I loathe cooked carrots. Can’t stand the taste. As a child, I had no choice: I had to eat them. Dad’s pointed cowboy boots under the dinner table delivered a painful consequence if a complaint was uttered about mom’s cooking. So I choked the carrots down.
Finally I reached that age where I told my parents: “I detest cooked carrots. I’m not eating them. And there’s nothing you can do to make me.”
I’ve been free from the misery of cooked carrots ever since.
Life is full of cooked carrots: The list of things we think we have to do – but don’t. Fooling ourselves into the idea that we have to do it all can be a form of avoiding responsibility:
– “We must have a meeting on this.” (Cooked carrots!) Responsibility: Advance the culture of empowering people to make their own decisions.
– “I have to answer my emails before I exercise.” (More cooked carrots!) Responsibility: Use your time to reveal your personal values.
– “You can’t trust them.” (Cooked carrot stew!) Responsibility: Model the teamwork necessary to win.
What are your cooked carrots? Try this: For a day, only do those things that inspire and develop you. Or become better at being inspired by the things you have to do. (The second idea is as important as the first.)
Such a great way to embrace your lima beans: sprinkle in a bit of something you liked with them. Thanks for your great comment and creative approach, JMD!
My “cooked carrots” were lima beans. Both my sister and I shared a mutual disdain for those creepy little beans. That was until I tried them with cooked corn. For me that was the game changer.
Sometimes “the right recipe” makes even the most unenjoyable of “foods” palatable. Chef Emeril Lagasse coined the phrase “kick up a notch-BAM, BAM, BAM!”
Craig, your post resonates and suggests just what can happen if we as leaders are willing to “kick it up a notch (add good flavor and/or create the right recipe).”