I'm usually not a squeaky wheel. In fact, I spend quite a lot of time calming the squeaky wheels around me, talking them off the ledge, giving them the bigger picture and helping them shrink their giant catastrophe down to its real size. Because I tend to operate in the "let's fix it" mode, I'm not the best person to vent to; I figure you're telling me because you want help, not commiseration. Perhaps I could do better in the "cry on your shoulder" department.
Some people confuse enthusiasm with the adrenaline rush of mayhem and dramatic panic, so impossible deadlines are created, and all involved are made to feel the sky will fall if deadline is not met. I'm sure some people employed by the U.S. government had a really bad day today because they could not work. But the sky did not fall. Some people were disappointed on a grand scale because they could not realize their lifelong dream vacation to a national park or monument. But the sky did not fall. Some Chicken Littles are so intent on being right that if the dire prediction doesn't happen as direly, they will look for some tragedy that can be attributed to it.
On the other hand, the Chicken Littles of the world can dull us to warnings of real danger. Since we've had so many "hurry up and wait's" or "disasters averted", it's easy to ignore repeated warnings of trouble on the horizon. In my eclectic set of friends, I do have a few that are constantly preparing for Armageddon. I admire their spirit of survival, even if I am prepared to be annihilated. (I know where I'm going and have yet to see anything worth wanting to be the last human on the planet). Still, sometimes I feel a little guilty that I'd rather not stock up canned foods then eat them three years beyond the expiration date while cooped up in a bunker. But I digress...
I'd like to think I model my management style after Heavenly things. Clear goals, non-inflated timelines, and real consequences. It is interesting and somewhat amusing to manage like this when everyone else assumes you are not doing these things...until the consequences so calmly stated at the outset come to pass.
A word of encouragement to any of you Chicken Littles out there. You can save yourself a poor reputation if you do all your clamoring to the Lord and to Him alone. Your impending calamity may not be mine, and my coming disaster may not effect you, but He is big enough to not only handle our venting, but to make a big thing small and rescue us altogether.
Some people confuse enthusiasm with the adrenaline rush of mayhem and dramatic panic, so impossible deadlines are created, and all involved are made to feel the sky will fall if deadline is not met. I'm sure some people employed by the U.S. government had a really bad day today because they could not work. But the sky did not fall. Some people were disappointed on a grand scale because they could not realize their lifelong dream vacation to a national park or monument. But the sky did not fall. Some Chicken Littles are so intent on being right that if the dire prediction doesn't happen as direly, they will look for some tragedy that can be attributed to it.
On the other hand, the Chicken Littles of the world can dull us to warnings of real danger. Since we've had so many "hurry up and wait's" or "disasters averted", it's easy to ignore repeated warnings of trouble on the horizon. In my eclectic set of friends, I do have a few that are constantly preparing for Armageddon. I admire their spirit of survival, even if I am prepared to be annihilated. (I know where I'm going and have yet to see anything worth wanting to be the last human on the planet). Still, sometimes I feel a little guilty that I'd rather not stock up canned foods then eat them three years beyond the expiration date while cooped up in a bunker. But I digress...
I'd like to think I model my management style after Heavenly things. Clear goals, non-inflated timelines, and real consequences. It is interesting and somewhat amusing to manage like this when everyone else assumes you are not doing these things...until the consequences so calmly stated at the outset come to pass.
A word of encouragement to any of you Chicken Littles out there. You can save yourself a poor reputation if you do all your clamoring to the Lord and to Him alone. Your impending calamity may not be mine, and my coming disaster may not effect you, but He is big enough to not only handle our venting, but to make a big thing small and rescue us altogether.
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