Posts Tagged ‘personality’

Do something about it, or…

Coping and Communicating, Musings | Posted by Doc
May 23 2010

We all know unhappy people, whiners, the frustrated and disappointed and disenfranchised, those who are dissatisfied and feel that they are stuck.

For this post, I’ll refer to that persona as Vern (since it could be a male or female name).

Vern complains. In fact, Vern seems to be happiest when complaining, which is ironic.

Vern seems to be helpless in frustration, seeing the world as beyond his/her ability to affect and change. The bad things seem to have overwhelming power. The situation always seems to be beyond Vern’s control. And Vern can always find something to complain and be unhappy about.

For a while now, I’ve been saying to people…



Sadly, Vern is too ready to say “I can’t”.

I disagree. I can always do something about it. If I can’t change “it”, then I can change me. I can leave, for instance. Or I can learn to accept things as they are. These are frequently the ends of the spectrum, with various forms of changing me and it in the range in the middle.

However, if Very chooses not to take any of the many available, then my follow-up is…



I mean, if you choose not to do anything to change your situation, Vern, then do me the courtesy of not battering me with your frustration, whining, griping, or other expressions that make it clear that you believe that something or someone else is in charge of your life and circumstances.

Take charge of your life, willya Vern?

Check out the line of shirts and mugs with these images and variations.

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A Metallica power ballad?

Coping and Communicating, Musings | Posted by Doc
Aug 31 2009

Having arrived in San Francisco last night, I was feeling somewhat poetic.  Or so I thought.  So I tweeted something about listening to the rumble of the cable cars down on the street.

A friend sent me the following tweet…

Him: Dammit Steven…who cares? Love you man, but your tweet content is sometimes questionable. BTW, I’m sitting at my kitchen table ;)

Me: I’m happy that you love me :) I’ll strive for greater profundity

Him: Your profundity inspires me. When you get off track, it’s like when Metallica does a power ballad ;)

So here I am wondering about something that I’ve talked to others about… everything I tweet, as well as everything I blog, and everything I say in any public situation, contributes to how I’m perceived in the world. Since the world includes my professional community, it’s incumbent on me to think about what I say and how I say it.  Right?

I believe that it is. So when I tweet something about the weather or where I’m having dinner, it contributes to people’s opinion and impression of me, sometimes in very subtle ways. Mostly, I think about that before I tweet.  Sometimes I just think “the heck with it – I feel like saying this” and I go ahead.

I know several people whose or blog is DRAMATICALLY different from their in-person . This always makes me wonder.  For instance, some folks are amazingly nice in person, but downright caustic electronically.  I don’t get that. Why should there be such a difference, and why do they do it?

So I’m occasionally random and pointless, and clearly this annoys/disappoints/frustrates at least one friend and Twitter follower. It definitely gives me pause for thought.

How does my humor come across? How do my random/sarcastic/playful comments come across? Am I really being aware of not only myself, but how I affect others? And am I considering this in the generally-less-safe in-person context and the generally-more-safe electronic context?

This is one of the big lessons: being self-aware is work, and the work is never done.

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