Last week I had lunch with someone I have known for over 20 years.
We have “played nice” at industry events many times but never really sat down and had a real conversation. We were competitors for some time and it never went much further than general chit chat.
It was a very pleasant couple of hours where we both spoke about ourselves, our families, our problems and not much about work.
Thinking about it afterwards, I realised that taking the time to really get to know the people around us is not always a high enough priority in our busy lives. Now I can see my opportunity to really connect with the people I have “known” for ages but don't really know.
Working from home has made me crave interaction with real, live human beings, face to face, warts and all (please cover your warts if we catch up). It’s been almost a year in self-imposed iso for me and while at first, I enjoyed the peace and quiet, it's now starting to get to me. Apparently, I’m a people person in measured doses.
So, I’m setting myself the challenge of tracking down some of those people and taking the time to get to know them, what makes them tick and what they are all about. Some will accept, some will decline, some will wonder “what the hell” after so many years. You know what though, it doesn’t matter what the response is, the fact that I am making the effort is the important part and what happens from there happens. The universe will take control.
If you are reading this and fall into the category of “we’ve known each other for ages”, give me a shout out if you’d like to catch up. Even if we have only connected recently and you’d like to meet, let's do it.
LESSON FOR THE DAY
Everyone has a story, you just have to take the time to listen.
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