(Technical correction regarding the voice clip:
We didn’t experience a hurricane. It was a landspout tornado.
I could brush up on my meteorological literacy.
The storms we experience here can be severe, regardless of how we choose to label them.)
This photo was taken two days ago.
We prepared ourselves.
Windows checked.
Loose things secured.
And then… a few scattered raindrops.
Not every dark cloud is a harbinger of doom.
But on other days,
the wind does arrive.
And when it does, it brings more than weather, and takes more than you could imagine…
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I totally agree and understand what you are saying here.
Using the phrase “I don’t know what to do.” as a mantra turns on the “defeatist” switch.
Dooming any chance of success in dealing with the problem at hand.
Being a realist I prefer to deal with all situations immediately with a level head and unbiased attitude.
Great post Matt!
Dan, thank you! Yeah, I was once a master procrastinator, but fumbled and crawled through all of that. Nowadays I find a secure foothold, at the very least, and face that damn problem. Without belaboring this topic too much, I also observed how it tanked respect toward people in the corporate world when they wielded that “I can’t do this” vibe. I go with, “Alrighty, let’s look at this,” even when I have no friggin’ idea.
I liked your poem, but I especially enjoyed hearing your voice! I agree – “I don’t know what to do” is unhelpful and counterproductive.
I need to note another correction: in the voice clip, I said “acknowledge certainty” instead of “uncertainty.”
However, it could work both ways.
That’s just it; you are 100% correct.
It’s unhelpful and counterproductive, yet it still succeeds in tanking trust.
In the corporate world, I’ve seen how people brand themselves as being useless very easily—and only because they used sterile language.
It does work both ways. The corporate world is something I am so grateful to have left behind. I worked for attorneys for most of my life, and then I took minutes at labor negotiations for huge corporations like Boeing. Twenty men screaming at each other in a room and me typing away. It was brutal. No one heard anyone else. They were performing, or conceding. Not listening.