Challenge

I guess one of our primary challenges is not to fall victim to the circumstances that surround us, but to be servants to those who are victims of their current circumstances.

Walking . . . Talking

In the safety business, you will often hear someone say that we need to "walk the talk" - to do things as we say we will. I have tended to have a slightly uncomfortable, subliminal reaction to this, but didn't really know why. There really isn't anything wrong with contending that you will do what you say. Many management systems have the basic framework of (1) Say it; (2) Do it; (3) Prove it; (4) Improve it.

I think the source of my gutteral discomfort is that saying "walk the talk" is still just saying something and the focus remains on the "talk." Even if you walk it, you are still doing what you have talked first.

Back when I was working heavily with Steven Covey's writings and doing leadership training, he had a quote that I don't know is his original thought or someone else he quoted, "you can't talk your way out of a problem you behaved your way into." What you do is so much more important than what you say, and that words can't compensate alone for actions. [The wrong words at the wrong time can take a lot of action to compensate for, but that's off this current thought path.]

So, much more important than just talking - in safety and in life - is to live and behave in such a way that your actions do the talking. That's perhaps the real meaning of personal mastery.

Confucious Say ...

"To become a leader, you must first be a human being." Whoa.