As I continue my review of the wonderful book by Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements, and compare the suggestions contained in this book shamelessly with those contained in my own book It’s All About Me, today we look at the idea of being more impersonal with our work with others.
Certainly somewhere along the line you have had a bad day, a day when you wanted to snap off the head of anyone who crossed you. This day was all about YOU, and had nothing to do with the value of anyone else. Perhaps you even apologized the next day for your attitude. Now take a moment and consider that others will have the same experience somewhere along the line. Just as on your bad day it was not really about the other person, so too is it not about you when someone else has a less than happy day. The lesson here: don’t take it personally.
The only time we take things personally is when someone says something, even in jest, which hits on our hot button. Ironically this is especially the time we do not take it personally! When someone pushes our hot button it is not because they want to send you into orbit, they probably don’t even know it is a hot button for you. We take this personally because it is an invitation to disconnect that hot button, to use our Involved Observer process to understand why something bugs us, then IN-power ourselves to either continue to be prey to the button or disconnect that button. It is really all about you in the most personal way.
Truth is, most everyone is doing the best that they can at any given time, so why take it personally when someone falls short of our expectations?
Learn more by reading It’s All About Me.
