What if everything isn’t as bad as I sometimes think it is, or is going to be? I just finished up reconciling our business accounts in Quickbooks. I dread it every month, so much so that I put it off for as long as possible. When I finally sit down to to do it, it’s usually not that bad. I’ve been doing the books for our businesses for over 15 years, so you would think I wouldn’t worry so much about it. Today, I threw on some music and went to work. Seth Godin says, “The best way to complain is to make it better.” So true.
I’m reading This is Marketing by Seth Godin. I love inspirational writers and had no idea this would be such a fantastic read. Marketing, he explains is about creating change. Finding the problems and solving them. I tell my students regularly that they must be problem solvers in order to be successful in life. We work on complex problems even I do not know how to solve. I’m a little apprehensive sometimes that I won’t know where to go with them, but the engagement and self confidence they show when they have a solution or a strategy that works sends chills down my spine more than anything else.
“Marketing is the generous act of helping others become who they seek to become.” I actually highlighted this sentence, along with several others in Godin’s book. I haven’t highlighted anything other than scriptures and articles I had to read for college courses. This book is going to be a life changing read for me. Turns out I must be a marketer. I sell every day to the students in my classroom. Godin talks about seeing what others see in order to solve problems, create change, stop complaining, and make things better.
Seeing what others see is the challenge. We all see what we choose to see. I’m not sure how I can make things better for others yet. I know I need to be more consistent about making things better for me first. It may seem selfish to say, but I can’t help anyone if I don’t have the time, resources, energy, or talent needed to give. When your glass is full, it should inevitably overflow to those around you.
I’m starting to understand this might be more about living in alignment. I have gotten to know and have compassion for myself over the last year. If I feel anxious, disillusioned, or depressed, it could be that my actions do not agree with my beliefs. There may be a problem I don’t know the answer to, I don’t have a strategy for, or am making bigger than it needs to be. In the new year, I hope to make several adjustments based on the essential things that will uncover my ability to contribute to others in ways that will be meaningful to them, and in-turn to me. Is this marketing? Is it connection? Mostly it is just better. I want to make things better.
