THE GREAT MIRAGE
I woke up with great excitement every Saturday morning as a child. Our small TV picked up two channels most days, one of which with precise placement of the bunny ears, would allow me to watch a full hour of Loony Toons. I loved watching Foghorn Leghorn, Bugs and Tweety, and the rest of the gang as they blew up, were hit with hammers, etc over and over again. It never got old.
I remember one cartoon where Daffy Duck was stumbling through the desert, and as he whispered in a raspy voice “water, I need water,” suddenly a beautiful oasis appeared a short distance away. As he got closer, the harsh realization became apparent. It was only a Mirage.
May I share with you a mirage that I discovered in business recently? I woke up one morning and had an “Ah-ha” moment about leading and working with people. There is no destination.
Startling revelation? Hardly. Great mindset shift? Absolutely. Let me explain. One of the great mirages in life is that we can get things to a point relationally where they are balanced, stationary, and “done.” The though of being done with something is a great feeling, except it doesn’t exist when dealing with people. Relationships are dynamic and always changing. There simply is no finish line.
I woke up that morning thinking “What would life look like, and what would my level of peace be if I stopped pursuing the mirage and became content to always be growing, always be working on my relationships and not looking for an arrival?”
The truth is that people themselves are never static, and so any connection to people by nature will never be static. That person and myself will never be the exact same two people meeting twice. We will always be another day older, another day wiser, have another emotion to work through, etc.
When we play the relationship game as though there is no end there is a great deal of freedom. Growth in your family, organization and other relationships IS the goal when it comes to the people. To be clear, the process is not always fun, doesn’t always go the way you want it to, and is amazingly frustrating at times.
Simply put, win in the moment with people by being engaged in the process and drop the anxiety of the finish line. You will be happier and more productive for it.
