As an observer of life and a life long learner I have noticed something over the past 10 years and that is that if we, and I do mean all of us; cannot find something right away through the INTERNET or what ever other means of verifying information we have, we get very upset, opinionated, vocal, and tend to lose our patience. Have you noticed that lately? Have you also noticed at how in our pursuit to gain everybit of information about something, no matter how insignificant or absurd or outrageous, we, our new media, the Internet and others seem to laser focus on the ridiculous? Only later to find out that whatever it was, was a fake, even more ridiculous than we suspected? Is there too much information, coming at us too fast and in such real time that even the most staunch reporting firm or person does not stop to verify anything anymore?
If you even stop and question the above, then you too are caught in the trap! I suspect that you too are doing these exact same things in your own life. The results are going to be devastating to you and your relationships and your career when pursued over time. I am talking about being driven to uselessness through the daily pursuit of drama and distraction.. This all buzzes around us all day long like a swam of bees. All we hear in the end is endless noise.
Stop right now and just recall what has happened thus far today. How many hours have you stayed in this swarm of useless activity?
We need to do our own due diligence through careful education of ourselves before we make a decision, open our mouths or write that next email. This is a process that must be learned. Do you know what your optimal process is? What exactly do you do? What are your steps in verifying things before you start to spread information?
Process is very important. I was once told by a college reporter of an Ivy League University newspaper that they must have three confirmations or verifications (preferably from the source) about something before it could be put in print. It seems that we have forgotten to verify things even once before we spread them to the virtual world.
It may be a simple as asking: “…if I send this information on will it lift up the person I send it to?…..if I spread this information about someone or something will I enhance their life or cause trouble for them?….if I write this email when I am mad how will it reflect back on me?…..” Are you getting the message? Things are not as they appear and we usually do more harm than uplifting and supporting others, our business, our sales, our families, our communities and our relationships by shooting from our mouths, than engaging our brains first to verify.
What is your process?
