The Frustration Factor

When you hear the word “gossip,” do you lean toward thinking that gossip is a bad thing or toward thinking gossip is good? I suspect we are told more times that gossip is bad and that it’s not good to gossip. Well, what if I told you that not only is gossip good, it is essential to our survival in our families, our communities, and in our world? We can’t get along without it. Are you doubting me? Are you losing confidence in my judgment? Please listen and then decide. I think you may be surprised.

There are times to argue, if the arguement is of one kind, but if it is of the other kind, arguing has little to no point and may make worse the exact thing you want to improve. Please listen and see if you agree. If you happen not to agree, let's not argue about it.

What comes to mind when you hear that someone is assertive? The typical ideas quickly move to descriptions of behavior: what the assertive person says and does. More specifically, they focus on how he or she acts. But is this assertiveness?

On the surface, it is definitely assertiveness of sorts; but this type of behavior can easily transition into aggressiveness, unpleasantness and abrasiveness. When assertiveness is fundamental, this never happens. For the fundamentally assertive, it’s not about what they say, what they do or how they act. It’s all about who they are and how they are. It’s a matter of style. Please press play and hear for yourself.

How much do you struggle when making decisions? If you fit in with most of us, you don’t struggle much at all. You make dozens of decisions every day with little thought or indecision. Now and then though, there is a needed decision that slows you down and perhaps even causes you to stop in your tracks. This decision is important, makes a difference, is potentially very consequential. Press play and let’s think about those times when deciding gets difficult, when our decision makes a real difference for us and more generally for others. That’s when we need a decision strategy formulated just for us.

We know that being helpful, doing our share, accommodating to the needs and interests of others and generally being a good sport is a good thing, but there can sometimes be too much of a good thing. There the people who we all know who way underdo the notion of pitching in and helping but there are also those who way overdo it. Where are you on that range of being the proverbial Johny on the spot? Listen in to think about it with me.

How dependent are you on experts? If you are tempted to respond, “Not much,” you may want to reconsider. Do you have a doctor, an accountant, a vet for your pet, a lawyer, an expert who works on your car, a plumber, and on and on? The better question is just how many experts are you dependent on and how would you get along without them. Let’s think about that together. Our focus is on selecting experts.

A simple fact of life is that one excuse is generally as good as another. Either you get a pass this time or you don’t. The good news is that people will generally give you a break and give you that pass this time. The bad news is that you can’t count on being excused, getting that pass. There is a point where excuses stop excusing. The real problem is that you can’t tell ahead of time if this is the day when your excuses stop working. If you want to know more about this little querk of life, please press play and listen in.

Do you ever get into a snit and quickly become upset and difficult to be around? Of course you do. If not, you definitely qualify for sainthood. Even if you don't occasionally get into a snit, please know that the rest of us certainly do. In this episode of the Audio Tidbits Podcast, I have a tip about snitting that you may want to adopt for yourself. I can pretty well guarantee that the people who have to live with you will appreciate your being that considerate.

There is a point when you become too busy, too old, too tired, or perhaps too lazy, when success stops mattering. I sure hope you aren’t there yet. Please join me to explore the day when success stops mattering.

Alien 1: Greetings Earth Humans.

The news of our permanent departure from the Earth planet was not fake but simply insuficiently predictive. Based on our past Earth directed transmissions you Earth humans may have gotten the impression that the wise ones who sit on the Council back on our home planet are truly wise and would never find it advisable to reverse one of their directives. You would be wrong, again.

Alien 2: I think you just insulted the Earth humans who are listening to this transmission. It sounded like you are saying that they are frequently wrong. Whether it’s true or not that’s not a very nice way to talk to them, especially since we are just returning. You should be more careful about what you say and how you say it, at least until they get used to our being back.

Alien 1: You may have a point but what they don’t know is that even though we personally departed, the goal of the leaders in the home council to fully infiltrate the Earth planet has remained steadfast. We only gave the impression of departing to avoid further detection and to reinforce the notion that reports of potential infiltration by aliens were nothing but fake news. The wise ones in the home council are particularly keen on protecting the real identity of our leader in the capital city and others of our key infiltrators who have locked into important and influential positions. It is essential that the Earth humans don’t catch onto our strategy. …