I saw a quote the other day that changed the way I think about many things:
"Five plus four may equal nine, but so does six plus three. There is not only one way to do something."
This quote made me realize that there is no "right way" to go about doing things and more importantly, there are more ways than "your way."
People who are self-proclaimed "go-getters" are often guilty of thinking just the opposite of that.
Go-getters see their determination and hard work as the way work should be done and the way young people should act about bettering their lives.
They don't always see that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and when faced with someone who approaches going and getting a different way, they look down on it.
They see alternate approaches as lazy, ineffective and not nearly as significant as their own.
Go-getters, by nature and in practice, are no better than hard workers who move slow and steady or careful folks who don't always take the direct route.
Don't get me wrong, determination is a valuable attribute to have, and this isn't geared toward people who have no drive, or who are happy being more stagnant in life.
This is just to eliminate the notion that all people who are successful have to fit into that go-getter category.
People can find success working from other perspectives as well. Sometimes, they can do this even more so than the zealously determined because of their calm and collected natures.
Unlike outwardly ambitious go-getters, people who take less of an attack approach to their success can still find themselves reaching their goals. Goals are met when we work to achieve something and complete said achievements.
There is no rule outlining how we should reach achievements, in what time frame we should or how energetically we should.
Just as there are many ways to reach nine, (seven plus two is another way, just sayin'), there are many ways to complete your to-do list each day, or in life.
Maybe you ferociously tackle each task and cross things out as the day goes on or maybe, you work through one task over the course of a month and attack it from all angles.
Hell, maybe you don't even have a to-do list because you find that you can meet goals without needing to see or plan them out. There is no "go-getter only" special on the menu of accomplishment.
We would all benefit from realizing and changing the dialogue about this so that people who are not self-starters don't feel discouraged.
It is hard to foster work and success in a culture that sees determination as so black and white.
Either you're a hardworking go-getter or a lazy bum who needs to step it up, and that's simply not an appropriate stigma. This only works to change people's behaviors by inciting fear, humiliation and personal disappointment.
We think that because there is a "good" way to do something and a "bad" way to do something, we should change everyone's behaviors to push them in the direction of doing things correctly.
We completely forgo the fact that they may find just as much success by doing things there own way, not just as a type-A person would.
This stigma manifests itself in 20-somethings and creates an environment where huge portions of people feel they are performing at low levels, when in reality, they are doing things just fine.
The best way to combat this mindset and end this mistruth is to be open-minded enough to realize that just as you can reach nine in four different ways, you can reach success in just as many, if not more.
