We’re whitewater
rafting on the Upper Penobscot. You are having the time of your life. I’m not.
I don’t know how
fast we’re moving as we nosedive five or six feet at a time, then slam headlong
into 10-foot walls of water. But it’s pretty fast. Still, I have a fraction of
a second before each collision to ask myself: “Are there really people who
think this is fun?”
Of course there
are such people. You’re one of them, and I’m of the opposite persuasion. Two
people; same time, same place, same circumstance. I have a problem and you
don’t.
Or do you?
Problems aren’t
quite optional, but they most definitely are subjective. What’s happening in
the external reality isn’t a problem. The existence and extent of any problem
are determined by how that occurrence is perceived, and how the perceiver
responds emotionally.
In short, it’s
all in your mind. And mine. For managers, that’s the nut of the challenge.
