It’s awkward being the bearer of bad news. It’s awkward to have to confront someone because they hurt you or behaved like a second grader at the business meeting. But awkward situations are a necessary evil.
It’s also awkward to pursue your dreams in spite of the world telling you "it can’t be done." It is tough to stand out there alone and work your plan with all the negativity that
How much time do you spend avoiding situations you find awkward? Is avoiding scenarios that make us uncomfortable really the best idea?
Seth Godin points out why avoiding awkward situations is the same as avoiding excellence.
"The reason we need to be in search of awkward is that awkward is the barrier between us and excellence, between where we are and the remarkable. If it were easy, everyone would have done it already, and it wouldn’t be worth the effort."
Forcing ourselves to deal with awkward situations allows us to present our views and to set limits with other people. It’s awkward to say "no" but if we avoid the word no, we’ll have no time for anything else.
Facing how awkward it is to stand alone with your goals but persisting anyway will lead to your greatness.
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I have a business partner, who is just terrible when dealing with anything even remotely awkward. He just can’t say no. It’s like he has to be the good santa, giving everyone pats on the back, paying money in advance etc. When anything not pleasureable has to be done, It’s somebody else’s will that caused it (firing uncompetent worker – “It was not his idea, he was satisfied with the work etc, but his partner (me) caused it” and many other instances). Needless to say, this causes many trouble, up to the point I can not have confidence in him, have to control him etc. It leads up to the point when I’m unpleasant to him (sometimes unnecessarily) and later angry at myself that I did not control myself.
I don’t like awkward situations. But I learned that when I don’t dela with them immediatelly (or try to avoid them completely), they will come back much worse…