Your Good People
Individually we are one drop.
- Ryunosuke Satoro
Who are you hanging out with these days?
But the better question is “why are you hanging out with them?”
Are reinforcing the best of you?
Positively influencing you?
Represent your values and drive your best you forward?
Make you feel good about your best self and lift your not-feeling-good-about-you-self up?
A collective force for good?
Or are they reinforcing the worst of you?
Pushing your self-worth down?
Self-aggrandizing?
Creating chaos and disharmony for you and for others?
The collective good is of no interest to them?
I have some fantastic people and groups that I’m immersed with. As I’ve moved through adulthood I’ve honed these groups to jive with and reinforce my vision of my best self.
One of my closest groups is my lake neighbours.
We wear Birks & Bluntstones, collect plaid shirts, have working dogs and love our country music. We play outside - a lot - and probably drink just a tich too much. We are honest with each other, but not brutally so - it’s all about lifting each other up, not trying to push someone lower. What’s interesting is this group is comprised of people of a 20 year age range, a big income range and a diverse stage of life range. But our shared core values and interests are the same, and we reinforce them day in and day out.
A few of our friendies didn’t love Birks and plaid when they first came into our world, proving who you hang around with will shift your thinking. Be wary, this can be good or bad and I know some of you are thinking no one could ever make me love Birks…
I have another group of lifelong women friends who I adore but we aren’t the same any longer in aspects of our life.
I am thrilled when I see them, but since I’m not immersed with them they aren’t reinforcing ways that I don’t have. I love that - they make me think out of my norm. They dress to the nines*, drink very fine wines and are the best-groomed humans you will ever see - and believe you me, these women look great and their wine is delicious. They reinforce the whatfors of each other’s daily lives and most certainly have sway over where to find the fine wine and the gorgeous clothes. They are funny, kind & bright and bring joy to each other’s lives. And mine when I am lucky enough to be around them. They also make realize it wouldn’t hurt to pick up a blow dryer and splurge on things once in a while.
I have also had the same bestie for over 40 years.
She’s hung in there like a trooper, loves me to the moon and most definitely brings out the best in me. We are actually nothing alike in our day-to-day ways, but our values are exactly alike. She tells me when I’m out of line and applauds my good deeds. Having someone as a solid counter-balance is something I wish upon everyone.
It’s the same in business.
I am in a bubble of cloud accounting (and business) technology that is foreign to some. It seems natural to me because I hang with a #CloudCrowd and have for some time. So I am always surprised by the need for KPIs and the lack of leap of faith to jump in.
I actually suck at explaining the whys of cloud tech because I am so deeply involved with it.
My people, those I collab with day in and day, out believe mightily in the power of cloud technology so they reinforce my belief that it’s the only way to go.
I actually thought for a while, this is how immersed in my people I was, that I was running to catch up on the tech - that “everyone” was in the cloud. Statistically, though, that’s not even close to true.
I do, however, completely respect the fear of change and the inertia caused by current success.
I don’t bash desktop tech, I can see the greatness of it, but I love where cloud tech has taken my business and want everyone to benefit from it as much as I have.
Recently I had an interesting discussion about the interaction between bookkeepers and accountants. The man I was chatting with firmly believes that accountants subjugate bookkeepers. I firmly believe we collaborate and strengthen each other’s skills respectfully.
Our difference in viewpoints comes squarely from who we are hanging out with. I clearly had my head up my you-know-what because I was only hanging out with people who shared a wonderous, collaborative attitude. Maybe I need to expand my groups a little more?
In this case, I think not. I’ll stay in my lovely bubble and try to call others into it.
On this note, I have been leaning on a CPA, who of late has been talking me off the ledge with a new client. It’s a complicated file and I was lacking confidence in some work I needed to do on it. Tiffany most certainly did not subjugate me, but was a tremendous source of strength and encouraged me mightily to lean on my client’s new-to-them accounting firm. And you know what? They got back to me with some great ideas in a super respectful way.
What I’m getting to here is hanging out with only “your kind” is fine if you still can see the other people in respectful lights.
If it allows compassion for those who don’t think like you but are still genuinely good humans trying to do good things
If it draws light into your world and reinforces beneficial pathways for you and your crew
But be wary of groups and people that cause discord and disrespect for other ways of working and living. That push others down and create chaos and disharmony with others.
In other words “don’t hang out with shitheads”.
Where are a few of my good people?
CPB Canada - this organization changed my bookkeeping life
Sunrise Therapeutic Riding Stable - these are very good people doing very good things
Where are your good people?
Drop them in the comments below.
Word Of The Week
Me; all of January…
Join Your Peers Here
In just over an hour I will be chatting all things onboarding with 2 very cool APIAs**
February, 3, 2022
1:00 - 2:00pm EST
What’s Cooking?
I have mentioned #taxtwitter*** before as a gang I love to follow on social.
Which leads to following #accountantswhocook.
One of the fellers that is a regular on both hashtags is LoganGrafTax and yesterday he posted a fun video on breakfast cassarole. Take a look!
- Buon appetito
Reinforcingly yours, Kellie :-}
::Shameless Call To Action::
I sell bookkeeping templates, standard operating process handbooks and client guides.
PS:
*They are not wearing sweats mid-day for sure - not that I am or anything…
**APIAs - Accounting Professionals I Admire
***I don’t even do taxes and I love #taxtwitter
