Make sure you understand the request before responding.
A man and his wife were woken at 3:00 am by a loud pounding on the door.
The man gets up and goes to the door where a drunken stranger, standing in the pouring rain, is asking for a push.
"Not a chance," says the husband, "it is 3:00 in the morning!"
He slams the door and returns to bed.
"Who was that?" asked his wife.
"Just some drunk guy asking for a push," he answers.
"Did you help him?" she asks.
"No, I did not. It's 3 am in it's bloomin' well pouring with rain out there!"
"Well, you have a short memory," says his wife. "Can't you remember about three months ago when we broke down, and those two guys helped us? I think you should help him, and you should be ashamed of yourself! God loves drunk people too, you know."
The man does as he is told, gets dressed, and goes out into the pounding rain.
He calls out into the dark, "Hello, are you still there?"
"Yes," comes back the answer.
"Do you still need a push?" calls out the husband.
"Yes, please!" comes the reply from the dark.
"Where are you?" asks the husband.
"Over here on the swing," replied the drunk.
Yeah, I know — stupid story.
But consider this, many times, we only listen to or read only part of the story.
Sometimes the person telling the story doesn't provide all the context or background, which means that we often respond in a way that isn't helpful.
My young brother messaged me recently to let me know that his Internet had crashed again.
I offered to take a spare broadband dongle to him, thinking he needed to be online for some of the other issues I knew he had.
He responded by saying that he didn't need help.
He was just commenting on the one more thing in the litany of crap that was falling on him at the moment.
I didn't ask for clarification, my mistake.
Regards,
Brent.
P.S. Have you begun using the Daily Tasks tool yet?
It's not the same as calendar reminders, although you could set them up to help keep yourself on track.
No, it's a visual tool.
When you do the task, you add some detail to the entry, which shows that you have done it.
I'm thinking of making some modifications to the tool, and I would like some feedback from you as to what you would like in it.
Get it here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tp_E3nEE1sXNw3E1Fqc_IplQ1K4G7bvFydj393-WIRw/edit, and then let me know what else you think it needs.