Choosers
Turkey and football on Thursday, early bird sales on Friday, supporting small businesses on Saturday. This is a weekend that is full of shared experiences. Or is it? Are the activities described universal? Or are they simply an easy way to categorize how some people choose to spend their time on Thanksgiving weekend?
A tradition denotes an experience that is repeated. Oftentimes the implication is that the experience is also shared by many. However, in a world with billions of people and thousands of cultures, projecting a one-size-fits-most tradition is arguably absurd.
Looking at the other 360 odd days of the year, traditions don’t exist only on holidays. Our daily lives are filled rituals. With their frequency, they become invisible–like the water in which a fish swims.
We find these repeated conventions at home and at work. Whom we talk to, where we go, when we go, when we ask for help (or don’t), when we launch new ideas, the words we use, how kindly we speak to ourselves, each of these becomes a habit…which then becomes our tradition. In this same way, a corporate culture is built on the repeated customs of its leadership team which in turn is mimicked by its associates and so on.
But what if we flip the script? Instead of looking at what we have always done to guide what we will do next, what if we consider what we want to always do? At this point, you may be scratching your head thinking what did she just say?
It is simply this. Challenge yourself to identify, evaluate, define, create, and most importantly, own your traditions. Surely, we learn from looking backward at our past and sideways at what others are doing. But in my experience, being intentional in the now is what brings the most value.
We are not born winners. We are not born losers. We are born choosers.
