Footprints

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?

Helping others listen to your stories.

Have you ever been listening to someone tell a story and it seems to take forever to get to the point if they ever do? 

Have you ever been telling a story that you weren’t finished with when someone interrupts or their eyes glaze over or in some way they are no longer listening?

There are many ways to tell a story but the two most common ways are  1) a novel where the characters are introduced near the beginning and through the course of the pages events unfold to a final “denouement” and  2) a newspaper or magazine article that starts with a headline and tells the simple high level story to that headline and each subsequent paragraph adds more background information about the events or characters involved.

The novel approach is great if the story teller and listeners have a lot of time and the story teller has a gift for humor and dynamic range to keep the listener involved.  But we have all started novels that we couldn’t stay with because the character development or events leading to a crisis event took too long.  Not every novelist has a hit bestseller.  Likewise we all know people who converse like a novel requiring  the listener to understand all of the background of the characters or events involved before arriving at the point.

The news paper approach is best for quick stories where attention is short like parties, or church, or work.  Tell the headline and then a paragraph of directly related information that the listener could walk away with the relevant parts of the story.    If the listener is hooked, add another paragraph.  If he or she isn’t they can move on with one of their stories or head to the refreshment table.    I can read an entire newspaper in a short time by reading only the first paragraph of every story and I will know as much as I need to or want to.   This approach also lends itself to minimizing getting off-story on tangents and forgetting where you are. 

Who do you most commonly look forward to conversing with?  The person with the story like a novel or the one with the quick story.    

What kind of story teller do your want to be known for?