This is something I had received from a Ritz-Carlton trainer when I took their Covey Leadership Center training for The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This made such an impression on me, that once I learned the answer I never forgot it.
Who do you suppose this is?
“I am your constant companion. I will push you forward to success or I will drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. 80% of what you do, you might as well hand over to me and I will do it promptly and I will do it correctly. I am easily managed; you must merely be firm with me. Show me what you’d like to have done, and after a couple of lessons, I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great people. Alas, I am the servant of all failures as well. All who are great, I have made great. All who are failures, I have made failures. I am not a machine; but I do work with the precision of a machine and the intellect of a human. Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I’ll lay the world at your feet. Be easy with me, and I will destroy you!”
“Who am I?”
Postscript: I would love to give credit where credit is due for this, but it was on a plain white sheet of paper to keep me guessing until the great reveal of the answer. I am not sure if it came from Covey (not then Franklin-Covey), The Ritz-Carlton, or just the very smart woman who gave it to me.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
c’est moi.
The answer is habit. :)
Aloha Robin and Steve, mahalo for your guesses. The more accurate answer is the combination of both your responses:
“I am YOUR habits.”
I’ll be posting a little bit more on this soon. Meanwhile everyone, read the riddle again, now knowing what the answer is, and ask yourself:
Which of your own personal habits are the ones which ‘push you forward to success’ and which ones ‘drag you down to failure’?
Which of your own personal habits are you ‘firm’ with, and which do you ‘go easy on’?
And in the spirit of our June Ho‘ohana this month, which habits contribute to the clutter in your life, and which help you free up more room to welcome in the good stuff?
My worst habits are… well, I’d better not say. I think I’ll keep that as a secret until I feel more in charge of that! I know that will make you feel curious about why I don’t really want to tell anyone. I guess i don’t really know how to explain it.
But I know that if you ask my husband, who likes to get up at 6 am every morning, and he finds that one bad habit of mine is to stay up until late and perhaps not get enough sleep; however I do get up in the morning anyway, so I think I’m one of those people who were born as night owls. At the time when other people are already asleep, I get that active flow that helps me get things done that were on my to-do list for yesterday :-)
Susanne, you are so delightful! I am positive that your good habits still rule!
Rosa
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