BLOG 58-59 MOVING THE GOAL POSTS

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof. ~John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian-American economist

You may have noticed JaxWorld has taken a little break. This was not intentional… it’s just that I was working on another project… and unfortunately Jax has found that sometimes you run up a football pitch towards the goal…. And find someone has placed it in an adjacent field! Suddenly you find your planning for (and expectations of) the outcome will never happen as you thought.

Someone has moved the goal posts.

I love my leisure – I can’t abide having obligations hang over my leisure like a spectre. I prefer to get obligations out the way so I can spend my time doing what I do best… having fun. So I find the easiest way of achieving this is to let people I have obligations to know what I expect and how I will execute that obligation. It gives them the chance to have their say, and when all is agreed everyone knows exactly what is expected of them.

I think it is only fair.

For example: when I started my family I thought it would be wise to give us all a mantra – a family motto so to speak. Maybe I have spent too much time working in marketing, where having a strapline to a product gives focus to what the thing is all about… I don’t know. But never the less, 15 years ago my family was given this motto…

“DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO….THEN YOU CAN DO WHAT YOU LIKE”

Given that my then partner could have procrastinated for Ireland (gold award winner there!) and that my son has developed into a typical teenage boy who can’t remember what day it is… It turned out to be the perfect mantra. To escape my wrath, both know that they should try to remember what they have agreed to do and JFDI. They know that this is the only way to enjoy their leisure without me screaming like a banshee about tasks not completed. 15 years later… my son and I live in a nagging free world!

It has also proven to be a worthy motto for me.

I am a list writer.

I like lists, I can see clearly what I have to do and get the reward of being able to physically tick things of. I call it a reward cause when ticked, I frankly never have to think of it again. And Jax hates having to revisit old ground. I believe ferverently that life is a on a perpetual forward motion and to return to something you’ve already completed to satisfaction is taking away time from something new yet to be discovered. I am well aware I will not live forever, so I want to get as many things ticked on the list as I can before I die.

Therefore, after I say yes to something… it goes on the list. When I have completed the task, I tick it and it’s over.

A lot of my bosses have called it my saving grace. Quite frankly each has said that I am a nightmare employee: I am gobby (I say opinionated), I am easily distracted (I say aware of my surroundings), I am highly strung (ok I give them that one!). However, they’ve all kept me around because I do what I say I am going to do… and because I don’t want to have to do it twice… I do it far better than anyone else.

I also am a list- forwarder.

I think it is so important for people to know what it is you are going to do for them. So I have always let my bosses know exactly how I understand the task and how I am going to execute it.

I think this important because if anything has to change – tell me before I start. Don’t tell me to swim the channel and then when I see the coast of Calais tell me that you never meant the ENGLISH CHANNEL! If you mean the Moraleda Channel… say so as getting there means a flight to Chile where as the English Channel is just down the road. I need to know we are BOTH on the same page WHEN I start something… not just before I finish it.

I think this makes me rather straight forward. I don’t do my leisure when I should be working, I do what is expected of me, I let people know exactly how I understand their expectations…. And most importantly… I do not take kindly to people who move the goal posts and cover it up with an “Oh… didn’t I mention that!”

It is possibly the rudest and most arrogant practises a human being can execute and from me will guarantee something akin to hatred.

If something is agreed I believe that there should of course be a window for new developments, but there should also be a major compelling reason to include them. I’m as easily distracted as the next person, but if I see a shiny object I want to include in a project… I ASK. I don’t slip it in under the radar for other people to make happen and assume it is okay. For any change to happen – EVERYBODY should be on board… not just me cause I quite fancy including something that has just come up.

How rude and arrogant would THAT be if we all did that!!!

The agony aunt Claire Rayner, made her name in the 70’s and 80’s with sorting out peoples problems with the earth shattering advice “Talk about it honey”. Believe it or not, back then it did not occur to people that strife could be headed off with dialogue. How right she was.

I genuinely feel that vacillations of commitment to a project plan shows that you have no respect for the person who will execute the task for you. More than that I believe it shows that you believe that your will be done – therefore the other persons time, efforts and commitment are secondary.

God created us all equal. There is no celestial pecking order. It is just some warped humans think they are more equal than the rest of us.

WELL NEWS FLASH!!!!

There is no one on this earth that is more important than anyone else.

There is no one on this earth whose time is worth more than anyone else’s.

There is no one on this earth who has the right to sneak in things no one else agreed to just because they think ‘my will be done’.

THAT line belongs to someone else… and on the day of reckoning I have it on my list to watch him KICK YOUR ARROGANT RUDE BUTT!

Ahhhhhh… feel a lot calmer now. Now where is my list…?

Get it out of your system about the person who keeps moving the agreed goal posts….

TICK!

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