Lilly to be a rose !!!

Someone I respect once said - "the root cause of all stress is that you want Lilly to be a Rose".

Hold that thought for a moment before you read on...

But if you don’t like the implications... I might add... and say... the root cause of all stress is that you want a Lilly to be a rose and you want it to be so now.

A pet scorpion is a bad idea as is the elephant in a bottle or Paul as the head of sales. But you keep on insisting that the scorpion behave differently than she does or that Paul produces results .....and then you are frustrated and unhappy. People don’t change because you want them to. They change because they want to and do so rarely. Your boss or the board will not behave tomorrow any differently than the way they typically do. That is not going to change because you would prefer it another way. The only thing you can change is your own decision and actions.  As soon as you accept that a scorpion will be a scorpion you will gather the courage and focus to do what you need to do for the experience that you want for yourself.

On the other hand situations are easier to manage and change. However, they too do not change overnight. You can’t be asleep at the wheels and suddenly get up and want things to be different. You can't say for example, I am in need to $100,000 right now to send my kid to college next month and I only have $10,000. That Well had to be dug long ago. Don't go digging a well when you are thirsty. It won't help. If you need cash for your firm today, it is unfortunate that you let that situation develop. What you can do is that for next time be prepared. Most things that bother us were not hard to predict. But we did not want to face the reality.  Spitzer, Madoff, and Stanford are some public examples. But each one of us is our own private example.

Why do we behave this way despite this knowledge.. beats me !!! Can we change.. Oh Yeah….