Day 12: Suppress your Ego

Sometimes we think our ideas are the best thing since the smartphone but unfortunately, that's not always the case.

Sometimes we get defensive in public meetings because we think constituents are attacking us personally, and that's not always the case. 

Sometimes we fail to inform the community because we don't want to admit we were wrong and for them to think we did something maliciously, but (you get the idea)...

EGO: a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance.

We often take ourselves too seriously and we shouldn't. 

​The work done at the local level is important, it certainly matters and it certainly affects those who live work and play in the community. However, rarely does one person have the power to change an entire system or set of circumstances. It often takes many actors to make or break a project, a policy and idea or a community. 

When we interact with the public we need to remember that. When we interact with other staff we need to remember that. When we look in the mirror we need to remember that. 

No one person can change an entire community. Sometimes people are blamed or honored as having a significant impact, and that is true because there are change-agents among us- advocates who are also the agitators we need to get moving in a certain direction, but we need to understand we play a small role in the overall picture. 

That is not to say our role is insignificant, quite the contrary, but we can only be the author or our own story, no one else's. Read the story behind See Spot Run here.