Recently, I was reading through the Harvard Business Review and came upon a blog post called To Change Effectively, Change Just One Thing . I know,
the Harvard Business Review sounds like it might, at most, inspire a giant yawn,
but it’s actually full of fascinating and surprisingly easy to read tidbits.
Take a look sometime, you’ll probably get hooked just like I did.
This particular article began by focusing on how changing
just one thing about one’s diet can lead to significant and sustained weight
loss. Now, I don’t really need to lose weight, but I am interested in learning
and improving as much as I can, so I kept reading. And I was glad that I did,
because the author then went on to discuss how the “change one thing” principle
can also be applied to business and to life in general.
That got me thinking about the one thing I could change
right now that would impact my life.
I’ve been dealing with a challenging
situation for a while. It involves someone that I’ve done business with for
many years, who seems to always have their hand out, asking for more and more.
I finally came to the difficult conclusion that it was not an equitable
situation, and that I was being taken advantage of.
I’m a giver by nature – it feels good and it attracts people
of a like mind. However, I’ve found that it also, unfortunately, attracts the
takers. So, I’ve had to take a really hard look at a life lesson that’s been
staring me in the face – how to discern between those who share my love of
giving and those who merely take advantage of it. This is not an easy thing to
do! I would much rather give without reservations and have life be nothing but
rainbows and unicorns.
