Jonathan Kozol said, “Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.” This is something I’ve been working on lately. Do you know people who have a habit of making mountains of mole hills (I’m guilty myself)? They may be a perfectionist and expect the same of others. Or they may be drama royalty, where every problem is a crisis. Either way, it creates problems for them.
Perfectionists waste a lot of time. I’ve been guilty of this too often. So many times I’ve completed a task to everyone’s satisfaction but my own. Some little nonsense detail (completely invisible and irrelevant to everyone else) would annoy me and sap my energy. I’d spend excessive time on it with no benefit to show for it. To overcome this, I’m making an effort to actively practice the 80/20 rule.
Drama royalty spend their credibility too fast. Fax machine’s down? Raise hell! Call the company president! Out of coffee? Complain loudly to anyone who will listen. Call a meeting to solve it. There are only so many times they can cry wolf over nonsense like this before people stop taking them seriously. They spend all their credibility calling attention to non-problems, and when a real crisis occurs, they have no way to escalate it.
A bonus negative to this behavior is it’s contagious. These people in perpetual crisis mode sap the energy of everyone around them by working them into a frenzy.
I’ve resolved to pick my battles more carefully. There are 24 hours in every day, and I intend to spend them meeting my goals, not thrashing about on non-issues.
Are you fighting battles you could let go?