Monday, February 21, 2011

Conversation

The other morning I was driving somewhere and listening to the radio. The two morning hosts were having a conversation about the airport improvement fee which is now the highest in Canada ($25). The female host understood that the upcoming airport and runway expansion needed to be paid for somehow. the male host was wondering about all of the fees that get attached to our airfares. A base airfare of $100 can then have another $100 or $150 of taxes, fees and surcharges.

After a few minutes, I began to wonder who pee-ed in his cereal that morning. He may have thought he was just having  conversation but what he was doing was engaging in one long-winded griping, complaining rant. It was extremely negative... judgemental... and didn't actually address the topic at hand, namely the AIF.

What I really got was that a lot of us spend a great deal of time complaining, either in our heads... or out of our mouths, about things. We complain about anything and everything. We think we're having a conversation... but a conversation resolves something... moves something forward, creates insights... Complaining does none of that. It just reinforces the existing point of view and keeps everything stuck. We don't even realize how much we complain. And we definitely don't realize how complaining affects our energy and the energy of those who have to listen to us...

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