If you don’t plan on contributing or using anything from it, then the answer is simply: don’t go.
But it warrants a push of “can you contribute anything to the meeting?” and “can I learn anything from this meeting that might be able to help me on my course?”
If the answer is yes to either, then show up and make it happen.
There’s more to contribute and more to learn than what first meets the eye.
And, of course, this goes for more than meetings: get togethers, events, seminars, happy hours, email threads, instead message channels, and so on.
Stay Positive & Use Your Attitude To Your (And Others’!) Advantage
You’ve got to put X amount of time in to do thing A and Y amount of time to do thing B. Naturally we gravitate to whatever is the shortest input. And this might work for putting a dent in to-do lists, but not always when you want to make a dent in change or impact or reward.
Measuring output can be much more difficult, but worth it.
A handwritten card (input) might take longer, but it has a far greater impact on the person (output) than if you were to send a mass email that you put two minutes into drafting.
One measurement isn’t always better to choose, but it’s worth knowing which measurement you’re really making decisions based on.
When we’re on a losing streak, when things aren’t going our way, when the pressures of the outside world get heavy inside our world, there’s a lot we can do.
We can mix things up, we can pivot. We can learn something new and invite a friend along. We can move. We can practice meditation/dancing with our emotions. We can ask for help and share our story with others.
We can also sit and wait for maybe the world to cut us a break or to finally pick us. We could. But it’s not as fun, it’s not guaranteed it will, and it might be a really really long time – unless we do something about it.
Either way you can benefit from mixing it up. Either doing so helps shake off what’s holding you down or it helps you use the energy and success of the present to create something new in the future.
The worst thing you can do is stay the same.
Stay Positive & What’ll You Mix Today? (Tomorrow?)
Here’s a lesson I learned early on in my entrepreneurial career: share everything as you’re working on it.
And when I write “everything” I mean it. Not just the good, the positive, the stuff that’s working, but the mistakes, the issues you’ve faced, the struggles, too.
There are only about 20 people who read one of the many progress updates I wrote about opening a bar and they learned about the crazy situation of a contractor hitting the sprinkler system and dropping 200 gallons of water in the space during build out. It was horrendous and there’s no shortage of negative stories I thought of about it. (People might not think I know what I’m doing or those working on my build out aren’t doing it right. Or now the opening schedule will get pushed back. Or that’s going to cost a lot of money. Or, oof, I hope he doesn’t ask for help cleaning that up! But I shared the story anyway.)
Now I have 20 regulars at the bar with whom I get to laugh about the situation with. It became a fun memory because I didn’t hide it.
A few other reasons to share:
You’ll almost always be offered help or mentorship of some sort when you share a mistake on a project.
You’ll almost always create more confidence in yourself, but also in regard to what others have in you. Transparency and proactive communication are rare traits and they are valued.
You’ll almost always have a greater reach and greater impact on your story than any ad you can buy.
And if you’re concerned about oversharing, don’t be. If someone doesn’t want to hear about it or read about it, they don’t have to. Neither of you lose anything.
