Are you annoyed by other cars that play their music too loud while you are stopped at a signal? Are you annoyed by people who stop suddenly in front of you while you are walking? Are you annoyed by people who agree to meet you at a certain time but regularly show up late? Are you annoyed by loud, rowdy children in public places? Are you annoyed by someone snoring in the theater as you try to watch the movie? Are you annoyed by the person ahead of you in the check out line with more stuff than ability to pay or an unpriced product or who is just chatting and slowing the line down? Are you annoyed by the person driving slowly or erratically because they are talking on the phone?
There is alot of conversation around nowadays about our carbon footprint. That is how much carbon is emitted in the air due to our life activities. This was most famously raised when Al Gore's house in TN was found to have a greater carbon footprint than President Bush's ranch in TX. But I haven't heard anyone talking about our social footprints. What are the impacts of our life on the lives of others in our social sphere? While we feel that we pick the folks in our social sphere and we hope that we have a positive social footprint among them but really, is that true? Is it possible that our social sphere that we impact is greater than those who we choose as friends? Is it possible that really our social footprint may have corns or blisters or callouses?
Let's consider today our annoyance footprint. This is a huge component of our social footprint that most people are unaware of. Do we consider the impact on others of our behavior? Are other people just too uptight and need to chill out? Are we ever aware of others around us as we drive or walk? Is our agenda so much more important than everyone else's that we should get a pass for our annoyance footprint? Is our "need" so great that we don't need to consider our impact on others?
Haven't we all been annoyed by some of the behaviors of others that I listed above? I'm sure that there are so many more including perhaps, annoyance at someone writing a blog to highlight annoying behavior. Most of us are not thieves and would be appalled for anyone to suggest such a thing but at the core of a thief's belief, even if he isn't aware of it, is the idea that their need is greater that anyone else's around and that justifies their behavior.
What do you think? How big is your annoyance footprint? Are you aware of how you impact those around you?
