I never thought I would be saying this!
Much has happened since we last spoke: My Scottish friends have come to America for the fifteenth year in a row, and have returned to their wet, yet beautiful, weather. My wife has had another birthday, yet still looks like a high school graduate. I have conducted speeches in five new cities and I have ridden a zip line high over a beach in the Caribbean.
And yet, just the other day I heard myself say, “Mike, you are beginning to bore me.”
This, my friends (according to me), is paramount to “the kiss of death.” BORING is a four-letter word. To “BORE” somebody else is worse than a four-letter word.
I woke this morning at 4:45 am tossing and turning while thinking about this topic, and I just had to share my feelings with somebody. Who better than you?
We, YOU, I, cannot become boring. We, YOU, I, cannot allow ourselves to bore ourselves. The clichés are too numerous to start waxing poetic at 5:30 a.m., so I will spare you the grief. Okay, just one: “Life is short.”
Since I write, speak, train, and coach, it is in these areas that I am beginning to feel that I have heard it all for the past 25 years. This feeling is dangerous in and of itself. How did this happen? What can I do about it?
I have decided to respond in the ONLY way I know; to be more of myself and to refrain from blindly practicing politically correctness because that is the “easy” way to get through each day. (A picture of a sheep blind-folded comes to mind.)
How about you? Are you beginning to “bore” yourself to tears as a result of playing by somebody else’s unfounded rules? I am not suggesting you become a jerk simply for the sake of making waves. I am suggesting you step out of your comfort zone to see exactly what lies beyond the imaginary boundaries you have so conveniently placed on yourself.
Go ahead. Ruffle a few feathers. Turn a few heads. Raise a few eyebrows. Put a little “juice” back in your life, both personal and professional if that is what needs doing. (I am not suggesting that you exhibit the behavior of a jerk.)
I stopped above after 391 words since I have recently become cognizant of my reader’s attention span. Time being what it is, and most people’s lack of attention – coupled with their ever-growing feeling that “they already know everything they need to know” – has brought me to the realization that a swift reminder is all you might need.
My promise to you from this day forward: I will strive to become less boring.
In return, I would like you to promise me that you will slowly and gently move in the direction of making yourself laugh more, while having more fun sliding away from the chains that are bonding you to the status quo.
Do we have a deal?
