Getting ready-to-get-ready
(anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well).”
Now, to begin with, I can see Roy walking into my office and
asking “I understand getting past roadblocks - but how does one find
one's own blind spots? For example, #10 - how do you determine the point where
"Getting Ready" becomes "Getting Ready to Get Ready"? And
if something is worth doing, isn't it worth doing well? Won't doing it poorly
start to reflect on your service delivery?”
Roy and I used to have some really good conversations. LOL……As
to his plethora of questions (he never had just one and I’m surprised he only
asked about one of my points)….here’s my response -
Getting ready should be short and sweet. "When
opportunities come up, it's too late to prepare."
I remember the difference between Blind Spots and
Roadblocks in this way; blind spots are blind spots because I can't see them
from where I'm at...they're blocked from my view. Normally, they have to be
pointed out by someone else or, in some cases, maybe an assessment. An
exception to having someone/thing else make me aware of Blind Spots would be
during some intense periods of journaling and really searching matters out,
asking questions and more questions until I start to uncover some things.
Maslow said "it's not what we don't know that's most dangerous. What's
most dangerous is what we know but are not aware of."
My thoughts on your 3rd question shadow, in part, the
answer to #2. But also, you can't do anything well without doing it. You can't
evaluate and correct a non-event. Successful people make decisions quickly and
change their mind slowly; they've developed that habit through purposeful
choices and a LOT of evaluation and correction.
Thanks to Roy. It brought a smile to my face when I saw his
name in my inbox. Some people make comments to only state their view point.
When I used “response” and not “answer” to Roy’s questions, that’s what I
meant….it was a response that fully expects a response in return.
I knew Roy wasn’t just trying to give his view, but asking
questions checking his view against mine and my response to his question was
the same.
That habit of mine, responding and not “answering” gets me
in trouble many times and it’s been thought that I’m a bit………..non-commital.
Oh, I have my view point, my world view if you will, but I know I can’t be
right about every thing.
: )
Questions and responses. I can’t help but believe there’s
such a different in that and “questions and answers.”
Thanks Roy, and other Roys in my life. I don’t think I’d
ever truly put that together before, the Response vs Answer thing. I’ll ponder
that a bit and likely rebut this a bit in the future.
Who are your Roys? Do you defend your view with answers, or
consider their questions with responses? It seems the process of a response
brings about a “choice” of asking oneself questions.
To that end…………..It’s a great day, make sure you recognize
it!
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