It was a little before midnight when my flight to LaGuardia landed. There was so much pandemonium on board my first thought was, “Great. A lot of New Yorkers doing what they do, being rude and pushy.“
Finally, my row started moving. Seated next to me was a husband and wife, and I waited for them to hurry out so I could leave my window seat and head for the taxi stand. Only the husband didn’t leave, he kept motioning me to go out ahead of him, even though his wife was long gone. I shook my head no but he insisted so out I went, and then he asked if he could get my bag down for me. Last time I looked I didn’t appear too fragile to do this for myself or have any obvious reasons that would preclude me from taking care of my own bag. Why was he being so nice? This was New York! And then a second man who was ahead of me offered to get my bag as well. Damn, I thought, once again I’m getting ready to judge someone or a group of someone’s based on some old prejudices when, in fact, these people couldn’t have been nicer.
How often do we label, knowing people will be the way we assumed they will be from some outdated misconceptions? The words “New Yorkers” could be exchanged for a myriad of other words like Millennials or red necks or Democrats or Republicans or anything where we don’t think, but react. Think about when you go into a meeting, start to call someone or just head into work, and expect problems because of a group of people or an individual from that group. I wonder how much more effective we might be if we decided to only look for, and expect to find, examples of what was working well today? I’m not suggesting we naively turn a blind eye to problems. Instead, I’m reminded we get what we think about day in and day out. Absolutely. Anticipate problems and you won’t be disappointed. Look for the positive and you won’t be disappointed as well.
Emily Dickinson said “I dwell in possibilities” and I’d like to think if we take her mentality into the work environment this week, we can find a myriad of possibilities. All we have to do is start looking.
